The last few years have seen a rapid development in video conferencing technology. Video conferencing solutions are a critical part of the hybrid and remote revolution, so they're mandatory for many organizations. However, the benefits of video conferencing go much further. In fact, we've got a dozen reasons why your business should consider the technology.

1: Save Money on Office Space and Travel

According to TravelBank, the average cost of a domestic business trip is around $1,000 per person. If people need to fly internationally, the cost will more than double. At that rate, companies may spend more on a single business trip than they would on a new video conferencing system. And once video conferencing is in place, your organization can eliminate much of its travel and directly connect with clients and team members. Also, video conferencing makes some meeting spaces redundant. If your employees are comfortable conferencing from their desks, you can find another use for that meeting room.

2: Build Better Connections Between Employees and Teams

Video conferencing allows employees and teams to instantly connect with each other. If a new hire has a question, they can talk to their manager, mentor, or trainer wherever they are. If your teams need to collaborate on a project, they can do so face-to-face without leaving their desks. Video conferencing also connects remote employees to onsite teams, so they remain engaged and feel like part of the team.

3: Make your Employees Happier

Professionals are prioritizing work/life balance more than ever. According to Gallup data, 67 percent of U.S. workers admit to some degree of burnout. That's a major problem for organizations because burned out workers are much more likely to take sick days and suddenly quit. Video conferencing can support your workers' work/life balance by allowing them to perform some of their duties remotely.

4: Improve Meeting Quality and Engagement

Modern video conferencing solutions come with robust content sharing features. With these features, managers can support their meetings with images, videos, slideshows, and other media. And because the meeting's participants are right in front of their screen, they can follow along closely. Attendees can also ask questions using voice or through chat, which allows introverts to make their thoughts known.

5: Make Meetings Easier to Manage

Businesses struggle with efficiently scheduling and running meetings. This inefficiency starts before the meeting starts, with scheduling. Someone has to handle scheduling, and it can take several hours out of a manager's week arranging the meeting agenda. Video conferencing solutions can be integrated with various scheduling platforms, including calendar integration. It takes only a few moments to schedule video conferences in this way, and when it's meeting time, participants need only launch their video conferencing software and jump right in.

6: Improve Employee Efficiency and Productivity

As mentioned above, video conferencing can support better work/life initiatives inside your organization. That means happy workers, and happy workers tend to be more productive, efficient, and passionate workers. According to the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), workers with adequate work/life balance are 21 percent more productive than workers who do not have this balance. What could your organization do with employees who are 21 percent more productive? A lot, most likely.

7: Keep a Comprehensive Log of All Company Meetings

Video conferencing solutions come standard with meeting recording features. Every meeting your company runs can be saved indefinitely for future reference. No more note taking and no more excuses for missing anything brought up during a meeting.

8: Facilitate Large-scale Communication with Live Streaming

With video conferencing, companies can support live video streaming events. This is useful for both customer-facing and internal purposes. On the customer side, video streaming can be used to introduce new products, demonstrate products, and receive valuable feedback. Internally, video streaming is effective at making company-wide announcements and providing employees with much-appreciated transparency.

9: Access Better Talent from Around the World

A major advantage of video conferencing is its global reach. With the technology, organizations can extend their network and reach out to talent all over the world. That gives your company a deeper pool to hire from and additional options when filling an open position.

10: Deliver Better Training

If your organization regularly onboards new hires, it needs a robust training program in place. Video conferencing can be one of your most powerful training tools, as it can be used to instruct hundreds of individuals at once. With a video conference, your organization can connect the best possible instructor, no matter their location, to new employees, no matter their location. We've already addressed how video conferences can power better meetings. The same holds true for training sessions. With content sharing features in place, instructors can use images, videos, and other media to support training content.

11: Provide Another Reliable Communication Channel

Every professional has their preferred communication tools. Some reach for the phone, some tap out e-mails at light speed, and others like the face-to-face experience that video conferencing offers. But when a communication channel is unavailable for any reason, organizations need a backup for their employees. Video conferencing can serve as communication redundancy in this regard, so your teams can keep working with each other even when other communication channels are down.

12: Retain Younger, Technology-savvy Employees

Digital natives are entering the workforce in waves, especially as Gen Z comes of age. These younger workers aren't just comfortable with technology - they can't imagine working or living without it. If your company is invested in video conferencing, it will serve as a recruiting tool for younger professionals. That's another way the technology expands your potential talent pool.

The List Could Go on For Video Conferencing

That's a dozen advantages that video conferencing can bring to your organization, but this list is by no means comprehensive. Once integrated, many businesses find that video conferencing solutions provide benefits that weren't forecast ahead of time. The only challenge is selecting, sourcing, installing, configuring, and supporting your new video conferencing technology. Your certified AV integrator can take the lead on that, as experienced integrators are the top experts in video conferencing solutions.