How to organise a video catch up over the holidays

While no one wants to work between Christmas and New Year, sometimes the inevitable happens and you need to call a meeting with your team.

But thanks to video conference technology, you can let your staff stay a home and minimise the disruption to their holidays.

Here are a few tips on running a video meeting over the holiday periods…

Only use in emergency

If people have booked the time off, they’re officially on holiday so any interruptions to this should only be for emergencies. Before organising a catch up ask yourself these three questions:

• Can it wait a few days?
• Could it be dealt with in an email?
• Can you handle it by yourself?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these, then maybe a video meeting is not the way to go. But if you answer ‘no’ to all of them, then it’s time to get the team together.

Organise a suitable time

Try and be as flexible as possible with timings. Email around asking when suits everyone and try and organise a time from that.

A few tips are to avoid the busy times – these are usually around lunchtime and evenings when people might have events organised. Go for first things in the morning or late afternoon.

Don’t expect everyone to get involved

While it would be good to have the whole team involved, don’t expect everyone to be able to join in. Some of them might not even be in the country.

Target the key people you need. If they’re not available, work down your list of employees until you find a suitable replacement.

Keep it brief

It’s nice to be able to catch up with all your colleagues and hear about their Christmases, but this kind of chat can wait until you get back in January.

Instead, focus the video chat on work. Get to the point right away and try and keep the meeting on track, focussing solely on the issue at hand.

To help, make it clear when you’re sending out a meeting invite what exactly will be discussed and what you need to achieve from the call.

Expect interruptions

Keeping things on track can be hard if people are calling in from home – especially if they’ve got friends and family visiting.

Expect a few interruptions like kids running into shot, a partner asking for help or just a relative walking into the wrong room. Don’t get angry if these happen, just roll with the punches.

Be thankful

And don’t forget to thank everyone who’s involved and try and offer them sort of recompense, such as coming in a few hours later on the first day back in January.

Posted by Ashleigh Sharp