We’re living in a new reality where “business as usual” means conducting work virtually. Global companies need to deliver clear, concise communication with employees regardless of their physical location. Although physical offices will likely always exist, the future of work is flexible and that means being equipped to host an employee All Hands with a dispersed workforce.
Now, more than ever, is the time to be communicating with your employees frequently, ensuring they are safe, secure and feeling productive amidst the chaos. For those of you facing your first remote All Hands meeting, fear not! The GoToWebinar team has you covered. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind when planning for your meeting.
Consider Your Audience
Where will most of your employees join the webinar from? Do they cross multiple time zones and join via different endpoints? Typically, the answer is yes. At LogMeIn, we use GoToWebinar to conduct smooth, large team meetings and executive presentations, and I couldn’t imagine a world without it. With user engagement tools like polling and data analytics for engagement metrics, I can see how many people attend the meeting and for how long. Better yet, we can address their questions and concerns in real-time, as well as after the meeting. Many times, we host two All Hands meetings to accommodate for multiple time zones, too!
Set Your Meeting Up for Success
If you’re like us at LogMeIn, All Hands meetings often include multiple speakers and engaging content. It’s important to think through your full presentation to ensure your AV setup is set for success. These questions include:
- How many speakers will you have and where are they located?
- Who will be advancing the slides? Someone locally? Remote? Or, maybe both.
- Are there videos or polls that you need to include to engage employees on the webinar?
Whether it’s just you or you have the help of an AV team, make sure that the AV setup will provide the best experience for your mix of office-based and remote attendees.
The Day-Of Checklist
Here’s a quick hit list to keep handy on the day of your event. The biggest tip we can offer here is practice makes perfect!
- Join the webinar early in practice mode, along with your panelists.
- Test your audio and video – a few times, if you can!
- Dry run all features: Ensure slides, videos, and polls are functioning properly.
- Have a strong ethernet connection.
Stay Engaged During and After The Webinar
We’re constantly monitoring the employee engagement on the back-end of the webinar, whether that be through our chat and question box or monitoring audio and our video feed to make sure the thousands of employees from all over the world are having a quality experience. And lastly, don’t let the webinar be your final touchpoint with employees – continue to engage with them afterwards to see what you can do to make the next one even better! We always reserve the right to get better.
Expertise and Best Practices for Embracing Virtual Meetings
New to remote work and virtual meetings? We’re here to help! Check out our remote work Resource Center with tips and tricks on how to master the shift to remote working for employees, managers and IT teams.