Nobody said it better than Bob Dylan who immortalised the saying, “the times they are a-changing”. This is something that holds true in many facets of the business world and everything around us. Today, due to the global pandemic and what appears to be people making seemingly “smarter” decisions, more businesses are looking at staying remote and using a virtual workspace.

It comes down to the statistics. There are several aspects about remote working and virtual meetings that can easily trump those of in-person meetings. Some people do prefer the latter, but what do the statistics say? Are virtual meetings finally the most effective use of personnel and company time?

According to research from Lifesize, 76% of people have used video collaboration to work remotely and 75% of those found an increase in productivity and enhanced work-life balance. When you’re spending almost 40 hours a year on average commuting, who can argue?

90% of those same employees in the same Lifesize study said that video makes it easier to get their point across and almost the same number said that video conference reduces time to complete projects or tasks.

It’s no longer just a case of finding an app that works and putting a plaster over everything else to force it to work. Companies like Microsoft who is responsible for the collaboration tool Teams are constantly rolling out new updates and changes that make remote working more productive than ever before, and in some case, more productive than being in an office.

Aside from the comparison between environments, there are also several personal benefits that people may see as they continue to let the virtual working world into their lives.

• Comfortability
By allowing virtual meetings and remote working within your company and teams, you’re enabling employees to reach a certain level of comfort. They will have their own workspaces, their own homes, and be able to be themselves. It will allow them to speak their mind in a natural way and you’ll likely find out more about them as time rolls on.

• Ease of use
Having remote work and virtual meetings is easy by comparison. Your employees can dial in at their own convenience, wherever that may be, and if well-invested enough, could do tasks out in the sunshine, or perhaps take part in meetings while performing menial tasks such as ironing.

• Environmentally friendly
In a world where we want to try and protect our planet, having fewer people travelling into the office will ease a lot of congestion and pollution. Allowing workers to stay home will stop needless travel in order for them to do a job they could just as easily be doing at home.

• Workforce expansion
Another factor that many people don’t seem to acknowledge is that the more restriction you remove from your company, the more you open it up to new experiences. Imagine being able to hire the best people in a specific subject matter without caring about where they live or how long it takes them to commute.

Virtual meetings were once something that was a little difficult to do and achieving a positive outcome for everyone in the team was difficult. With a product like Microsoft Teams, companies can make the most of the product and conduct a full, productive day of business quickly and easily.

Consider making virtual meetings a permanent part of your business instead of a temporary fix during COVID-19. Talk to us to find out how to make the most of Microsoft Teams and how we can make the product work for you, during these times and beyond.