Why should you turn to video conferencing for your business?

Posted on 14 Jun 2016 by The Manufacturer

Growth matters. Improving the way your business works means being on the lookout for ways to enhance what’s already there or to toss it for something that’s even better.

There’s always a better way to do things. That’s the right mindset for a business. If you stop innovating, stop asking questions, or stop exploring new ways to stretch the possibility of what’s plausible, then you aren’t growing. When growth stops, that’s when a company dies. One way to avoid that scenario is to integrate new technology into the way you work. Start with video conferencing.

Video conferencing – Why do you need it?

Video conferencing offers a ton of benefits. Companies who can find a way to leverage the advantages it brings to the table — reduced travel costs, bigger budgets, better collaboration and communication, among other things — will stay relevant to consumers and grab a bigger share of the market. Staying current by using technology to their advantage helps companies last. One of the best benefits to using video is the cost savings. Here’s a breakdown of how it works for companies:

Less travel

Less travel means less travel expenses, says B2B Marketing. It also eliminates travel-associated fees. If you’re sending over your team to a workshop or meeting, then you will have to take care of their food, lodgings, fare and even provide a bit of travel insurance, just to keep them safe while they’re in the air or on the road. You can do away with all of that when you use video instead.

Lower attrition

These days, employees demand more from companies than nine to twelve hours of being tied to their desks. Some would even prefer being given telecommuting opportunities over pay raises. More employees demand for flexibility, and many of those who want it enough but fail to get it from their employers resign. That becomes a cost-savings problem when you take into account the training and time you invest in every employee.

This becomes especially even worse if some of these employees are your best people — the ones who have been with you the longest, who helped shape your company culture, and were some of the first people on board. It makes absolute sense to find a way to give them what they want. Video solutions offer that compromise, allowing employees to spend more time at home and giving companies a way to keep their employees. Low attrition means less money wasted on recruitment efforts, training, rehiring, and retraining a replacement.

Less delays

Companies like Blue Jeans offer business video conferencing that also improves production timelines and delivery. In the past, when revisions had to be incorporated into a product design or marketing campaign, the group had to wait it out until everyone got to weigh in and have their say. If using email, these revisions could take the form of threads even longer than certain classical novels. This is especially true if the discussion is happening among remote teams.

With video, discussions go faster. You don’t have to wait for your contact to get back to you in an hour or two. With these tools, decisions can happen quickly, and they happen in a way that’s speedy, which is great for your timetable. It helps teams circumvent delays and production lags. By using video to bridge the gap in time or distance, teams are well able to beat deadlines, if not exactly deliver on time, eliminating the cost that delays could potentially lead to, such as loss of consumer trust or future customers.

Less stress

Another thing that affects a company’s bottom line is employee stress. If your team isn’t in top form, then they aren’t performing at their best. That could be affecting the quality of the work that’s being delivered. Employee stress has a lot of factors, though. While you can’t be expected to resolve them all, taking steps to alleviate that stress can make a massive difference in employee performance and productivity. One common source of employee stress comes in the form of scheduling conflicts.

Being required to be at the office at certain times can be rough, especially for first time parents trying to raise a family. If you work eight hours a day, your free time is already reduced by the commute you have to undertake. Traffic can make it worse, so you likely end up with nine hours spent at work—ten or twelve if you’re working overtime. At best, you’ll only be able to spend a couple of hours feeding the kids or putting them to bed. By the time the day is through, you only have a few hours left for sleep, if you’ll have any time left at all. Video cuts travel out of employee schedules, allowing them to have more time at home. With better work-life balance, says Mobile Village, your employees are rested, happy and ready to go to work.