If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that hybrid work isn’t going anywhere. Around the world, leaders in a variety of industries are thinking about how best to set their employees up for success. Whether it’s creating specific days where team members gather in the office, opting for tools and technologies that facilitate collaboration from anywhere, or even being inventive in how they celebrate big milestones, companies are finding ways to offer the best possible hybrid experience.
As we continue to define what hybrid work looks like — it’s an iterative process, after all — we thought it was a good time to remind people of best practices for running good Zoom (or Microsoft Teams or Google Meet) meetings. With that in mind, here are 6 tips for running virtual meetings.
1. Consider your background
There’s any number of reasons to attend a meeting while sitting on your bed. You may have loaned your desk to your partner, or you needed to get away to a quiet place. If you’re not keen on other people knowing where you are, however, you can use an image as your background. This is also useful when you haven’t had time to clean up the room you work in. Plus, an interesting or fun background image can be a good way to break the ice if you’re one of the first people on a big call.
Some companies will also create branded background images that are available for all employees to use when they have internal and external meetings.
2. Use the waiting room feature
The waiting room feature on Zoom is great — it ensures that everyone joins the meeting at the same time, letting you get right into things. Plus, it also gives the host control of who can and can’t access the meeting, which is particularly important when there’s a sensitive topic on the agenda.
The added benefit? It stops trolls from Zoombombing your meeting. Yes, that’s a thing!
3. Mute attendees as they join
One of Zoom’s most useful features is the ability to have everyone join your meeting muted. This way, you can avoid the random background noise of someone loading their dishwasher or conversations happening around someone else. Participants can then unmute themselves when it’s their turn to talk.
4. Establish ground rules for the meeting
If you’re the host of the meeting, consider setting some rules before kicking it off. This could include norms around how people participate (e.g. using the hand-raise feature), an invitation for people to add their role or pronouns to their name, or a request for people to be muted when they’re not talking.
In addition, for a large meeting, you may also want to consider assigning roles to other people in the virtual room. You can have someone be a co-host so that they can take over if your connection drops, someone to take notes, and/or a moderator that fields questions from the chat.
5. Give everyone space to contribute
Like in real life, meetings with a lot of people will have those that are active participants and others that aren’t as comfortable engaging in conversation. Where you can, create moments for everyone to contribute, checking in with each participant so that they have a chance to share their thoughts. You can also use the chat to reach out to these participants directly and get their inputs.
In the same vein, don’t be afraid to interrupt people that are taking up too much time in the meeting. A good technique is to paraphrase the point the person was making, to show that it’s been heard and recorded, and ask that the conversation for a more appropriate time.
6. Don’t forget to record!
Whenever you’re hosting a big meeting with a long list of invitees, it’s more than likely that at least one person won’t show up. Recording your meetings and making them easily available in a central location is a great way to make sure everyone is on the same page. In addition, if there are any action items for someone who didn’t attend, you can direct them to a specific minute mark in the recording.
All that said, don’t forget to ask for everyone’s permission before you record. Zoom has a built-in function for this, and sends a pop-up message to each participant once you start recording.
Looking for other tips and tricks for facilitating hybrid work? Check out our blog.
