Remote working and remote meetings are part of our new normal and will definitely stay that way. Online and remote are pretty much the only ways we hold meetings these days. We spend more time today than ever in workplace meetings.

Perhaps it is the need to connect more often as we no longer all work in the same office or building. Maybe to keep track of work and make sure everything is going according to plan. Whatever the reason, we now spend a lot of time meeting online.

Just like a physical meeting in a conference room or office, remote meetings are sometimes not liked by attendees. Many people think that some of the meetings could have been simple emails or Slack messages.

Instead of an opportunity to connect and discuss with teammates and colleagues, remote meetings are now viewed as tasks and a chore by many remote teams.

Here are the virtual meeting best practices to help you improve your meetings and get the most out of them.

Define your agenda in advance and be prepared

A meeting without a clearly defined agenda or purpose will be highly unproductive for everyone involved. It will in fact waste time and prevent them from actually doing their job.

It is best not to host a remote meeting if there is no clear agenda. To make it easy for those attending the meeting, create a neat agenda that includes everything that needs to be discussed in the meeting.

Make sure you share the agenda with the meeting attendees in a timely manner so that they know what the meeting is specifically about and they can prepare accordingly.

Choose a good remote meeting tool

The key to any remote meeting is using a good video conferencing tool that will work for you. You need to figure out what you need from your remote meeting tool. Check if you need various features like call recording, closed virtual rooms, screen sharing, chat and more.

Knowing how you want to communicate is important in order to choose the tool that’s right for you. For example, Google Meet doesn’t have native call recording functionality for lower or free plans. However, if you don’t want to record your calls, this is not a problem for you.

Similarly, Zoom enables password-protected virtual meeting rooms and requires the application to be downloaded to the user’s computer. If you have recurring meetings or meetings with people outside of the organizations, you can easily meet with them in these secure virtual rooms.

Some tools have lower bandwidth and connectivity requirements, while others have higher requirements. You need to choose one that is suitable for all of your remote workers and teams.

We’re all sick of hearing ‘I can hear you, can you hear me?’ We are not? We can avoid this by using the right remote meeting tool that works well for our own remote teams. There is no one size fits all.

Stick to the length of the meeting

When a remote meeting is scheduled, it is known what the meeting needs to cover and which points are being discussed. Meeting the set time limit for meetings is a much-needed virtual meeting etiquette that remote teams often ignore.

A 30-minute meeting cannot become a 40-minute meeting and a 60-minute meeting cannot become a 90-minute one. Remote meetings that go well beyond their original timeframe will result in your teams mentally checking out and not paying due attention to what is being said.

Impromptu prolongation of the meeting past its original end time will almost always generate frustration and resentment among attendees. It also shows a lack of time management skills on the part of the meeting organizer.

Such remote meetings, which regularly go beyond their designated time, lead to a decrease in productivity. It will also create a feeling of reluctance among participants to attend such meetings.

This is a best practice for virtual meetings that is often the most neglected and therefore needs to be considered when hosting a meeting.

Avoid distractions and off-topic deviations

It is only natural to deviate from the main agenda in remote meetings and end up discussing things that are not directly related to the topic at hand. So it has to be a conscious effort to focus only on the specifics for which the meeting is intended and avoid bringing up other topics.

If we deviate from the agenda and discuss other matters, the purpose of the meeting will fail. Important topics get lost in conversations about other topics.

Remember to remind everyone of the meeting agenda for the first few minutes of the meeting. Establish guidelines for the meeting and discussion flow. Take some time towards the end for anything else that might come up in the course of the remote meeting.

Meetings that stick to the point make the most of the time available for all participants and help to have clear actions in the end.

Everyone should have the chance to get involved

Some team members can easily get lost in the crowd when another team member is taking up a large part of the meeting time. When someone joins a meeting, they’ve been added for a purpose. It’s important to let everyone have their say and convey their point of view to everyone in the meeting.

During the entire meeting, log in to all of your team members present and ask for their contribution or opinion. This helps to ensure that nobody goes unheard and that everyone participates actively and equally in the meeting.

Always share meeting notes when they’re over

After the meeting is over, it is important that a summary of the meeting is shared with all participants. This will help the team not to forget what has been discussed. It will also list the actions each member may need to take based on the discussion that has just taken place.

Meeting notes are a great way to track the progress of the discussed meeting items in the future. This will help your remote team be more productive and maintain good etiquette for virtual meetings. They serve both as a reminder and as a to-do list until the next meeting.

Working remotely can sometimes be difficult for your remote teams. So it helps make sure the meetings are effective and lead to more productivity, not loss. It reduces the frustration employees might feel about remote meetings and helps them stay more focused.