5 Zoom Etiquette Tips to Share With Your Employees
Virtual meeting technology has come a long way. As it develops, people increasingly take advantage of this application’s benefits. Now you can do nearly everything on Zoom that you can do at an in-person meeting. You can also use features like the office background for Zoom. This technology has proven invaluable for business use in several ways, including saving money and time. Before you hop on a meeting, it’s helpful to be mindful of Zoom etiquette.
What Not To Do During a Zoom Meeting
As with any etiquette, Zoom etiquette can often be more about avoiding specific actions. Standard real-world etiquette applies, but the virtual nature of these meetings adds another layer.
Considering Other Zoom Members & Time
While there are things that you must not do during a Zoom meeting, there are also some critical things to do.
Before your session, it’s vital to prepare for the five following items:
1. Ensure Quality Audio
One of the most critical factors of a virtual meeting is audio, so you must ensure that others hear and understand you. Make sure everyone can hear you at a reasonable volume before starting the session. Using headphones with a built-in microphone can provide a quality system that will pick up your voice even if you’re moving around. You may have to experiment with the volume at first. Incredibly soft or extremely loud audio can be very distracting to others, and it won’t make for a productive discussion. Get in the practice of muting your microphone whenever you’re not speaking; this will help keep random noises from disturbing the conference.
2. Give Everyone Adequate Speaking Time
If everyone is supposed to give input in your meeting, make sure no one is left out. You can always ask questions if you feel someone hasn’t had enough time to speak.
3. Look Professional
If you want to begin your meeting on a professional note, you, as the host, can start by dressing the part. In most instances, if you don’t know exactly how to dress, it’s best to opt for business casual. Since many people believe virtual meetings allow more casual dress than an in-person meeting, you may be slightly overdressed. Still, it’s usually more acceptable to be overdressed than underdressed, especially if you’re the host. Along with professional attire, it’s essential to keep a tidy space and professional-looking background. One way to ensure your meeting space looks good is to use a Zoom immersive view background.
4. Ensure Privacy
Everyone attending the meeting should keep the discussion private to only those attending. Set the meeting to private, use a secure network and close off the space in which you’re working to prevent eavesdroppers. You can also disable the screen sharing option.
5. Be Mindful of Time
Everyone has a busy life and can’t spend unlimited time meeting. It’s important to respect everyone’s time, set a start and end time and make sure you don’t go over.
Check out Zoom virtual background system requirements to make the most of your virtual meetings. Hosting a Zoom meeting can be overwhelming if you haven’t done it much, so anything you can do to lessen stress will be worth it.