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The COVID19 outbreak has had the offices to enforce the work from home. The work from home is not that different from remote working. The work from home is more specifically refers to working at home. Meanwhile, remote working means working from anywhere outside the office. It could be in a cafe, at home, at a friend’s house, overseas, etc.

Both remote working and WFH have created new habits, which may, in the future, become customary. For example, ethical issues during online meetings. It is crucial to understand some etiquette during online sessions so that the meeting can run adequately and bring no harm to both parties.

Online meetings have now become a new regular part of daily team workflows. But, is there a way to make online meetings effective for everyone? To answer the question, please read our description below.

Choosing the right tool for online meetings

There are bunches of video conferencing app that can be used for online meetings. These applications can ease individuals in having a virtual face to face communication via video calls. Video call applications today can be used for video conferencing that covers a more significant number of users, ideal for a company or office.

But, of the many existing video call applications, choosing the right one for the team’s needs is sometimes tricky. First of all, you have to know what you need. Answer the questions below:

1. Do you need to know the reaction of each team when you share ideas? Then you need a video-conferencing application.
2. Do you need a collaborative application to work on a press release? Then you can use Google Docs.
3. Do you need to present something? Then you need a video call/video conference app with screen-sharing features.
4. How many participants need to attend the online meeting? If it is more than 10 participants, you need an application that can accommodate a large number of people in one meeting room without making the application go lagging.

The Etiquette during Online Meetings

To have a smooth online session, it does not only depend on selecting the right tools, but it appears that ethics also plays an important role. There are some basic rules in online meetings to create a conducive online session; they are:

1. Before the online session started, it’s a good idea to check all the devices (camera test, microphone test, screen-sharing test, wifi connection, test speakers).
2. Read the agenda meeting and prepare the necessary data.
3. Introduce yourself and the participants or allowing the participants to greet everyone.
4. Don’t get busy staring at the phone while other people are giving a presentation. Try to follow what is presented, even if you disable your camera.
5. Don’t interrupt other people while they are talking. Try to listen until someone has finished talking and then responds.
6. Don’t do other tasks while in an online meeting, for example, checking email, etc.
7. Turn off all notifications and turn on silent mode on all of your devices.
8. Ensure that all team members are in a quiet, distraction-free area.

Practicing ethics during online meetings as above can help create a conducive online session. It is all necessary to do so that everyone can obtain the information shared. 

Indeed, it seems more challenging to build excellent online communication compared with face to face meetings. However, in times like today, where face-to-face interaction is risky, the best option is online communication. Ethics, as mentioned earlier, during online sessions, exists because there is a need for it.

The online meetings may not be as good as face-to-face meetings due to the lack of supervising in each participant. However, it needs awareness from each participant to be willing to carry out the above ethics to create a conducive meeting.