1. Multitasking
92% of survey respondents confessed to multitasking during meetings
41% admitted to multitasking "often" or "all the time"
69% admitted to checking email
49% admitted to doing other unrelated work
2. Remote participants aren’t engaged
It can be hard for remote participants to follow along, stay engaged, and feel like they can contribute.
3. Lack of planning and structure
Facilitating an effective meeting is a skill that can be learned and honed. Considering the amount of time we spend in meetings, more companies should invest in improving meeting effectiveness (or get “rid” of them entirely).
Tips to increase productivity
Ask yourself why.
Trying to find a valid reason to distract your remote team from work to hold a meeting should make you think twice.
Make them shorter. Much shorter.
If you have to distract, then get to the point. It makes things so much easier. Meetings have turned into the office space version of a filibuster. It should be as simple as getting the people you actually need, being clear and concise, and once what actually is needed to be said is said, you move on.
Only distract the right people.
There's no point in calling everyone to a meeting if what you're going to address only has to do with you and 2 others.
It's also the little things that waste time.
Here's what it takes to set up a remote meeting through Skype.
- Starting up an app like Skype (1 min)
- Signing in (1 min)
- Creating a group and adding everyone to the group (2min)
- Waiting for everyone to join the call (5min-15min)
- Having to wait for everyone to configure mics, cameras, and establish a connection (5min)
Just getting a call setup on Skype is a hassle and a waste of time.
It doesn't have to be like this, not anymore.
With YAC, it's as simple as one click to instantly communicate with the right people on your remote team.
No time wasted just pure instant communication.
To address the true value of YAC lets first take a look at the history and evolution of how information has been relayed in the office space.
Meetings haven't changed much so don't worry, we aren't going to put you to sleep. It’s actually all pretty simple. Meetings, meetings and more meetings and apps that just transcend what all meetings do...waste time.
Want the ugly truth about meetings?
If you’re a middle manager, it’s likely you spend about 35% of your time in meetings, and if you’re in upper management, it can be a whopping 50%. What’s worse is how unproductive these meetings usually are.
Take the show “The Office” for example. This is a pretty extreme example, albeit still funny, but take a look at Michael Scott’s meetings and you might start to find similarities in your own workplace.
Now that’s scary.
Our aim is to increase productivity for remote teams that hate meetings.
Chat with your remote team and have it feel like they're in the same room with you with effortless instant communication.
Say what needs to be said, get done what needs to be done.
Also enjoy features like:
- Instant Screen Sharing made quicker & Easier
- Multiple people screen sharing at the same time
- Don't have to set up a group chat that creates clutter in the app
- Adding Contacts Is Instant and easy as Copy & Paste
- Communication at the click of a mouse
- Asynchronous messages aka Voice messages or VM’s (Think IG stories but for voice)
Let’s take a look at the Cons that remote teams face.
Company culture takes a hit
There’s a lot more to startup culture than having an office. At the end of the day, culture is about shared values and goals.
But having everyone in one place makes it a lot easier to build that culture.
The more exposure team members have to each other, the more developed and defined that culture becomes.
Simply by virtue of being remote, that exposure is necessarily limited.
With instant communication across YAC, it brings teams feeling much closer together than other applications like Skype.
Communication gets hard
With team members in different time zones and on different schedules, there are very few times when everyone is available.
But why worry about everyone needing to be in the meeting? Just worry about contacting the right people and moving on with the tasks.
That is what YAC is about.
Outside of a typical weekly call, remote teams can YAC to instantly update, ask questions and remain productive, as it's instant and saves Voice messages for when a user gets back online.
But sometimes, you need an answer now.
YAC makes it as if you were in the same office and stopped by the desk of the person you need to talk to.
Of course, in a truly urgent situation, we won’t hesitate to call.
But for everything else, it means we have to be organized and diligent about tracking what we need from each other. With YAC, getting that information or deliverable will be less of an obstacle.
YAC is by far the most efficient tool for remote teams.
No longer will be a communication barrier to throw a wrench in the gears of productivity.
In reality, meetings are still commonplace and are huge time wasters.
YAC hones in on completely removing the gathering of people together in a Skype room, the “how's the kids how's the wife” small talk, and allows you, whoever you are on the team, to instantly communicate with the right people without being distracting or wasting other team members times.
