In the era of flexible, open-plan offices, the meeting room holds an essential purpose. People need spaces to connect, collaborate, and meet with clients. However, it becomes annoying when groups have to reserve rooms according to the size of their meetings. In such a case, meeting rooms or a desk booking system come in handy. It eliminates bottlenecks in meeting spaces and delivers new levels of efficiency and productivity.
A meeting room and desk booking system is crucial because it provides facility managers with real-time information about room occupancy and usage at all times. Simultaneously, it handles changes in meeting schedules and cancellations automatically.
The booking systems comes with features such as office scheduling, desk management, contact tracing, and more. All of this ultimately makes it a one-stop solution. But it also comes with a few pitfalls that are necessary to understand before adopting one.
Why is it essential for workspaces?
Improved Meeting Attendance
When employees work at various times throughout the day, employers are tasked with coordinating a meeting schedule that works for them and as many attendees as possible.
Effective meeting space booking systems track desk reservations and show you the regularity of employees in the office. This allows employers and managers to schedule events when needed, which can boost meeting attendance.
Employees can view upcoming meetings on their schedule, read essential details, and RSVP. It eliminates the need for excessive spreadsheets by using a booking system. The system lets you schedule events, share details, invite attendees, and check your RSVP list.
Desk booking systems make it easier to manage hybrid office events. So, you can spend your energy on the people, not the logistics.
Reducing traffic
The less your employees move around within the office, the fewer opportunities arise for prolonged contact. With a booking system, employees can learn who is in the office, where they’re sitting, and how easy it is to get there without leaving their desks. The wayfinding and status features improve the safety of your office and increase its density over time.
Productivity
Providing your colleagues with the efficiency of booking office workspaces means they can get on with their work and not waste time on unnecessary logistical challenges.
Improve Hybrid Office Efficiency
Many employees today want flexible work options. And companies also benefit by providing flexible scheduling systems. Studies show that 63% of high-growth companies are using flexible scheduling guidelines.
However, flexible schedules also need solutions for managing workspace and company resources.
Less Wasted Space
Room and desk booking solutions keep track of how employees are using workspaces. This helps FMs to identify inefficiencies in the office.
The added level of support of the desk booking system can be useful when managing hybrid workplaces. Especially those that are operated with the desire to have fewer people using in-office seats and conference rooms.
Besides, reports and analytics that provide real-time data on actual meetings can help FMs to make much better decisions. Both when planning their workspaces, now and into the future. Among other benefits, it has the potential to reduce wasted space and, thus, real estate costs.
Automatically Changes or Cancels Meeting Schedule
Updating meeting schedules and cancellations is a process many employees avoid since it is time-taking. A meeting room booking system can automatically detect empty meeting rooms in real time.
The software detects meeting room no-shows by scanning for empty meeting rooms that remain unoccupied after a preset time-out. Further, they automatically mark these rooms as unavailable on the database.
Additionally, in case of a meeting rescheduling, a meeting room booking solution automatically notifies the concerned employees about the schedule change. This is automatic, quick, and convenient, and it reduces the manual burden on facility managers, who usually manage these processes to a large extent.
Challenges of a booking system
Employees may take a long time to adapt to the meeting room booking solution
Despite conducting timely training sessions with employees, they might not be able to use them efficiently in one sitting. Adapting to new software takes time.
This is why most companies roll them out in stages over an extended time frame.
Deploying a Meeting Room Booking Solution is an Investment
The cost of deploying new software, including buying, installation, product integration, and employee training costs, all add up over time. If an organization has a tight budget, getting an expensive meeting room booking system may not be the best idea.
However, some solutions provide basic meeting room management features for organizations on a budget.
The Need to Install Different Apps to Manage Different Aspects of Work
Installing a meeting room booking system may make meeting room management easier. However, the software's function is often just that. This means IT managers might need to install different software to manage other aspects of work.
For instance, they might need desk booking software to manage office space. This requires additional monetary investment as well as additional training for employees.
That's why it's crucial to choose a meeting room booking solution that accommodates numerous features with a simplified interface.
How does it help?
Real-Time Analytics
Booking systems can help employers by improving the efficiency of meeting schedules and avoiding double-booked office space. Users can view the availability of office space and plan accordingly.
Through a meeting room booking system, a company can schedule and invite others to attend conferences, team meetings, brainstorming sessions, sales calls, weekly employee training sessions, and other essential meetings. Reserving a room takes the guesswork out of where your team’s meetings will be held.
Messaging app integration
When a powerful office communication tool can double as a booking system, your meetings can come together more easily. Moreover, integrations with messaging apps like Meet or Teams are the hallmark of the meeting room booking system.
Calendar integrations
The booking system makes it easier to get everyone on board with the meeting time, date, and location. Its calendar can send reminders, give directions, and immediately update participants on changes to the plan.
Issue ticketing
Things don’t always go as planned! So, the ability to report an issue with a meeting room with one touch is an amazing feature in your booking system. With this feature in place, issues can be addressed easily, and everyone can get back to work more quickly.
Abandoned meeting protection
The most important things in a meeting room are the ones that don’t happen. These ghosted get-togethers can eat into the efficiency and ROI of your office. A good, interactive booking system deals with these lost opportunities and puts valuable space back into play.
At-a-glance wayfinding
If you’re new to the office, booking a room should be easy, and getting there should be as well. With digital maps and room signage, you can get to the meetings and people you need quickly and easily.
How does it work?
The role of a room booking system is to provide a common, structured way of reserving meeting rooms. It makes the entire process seamless, error-free, and efficient. The system also shows the attributes of each room, like the max participants' capacity and available equipment. This removes any guesswork and prevents common issues such as double-booking a venue.
How a meeting room manager works depends on its platform. But most solutions fall into these categories:
- App-based. The booking system can be accessed via any smartphone, so employees can set up meetings even if they are on the go. Mobile & Web App makes it easy for employees to book and change bookings from anywhere.
- Kiosk-based. This system often uses a tablet as a kiosk where people can book a meeting room.
- Browser-based. Most solutions also let users perform the same tasks using a web browser.
All you have to do is:
- Select a meeting room.
- Check availability for the date and time.
- And your meeting room is booked!
