Depending on your role, your workday can feel like a non-stop series of meetings, a never-ending supply of tasks, or a little bit of both.
We may joke at times about “water cooler” talk. But the interactions we have throughout the day are an important part of our experience.
In fact, it’s been found that spending just 15 minutes to chat and socialize with coworkers can increase your performance by 20%.
And while video meetings don’t give you quite the same experience as seeing someone in real life, it’s still an incredibly powerful tool for connection when you can’t be in the same room as someone else.
Whether you’re working from home for a few days a week or full time—or in a fully remote position—it’s important to continue building those relationships and engaging socially with your team.
So step out of your comfort zone. Boot up that video conference software and let’s try something new.
Shopping for a video conferencing tool? (Or just curious about what to look for?) Grab the free checklist to help you choose the right one for your team or business.
4 ways to replicate in-office socializing on video calls
1. Weekend coffee catch-up
A common ritual on Monday is to spend a few minutes talking with coworkers near you about the weekend.
It doesn’t have to take long—a few minutes is all it takes:
For example, you can start a video meeting on RingCentral Video from your computer or phone in just a click.
To do this over video, just send a quick message to your colleagues to see if they’re free to chat. It might feel odd at first because everyone’s used to getting on video calls only when they need something done, but it’s a great way to start the week.
2. Daily stand-up
For many teams (especially creative teams) with quick deliverables due every day, a daily stand-up is a useful tactic you can use to start the day in an organized way.
If other people on your team are remote or working from home too, then it’s an even more efficient way of getting everyone some face-to-face interaction with each other.
To make it easier to build this into a habit, put a recurring event in your calendar.
3. Post meeting wrap-up
After important meetings, there are often a few pieces to close out on. In person, this frequently happens on the walk from the conference room to the desk.
For those who are remote though (or if everyone is working remotely), if you need to close out on a few things, you could just start a quick one-on-one video meeting to do this.
Learn how to have more productive meetings with the Guide to Better Meetings.
4. Schedule an end-of-day goodbye
One of our distributed teams at RingCentral does this each day at 4:30 p.m.
It doesn’t mean everyone stops working then. It just means they take a few minutes to catch up on their day and socialize for a few minutes together.
If you can’t swing by someone’s desk at the end of the day to say goodbye, you can still do it over video!
Missing those IRL interactions? Start socializing over video
Especially for remote teams who don’t have the luxury of being in the same physical space, video is there to help us create more natural human interactions.
🕹️ Get a hands-on look at how RingCentral works by booking a product tour:
Originally published Apr 09, 2020, updated Jul 30, 2024
