Posts Tagged ‘Sit’

Increase your Productivity with Conference Calls

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

If you are like most companies you are trying to get more done with fewer resources than ever before. It is simply the nature of business these days. There is no easier more cost effective way to increase your productivity than by using conference calls as part of your company’s communications plan.  Here are some ideas on how conference calls increase your productivity.

  • Save Travel Time – One of the biggest wastes of time for anyone in business is travel time.  Going to and from meetings can eat up a large amount of time.  Even when the meeting is in your own office you still have to get to a conference room and wait for the meeting to start and then get back to your desk when the meeting is over.  With conference calls you can sit at your desk and continue to be productive until the meeting starts and then get right back to the work at end when the conference call is over.
  • Multi-Task – Depending on your role in the meeting you may be able to get other work done during the meeting while on a conference call.  As long as you put your phone on mute you can continue to work on other things without disturbing the meeting.  Many people who host meeting don’t like this about conference calls but the fact is you get more participation from attendees that don’t have the time to attend an in person meeting and all you have to do is engage people when necessary and you can have a productive meeting.
  • Collaborate – Certainly one of the benefits of conference calls is the same with an in person meeting.  You get people to collaborate on a project.  Ultimately bringing additional participants into the process will help move the project along and improve over all communications.

And in case you aren’t sure what activities you can do with conference calls here are a few common applications that you can easily do with a conference call.

  • Sales Meetings – Sales teams are famous for getting together on conference calls.  Many times the sales team is spread over a great distance and it would not only cost a great deal to pull everyone together but think of all the lost productivity.  It is just not practical to get together physically so a conference call is a natural.
  • Company Announcements – If you need to make a company announcement you can easily do it on a conference call without having to pull everyone off their jobs to do it.  Depending on your business you are also saving any travel involved and at the same time making sure everyone gets the message timely and first hand.
  • Project updates – Project management would be difficult without conference calls.  Keeping vendors and employees up to date on a project and making sure dates are met can only be done with regular communication and many times would be impossible without conference calls.

With the low cost of conference calls these days there is no excuse not to incorporate conference calls into your communications plan and you will find your productivity increase along the way.

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Prepare for Hurricane Irene with a Conference Call Service

Friday, August 26th, 2011

As I sit here in New Jersey and wait for the arrival of Hurricane Irene I am inundated with news reports on how to prepare for a hurricane.  You are supposed to get batteries, water, gas for your car and non-perishable food among other items.  But for a business the most important thing you should make sure you get in place is a good communication plan in the event of a disaster that includes a conference call service.  If you don’t have a conference call service yet now would be a great time to get a service and be ready to conduct business remotely.  If you can’t travel the roads and get to the office you can still do a conference call and keep your business going.  These days most businesses are national if not global in nature and your customers don’t really care if your office is in harms way.  If you are supposed to have a meeting on Monday they expect you to have the meeting.  A conference call service can give you the tool you need to continue to have meetings without leaving your home.  Here are some of the reasons to line up a conference call service.

  • Natural Disaster – Like Hurricane Irene you just don’t know when a natural disaster is going to prevent you from getting to your office or your customers as well.  Having a conference call service as part of your business communications will allow you to schedule meetings and be able to attend the meetings no matter what the circumstances.  In addition to being able to attend customer meetings you can also have conference calls with your employees to prepare your response to the disaster and continue to plan in its aftermath.
  • Technical Issues – If your business experiences technical issues and needs to hold emergency meetings you can have a conference call at the ready and participants informed in an instant.  Everyone gets the same message and your technical issues are dealt with more expeditiously.
  • Company Announcements – If you need to communicate with your entire employee base all at once you can use a conference call.  Our conference calls hold up to 300 participants so capacity is not an issue.  You can instantly communicate with everyone at the same time to inform them of personnel changes, acquisitions and any other issues that may arise.
  • Planning – And if you know that the disaster is coming , like hurricane Irene, you can plan for it with groups of people who are otherwise separated my geography. 

So if you have a conference call service in your tool box you can simply pull it out and plan or respond to a disaster.  With Zip Conferencing’s Pay As You Go service there are no charges unless you use the service so why not be prepared all the time?

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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.

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