How to improve your virtual meetings and why it matters in Dhaka

Running meetings can be hard. In some ways even more so if it’s virtual. Bangladesh, as well as the world had been largely accustomed to in-person meetings. Then COVID19 happened and it’s now a story in the past.

The pandemic pushed employees to pivot their working style, adjusting from the meetings in-person to working collaboratively behind a screen. And online meetings, while having their perks, come with quite some challenges. In this blog we’ll talk about the ways you can improve your virtual meetings and why as a resident of Dhaka, it matters even more for you.

Why Meetings Matter

Meetings have always been a very important aspect of our work culture and these meetings are now online. The pandemic has essentially changed the way we work forever

And there are a few reasons meetings matter to growing your organization effectively:

1. Improves overall communication, engagement and collaboration
2. Brings issues to the forefront
3. Increases accountability
4. Nurtures a strong company culture
5. Builds team morale
6. Determines goals and strategy for success
7. Provides opportunities for personal growth

A study in the recent years has found:

1. More than half of employees attend meetings focused on checking progress (53%) and solving problems (51%) in a typical week.
2. Almost all business meetings (90%) last for one hour or less, suggesting that employers should consider briefer meetings.
3. 61% of managers consider problem-solving and collaborating a benefit of meetings, so companies should train all managers to conduct meetings effectively for those aims.
4. Almost half (47%) of HR professionals say that meetings help them do their jobs well.
5. 69% of employees surveyed spent more than one hour of their workweek in meetings.

Traffic, WFH and Improving Virtual Meetings in Dhaka

Virtual meetings can be a lifesaver, especially if you’re a resident of Dhaka.

The city of magic is also a city of cars and grand traffic that never seems to end. The estimated cost of the delays is $3.8 billion per year, leading to 6-10% of the country’s GDP being lost indirectly to the city’s traffic congestion, research finds.

Dhaka, where everyday thousands of collective hours are wasted on the street, sitting idle in traffic – is a difficult place to stay productive. That combined with the rising demand for WFH calls for virtual meetings now more than ever.

And that in turn demands learning managing remote workforce and improving meeting processes, something Meet n Sync can help with. This super convenient mini-app can make life easier by helping you –

1. Keeping track of day-to-day meetings
2. Capturing meeting notes
3. Easy follow-ups
4. Setting agendas, inviting your colleagues and more.

Life is too short to live it in a gridlock, right? And when it comes to productivity amidst the drudgery of Dhaka traffic or improving meeting processes while doing Work From Home in Bangladesh, Meet n Sync can definitely be your go-to online meeting app.

Top 5 Mobile Workforce Software Trends in 2022

Smartphones, tablets – mobile devices in general have increasingly become the way people get information when they need it. Be it for communication, looking something up on Google or managing office work on the go, they’ve become staple to our daily lives.

Here are some workforce software trends in the mobile enterprise market you need to look out for to stay updated:

1. Integrated functionality – Because workers are expecting the device to serve as a multifunctional tool, and look for applications that address a wide range of tasks within themselves.
2. Bring Your Own Device – BYOD can save expenses for an organization that might otherwise put extra pressure on the IT department to support.
3. Flexible platforms – Developers are constantly trying to create more accommodating technology that’s not limited to a specific supporting platform, rather integrates with other supporting programs.
4. Getting ready for the IoT – Because leveraging the efficiencies of the IoT can make life a great deal easier.
5. Beefing up security – Since information shared through the IoT and BYOD has potentials for leaks and to limit their vulnerability to hackers.

How to Lead Better Virtual Meetings

Since the COVID19 crisis, employees around the world have gone through some massive adaptation around the way they work. With aging parents, crying children and occasionally the overbearing sound of a television getting to work in the background, the struggles of WFH were real and understandable.

So, while remote work and virtual meetings have the obvious benefit of allowing people to connect from anywhere, they also come with some unique challenges. Fortunately, these difficulties can be overcome if you know how to prepare for them.

Here are a few practical tips to lead better & more effective virtual meetings:

1. Set clear roles, expectations and objectives
2. Know how to use the meeting platform
3. Invite the right people
4. Send an agenda a few days ahead
5. Plan for participation
6. Establish proper meeting etiquette
7. Wrap up time

Before a meeting starts, as a meeting facilitator you should consider: Is this meeting really necessary? If it’s simply going to be a series of questions or a presentation that won’t genuinely be of use to many of the people in attendance, it may be better handled over email or phone.

Here’s to being productive and living to the fullest in Dhaka. Hope your virtual meetings will be easier to manage and sitting stuck in traffic won’t be idle anymore!