Companies are going online because today, this is not only an option – this is a new reality. Board meeting software could help organize the whole workflow of the company, not only the board of directors meetings. In this article, we will tell you in detail how to run a board meeting properly using this tool. Also, we will show you the advantages such an app can give your team.
Board meeting: participants and roles
Executive director
An executive director’s goal is to come up with an efficient strategy for the company to lead it to the desired goals. Such a person is a cornerstone of all the processes within the business. They’re responsible for keeping employees motivated, creating a positive corporate culture, and making sure everything gets done properly. Moreover, an executive director watches over the budget and marketing strategies. Basically, nothing should happen without this person getting involved.
Obviously, an executive director plays a leading role during the board meeting. They must be aware of everything that’s going on in the company in advance, and come to the event already having some kind of a draft for the future strategy. All this will be very hard to do without the board meeting software.
Non-executive director
A non-executive director isn’t getting involved in everyday processes within the company and doesn’t hold C-level or managerial positions. It is an independent person whose main goal is to see the bigger picture and make sure the employees and an executive director are acting considering the best interests of the company, its stockholders, investors, and other third-parties including the target audience of this business. In other words, a non-executive director is more objective than an executive director because they’re not involved in the processes. Thus, they can see issues executives might not notice.
A board meeting tool allows non-executive directors to stay tuned and come to meetings already being aware of all the details. Consequently, there will be no delays during the event as this person won’t need much explanation.
Board members
Board members are other participants of governing processes in the company. Ideally, they should include both internal and external representatives to make sure the interests of stockholders and other third-parties are considered as well. Internal members of the board are directors of the departments of the firm. They must have a more narrow and detailed view of the strategy and offer other members ideas on how to improve particular details.
The board room software helps board members to share all the information required for a meeting with others. Also, it allows them to study the documents from all the departments to know what’s going on in the company before the event. Thus, the board can skip the updates and jump to the decision-making process.
PROBLEMS WITH TRADITIONAL BOARD MEETINGS
During the traditional meeting board members arrive vaguely knowing what’s going on in the company. That’s why the event begins with the updates that usually take quite a while. When everyone is finished with their reports, a lot of time is wasted, and board members are already feeling overwhelmed. Then the planning becomes not as efficient as it could be because it’s easy to get distracted when you have to deal with loads of information at once.
Also, since between meetings all directors are rather unaware of what’s happening in other departments, they can’t really coordinate their actions so that the processes remain connected. So often, during the traditional board meeting, it becomes clear that directors had different views on how they should run the work of employees.
REASONS TO USE BOARD MEETING TOOLS
Accelerate meetings. A virtual board room allows everyone to get ready for a meeting in advance so that the team doesn’t waste time on updates.
Keep everything on track. Board meeting software allows recording and storing the minutes and main ideas of the meeting.
Create tasks. Using an electronic boardroom, members can create tasks, assign and monitor them during or right after the meeting.
Hold online meetings. Board portal software makes it easy for remote members to join the meeting and have access to all the required information.
Improve communication. Thanks to chats built into a virtual boardroom and the ability to share documents it’s easy for directors to communicate between meetings.
BOARD MEETING SOFTWARE ADVANTAGES FOR DIFFERENT TEAMS
For Boards & Committees
- Improve governance;
- Offer complete transparency;
- Create steady communication between board and staff;
- Offer easy access to documents.
For executive team meetings
- Effectively prepare all materials required for discussion and decision making;
- Get ready for a meeting by studying the documents from all departments;
- Create and assign tasks to make sure nothing is forgotten;
- Recorded and track all actions.
For functional and operational meetings
- Initiation and responding to important issues;
- Preserving decisions and positions;
- Creation and tracking of action items.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A BOARD MEETING
Preparation is one of the most important things when it comes to board meetings. If everything is organized and easy to access for the members of the board, everyone can get ready at their own pace and arrive at the event already being aware of the updates. Also, the preparation helps directors to plan out the meeting so that it does the right way. To get your board portal and the members of the board ready for a discussion, you need to:
- Organize issues and upload the supporting materials;
- Publish required documents;
- Create drafts of decisions;
- Manage access permissions of members;
- Create and send invitations if needed;
- Create individual agenda items when required.
ACTIONS DURING A MEETING
A board meeting tools can make the discussion more efficient even during the meeting. First of all, directors will easily access any document they need. Also, using a voting tool all directors, especially remote ones, can quickly make decisions everyone agrees to, and a task manager will help the team to not forget about anything. So here are the actions you can do during a meeting with the board management software:
- Update draft decisions;
- Vote during the meeting;
- Create and assign tasks;
- Set deadlines;
- Record and store minutes.
AFTER MEETING ACTIONS
A virtual boardroom will help everyone to keep track of things. Also, it won’t let anyone forget about any decisions and tasks. Using a board meeting tool directors can:
- Notify and remind employees and executives about assigned tasks;
- Record and publish milestones;
- Track the actions on previous decisions;
- Communicate using chats and comments;
- Store information in a single secure repository.
Conclusion
Board meeting software is absolutely necessary for any modern business. It allows directors to stay in tune with everything that is going on in all departments and communicate effectively with each other. Moreover, a virtual board portal makes it possible for remote members to join the meeting and even feel like they’re sitting in the same room with others as they can access all the information. So considering that many companies practice having remote directors, a virtual board meeting software becomes a vital tool.
In addition to all those benefits, such software serves as a task tracking tool as well that allows creating and assigning new action items during the meeting. Therefore, teams can begin working on new goals right away, and directors will remember all the decisions they made. Considering that most providers allow integrating their board portals with other tools, businesses can create a seamless workspace to reach maximum efficiency. It’s impossible to overestimate the usefulness of meeting software, so we highly recommend you implement it in your company.