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Here’s Why Face-to-Face Meetings Are So Important

By John Brandon as written on Inc.com IMAGE: Getty Images

Joe Cowan knows a bit about telecommuting.

As the CEO of Epicor, a business software company, he works remotely from his home in Atlanta even though the 4,000-person firm is based in Austin.

He's served as an inspiration for the rest of the workforce, 25% of whom work at home. (Many of the remaining 75% don't come into work every day.) He accepted the role of CEO in 2013, but before that worked remotely from his home for 15 years.

As a CEO, he is breaking from the norm. For lunch, his wife usually brings him a hot meal from the kitchen. His office during the week is located above his three-stall garage. He doesn't believe in big, fancy executive office suites. Yet, there is one thing he insists is critical in business and insists on as a best practice.

Cowan believes strongly in face-to-face meeting with key managers and other employees to give them his full attention, no matter where he works. He says there's no way he could lead such a large company if he didn't have these weekly meetings. It's an interesting paradigm, because Epicor works mostly with other companies who tend to encourage teleworking and have remote offices.

"My folks who are working remotely really learn how to make distance working relationships work," says Cowan. "And that helps when it comes to cultivating relationships with our customers. Most B2B relationships are distance ones. And because that's often how we operate as a business, we know how to build and foster those relationships--with our employees and customers."

The company uses Skype for Business to make sure everyone is connecting. Cowan says face-to-face meetings are important because remote teleworkers often have a sense of isolation. They need to feel as though they have the same immediate connection that employees in the home office have with each other. That's why he encourages them to text message more than email or even use the phone (which often leads to voice mail) because texting usually leads to a sense of being "in the moment" with other workers. With email and phone, there's a sense that the home office employee will get to the message eventually, which just makes the isolation more pronounced and ruins productivity.

There's nothing more immediate than a video call, he says, other than actually visiting someone in person. (Cowan is a member of the United Airlines 5 Million Mile club, which suggests he tends to "fly home" quite often.) His main concern is that everyone in the company can communicate effectively with one another, which is why Epicor is currently installing videoconferencing hardware for every home worker.

"I want every employee to clearly understand what my goals are for the company, and where each individual employee contributes to the success of meeting those goals," he says. "From a very granular standpoint I encourage all of my managers to hold regular video calls with their at-home colleagues."

So far, the strategy is working.

The company had FY 2014 revenue of $995 million compared to $961.7 million for FY 2013. They recently acquired two retail technology companies, ShopVisible and QuantiSense. Maybe all of those face-to-face meetings are starting to pay off.

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by Russell Clayton, Chris Thomas, and Jack Smothers as written on hbr.org.

Fran Melmed is the founder of context, a communication and change management consulting firm. She spends her days performing communication audits for organizations and meeting with clients. Sounds like a recipe for a sedentary workday, right? On the contrary. Fran is part of a growing trend known as walking meetings or “walk and talk.”

A walking meeting is simply that: a meeting that takes place during a walk instead of in an office, boardroom, or coffee shop where meetings are commonly held. Nilofer Merchant wrote in HBR about her own transition to walking meetings after realizing that, like many Americans, she was sitting way too much while working. Merchant traded her coffee-shop meetings for walking meetings and immediately saw the benefits. Likewise, Melmed finds that merely holding some of her meetings while walking has given her the necessary “unplugging” time she needs in order to be an effective writer.

Recent research finds that the act of walking leads to increases in creative thinking. This certainly supports the usefulness of walking meetings. Plenty of anecdotal evidence also suggests that walking meetings lead to more honest exchanges with employees and are more productive than traditional sit-down meetings.

Based on this, we undertook an exploratory study of the benefits associated with walking. We surveyed a population of approximately 150 working adults in the U.S. to gather input about their walking meeting and work habits. In short, we find that those who participate in walking meetings are 5.25% more likely to report being creative at their jobs than those who do not. Additionally, the responses suggest that walking meetings support cognitive engagement, or focus, on the job. Those who participate in walking meetings are 8.5% more likely to report high levels of engagement.

What we found adds support to the notion of walking meetings being beneficial for workers. Is an increase in creativity of 5.25% likely to make or break a business? Most likely not. However, look at these findings through the lens of a cost-benefit analysis. The costs associated with regularly participating in walking meetings are next to nil. Keep in mind that walking meetings are not breaks from work. They are meetings that would have taken place regardless of whether they were held in someone’s office or while walking around your office complex. There may be no cheaper way to achieve moderate increases in creativity and engagement.

Just how do walking meetings produce these positive benefits in the workplace? Ted Eytan, MD, Medical Director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health and a vocal advocate of walking meetings, has some ideas. First, from a neurochemical perspective, Dr. Eytan emphasizes that our brains are more relaxed during walks due to the release of certain chemicals. This aids executive function, which governs how we focus on tasks and deal with unforeseen events, among other things. Open-ended responses to our survey seemed to back this up by referring to moments of creativity sparked by walking meetings.

Furthermore, Dr. Eytan believes walking meetings lead to better employee engagement by breaking down barriers between supervisor and subordinate or between coworkers. He sees the bonding achieved through walking meetings as a micro version of the bonding that can be experienced when coworkers travel together on business trips. David Haimes, a senior director of product development at Oracle, has experienced this in his meetings with team members: “The fact that we are walking side-by-side means the conversation is more peer-to-peer than when I am in my office and they are across a desk from me, which reinforces the organizational hierarchy.”

To be sure, not all meetings are suitable for walking meetings (and not everyone is physically able to participate in walking meetings). Sometimes it is valuable to have materials or a whiteboard close at hand, and sometimes, as in an intense negotiation, it is important to be face-to-face. The best candidates for walking meetings are ones where colleagues are conferring on decisions or exploring possible solutions. Indeed, in our survey, participants holding managerial and professional positions experienced more of a creativity boost from walking meetings than those in technical or administrative type jobs (though all categories realized some benefits).

If you are inspired to give walking meetings a try, here are a few tips that can help your walking meeting go well:

Consider including an “extracurricular” destination on your route. Dr. Eytan, whose office is located in Washington, D.C., often mentions the nearby Washington Coliseum as a place to stroll by, and notes it is where the Beatles played their first U.S. concert. Naming a point of interest, he says, provides more rationale and incentive for others to go for a walk.

Avoid making the destination a source of unneeded calories. One of the arguments in favor of walking meetings is the health benefit. However, this is easily negated if the walking meeting leads to a 425-calorie white-chocolate mocha that wouldn’t otherwise be consumed.

Do not surprise colleagues or clients with walking meetings. It’s fine to suggest a walk if it seems appropriate in the moment, as long as it’s clear that you’ll be fine with a “maybe next time.” But if you’re planning ahead to spend your time with someone in a walking meeting, have the courtesy to notify them in advance, too. This allows them to arrive dressed for comfort, perhaps having changed shoes. You might also keep water bottles on hand to offer on warm days.

Stick to small groups. Haimes recommends a maximum of three people for a walking meeting.

Have fun. Enjoy the experience of combining work with a bit of exercise and fresh air. Perhaps this is the one piece of advice that doesn’t need to be given. Our data show that those who participate in walking meetings are more satisfied at their jobs than their colleagues who don’t.

Based on our survey and the clear case to be made for walking in general as a key to good health, there would seem to be no good argument against making a habit of walking meetings — or at least giving it a try.

Russell Clayton is an assistant professor of management at Saint Leo University’s Donald R. Tapia School of Business. Follow him on Twitter @ProfessorRWC.

Chris Thomas is an assistant professor of management at Saint Louis University’s John Cook School of Business.

Jack Smothers is ‎an assistant professor of management at the University of Southern Indiana’s Romain College of Business.

Yapi Kredi Micrographic

Yapı Kredi
Turkish bank upgrades communications to respond faster to changing financial markets

The pace of global financial markets continues to accelerate. Yapı Kredi, one of the largest banks in Turkey, recently upgraded to Skype for Business Server 2015 to speed communication and collaboration among employees. Management can address all 19,260 employees at once using the new solution, and teams can have virtual meetings that are enriched with real-time video, instant messaging, and screen-sharing. The bank better safeguards sensitive data across all communications channels and has a lower-cost infrastructure.

React faster

With the global economy and financial markets so interconnected today, what happens in Beijing can affect markets in New York and Sydney, and do so within minutes. The rise of Internet banking has also changed the financial landscape. A bank’s competition is no longer just the bank down the street; it’s banks all over the world.

Yapı Kredi, one of the largest banks in Turkey, lives with these challenges every day. Established in 1944, Yapı Kredi is the fourth largest privately owned bank in Turkey as measured by assets. Part of the KFS Group financial services network, it has more than 11million customers, 1,007 branches, and 19,260 employees across Turkey and Europe.

Yapı Kredi has continually invested in communications and collaboration solutions to help employees stay connected and be more productive. For email messaging, the bank uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. To share information and collaborate, it uses Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013. For real-time communications, the company, until recently, used Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

There were limits as to the number of people who could be on a Lync call, but Yapı Kredi management wanted to have all-company meetings with 19,260 employees on the audio conference. Additionally, many employees felt that videoconferencing in Lync Server 2010 was not easy to use. Employees who needed to communicate with individuals or partners who were not on Lync had to use third-party conferencing and instant messaging services that were not authorized by the corporate IT department.

“Growth has the potential to add more people, layers, and delays to decisions, but time is very important in the banking business,” says Ali Serhan Çetin, System Engineer for Yapı Kredi. “Interest rates and other financial factors are in constant flux. We must be able to pull people together quickly to distribute and discuss information and make decisions that affect our offerings and profitability.”

Connect thousands of people in seconds

For these reasons, Yapı Kredi was eager to participate in the early adopter program for Skype for Business Server 2015, the successor to Microsoft Lync Server 2013. After just a few weeks’ use with a subset of its employees, the bank is moving forward to roll out the service companywide.

Çetin says that Skype for Business enhances employee communications in all contexts and areas of the business. “We can use Skype for Business to conduct big group meetings,” says Çetin. “Our education department, IT department, product divisions, and other groups often need to train hundreds or thousands of people at once. Or, managers want to update large dispersed teams on how markets are changing. They just open Microsoft Outlook, click on a group name, and launch a Skype Meeting in seconds.”

During such meetings, IT teams, for example, can control employee PC screens remotely to demonstrate a new software feature or fix a problem. They can also copy and paste screenshots and other attachments into the Skype Meeting instant message window.

“Before, we would fly thousands of people to Istanbul each year for trainings and meetings,” Çetin says. “By using Skype for Business, we expect to reduce travel expenses by at least [US]$700,000 annually and improve employee productivity by eliminating the wasted time that travel entails. Plus, meeting and training attendance is far better when we hold sessions with Skype for Business.”

Yapı Kredi is working to load large, media-rich presentations into Microsoft Azure Media Services and distribute them using Skype Meeting.

Make small meetings richer, too

Smaller team meetings are better, too, with Skype for Business. Yapı Kredi has branches throughout Europe and software development teams all over Europe and Asia. With Skype for Business, teams can meet virtually and have five live-stream video screens active at once. “In Lync Server 2010, we could see video only for the active presenter, but being able to see the expressions and reactions of people listening is very valuable,” Çetin says. “This helps our remote teams forge stronger relationships and work together more effectively.”

Teams use the chat feature in the Skype for Business client to communicate ideas during and outside of calls. Multiple people can participate in these conversations and reach decisions, even without holding a Skype for Business call.

“With Skype for Business, employees have multiple ways to quickly communicate, get information, and make decisions, which helps us move rapidly to react to changes in financial markets,” Çetin says. “We can put together loan packages and other financial solutions faster than our competition.”

The company’s human resources (HR) personnel use Skype for Business to interview job candidates. Previously, they used the consumer Skype service for this, but the IT organization had to temporarily open dedicated ports in the company’s firewall every time HR staffers wanted to update Skype. “By using Skype for Business, we can communicate with external Skype users safely,” Çetin says. “We install the Skype for Business client on employees’ computers and eliminate the need to have the consumer Skype client installed.”

Still other Yapı Kredi teams use Skype for Business to communicate with the company’s parent firm, KFS Group, and with other KFS Group affiliates around the world. “With Skype for Business, it’s very easy to stay connected to our parent firm,” Çetin says. “We had this connection with Lync Server 2010, but our family is getting bigger every day, and Skype for Business has a far greater participant capacity and is far easier to use.”

Expand faster with less friction

Çetin likes how tightly connected Skype for Business is with other Microsoft productivity tools that employees use every day: Outlook, other Office programs, and SharePoint 2013. “It’s very easy to send an instant message or set up a quick Skype for Business meeting from Outlook or SharePoint,” Çetin says. “The ability to communicate instantly from our most-used programs increases productivity across 19,260 people. This helps us grow with less communications friction.”

As an example, employees previously shared Microsoft PowerPoint presentations by uploading them to SharePoint sites. Colleagues would then download the presentations to their PCs. However, these downloads used a great deal of network bandwidth, which was expensive and slowed other network traffic. With Skype for Business integrated into Microsoft Office, employees can share a PowerPoint presentation into a Skype Meeting from the PowerPoint Ribbon.

As Yapı Kredi rolls out Skype for Business to all 19,260 employees, training will be minimized because nearly all employees are familiar with the Skype consumer product. “Employees love the Skype look and feel,” Çetin says. “They love the emoji, the little smiley faces, that they can embed in Skype for Business messages. All the icons are the same as in the consumer Skype product, and they can access their existing contacts from the Skype for Business client. Giving users a tool that they already know and love is huge in getting them to use it. Employees have significantly increased their use of instant messaging and videoconferences since we rolled out Skype for Business.”

Help meet regulatory requirements

While employees like Skype for Business because it’s familiar and easy to use, the IT department likes it because it’s an enterprise-grade communications solution with the security and compliance features needed by a financial institution. “When we have to respond to fraud investigations, we can very quickly capture Skype for Business instant messaging conversations and send them to officials,” Çetin says.

Reduce infrastructure work and costs

Yapı Kredi has reduced the work and cost of its communications infrastructure by upgrading to Skype for Business. “Previously, we upgraded Lync Server 2010 infrequently because it was difficult to do so, but it’s very easy to deploy and update Skype for Business,” Çetin says. “Additionally, with Lync Server 2010, we used physical edge servers to communicate with people outside the bank. But with Skype for Business Server, we’re able to use pooled virtual edge servers, which reduces infrastructure costs by $20,000.”

Yapı Kredi uses a Cisco Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution for internal telephony, with calls going over physical desktop phones. With its Cisco VoIP system in bank offices and the Skype for Business mobile client on mobile phones, Yapı Kredi may be able to eliminate its PSTN telephony system to the outside world. “We have a huge number of offices outside of Turkey, and when employees travel to those offices they can now make Skype for Business calls from their mobile phones rather than making long-distance landline calls. That could be another significant savings,” Çetin says.