Probably the strangest year any of us have ever had is over. We thought it would be valuable to reflect on what some of the key learning points for our customers have been around the various topics we have delivered during 2020.

The 2 Lockdowns mean the challenge of working at home has focused us all on redressing our skills in order to maintain our own personal productivity. We have also had to adapt our behaviour towards our teams and colleagues to ensure we empower them and enhance their productivity too.

So here are some key points from Emailogic courses such as:
How to get better results from your email
How to design and deliver successful virtual classrooms and webinars
How to get better results from your virtual meetings
How to conduct successful virtual performance reviews
How to use MS Teams
How to win more business with Virtual sales meetings, presentations and bids

So, in order:

Growing Email Volume
Not being able to walk over and chat to someone in the office has caused email volume to grow even more. The knock-on effect has been increased stress (as if stuck in doors with kids, pets, partners and pouring rain wasn’t enough to raise the blood pressure!) which has shown up in many staff engagement and pulse surveys.

The Antidote: Reduce CC:’s, have more quick calls with colleagues to handle quick questions or other issues, default to not doing reply to all emails (unless you can reasonably justify it).

Virtual Classrooms, Webinars and Meetings
These have multiplied literally like rabbits and now most live training is available in a virtual format. Measure your broadband speed - (speedtest.net) - you need 5MB absolute minimum upload speed for reasonable video broadcast. If your sound starts dropping in and out turn off your video and that will release bandwidth for audio. Make sure you stay engaged 100% - as the man once said if you are going to be there be there 100% - or don’t be there at all. Participate too – don’t leave it all up to the poor old host.

Virtual Performance Reviews
Everyone has had all sorts of issues to deal with this year and for some it has been horrendous. Be ready to listen, empathise and help by maybe not having the main item on the agenda being hitting one’s objectives. But having got through the year, supported nearest and dearest and colleagues whilst keeping the organisation operating maybe is more than enough. Everyone’s 2020 has been unique – and well-being should be at least equally as important as meeting objectives. Be aware of Covid bias – 1 person’s experience of looking after kids at home may be very different to someone else’s based on the age of kids and support available. Let’s now focus on next year being our best one yet!

How to use MS Teams
Most people are using MS Teams for meetings. Careful how many video meetings you have per day. 3 is my maximum. Also stick a Post-it over the video of yourself. You wouldn’t sit in a face to face meeting looking at yourself in the mirror – so remove the distraction from MS Teams. Don’t worry – you look great!

How to win more business with Virtual sales meetings
Watch what you have in your background. Your Hornby train collection may be impressive however it may well distract and dilute the focus. Look into the camera hole (as a wonderful story telling friend of mine said yesterday) otherwise known as the ‘hot spot’– this will give the impression you are looking straight at the person. And like any sales meeting – to fail to plan is to plan to fail – and you have 2 ears and 1 mouth use them in that proportion.

So here are the courses again. They have all been delivered to audiences all over the world virtually and are all calibrated for each customer.

How to use MS Teams
How to get better results from your email
How to get better results from your virtual meetings
How to conduct successful virtual performance reviews
How to design and deliver successful virtual classrooms and webinars
How to win more business with Virtual sales meetings, presentations and bids

To find out more or have a demonstration of any of the above courses just call and speak to one of our friendly team on +44 (0)1452 886556 or email enquiries@emailogic.com