6 video conferencing best practices for insurance and financial professionals
Because nobody wants their virtual meeting to be the subject of a viral blooper video on social media.
Video conferencing has become an essential business tool in the age of COVID-19. As temporary stay-at-home orders extended into months and now almost a year, businesses of all kinds have turned to Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting and other video-conferencing platforms to stay connected with co-workers, clients and other professional contacts.
For many benefits professionals, virtual meetings have become a critical part of continuing educational efforts for employees and especially for conducting virtual open enrollment meetings.
We have collectively learned some important lessons about using video conferencing in professional contexts — from being careful about what your video camera captures during a meeting to ensuring sensitive information isn’t compromised.
Following are some best practices we’ve collected from financial and insurance industry professionals to ensure your video conferences are both professional and secure.
1. Turn off video by default. While it may seem counterintuitive for a video platform, some experts suggest turning off video by default. The internet is full of stories of video meeting fails, from unexpected pet interruptions to nodding off while on camera.
“Human beings make mistakes and as we have seen in the past year, it is very easy to forget your camera is on,” said Reuben Yonatan, founder and CEO of GetVoIP, a review platform for technology products including video conferencing providers. “Turning it off by default reduces your chances of being caught off guard doing something you should not be doing.”
In addition, take stock of what can be seen when your camera is on to make sure sensitive information is not visible to participants.
2. Be hyper-aware of when you’re muted or not. “I think you’re on mute” may be one the most common phrases uttered during COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean you should leave your line unmuted when you aren’t speaking.
Putting yourself on mute while you aren’t talking eliminates distracting and disruptive background noise. Learn the shortcuts of your video conferencing platform, such as Zoom’s space bar push-to-talk feature.
3. Use collaboration features. Take advantage of the collaboration features built into video conferencing platforms.
For instance, Zoom offers a variety of sharing options, including sharing a desktop or phone screen, an application, a whiteboard or content from a second camera. (Close applications and tabs that could contain sensitive information before sharing.)
Chat features allow attendees to ask questions and get answers without interrupting the flow of the meeting. Breakout functionality allows smaller groups within a meeting to collaborate or additional privacy for sensitive conversations.
4. Protect privacy and confidentiality. One of the main concerns financial and insurance professionals should keep in mind is protecting their clients’ privacy and confidentiality when necessary.
Justin Nabity, CEO of Physicians Thrive, a financial advisory firm for doctors, recommends creating a distraction-free meeting space away from family members.
Set up a meeting password for any meeting you are hosting and enable a waiting room feature to maintain control over who can and can’t access the meeting. When guests try to enter the meeting, they will automatically be placed into a virtual waiting area where they must be manually admitted.
Finally, lock the meeting once it has started, which will prevent new participants from joining even if they have the meeting ID and password, said Nabity.
5. Be mindful of security and potential leaks. Particularly when it comes to meetings where sensitive information might be shared, carefully consider whether it’s wise to record or allow recording of the meeting by participants.
Recording is useful for keeping a record of important information to review later, but recording also means the meeting will continue to exist in some format and could be exploited by bad actors.
For further security, consider leaving highly sensitive information out of video conferences and send that information via secure and encrypted channels instead.
6. Beware of scheduling too many virtual meetings. Zoom fatigue — the burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms — is a real thing. Psychiatric Times recently called it widely prevalent, intense, and completely new.
Michael Hamelburger, CEO of The Bottom Line Group, said we have collectively developed bad habits around video conferencing, including scheduling too many meetings and allowing them to go on too long.
“Learn to only set important meetings, remember to trim the agenda down to only what’s important, and select only people whose presence is needed in the venue,” said Hamelburger. “Otherwise, just drop the idea and announce it through email instead.”
Kristen Beckman is a freelance writer based in Colorado. She previously was a writer and editor for ALM’s Retirement Advisor magazine and LifeHealthPro online channel. She also was a reporter for Business Insurance magazine covering workers compensation topics. Kristen graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism.
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