8 Tips to Advance Business Goals whilst Reducing Environmental Impact with Video Conferencing

These days, Video Conferencing benefits have far exceeded the original “reduce travel” and “reduce environmental impact” benefits that lead the way in proving it’s worth over the last 20 years. However, it is important to remember that although productivity, efficiency and collaboration are now at the top of the agenda in today’s workplace, environmental impact and travel reduction are just as important as they ever have been, not just in terms of business practise, but for an employees moral and personal beliefs too. So let’s take a look at some of the ways you can use Video Conferencing to advance your business goals whilst reducing your environmental footprint.

1. Telecommuting

Effective telecommuting enables people to work from home whilst still being fully engaged with teams, colleagues and clients, wherever they are located. Although telecommuting is becoming common place in today’s businesses, there are still huge improvements to be made to ensure all home workers and remote employees feel part of the team, and can collaborate and communicate just as they would if they were working from an office based desk.  Through using face-to-face communication and remote collaboration tools such as Cisco Spark and SMART Bridgit, organisations can save on operational and real-estate costs, whilst improving productivity, efficiency and morale of employees.

2. Remote Experts

Video Conferencing technology enables customers and employees to connect with experts and advisors, face-to-face, no matter where they are located in the country – or the world. Not only does this save time, money and carbon emissions due to the reduction in travel, it is also proven to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty – meaning your customers are more likely to stick with you than move across to your competitors. Higher quality, faster and more personal communication can only improve your business throughout.

3. Distance Learning

Training facilities with video are far more interactive and productive than those without. With access to specialists around the world, whom your employees would never have got to hear from otherwise, your teams have a much larger pool of knowledge to work from. Plus, your in-house trainers can train in multiple locations at the same time, reducing costs associated with training, including travel, time and management. And because it’s carried out via video, digitally, video, audio and content can be recorded in the highest definition and accessed on-demand – perfect for recovering a session, or for those who were unable to attend the training session in the first place.

4. Global Meetings

Whether meeting with the board, management of global teams, or your warehouses and distribution centres around the world, there is no need for you to pack your bags and head off to the airport. Using immersive telepresence systems for high level board meetings or room based professional video conferencing systems within your meeting spaces, just a short walk down the hall and everyone can meet face-to-face. This isn’t just saving time, money and carbon emissions either – you can hold much more regular meetings with the people that matter, with decision making time and therefore project timescales being greatly reduced too. Think of the competitive advantage associated with that. See this SRG Apparel Textile Manufacturing case study to see how this has improved a global business in the real world.

5. Work/Life Balance

Employees who are always on the road report much higher levels of stress, less productivity and far reduced job satisfaction. The indirect costs associated with each of these are enormous, with stress accounting for 39% of all work related illnesses in the UK in 2013-14. And reduced job satisfaction increases employee turnover, which on average, costs a UK business between 6 months and 18 months salary to replace them.

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6. Research & Development (R&D)

With researches and developers around the world able to hold face-to-face discussions about design and timelines, where HD professional video paired with solutions such as Wolfvision document cameras can show even the finest detail, modification or stitch, these developers no longer need to travel just to show changes to a single component. Carbon footprints are kept to a minimum, whilst time and savings continue to grow.

7. Recruitment

Video based interviews means travel is eliminated during the recruitment process. Although phone interviews often take place, you do not have the ability to view posture, facial expressions, clothing choice and a smile, which can all tell a lot about a person you may be hiring. And due to this, your recruitment pool is larger – see Recruitment Agents: Are you doing it via Video? to find out more about how video can improve the recruitment process.

8. Real-time Collaboration

Business are able to deal with huge amounts of data and collaborate effectively from multiple locations with the visual and media capabilities of a video conferencing solution. If team collaboration between remote offices needs to be face-to-face for every meeting, productivity is lost and projects are stretched out. Video unites managers, designers, administrators, architects, financial teams and contractors facilitating more interactive and collaborative sessions, without associated travel.

These are just a handful of benefits associated with environmental impact and travel reduction, brought into businesses by implementing Video Conferencing technology. Find out more on our blog, or visit solution pages to find out more specific solutions and products to help you address these issues. If you’d like to talk through your needs with one of our specialist advisors, please contact us today.