{"id":40042,"date":"2020-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/why-its-important-for-video-meetings-to-start-quickly\/"},"modified":"2024-08-22T05:06:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T12:06:16","slug":"why-its-important-for-video-meetings-to-start-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/why-its-important-for-video-meetings-to-start-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it\u2019s important for video meetings to start quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael is a sales representative of a mid-sized tech company that exports cloud storage solutions to businesses around the country. This year, his company implemented a video conferencing system to improve communications in the company beyond the team messaging and email system they\u2019ve been using for years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A marketing operations team from another company wants to know more about Michael\u2019s product, so he offers to give them a walkthrough. He sends several members of their team a video meeting invitation, which directs them to a download page for the video meeting app. After downloading, every member has to sign up for an account, configure their audio settings, and input meeting IDs.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Michael joins the call, only one other person is there. The rest are still going through the tedious process it takes to get Michael\u2019s video meeting set up. By the time everyone joins, the meeting is several minutes behind schedule, and impressions of Michael\u2019s company have gone south.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Slow technology causes meetings to delay and attendees to lose focus<\/h2>\n

Sadly, video conferencing hurdles are more common than we\u2019d like to think, and those hurdles prevent productive meetings from happening. When every video conference<\/a> with clients and colleagues takes several minutes just to set up, meetings start late and time gets wasted. Chances are you\u2019ve walked into an in-person meeting that didn\u2019t start on time. The on-time participants start chatting about tangential projects or their travel plans for the weekend, while others sink into their laptops and <\/span>work on unrelated tasks<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Employees\u2019 schedules are so stacked with assignments and requests that meetings are often the last place they want to be. In fact, up to <\/span>30% of every meeting<\/span><\/a> is considered unproductive, with <\/span>67% of workers<\/span><\/a> saying meetings distract them from their jobs. Meetings that start late contribute to this time sink, which translates to money down the drain.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same principle is especially true for video meetings, where there\u2019s less accountability for people to stay focused. When video meetings get delayed, employees aren\u2019t subject to the same scrutiny as when they sit next to colleagues in a meeting room. They\u2019re either <\/span>Alt-Tabbed<\/span><\/a>\u2014looking at other windows and tabs waiting for the meeting to start\u2014or having \u201chow-was-your-weekend\u201d small talk with other participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Video meetings without context cause employees to fall behind<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for employees to be so inundated with other tasks and meetings that they go into video meetings blind. Remote workers don\u2019t have in-person interactions with colleagues to keep them reminded of certain projects. When it\u2019s time to join a meeting<\/a>, they either have to spend time digging through old conversations and emails or use context clues in the meeting to get up to speed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the meetings themselves won\u2019t get delayed, participants who don\u2019t have easy access to context can get quickly left behind. Consider that every meeting can have multiple participants who are contextually lost, these meetings are downhill slopes of unproductiveness for everyone, and <\/span>unproductive meetings cost US business $37 billion every year<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Removing video meeting barriers is essential to minimizing delays<\/h2>\n

Meetings need to start on time to be productive, and that begins with breaking down the barriers around video meetings. Quick and effortless video meeting technology is key to making it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n