The word “Zoom” has become synonymous with video calling. Zoom calls offer a great way to keep your team connected during the pandemic. But lately, the word is being used more and more in the phrase “Zoom fatigue.” The phrase “Zoom fatigue” describes “the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms of communication,” according to the Psychiatric Times.
During the pandemic, many collaboration platforms have heavily encouraged teams of all sizes and in all locations to “stay connected” by utilizing the platform’s quick and easy video call functions. But those “I survived another meeting that should’ve been an email” mugs and memes are still highlighting a real and relevant problem – just because you can host a video meeting, doesn’t mean you should. Collaboration technology has a host of tools and solutions for keeping your team connected and productive, and a video call may not be the only way to convey timely and important information, especially when your employees are starting to feel burnt out.
Here are some ways to banish Zoom fatigue while still fostering collaboration technology adoption among your employees and maintaining a high level of productivity.
Send a Direct Message
If the collaboration you seek is specific to one coworker, employee, or small team, it’s often more efficient to send a direct message. Tools like Slack, MS Teams, Webex Teams, and Zoom all have different levels of direct messaging capabilities.
Unless you need time to brainstorm or discuss something in great detail, a quick message can be more effective in communicating small or specific pieces of information. Another bonus – many younger employees are happy to reply to messages in a few hours or even a few minutes. You can’t get much more efficient than that.
Take Advantage of Threads
Any employee or manager who works in the same position for any length of time knows that there are always seasonal, subjective, or annual projects that will repeat themselves throughout that time.
Threads can consolidate those similar ideas and projects. You don’t have to look back through months of messages to see what your team did for the same project last year – you can just navigate to the thread and see all the communication on the project or idea.
You can also use threads to communicate project status updates. Rather than scheduling quick video meetings, you can use a thread to see daily or weekly updates and check a project’s progress in real-time.
Create FAQs
Similar to threads, Frequently Asked Questions can consolidate information commonly discussed or used in training. FAQs can save time and be a valuable resource your employees can reference. It’s also a great way to consolidate constants in your field of work.
Collaborate within the Content You’re Creating
Have you ever talked to someone on the phone or a video call and had to explain what is in front of you to someone who couldn’t see what you see? It can be very difficult.
One of the best things you can do when working on a piece of content is to collaborate within that content using edits and comments. Putting those conversations inside the content itself means you can skip the logistics discussion and get right to the good stuff.
Help Speed Collaboration Tool Adoption
Need help organizing or educating your global team? Switching to a better collaboration tool? Meet Me In The Cloud is your go-to resource for white-glove support and training of collaboration services and tools.
Whether you need training and education, event assistance, or other collaboration-based support and service, contact us today.
