Investopedia defines video conferencing as a type of technology that makes it possible for people in different locations to hold face to face meetings. It’s already gaining a lot of popularity and interest as a communication solution in three major industries:
Business
- Travel expenses. Video conferencing helps businesses save on travel-costs. Every year, companies spend on airfare as well as hotel accommodations whenever they send out employees for a few weeks of training. With video conferencing though, employees only have to travel for a week instead of a month. The rest of the training can be done on video, saving everyone involved lots of time and slashing down on travel expenses.
- Team interactions. With face to face communication, teams are able to connect and collaborate in a more meaningful way. Visual communication tends to inspire more trust and camaraderie than, say, emails and in many cases, even chat. That’s because the face to face interaction makes it easy for employees to get a gauge on what their team member is thinking about. If one of their teammates are excited or thrilled about the project, that kind of enthusiasm easily comes across through a video conference.
- Global advantage. Video conferencing allows companies access to a global marketplace. So those who know how to integrate video conferencing solutions into their business can connect to a global audience more than those who don’t use technology to improve and change the way they do business.
- Multiple platforms. Cloud-based video conferencing solutions from globally-recognized brands work with different platforms, systems and services. Major advantages of BlueJeans video conferencing solutions, for instance, include the technology’s incredible ability to seamlessly function with different devices. So if you’ve a meeting in 15 minutes, your laptop is toast and you’re 2 hours away from the office, stuck in traffic, you don’t have to miss that meeting. You can use your cellphone or tablet to connect, click onto the link invitation and be there with the rest of the team.
Human Resources
- Employee retention. Video conferencing helps employee retention in a number of ways. It helps remote workers feel a deeper connection to the company, says TechRadar, which keeps untimely and unwanted resignations at bay.
- Flexible work solutions. Working parents, or those with long-term commitments to anything outside the work, find work-from-home solutions—available through video conferencing—a good reason to stay on with their current companies.
- Faster processing times. With video conferencing, Cisco says staffing teams are able to weed out potential applicants from the piles of resumes faster.
- Catch nonverbal cues. In the past, HR teams only had phone calls and resumes to rely on before they’d call the candidates for a final interview. These days, video conferencing makes it easy for recruiters to meet applicants. Given the face to face interaction, staffing specialists are able to observe the applicants freely and see if their answers are at odds with their body language. According to Body Language Expert, about 65 to 75 percent of communication that happens in the workplace is nonverbal. With video conferencing, recruiters won’t have to miss out on essential non-verbal cues to tell if a candidate is upset, lying or the right one.
Health Care
- Remote monitoring. According to The Guardian, some doctors in Belfast are using video conferencing to allow them to monitor children recuperating from home. In cases where children suffered from serious and critical heart conditions, video conferencing allows doctors a way to regularly assess the condition of recovering patients, even those who live far from the city. With video conferencing, distance isn’t a barrier to treatment any longer.
- 2. Share and help determine the right diagnosis. Some doctors, too, use video conferencing to reach out to other doctors for help. Given scheduling difficulties, it might be tough to pin down these doctors for a face to face consultation. With video conferencing, though, doctors won’t have to leave their offices to consult on cases. And since video works faster than emails and is more convenient than calls—since users can review data together—doctors can look over scans and offer a diagnosis after just a few minutes. In cases where an accurate diagnoses can make a significant difference during the first 24 – 48 hours of treatment, this kind of help is indispensable.
- 3. Catch any signs of infection or deterioration sooner. Another advantage, in an already long queue of advantages, of video conferencing technologies for the health care industry involve constant access to discharged patients. With video conferencing, doctors can catch signs of deterioration and problems early on. Since early treatment is often essential in ensuring recovery and survival, video conferencing doesn’t just help patients and doctors communicate better, it essentially provides doctors with a way to provide outpatient care to every sick child, regardless of distance. That’s not just improved communication, that’s improved quality of life.
Given how video conferencing improves convenience and efficiency, it probably won’t be long now until other industries follow suit.
