As video conferencing continues to grow, employers are starting to look for ways to combat “Zoom fatigue” among staff.
According to a recent report from Stats Canada, roughly 40 per cent of the workforce in Canada is working from home. To provide opportunities for human connection and collaboration, investment in web and video conferencing has grown by 500 per cent, according to one technology site.
“We have gone almost overnight from saying work from home is appropriate in some cases, to saying it’s the new normal,” said Jabra SVP, Aurangzeb Khan “Now, we’re moving to the question of how to humanize the virtual workspace, to give people that sense of connectedness so critical to their ability to be creative and productive.”
The key is to use solutions that come as close to face-to-face meetings as possible, along with productivity tools, Jabra said.
Collaboration or distraction?
The pandemic and lockdown has placed collaboration front and centre for companies looking to adapt to a new world, said Aurangzeb. “This is the key right now. People must be able to share information, but they also need to have that sense of being part of a team. This is where technologies tailor-made for the social distancing era.”
But not all companies have followed suit. “Some managers wonder if video conferencing tech, with how it allows people to set up meetings any time from anywhere, could distract,” he said. “They see workers’ days filling up with video chats, and challenges to getting work done.”
Unlocking productivity
Most companies that have invested in video conferencing, however, would tell an entirely different story. They would confirm that the technology is critically important in the new normal, and that video meetings unlock creativity and productivity, citing the following advantages:
- Virtual meeting agendas are locked down ahead of time. When a meeting is in your calendar, it usually comes with a pre-set agenda attached. That makes virtual meetings “tight,” with points of discussion established beforehand. This makes the best use of time.
- Moving from meeting to meeting is fast and interruption-free. In an office, workers can be waylaid by coworkers or otherwise distracted when moving from one meeting to another. With video conferencing, moving from meeting to meeting happens with a couple of clicks.
- Virtual meetings offer improved work/life balance as attendees are more aware than they’d normally be about how long meetings are running, and how much of what’s being discussed is necessary. Tight, efficient video conferences mean less time wasted, which in the long run can mean more time to be present and available to colleagues and family.
A conferencing solution for these times
As a result of the pandemic, meetings must take place from any number of locations. Jabra’s PanaCast is a video conferencing solution tailor-made for a time when meeting with other people physically is out of the question. It offers a truly humanized video conferencing experience through such things as:
- Compatibility with all leading video and audio conferencing solutions, and is certified with Microsoft Teams & Zoom
- Intelligent zoom, which automatically includes everyone in the conversation, zooming in whenever meeting participants are present
- Panoramic 4K video, covering the full 180-degree field of view
What separates PanaCast from competing solutions is the way it can offer people at this challenging and often isolating time an experience that simulates a face-to-face meeting as closely as possible. And with it looking increasingly likely that the shifts we’ve seen are here to stay, now would be a great time to make a well-placed investment in the right video conferencing solution.
Watch this on-demand video to learn more about Jabra PanaCast
