As long as network cabling standards are up to par, there is a lot that can be done with video conferencing equipment. Technology is moving onward and upward and now, because of video conferencing for small businesses, there’s no need to limit yourself to working only with those who are in your vicinity or those that can come in person to your company’s physical location. The use of video really opens up the possibilities as far as employees go. Here are just a few things that you can do with video conferencing.
Interviews
Being able to use your company’s high quality network cabling standards to video conference potential employees broadens the choices considerably. Of course this makes it a lot more competitive for the contenders but gives the company a lot more options. Whether you are hiring for management or technical support services, being able to see a person and hear how they present themselves is a significant benefit. You want to know that the person you are hiring is fit for the job. That’s why most companies will require a face to face interview if you pass the phone interview. Now, with advanced network cabling standards, you can still have those face to face interviews without having to spend the money flying out people that you may or may not hire after all.
Staff Meetings
If your company has employees that travel a lot, it can be difficult to all be in the same place at the same time. Between changing time zones and flight time, people could be anywhere. Before video conferencing, business telephone systems would be used for conference calls but now, all the staff members are able to meet and see one another and follow along without having to physically be there. Seeing faces is so important because it gives you an idea of what people are thinking while you are talking. It also lets you know they are still there. With phone conversations, the person could leave the conversation or the call could cut off or be choppy and you wouldn’t know. You’d then have to waste time later, repeating yourself and filling in the person that was on the call but couldn’t hear anything because you didn’t know to stop and sort out the problem immediately. If the person is in a video conference, you can notice fairly quickly when the call has dropped or the screen frozen.
Presentations
One of the main problems of conference calls, is that if there was a power point or presentation being shown that the person needed to see in order to understand, they wouldn’t be able to. The employee in charge of the meeting would have to waste time explaining every minute detail for the benefit of the person on the phone. However, now, the person who is not physically present is able to watch the power point or presentation along with everyone else, as long as someone faces the computer the right direction.
Work from Home
People love working from home. Lots of companies have this option and they allow their employees to communicate via phone or email and only come into work periodically for meetings. However, this still means that your employees have to live in the vicinity of your company. If you ensure that their network cabling standards are well functioning, then it doesn’t matter where in the world they live; they can patch in with video conferencing and it’ll be like they are there.
There are many more things that can be done with video conferencing and many benefits to doing so. The great things about using video conferencing as opposed to just telephones is that nowadays it is not that much more expensive. In fact, depending on the computers and cell phones that the company and the employees have, it could be included in your plan. For example, all Apple products can make use of FaceTime while Google subscribers could use HangOuts. Of course, there are better quality video conferencing software programs available if these will not work for what you want to use them for. But, if you are a start up company with employees are the states, these may be some great programs for you to look into.
