by Lisa Campi

Created on: August 15, 2009

At this very moment, businesses are conducting millions of conference calls throughout the world. In fact, with the increasing cost of travel and the growth of geographically dispersed teams, conference calls have become a daily occurrence for most businesses.

The conference call being used for routine, non-face-to-face communication is difficult for many employees and creates different challenges and protocols for managers. To simplify the etiquette, the following list has been divided between those who are leading the call and those participating in the call. Since many people have to play both roles, it is easy to review the list even if some of the rules are the same.

For the conference call leader:

1) Listen, listen, listen. Do not just ramble on to the next agenda item. Pause and ask if anyone has any questions, giving time for participants to take themselves off of mute. This step also includes taking role and asking participants to identify themselves whenever they speak.

2) Send instructions to participants on how to participate call. Many conference call services provide options for operator assistance, muting lines, and improving line quality. Even if they are sent prior to the call, repeat the instructions at the beginning of the meeting. In many cases, the conference call is ruined by one person who does not have the instructions on how to operate the call.

3) Realistic agenda. Do not overfill the agenda with one person speaking. Nothing is more tiring to participants than to listen to one person on the phone. Mix up the agenda. Ask several co-workers to present on the call. Put a question section in the middle of the call. Do anything to break up the monotony of listening to one voice, one topic of conversation.

4) Be on time. While many companies have a 5 minute leniency rule for meetings, it is polite and respectful for the leader to be on time for his or her call.

For the conference call participants:

1) Listen, listen, listen. While this is the same rule as the leader, the participant also should listen and provide feedback during the call. Nothing is more frustrating to a leader than to ask someone a question and not receive a response.

2) Identify yourself before speaking. Other participants may not recognize your voice so it is a good practice to state your name prior to making any comments or questions.

3) Don't multitask. No matter how much people think that they can multitask, various studies have proven that the human brain cannot multitask effectively. People cannot listen effectively to a conference call and respond to email at the same time. To make sure you are not tempted to respond to emails, turn off email and IM when joining conference calls.

4) Mute the phone line if you are not speaking. The sounds of loud breathing (just imagine listening to Darth Vader), coughing and chewing food carry through sensitive phone lines. These interruptions distract others on the call.

5) Be on time. Dialing in late and expecting the leader to re-hash what has been previously discussed is rude and disrespectful for those who called in on time.

With the seemingly ever-present use of conference calls, reviewing this list prior to the next conference call will be beneficial to everyone on the call. Making sure that all leaders and participants abide by this etiquette will make conference calls run more smoothly.

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