Posts Tagged ‘Missions’

Conference Calls in Sports

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

The ability to communicate with a widely dispersed audience quickly and easily using a conference call is helpful to many industries and the same principles of saving time and money benefit sports organizations both amateur and professionals alike.  I have had the privilege of providing conference call services to many of the major sports teams and organizations and many amateur organizations as well.  And although the content of their conference calls may be a little different the aim is the same, save time and money using conference calls.

Professional sports organizations have many applications for conference calls within their organizations.  Internally they have staff scattered over the entire country and sometimes the world.  The staff is focused on doing scouting missions for the organizations looking at the competition or looking for new talent.  A conference call allows the entire staff to get together on a regular basis to share successes and insight and make sure they are on the same page.  The teams are regularly on the road during the season so they also use conference calls to stay in touch with the staff travelling with the team.  Staff meetings can continue using a conference call even while the team is on the road.  Professional sports teams also have an obligation to communicate regularly with the press in their sport.  Many times a face to face meeting is not possible with all of the interested press people so they will do a conference call to make sure they are getting their news out to all of the news outlets interested.  And beyond the team itself, a conference call is used in many other capacities to aid in press communications.  One example is when players were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame we would provide the conference call for the player to talk to the press which was done many times from their residence immediately following their notification of their election.

Amateur sports have many of the same challenges as the professional organizations.  And many times the organizations are international in scope as they support their support in many countries.  Given the geography and certainly the budget of these organizations the only realistic solution for them to communicate is a conference call.  The leadership of the organization in the different countries will regular get together to discuss rule changes, tournaments and event planning for their sport.  These meetings can take place from anywhere at anytime using a conference call and saves the organization a lot of money compared to trying to hold an in-person meeting.

www.zipconferencing.com

Conference Calls for Human Resources

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Clearly, one of the main missions for Human Resources departments is to clearly and concisely communicate with the employees in a company.  And with the employees in a company becoming more and more spread out how does the Human Resources department continue to handle effective communications with these remote employees.  Why through conference calls of course!

Conference calls enable the Human Resources department to do their job effectively without the need for extensive travel to remote employee locations.  All of the necessary regulations can be satisfied by holding conference calls and providing information to the employees separately.  Or you can hold a web conference and go through the information live with the employees.  The need for signatures on any documents acknowledging receipt of the information can be accomplished through the mail.  And all while the Human Resources personnel sit at their desk.

What about a new employee, especially one who is working remote?  The Human Resources personnel can use conference calls to introduce multiple new employees to company policies and benefits.  By doing several new employees at the same time the Human Resources department saves time and makes sure that all employees are getting the same materials at the same time.  Questions that the new employees have can be shared which helps avoid answering the same question multiple times if handled on a separate phone call instead of a conference call.

And there is no more effective way to conduct training than using conference calls or a web conference.  Many companies do not have the room necessary to pull employees into a central location and train them even if the cost to do so is not a barrier.  Using conference calls for training allows you to share the same information across the employee base in a fast, efficient and affordable manner.  Using a web conference combined with conference calls allows you to not just share information with the participants, but you can also insert questions into the presentation to encourage participation and increase retention.  You can even upload files into the web conference that participants can download during the presentation if necessary.

Today with smaller numbers of staff in Human Resources shouldering an increasing responsibilty for disseminating information and training to  remote employees, conference calls have become an essential tool.

www.zipconferencing.com