10 Business Benefits of Video Conferencing

Video conferencing presents countless opportunities to businesses. Whether it’s engaging remote workers, collaborating across departments and locations, interviewing job candidates or managing suppliers, the technology is efficient, cost-effective and scalable.

In this post, we dive deeper into ten tangible benefits of video conferencing software and its potential applications for your business.

1. It’s More Engaging than Audio Conferencing

Participants in audio conferences tend to zone out and multitask because they feel disconnected from the other members in the meeting. With video, however, there’s pressure to maintain “virtual eye contact”, translating to superior levels of engagement. When each conference member is visible, you’re inclined to use the communication skills we’ve all practiced in face-to-face conversations.

2. It’s Efficient

Reduced commuting time is one of the most obvious but significant benefits of video conferencing. In-person meetings with suppliers, clients and satellite offices can take up valuable hours of your day; even an hour-long meeting can quickly eat up an entire morning when accounting for travel time, making it a frustrating and inefficient activity.

3. It Saves on Travel Money

Not only is travel time-consuming, but it’s also expensive. People often travel great distances for training, conferences and business meetings, and in most cases, these in-person communications can be accomplished via video conferencing. Save the money you would spend on business travel and put it toward other business priorities.

4. It Improves Communication

Research has shown that humans process visual information more quickly and accurately than text and audio. Therefore, when you have a meeting via video conferencing, your attendees will retain more information and comprehend it more effectively than they would if you held the meeting via audio.

5. It Connects Teams

Teams are becoming increasingly geographically separated for several reasons. Freelancers and even permanent staff may be working from home, some are contractors working from other continents, and some are simply on the road for business purposes. But vast distances don’t matter when you can bring your team together via video conferencing, either for regular meetings or spur-of-the-moment check-ups.

6. It Improves Productivity

Need a quick answer to a tricky question? Instead of sending an email to your colleague and hoping for an answer tomorrow, connect for a quick video conference conversation and use a screen-share function to move on with your project.

7. It Improves Attendance

It’s often challenging to coordinate busy schedules and bring staff together for in-person meetings. Video conferencing allows the kind of flexibility that can boost meeting attendance rates, and record the discussion for non-attendees.

8. It Provides More Structure for Meetings

Because people are calling in from different locations, the start and end times of video conferences are usually well-defined before the start of the call. This means less idle conversation and more productivity during the allocated time. You’re more likely to use an agenda and stick to it when you know the meeting must end on time.

9. It Helps Employee Retention

It’s no secret that a good work/life balance is essential to employee retention. The mobility and flexibility offered by video conferencing gives people more control over their work days, and this leads to improved retention. You can also keep remote workers feeling more connected and part of the team when they can connect face-to-face with their co-workers on a regular basis.

10. It Gives You a Sustained Competitive Advantage

When you consider all of these advantages combined, it’s easy to see how video conferencing provides a strong competitive edge for your business. With lower costs, increased team unity and more productive meetings, you can streamline many of your current tasks and increase collaboration at the same time.