Video Conferencing to Train Employees

For companies with numerous locations, significant travel savings can be had by training with video conferencing. One big benefit is that employees can watch a recorded training session several times to make sure they comprehend the instructions.

Connecting Employees

A video conference can solve the problem of branch office employees feeling they are not personally connected with employees at the main office. When the company celebrates a new sale or an important achievement all the employees throughout the country and even world can celebrate together. Personal bonds will strengthen, which can lead to increased productivity, improved morale, and thereby lower turnover rate.

Hiring Employees by way of a Video Conference

You can interview prospective employees from all over the country when you use video conferencing. You can significantly increase the chance of hiring the best candidate and saved on travel expenses at the same time! Some employment recruiters however, have suggested that this format for employment works best for candidates less than 25 years of age or for preliminary interviews.

Possible Negatives of Long Distance Meetings

There have been some documented studies of the possible negatives of video conference meetings. According to a study by J. Sniezek and M. Crede, titled Group Judgment Processes and Outcomes in Video Conferencing vs. Face-to-Face Groups, the face-to-face meeting participants displayed a higher level of confidence in the decisions they made versus participants in long distance meetings.

Some companies have found that employees often go along with the ideas of the group at their location during long distance collaborations. It's important for management to review all the top suggestions from video conferences to prevent this type of ?peer pressure selection? from occurring. Also, participants don't have the opportunity to get to know the other meeting members during break times and scheduling an international meeting across numerous time zones can be difficult. That being said, the savings that a firm realize with video conferencing may well outweigh any negatives.

In Conclusion It's Time to Try Video Conferencing

Sales meetings, hiring employees, meetings requiring quick decisions, and bringing employees together are some of the prominent best uses for video conferencing. It should be noted that in the future the term face-to-face meeting may have to be replaced with the phrase a ?handshake meeting.? Young people are growing up with text messaging, seeing their friends? faces on their computers in real-time. With social websites such as My Space, it's common for young people to have friends scattered all over the world they have never actually met in person. Numerous articles on the Internet mention having face-to-face meetings by way of computers. In the future, workers might be amazed to learn that their predecessors actually spent time and money flying on a plane to have a face-to-face meeting or a ?handshake meeting?. Perhaps future generations will think it's best to have all types of communications with variations on video conferences.