We all know how video conferencing affects large corporate entities. Companies such as Blue Jeans have now expanded their technological capabilities to make even more affordable mobile and desktop conferencing solutions available to small businesses. This might not seem like a major advancement to you if you’re not a small or medium enterprise owner. But if you are, then it can look like a godsend. In a small startup company that has geographically distributed workers, it can be very useful to create and maintain bonds. There are a number of ways paid Video Conferencing can be beneficial to a company, and some of these include:
Maintaining Personal Connection over Great Distances
One thing that the internet on the whole has done for many people is remove geographic barriers between them. Cultural differences shrink when people discuss stuff and people are more likely to feel empathy for someone they can speak to face to face. Creating bonds via communication is an important step to having good cohesiveness in an office environment. When workers are able to bond with each other they trust each other more. This leads to a higher level of efficiency and production when it comes to getting projects done. Video conferencing of the type offered by Blue Jeans can be essential in creating and maintaining these bonds over time. Face to face interaction is much better for social interaction and bridging employee connections, especially if those employees cannot meet in person but are working on a number of projects together.
Keeping Valuable Employees Connected
Telecommuting is one of the things many Americans claim they would like to get from their job as a perk. It removes the need for the employee to come into the office every morning and gets rid of things like dealing with traffic and getting to the office late. Because of the massive demand for telecommuting, many corporate human resource offices are looking at it far more favorably thanks to video conferencing solutions. One of the major pitfalls that telecommuting has is that it removes the physical presence of an employee from the office. This means that they cannot be present for meetings and other planning necessities. Video conferencing makes it possible to telecommute to work and still be present when a meeting is necessary for planning purposes. It’s almost as good as being right there physically in the building. As a result, you can reward employees for years of service by giving them the option to telecommute while still keeping them connected to the office via video conferencing.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of costs associated with meetings and the movement of employees out of town. There have been estimates that put regular corporate spending on meetings and the associated costs at a seven-figure value. Video conferencing is probably the most cost effective method of solving this problem. Mobile video conferencing allows employees to communicate with clients that may be remotely located from the comfort of their own home. This translates into money saved by the business for hotel fees as well as flights to and from the venue. As a cost saving measure it can be very good at keeping the operating costs of a business down quite effectively. It also allows the company to communicate with an employee that is remotely located in a face-to-face manner without having to send them a ticket to visit the head office and pay boarding fees for them as well. A company’s bottom line from investing in video conferencing grows exponentially as time goes by, meaning bigger profits for the owner and shareholders.
Video conferencing is one of the most innovative ways for a business to enter the world of work in the twenty first century. It removes physical and geographical barriers for employees, meaning that you can hire talented people wherever they are located, not just ones within your geographic catchment area. It allows employees to interact with each other on a face to face basis and grow by building personal connections, which is much easier over video conferencing than simply by voice. It can allow a company to keep employees on the payroll that may need to remain home for extended periods of time or to reward employees for dedicated work service by allowing them to telecommute. As an addition to a company’s ability to make money, video conferencing cuts down operating costs drastically, resulting in a larger profit margin at the end of the day. A company that decides to invest in video conferencing technology is making a great investment into their future. As time goes by, more and more corporate entities will see the inherent benefits of using video conferencing solutions to do business. The ones that get in early would be the lucky ones, and in order to position yourself as an industry leader, you should try to be one of those companies that get in on the ground floor.
I have a group college friends and they just started their web developing team early this year. Their client is a German and they always use video conferencing for their regular meetings.