This recent article in The Times entitled “Why making conference calls leaves me stranded in a world of my own” made us giggle. The City firm employee who had managed to marinate her lamb, nip to Waitrose to pick up missed ingredients and prepare her evening meal all the while “participating” in a 5 hour long conference call is quite an achievement! But jokes aside, there are a few points in the piece that are worth noting.
The author, Harry Wallop, bemoans his inability to be able to decipher who is speaking at any one time, as well as the fact that being unable to see facial expressions means it’s much more difficult to establish how well the meeting is being received by the attendees. And Mr Wallop clearly misses face-to-face interaction, which is perhaps understandable when his working life is more isolated, away from an office and colleagues with whom to interact.
The “where we work” has changed
Working habits are changing. Greater connectivity has lead to greater flexibility, especially relating to where you work. Around the world remote working has grown 159% since 2005, which is over 11 times faster than the rest of the workforce. According to the ONS Labour Force Survey, the largest study of employment circumstances in the UK, there are now over 1.54 million people who solely work from home for their main job – up from 884,000 just over a decade ago. Overall as many as 4.2 million people sometimes work from home, but also work in different places.
There are a number of benefits to knocking a daily commute on the head and working from home. Many people claim they are much more productive without office distractions. Travel costs are reduced which makes it a more eco-friendly option. And in these modern times where stress and mental health are said to affect 1 in 4 people every year, home working is an excellent way to improve work/life balance.
Part and parcel of this home working revolution is the emergence of the conference call – and it’s not just limited to home working. People log in while they’re on the move too. The “office” has become wherever you happen to be at the time.
The rise of the conference call
With the rise in the number of conference calls taking place has come a rise in the number of companies that offer conference call facilities. From WhatsApp to Zoom, Slack to Google Hangouts, Skype to Facetime, there are many apps and services out there that are free to use and readily available.
We don’t entirely agree with Mr Wallop who feels that conference calls are a menace to modern business. They can be a highly effective way of interacting with people when distance is an issue, helping to reduce costs and in many cases, improve efficiency. They are an excellent enabler for a virtual working environment.
But as we’ve said before, getting the most out of your conference call can make all the difference for maximising the effectiveness of the call. If your business is going to invest in employees taking time out of their work schedules to participate in a conference call, then it makes sense to ensure it’s worth it. There is a financial impact to a business with pointless/ineffective meetings – to put it into context, a recent European survey of 2,000 employees in the UK, France and Germany found that a typical staff member spends around 187 hours – or the equivalent of 23 days a year – in meetings! So the message is: if you have to have a conference call, make sure it’s the most effective it can possibly be.
If you’d like help with making your conference call effective, particularly in relation to transcription, then please contact us alex@fionashipley.com.