A sustainable working method
Through Teams, you can work with everyone, collaborate across national borders and avoid travel that would otherwise lead to emissions. Return flights to Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim can depart without you. The car can stay in the garage even more than before. Many of us have had a different everyday life after digital meetings have become the standard.
Because even though digital meetings have not completely replaced physical meetings, there are many people who have opened their eyes to it. Many who may have had a skepticism about its use in the past. Thanks to that, digital meetings pay off for our environment!
By reducing the need for travel, you and your colleagues ensure that your emissions are kept down. We do that too. We have today Braathe- employees at a total of 10 locations. For us, it is very important to keep the number of trips down and increase the proportion of digital meetings. We were already good at it before the pandemic, but now we are even better.
44 percent of Norwegian domestic air traffic is actually business travel. Then it helps to replace several journeys with digital meetings where possible. Businesses in Norway have a major responsibility for Norway reaching the climate targets we have set. We hope you have thought it through in an IT context as well.
Teams contribute to more efficiency
How many times have you sat in the car on the way to a meeting? It must have been a few miles with the radio on? It has for us too. Some meetings should be taken physically, but very many can be taken digitally.
We experience that days that are well thought out and where the meetings are set up digitally are more seamless. You manage to get into your flow at work. Physical meetings where you have to travel to and from create a kind of disruption. Then there can be more jerks and nibbles when you manage to keep your focus up.
That doesn't mean we don't encourage physical meetings. We also believe that physical meetings are absolutely necessary on several occasions. Therefore, we have outlined an unofficial template for what you can choose when.
We believe these meetings can advantageously be held physically
- Creative meetings where ideas will be swarmed
- Workshops
- Strategy meetings with a low threshold for input from everyone
- Meetings in connection with social events that contribute to the culture of the team or group
- Planned general meetings, if practically feasible
We believe that these meetings can advantageously be taken digitally
- Regular status meetings
- Monday meetings and check-ins
- Collaborate in document, powerpoint or other software
- Follow-up of customers, suppliers or partners
- Emergency general meetings
It is difficult to distinguish which variant to choose when. Many companies have even outlined an overview like this to their employees. So if you are going to have a meeting with people other than them internally, it is perfectly fine to check what they prefer. The most important thing is that you are aware of whether the working method fits into your week.
If you want tips on how to make the digital meeting even better, we recommend thinking through the agenda for the meeting, what the goal is, how many participants there should be at most, which tools we should note down and the length of the meeting. If these things are in place, both physical and digital meetings can be even better!
Do you want to learn more about Teams and how to use it best? Check out our BLOG for more tips.
Digital meetings create greater freedom for you
The freedom to plan your own working day is very important to most people. It increases motivation, flexibility and logistics between work and private life. Many people are tired of time wasted commuting, cramped buses and trains that never leave (Hello Follobanen!)
Many probably really felt this on their bodies as it was mostly digital meetings in the home office. Then you could suddenly be listening to a meeting while you were walking the dog. Dinner preparation could be started as soon as you logged out of Teams. And last but not least, you avoid commuting during rush hour.
Surveys that ask today's students what is important to them in an employer show that freedom ranks highly. They want the flexibility to set up a life they enjoy. So going forward, the opportunity to choose more yourself and use digital meetings will be important. Then it might as well be for managers to accept that it will happen.
And if you have forgotten, we have a list of what digital meetings give you as an employee the opportunity to:
- Go for a walk while listening to the meeting you're going to - public health is never wrong!
- Decide when it is best for you to have that meeting.
- Map when you should spend focus time for the best possible productivity.
- Ask yourself which meetings you really need to attend.
- Enter your breaks.
- Cut meetings or replace the meetings with something else.
- Have the meeting at home to be able to get the logistics going around that day.
- Run the meeting at the cabin to fly straight into the forest afterwards.
- Take your workplace with you to another place in the country or in the world. Many have family in other places in Norway or abroad. Then it is good to be able to visit them outside of holiday periods as well.
The three biggest advantages of digital meetings can thus be summarized in sustainability, efficiency and greater freedom.
We hope you enjoy digital meetings as much as we do! And like everything else in the world, it can only get better. Don't hesitate to ask us if you need help with the technology. If you still haven't gotten on Teams, now is the time. One of our customer advisors is ready to tell you the benefits of the communication platform!
Have a good weekend!
