A shared office space is great, where you can collaborate with colleagues, generate work relationships, and build a team culture. However, with the growth of virtual meetings and online team calls through mediums such as Skype, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, this shared office space can make life more difficult to have a productive meeting.
Make sure your tech is up to the job
While this may seem like a really basic idea, making sure that your technology is capable of maintaining a virtual meeting is essential. A decent internet speed is a bare minimum must, so if you’re still at a stage where you’re looking at an office rental, making sure the WiFi is superfast is super important. Even better is if your office rental has a back up internet to use should the main WiFi go down.
In plenty of time make sure you have the platform that the client or individual prefers – it could be you use Microsoft Teams as standard but they prefer Zoom. It’s worth checking you have the right one on your laptop or desktop. Log in 10 minutes before a call starts to check everything is well with your computer. Use this time to test out the microphone and camera to ensure that everything’s working correctly. Frame yourself with a neutral background or preview any virtual background you want to use.
Encourage people to use the platform tools to prevent confusion, such as the ‘hands up’ tool so that people don’t talk over each other. Have an agenda so it’s clear who should be talking when.
Make sure everyone in your shared office space knows you’re on a meeting
If you’re on a meeting where there’s a lot of listening, it might be easy for someone in your shared office space to assume you’re just working and start a conversation about their weekend, ask an inopportune question, or even burst into song. Find a system that makes sure everyone in the area knows you’re in a meeting. If you’re able to arrange your office in a way that allows a booth for offices, this is another way of organising a shared office space to assist with virtual meetings.
Rent a shared office space
For more information about renting an office space with superfast WiFi and flexible workspaces that can be tailored to meet your needs, get in touch with SEND Business Centre.
