6 steps to getting employee buy-in on a web conferencing solution

You have done your research and figured out how a web conferencing solution can be beneficial for your company. Maybe you want to create a more collaborative environment. Or you face challenges that you want to overcome with web conferencing. Or maybe you simply want to save some money. Whichever your reason, you have decided to deploy a new web conferencing strategy. Great! Now you face one issue: how to make a change so big that if affects your organisation’s way of working? Big changes don’t come easily in organisations. And employees don’t always welcome change with open arms. So here it is, some insider tricks on overcoming change management with your team.

• Communication is the key

What you really need to focus on when introducing a new web conferencing solution to your organisation, is communication. Clearly communicate the reasons why you chose the specific conferencing system. What are the goals you’re trying to achieve by using the conferencing system? How long is the adoption period going to be? When the employees know as much as you do and when they understand the reasons for the change, they might will feel more open to it. Each of the following steps require extensive communication. Communicate and collect feedback in each step to allow a smooth transition to web conferencing in your organisation.

• Case studies

Employees might be apprehensive about using web conferencing solutions if they don’t understand the following: why you would adopt it and how it would benefit the company in the first place. Especially if they are used to doing things in a certain way, like going to the regular Tuesday 10 am meeting with a nice cuppa coffee. A classic way of proving the benefits and potential problem solving is to use other companies as an example. If Ford, HP and Paypal does it, why shouldn’t you?

• Integration with other tools

If you use Slack in your everyday instant messaging, you can use Drum’s Slack integration by hosting your online meetings on your Slack channel (just use /drum). When your employees are using a familiar channel, it is easier for them to adopt a solution inside this channel. Even if you aren’t using Slack, you must be using an internet browser. Every day. Drum is compatible with all browsers with a uniformed experience. Thus, you don’t need to ask your employees to download any new software or applications. Easy!

• Training

People don’t usually enjoy doing things they’re not good at. That’s a given. You can’t expect your employees to adopt a new technology without some instructions on how to use it. If you have enough resources, invest in either in-house or virtual training on the new web conferencing solution. Provide your workers with links to support pages, FAQ pages and additional information. You can also have test meetings in teams to practice using different features of the web conferencing solution. Allow employees to have some time to adapt to the new solution before an organisation-wide rollout. As presented next.

• Start small

When you introduce a change in an organisation, you often face at least some resistance or resilience. You can start by doing smart-scale changes, for example keep having important project meetings face-to-face. But you could start holding smaller team meetings virtually. You can move onto an organisation-wide adoption after conducting experiments on how smaller teams experience using the new web conferencing solution.

• Option to work from home

The final and maybe the best buy-in for web conferencing is the possibility for the employees to work and attend meetings from home. When you introduce the new web conferencing solution to your employees, offer them an option to work from home on days they don’t need to be at the office. Note that they will have to be skilled at using the new tool on their own. Be sure to offer your teams an extensive training period before out-of-office work can begin.

There are some excellent professional procedures all managers can conduct to make employees buy in a new web conferencing solution. Note that none of them work without efficient communication. As we tried to emphasize in the beginning. Internal marketing is less difficult when you believe in the change yourself and when you bring that belief forward to your employees. You have made the right step to introduce a new web conferencing solution to your organisation. Now it’s time for action!