The workplace is changing fast. The rising generation of millennials have different values and priorities. They want jobs that chime with their values and allow them to balance work with life. We could all learn a lot from them!
The Deloitte Millenial Survey Information Age reports that flexibility is the key to help millenials enjoy greater happiness in their jobs. It’s the number one priority for most women too. Companies that fail to deliver more flexible working options are set to fall behind.
Technology can help. With cloud computing, more of us can work remotely and cut down on pointless commuting time and costs. Video conferencing has also become a key part of the HR strategy for many ambitious companies. Here are five ways, large and small companies can use video conferencing to stay ahead.
Hiring Global Talent
Video conferencing allows you to eliminate travel from a lot of your tasks. This doesn’t just translate to plenty of savings from reduced travel expenses, it also provides your HR team with a lot of options, ones that wouldn’t have been possible just a few short years ago. With video conferencing, hiring teams can now schedule interviews with potential talents through video conferencing. That gets the preliminary interviews out of the way, allowing talents to save up on the time, effort, and fare it takes to go to the interview site. Likewise, it saves the interviewer time in determining if the talent matches the job requirements. With video interviews, recruiters are able to work with non-verbal cues—facial expression and body language—to help them decide if the applicant is a good fit or not.
Managing Remote Teams
In theory, it can seem tough to manage a distributed workforce. If you’re somewhere in Europe and your team is scattered from Asia to the U.S., it can be a bit of trouble to keep tabs on everyone. This can be particularly challenging when you take in factors like the distance and time difference. With video conferencing though, you can encourage your team to come to work and see each other every day. Face to face contact is key in nurturing employee relationships.
Constant Improvements in a Growing Industry
The video conferencing industry is developing at a rapid rate. That means better systems and technologies, as enhancements continue to be rolled out left and right. That also means a growing slew of tools and apps compatible with the technology. Industry giant Blue Jeans offers video conference equipment capable of supporting a ton of communication solutions. This allows you to hold conference calls with users on different platforms and devices. You can hold a meeting at HQ right from a room well designed, built, and equipped with video conferencing tools. It won’t matter if your team joins the meeting via their mobile smartphone, tablet or laptop. That’s the kind of flexibility and freedom that high quality video conferencing makes possible.
Boosting Collaboration
Want to send over a few comments and suggestions while someone’s delivering a presentation? You can. Want to improve the pace of collaboration among your teams? Entirely possible. With video conferencing, you can resolve these problems quickly and easily enough. Other features also allow you to share content and take advantage of HD quality video conferencing. That way, your team can discuss and tackle projects with ease while experiencing video clarity that makes it seem like their team mates are in the same room, rather than a continent away. In turn, a culture that embraces collaboration improves employee productivity and retention, according to the Information Age.
Connecting Everyone
With video conferencing, keeping and staying in touch with everyone is easy. Have something to announce to the entire group? Want to eliminate misunderstandings among your remote staff? Video conferencing provides you and your team with the perfect venue to meet each other regularly. Also, coming to work doesn’t have to mean being stuck at your desk for hours on end. Whether your employees are working remotely from home or the other side of the world, whether they’re in transit, at the airport or working out from the corner café, you won’t have to worry about attendance and participation anymore. Because of the portability of the technology and the advantage of being able to use any device to connect, your team won’t have any more excuses to miss the meeting. That’s convenience in top form.
Many of us are still after that holy grail of work that is flexible and that we can balance with life. Just a few short years ago that would have been an impossible dream in many careers. But now, there’s no question, that for many of us, technology is closing the gap.