Nonprofit employees now spend an overwhelming portion of the workday in video meetings, but they feel disengaged and even excluded from their actual work, according to a new survey of more than 4,400 nonprofit employees who are working remotely during the pandemic.
The survey, which was conducted during July and August, identified a work dynamic of “too much and not enough.” Respondents reported so many meetings with little structure and so many new expectations to navigate — such as when to turn on web cameras and when it’s OK to leave them off.
A lot of that dissatisfaction with remote meetings comes down to rookie mistakes, says Andy Goodman, director of the Goodman Center and author of the report. Forty-eight percent of those leading remote meetings said they had never received training on how to do so, according to the survey.
While it’s true that few people expected to spend the year in so many remote meetings, Goodman says it’s high time for everyone to learn how to do it well. A well-facilitated training is a good place to start, he says.
“When you are working at home, feeling isolated, distracted, your professional and personal lives are bleeding into each other — if you’re going to turn an hour of your life over to somebody else in a videoconference, you want to know that you’re in good hands,” Goodman says.
Tips for Keeping Participants Involved
The report includes tips to help participants in video meetings and virtual presentations feel more engaged and included. Meeting leaders, for example, should say a personal hello to each participant as that person joins the Zoom room. It’s an easy strategy to boost inclusivity but one that’s inconsistently used. Most survey respondents — 43 percent — said they were sometimes welcomed by name to meetings. Just 2 percent said they always were. People want to connect: Interacting casually with colleagues will help them feel like part of the team, Goodman says.
Webinar presenters and meeting leaders should ask participants to submit questions — frequently. This helps prevent information saturation and helps participants keep up with the discussion. The report recommends giving participants the choice to ask questions audibly or through the chat box, depending on the type of virtual gathering.
Facilitators should also take advantage of all the tools a platform offers — such as subtitles that make material more accessible to everyone or break-out rooms that facilitate small-group discussions. While these tools vary, most platforms have options to help break the monotony of a grid of muted video feeds.
Information overload is a major challenge: Participants can struggle to pay attention to a presentation and take in text-heavy slides while also skimming questions in the chat box. Leaders of the meetings feel that pressure, too.
Goodman says leaders can alleviate that pressure by turning off the chat box while presenting and explaining that they’ll dive into questions periodically so participants get a break from the monologue and don’t feel ignored. Better yet: Meeting leaders should find a colleague to monitor the chat box. This helper can respond to questions individually and, when appropriate, elevate questions for the leader to answer for the group. Currently, this practice is not as universal as it could be. Just 56 percent of respondents said meeting leaders frequently or always use this strategy.
Organization and Planning Improve the Experience
These virtual experiences matter because more than a third of respondents say they now spend six to 10 hours of their workweek in remote meetings, webinars, or webcasts.
Ideally, sessions should be no longer than an hour, according to the survey. A shorter meeting is generally a well-organized meeting, but less than half of respondents said meeting leaders frequently shared an agenda. Just 34 percent of respondents said they often attended webinars with this sort of structure.
Attendees of virtual meetings and webinars want these freewheeling convenings to end, the survey found. Goodman suggests developing a kind of mission statement for each online meeting. “If you cannot state the purpose and desired outcomes in a single sentence, you’re probably not ready to call the meeting,” he writes in the report.
Facilitators should also help participants understand how to show up for the meeting. For example, if the meeting will be discussion-based, tell attendees that you’d like them to keep their microphones on to encourage conversation.
And before scheduling a meeting, Goodman says, it’s worth asking whether it’s even necessary. Beginning in March, Goodman says, “all of a sudden, everything was a Zoom call, and it’s like people forgot that the telephone existed.”
Why Nonprofits Should Invest in Improving Virtual Meetings
Thirty-seven percent of survey respondents said they expect to work from home frequently even after regular office work can resume. That’s a big jump from the 11 percent of respondents who said they frequently worked from home before the pandemic.
What’s more, respondents anticipate the current trend of remote meetings to continue over the next year. Nearly 90 percent said they expect to attend at least as many virtual meetings in the coming year.
Goodman says nonprofits should make sure their employees have the tools and office equipment to make working from home comfortable over the long haul. Internet speed stood out as a major challenge to productivity, with 35 percent of respondents indicating that they sometimes had connectivity issues — and another 10 percent saying they frequently did.
Among the other findings:
- Respondents were evenly split about whether they should keep their web cameras on or off during remote gatherings. Participants usually have a good reason for wanting to be on or off camera, so Goodman says the decision should be left up to them.
- For now, at least, Zoom is still the preferred remote-meeting platform. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they most often used Zoom for remote meetings and presentations.
