Many businesses currently have employees working from home due to COVID-19 work and travel restrictions. One of the ways that everyone in a team gets kept in the loop about work is with online meetings.

It’s quick and easy to set up an online meeting using Skype or Zoom. Plus, it’s even shown some business leaders that their teams are likely more productive working from home. That’s due, in part, to fewer distractions.

The only trouble is online meetings can often feel just as tedious and time-consuming as face-to-face ones. As a business leader, if that’s causing you concern, it’s time to make some changes to boost your teams’ engagement.

With that in mind, here are some of the top ways to liven up even the most uninteresting of online meetings:

Break the ice with some meeting games

There’s no reason why an online video meeting between team members has to be formal. Engaging with others in the team will ensure that your points get across clearly and are memorable. To that end, how can you make that happen?

One idea is to break the ice with some Brightful meeting games, for example. Injecting some fun and laughter into each group video session helps you connect with each employee on a deeper level.

You will likely learn new things about the people that work with you. Plus, you will find out more about what motivates your team members the most.

Make everyone feel invested in your meeting

Imagine having to ritualistically be a part of a weekly video meeting where you seldom get to say anything. Or one where you feel you could quietly disappear from your webcam and no-one would notice.

As sad as that sounds, it’s something that happens a lot with video meetings. That’s something you want to avoid, and so you need to make everyone feel invested in each session.

One of the best ways to do that is by giving every single participant a task. Each person will then get a chance to speak at the meeting. Plus, they can discuss any issues they have or changes they thing should get made.

Create a theme for each meeting

Another way to break the ice is by “humanizing” the experience. Let’s face it: even people in the corporate world are fed up with boring and formal meetings. Given that many folks are still working from home due to COVID-19, why not create a theme for each meeting?

For example, you could create your first theme centered around unusual hats or pajamas. Everyone can take it in terms to create a fun theme. It’ll make everyone feel more relaxed and attentive to the meeting’s agenda.

Final thoughts

Those are just some of the many practical ideas you can use to make your online video meetings with team members more engaging. Video meetings should also be as short as possible, yet memorable even after everyone has logged out of their meeting software.