With so many organizations pivoting to work from home situations given the challenges related to coronavirus in 2020, it’s expected that most people will be impacted in one way or another. Your entire daily routine changes when you work from home and not to mention the loss of human interaction and camaraderie that you get when working in an office environment. This is especially true for those individuals who aren’t naturally accustomed to working remotely. However, the good news of working from home is that you get to spend more time with family and possibly have more time to devote to tasks and projects for sprucing up your home or apartment. I’ve put this quick guide together to help you conduct better Zoom video calls when you’re working from home.
1. Check your license
No, not your drivers license but instead, know what type of Zoom license you have assigned to your account. There is a free version as well as a pro version for more bells & whistles. The free version suffices for most people but know that if you’re consistently running out of time during your meetings, you may want to consider asking your manager and IT department to upgrade your license. The pro version removes the 40-minute time limit for meeting hosts.
2. Get a good headset
I can’t stress the importance of having a good headset to ensure that your voice is clear to all meeting attendees. I’ve been on too many calls where the sound from some coworkers is either to low, choppy, muffled and even robotic at times. It’s frustrating and can impact the entire meeting depending on who you’re presenting to – several people to hundreds of people. You want to make sure everyone hears you loud and clear so there is no misinterpretation of your presentation. Both Plantronics and Logitech make awesome wireless headsets that you can look into but if you have AirPods, those work well too!
3. Clean your webcam lens
Similar to poor voice quality with headsets, you want to make sure your beautiful self is presented well to meeting attendees. Ensure that your built-in webcam lens is clear from any dirt, smudges or streaks so that you’re looking as sharp as you can across the session. This is a fairly common oversight that can easily be fixed with a screen cleaner and cloth.
4. Lighting is key
No one wants to see you living in the dark – no pun intended – during a zoom video call. A good tip here is to work in front of a window that provides good light to naturally enhance your look on camera. If you don’t have such a window in your home or apartment, then you may want to look at floor lamp options to brighten up your workspace. As a last resort (possibly first resort!), you may want to consider a clip-on ring light that easily attaches to your desk and provides you great lighting options (multiple brightness levels) as well as several color shades to meet your style and needs.
5. Virtual Backgrounds & Screen Sharing
Zoom is an innovative video conferencing platform that provides users with many options to enhance their video call sessions. One of the coolest features that you may not know about is the option to have virtual backgrounds during your meetings. You may want to use this feature if you have a messy room (I’ve been guilty of this!) or have family or children in the background. You have several out-of-the-box options with Zoom but you can also upload your own custom background as well.
The other handy feature in Zoom is the ability to share your screen with other attendees. This is one of the best ways I’ve found to collaborate with my coworkers while working from home during isolation. One quick tip I have is to make sure you know “which” screen you’re wanting to share and not mistakenly share another screen that may have YouTube playing! Trust me on this one and I’m speaking from experience – I promise I learned my lesson the first time!
Not sure how long we’ll be stuck working from home in quarantine but these above tips should help pave the path towards better zoom video calls while we’re in isolation!
Thanks,
– Simply Sal
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