Web Conferencing for Employee Communication

Use Web Meetings to Engage Employees Worldwide

Jul 17, 2009

Web Meetings Improve Employee Communication, Largemoney, Photobucket

Communications with employees globally is now seamless, and expected, with technology such as web conferencing that engages people in cost-effective ways.

Employee communications are the heartbeat of any organization. Web conferencing allows for meetings where people can talk to each other, regardless of the type or size of organization, exchange ideas and opinions and better understand new policies and procedures.

Pushing information to employees through emails is seriously limited by the amount of time involved in engaging people and the lack of face-to-face interaction between people. Real-time communications, afforded through web conferencing, engages employees at multiple locations and is a best practice of any truly effective employee communications program.

Web Conferencing Similar to Most Meetings

Web conferencing are live meetings that happen using the internet. Participants are connected through their individual computers online over the internet using a website address or URL to access the conference.

Employers turn to video or web conferencing as communications tools to engage employees, a recent survey has found. Robert Half Technology, a California-based IT staffing firm, recently polled 1,400 chief information officers and 60% reported current use or planned use of video conferencing technology. Greater than half responded positively about current or planned use of video conferencing.

Survey respondents noted that these technologies help employees interact through collaboration and offer organizations efficient and low-cost methods to preserve and share organizational knowledge.

Employees Engaged With Web Meetings

Webinars are also very popular communications tools and are a specific type of web conference. Webinars are usually one-way, when a speaker has limited interaction with the audience, and can include audience response polling to allow for questions and answers or quick testing of materials being presented.

Holding a web conference differs only slightly from a face-to-face meeting in terms of presenting material. Participants “see” each other through a webcam which is quite different than being in the same room.

Follow these tips to ensure a successful web meeting:

Ensure the vendor supplying the web conferencing service has experience with a variety of clients
The vendor’s technology should not necessarily be the newest as it may preclude participation across the organization at sites where computer technology is dated
Check for important communications and brainstorming features such as instant messages, or the use of a whiteboard to share ideas and solutions during the web conference.
Run through the content of the web conference with a small focus group in advance to ensure the material flows well and is easily understood.
Always include time at the end of the meeting for questions and answers.

Web conferencing technology is allowing employee communications to happen with greater ease and access for organizations with worldwide locations. The key to using the technology correctly is to choose a vendor wisely, check that the audience continues to be engaged in the subject matter and that participation rates remain high.

The copyright of the article Web Conferencing for Employee Communication in Marketing/PR is owned by Shelley Aylesworth-Spink. Permission to republish Web Conferencing for Employee Communication in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.