Do you find yourself disappointed in the quality of your team conference calls?

Conference calls are extremely helpful to businesses that host employees worldwide. Despite the distance, conference calls allow employees from all over the world to communicate effectively as one team.

Despite the convenience of the conference call, it's not always easy to ensure that the call is productive.

If you find yourself frustrated with the quality of your conference calls, you're going to want to read this. We're uncovering five simple, yet incredibly effective changes that you need to make to your conference calls today.

With these small changes, businesses can look forward to better quality conference calls immediately. Keep reading to learn more!

1. Invite the Right People

Let's be honest, conference calls can become chaotic relatively quickly. This is often due to the fact that too many people are involved in the call and maintaining a standard conversation becomes difficult. As a result, the topic of discussion is often disconnected and participants become frustrated.

If you're really looking to keep your participants engaged, be sure that you are only involving the critical people. When the participant group is low, each participant will feel more responsible for engaging and paying attention to the discussion.

If the number of essential participants is too large, divide the call into two different groups. Smaller groups will encourage each and every participant to engage and take part in the conversation. With too large a group, it's easy for participants to fall into the background and lose their attention span.

2. Get Excited!

Next in line, it's time to get yourself excited for the call!

In order to lead a conference call that engages with your employees, it's essential to showcase your enthusiasm for the call.

Remember, your pace and energy will set the tone for the rest of the employees. If your tone is tired and lacking excitement, this will naturally set the tone for your employees.

Science advocates for that fact that positivity is contagious. When employees are feeling positive, they are guaranteed to perform better in almost all aspects of their job. In fact, research explains that a positive brain is 31 percent more productive and achieves 37 percent higher sales volumes.

So, come with some positive energy for your conference calls.

3. Explain the Agenda

Next, take a brief moment to outline to your audience exactly what is being covered on the call for that day.

From start to finish, explain which topics are being covered and what the desired outcome is for each topic. This will provide your employees with a strong idea of what to expect throughout the call. In return, they will remain engaged, as they now understand that the call has a clear direction and time-frame.

In this situation, it might be helpful to outline the subjects being covered in a numerical sense. For example, state that the phone call is discussing three important topics and outline which the three topics are.

To save time, this can also be outlined through an email the day prior to the conference call. This will allow members adequate time to generate productive ideas.

4. Encourage Participation

When it comes to leading an engaging conference call, always remember to encourage participation from each member.

Not only is it healthy for teams to generate new ideas together, but it also helps to keep each member of the call accountable and engaged. After all, a one-sided presentation is the best way to encourage the rest of the employees to zone out.

Employees participate better when they are told in advance that their participation will be required. And so, give your employees fair warning that this call will include participation and that employees may be called on from time-to-time.

This also helps to keep the focus clear and prevent multiple people from speaking at the same time. In turn, this helps to narrow the focus and commit to a shorter time-frame.

5. Keep It Short and Sweet

To keep your audience properly engaged, be sure to commit to conference calls that are short in length.

One of the biggest complaints with business conference calls is that the call drags on for too long. Of course, with so many people on the line, it's easy for the focus to shift and for the call to get out of hand.

Instead, let everyone know ahead of time exactly how long the conference will take from start to finish. Knowing beforehand the length of the call will help your employees ensure they are staying focused for that specific period of time.

When it comes to the correct length of time for a conference call, let's look to science. Studies reveal that the average human can hold their attention span for approximately twenty minutes.

Take advantage of this data and commit to a short, simple time frame for each and every call. At the end of the day, it's more beneficial to have three twenty minute conference calls each week than to host one grueling, hour-long call each week.

The Conference Call You've Been Waiting For

As companies continue to grow and expand, it's not unheard of for companies to have employees dispersed throughout the world.

With such a geographical and time difference between these employees, it can be challenging for employees to come together as one team. However, the conference call has made it possible for worldwide employees to hold business discussions from afar.

While there's no denying the convenience of these calls, many team members report that they lack in productivity and engagement. As a result, conference calls are often viewed in a negative light and not always productive.

But, with a few keys changes, conference calls can be productive and engaging for all employees. This can be anything from using video chat and encouraging participation to outlining the agenda of the call and keeping it short.

For more tips on how to better manage conference calls, be sure to visit our blog!