Business meetings are an integral part of any organization's daily schedule. In today's workplace, you are highly likely to work with a team across the country (or even across the world) along with the new norm since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, a good understanding of making remote meetings work for you and your team is more critical than ever. It also allows everyone to stay safe through social distancing, and it keeps the business going.

Conducting online meetings with people from different locations can be difficult to manage. If you prepare in advance and ensure that your meetings are well structured, moderated, and communicated, online meetings can be an extremely effective means for connecting your company's stakeholders and employees, as well as saving you money on travel.

With everyone working in different places, how to boost online meetings more productive and encourage your team members to engage? Here are some simple ways to stay on top of all your meetings and boost your productivity and efficiency.

1. Well-prepared Meeting Agenda

1.1 Clear content

Prepare a formal agenda with all the issues to be discussed in the meeting which should include:

• Online meeting’s main points.
• Time and duration the meeting lasts.
• List participants.
• Additional documents and files that you are going to use at the meeting.
• Include time limits on each point that needs to be discussed, and assign roles.

Make sure that your agenda is clear and concise, and that everyone sticks to it. Send this agenda at least 24 hours before the meeting, and confirm that everyone received it. Finally, set an automated meeting reminder using Google Calendar.

Taking into consideration everyone’s time zones and schedules might be different in some cases and paying attention to the time zones when scheduling your online meetings. If you have online meetings with employees from different time zones, you need to accommodate their schedules to boost productivity. Starting meetings too early or too late for some colleagues presents several problems.

1.2 Set some rules

This will make your employees treat online meetings seriously.

• Do not have online business calls from your bed.
• Remove all distractions and let your family know that you are at the meeting.
• Blur the background, so it will not cause any distraction for the participants.
• Have your camera on, but mute the online meeting if you are not talking or hosting the conference.
• Wear comfortable and proper clothes.
• Not do multiple tasks, postpone all the other tasks and focus only on the online meeting.
• Introduce everyone during the call, if there are people who do not know each other.
• Have a special sign that can be used when someone wants to share their opinion an online meeting with large numbers of attendees, so the other person is not interrupted.

2. Use Reliable Online Meeting Platforms

You have a well-defined agenda for online meetings. Now you must decide which reliable platform you'll use to host them. The platforms make sure the quality of connection to all the attendees and support effective tools to run the online meeting. There are some kinds of options that are the most popular used below.

2.1. Zoom

Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service. It is intended for businesses to work remotely and offers a wide range of services to accommodate any business’s needs. These include video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars.

Zoom has become extremely popular in the world of business with over 20,000 companies choosing to use the service.

A-Zoom Meeting is what you can use on a normal subscription and is intended for up to 100 attendees.

However, to host more than two people in meetings lasting longer than 40 minutes, you'll have to pay for higher Zoom tiers, which start at $149.90 per year.

2.2 Google Meet

Google Meet is a free communication solution that allows users to stay in touch with clients and teams globally. The application works in sync with the other Google applications and allows you to present, collaborate and live stream meetings to 100,000 viewers at one time.

It integrates fully with your Google Calendar. When you add an event to your Google Calendar and invite people to it, Google will automatically generate a Meet link you can use on the day of the meeting.

The premium tier also includes tools such as breakout rooms, polls, and attendance tracking, as well as additional business features. Plans start at $8 per user per month.

3. Define a meeting moderator

For a big online conference, it’s important to appoint a meeting moderator to host the online meeting effectively. A meeting without a moderator may go off track. By appointing a moderator, you give that person the authority to control the proceedings.

No one can speak without the moderator's permission, and the moderator keeps everyone focused. This is particularly important in online meetings since issues with internet connectivity and audio or video quality can lead to miscommunications.

4. Prepare system in advance

In order to get a good online meeting effectively and smoothly, good preparation is an essential step in the whole process.

Ask all the participants to restart their computers at least 20 minutes before the meeting. Make sure your camera and microphone are working and that your meeting software supports multiple participants.

For one-on-one meetings, you can opt for a standard video calling service like Skype. However, for meetings with multiple participants, a specialized application like Zoom or Google Meet is preferable.

4.1 Turn on the video

• This draws people in visually and increases the feeling of connectedness. Physical hand-raising on video feels natural (for those not on video, most online meeting tools provide a “raise hand” feature).
• Reaction features such as thumbs-up and clapping icons, also convey emotion.
• Recommend use of chat or Q&A, especially for larger groups, and have someone monitor the chat.

4.2 Unmute phones

This can make it easier for participants to jump into a discussion. Selectively unmute for larger groups to enable some quick back and forth. Unmute everyone, even briefly, to share an energized cheer or a group hello. This can help you enjoy more robust and effective meetings.

5. Minimize distractions

• Distractions can cause miscommunication in online meetings. To avoid them, make sure all your participants are sitting in a private room and let your family know that you are at the meeting.
• It’s better to use headphones and a collar microphone than your laptop's speakers and mic to ensure clear communication.
• Don’t let a few individuals dominate the meeting. It sometimes happens, in both virtual and face-to-face meetings that one or two individuals try to dominate a meeting. If that happens, other attendees will tune out, sit back and go off to check their e-mail.
• In the first few meetings, a moderator will help to manage proceedings and make sure that the meeting stays on track and that all voices are heard.

6. Share meeting notes

Once your online meeting concludes, do not end with vague promises. The moderator needs to get assurances from the participants by:

• Sending a summary of the meeting notes to the participants.
• Listing the action item for each agenda point along with the name of the person or group responsible for its delivery.
• Asking all the participants to confirm receipt of the summary and their understanding of it.
• Summarizing what was said and learned in the meeting, and notifying everyone of what’s expected from them post-meeting.
• Gathering everyone’s feedback and answer any follow-up questions your attendees might have.