Tips for organizing a conference call in an open-plan office

Video conferencing technology is a huge advantage for companies using fully or partially remote models. But offices are still traditional workspaces. In addition, open concept offices do not eliminate the need to communicate through online meetings, so dealing with its features can be tricky.

What does it mean to work in an open-plan office?

Open plan offices are offices without any barriers between employees. There may be some conditional partitions, but they do not provide silence and privacy. These workspaces are popular because of their collaboration benefits. They allow you to communicate faster and easier, so you don't have to move from one room to another to talk to someone. Therefore, enterprises use them to improve the creative aspects and increase the efficiency of teamwork.

But in such offices, video conferencing is still the tool for remote communication.

Open plan office features

Open plan offices have several features that provide opportunities to facilitate communication:

• the whole room has no walls - only the manager's office is separated;
• workers' tables are arranged in islands or rows - depending on the interior and free space;
• tables are separated by simple wooden (or plastic) partitions or none at all.

Thus, these offices are usually noisy, and this is normal.

Conferencing Issues in an Open Space

For effective video conferencing, the office must have a quiet and peaceful environment, which is impossible to achieve in an open space. Some people are constantly walking, talking and distracting your attention. Therefore, sometimes it is difficult to concentrate, to hear the interlocutor or yourself, to concentrate on the subject under discussion.

Tips for such a conference

In order to avoid or eliminate the problems mentioned, you should adhere to the following tips:

• Use the mute/unmute function. This can help your colleague on the other side get their message across better.
• Use a headset. Headphones and microphone closer to the mouth make communication easier. It also gives you more options for suppressing background noise.
• Record and transcribe your call. You will then thank yourself by reviewing and analyzing the points discussed.

For more comfort, you will need to take care of video conferencing software to help you deal with the challenges of an open-plan office.

Video calling software for comfortable work in an open space office

For open space, choose video conferencing software that can provide the best communication experience. This means problems with the webcam and sound. If you complement your headset with a background noise suppression application, you will give the other person more chances to hear you.

If you use online meetings with video, it would be wise to pay attention to the visual background as well. Look for a blur option or select an image to solve this problem.

Open-plan offices encourage personal exchange of ideas and stimulate ingenuity. But to ensure the best experience for your video calls in such conditions, take care of what hardware and software you use. With its basic free and advanced professional features, iMind app is the best option for your open environment!