Remote work seems very likely to stay thanks to how many businesses and organizations had to adjust to working during a pandemic. While not every day may be a work from home day, it’s certainly safe to say that more employees will be able to enjoy that option more often than maybe they had in the past.

But remote work and managing distributed teams that do not work out of one central office presents many challenges, including how best to communicate with remote teams. The need for better communication is not going to go anywhere. Managers and leads will have to figure out how to stay in touch with everyone on their teams.

This means they will have to become experts in leading remote meetings and conferencing solutions. Now, thanks to having to work from home more often, many employees and their employers have had to learn on the fly how to work with these conferencing tools and software.

However, with this new work reality looking somewhat preferable to having all employees under one roof, team managers and leads will need to know how to lead better remote meetings and conference calls for their distributed teams.

How the pandemic changed remote work

Covid-19 forced many employers to move their workers to a work-from-home strategy of some sort. For some businesses and organizations, that meant some employees still coming to the office while others actually work from home. Others instituted complete blanket policies requiring everyone to work from home.

What is clear, though, is that remote work became more common – and that it is very likely here to stay, for the most part.

The stats support this assumption. According to a report from Gallup from late last year, 33% of Americans surveyed still reported that they always work from home as of October. For comparison, that was down from a high of 51% in April of 2020. Still, 25% of those surveyed said they still worked from home sometimes.

Many experts believe the work from home trend will stick around and even grow in popularity. For managers and employers, that means becoming better at communication strategies, including strategies that apply to remote meetings.

Become comfortable with remote meeting and conferencing solutions

To ensure they are able to lead better remote meetings, managers need to become more familiar with and comfortable using remote meeting tools, including conferencing solutions.

While there are a variety of types of tools and software – and each has its own place – the audio conference call is one of those tools that needs to be included in every business’s communication toolbox.

In fact, an audio-only conference call can in many ways out-perform a video or virtual meeting platform, especially if the meetings occur frequently. As it turns out, video conference fatigue is very real.

Know how many people need to attend

But no matter the conferencing tool your team ends up relying upon the most, the rest of these pointers for leading better remote meetings still apply.

The first of these tips is to know exactly who on the team needs to attend. Invite those who are expected to contribute and those who would benefit from participating in the chosen topics. You shouldn’t be inviting everyone if not everyone would find value in the meeting. Sometimes, a follow-up email to those who may need to know what was discussed but don’t necessarily need to participate in the discussion works better than having too many people attend the remote or virtual meeting.

However, should you need to invite a large number of people, then make sure the conferencing tool or software of your choice is able to accommodate a large number of participants.

Create, distribute and follow a meeting agenda

At Conference Town, we are believers in creating an organized agenda for conference calls. This is critical to any remote meeting, though, whether or not it is in a conference call format.

The best approach is to create an agenda with a meeting start time and end time, as well as time allotments for each of the items or topics that make up the agenda. Next to those item lines should also be a descriptive title that shares what the discussion is about and who is expected to lead the discussion.

You can also leave some time at the end of the meeting for any unplanned discussion among the team that may need to occur.

Set meeting ground rules and etiquette expectations

How the meeting will run should not be a mystery to participants. It’s important to establish a firm understanding of ground rules and etiquette, including how much time each person should speak, how to use the mute button to prevent distractions and how to properly raise a question without interrupting the speaker.

The type of meeting should always be communicated, too, as this will help people know how best they may be able to contribute. Let everyone involved know if this is a brainstorming session, a project update, recurring standing meeting or some other format.

Gather input ahead of the meeting

Even if you have already established exactly what will be covered and how, certain unplanned topics or questions will always come up.

Don’t turn these questions away. Instead, provide an opportunity for anyone who may have a question or input about something related to the meeting to share that with you in advance of the meeting. This can lead to a more relevant and helpful discussion based on input from the rest of your team.

Also, don’t neglect to get opinions and feedback from anyone who is not able to participate in the meeting but would otherwise call in or join.

Use Conference Town, a better free conferencing solution

It is worth repeating that a remote meeting is only as good as the communication tools and solutions that are used to host the meeting.

With Conference Town, you can lead a better remote meeting with the features that many other conferencing services require payment to use. Enjoy a better conference call experience that is always free by signing up today.