The love affair between offices and meetings outlasted the pandemic. In fact, the number of meetings has risen by up to 70% of pre-pandemic levels ever since the start of the pandemic. And with employees returning to the office in a hybrid work set-up, the number of meetings will only go up.
Naturally, the age-old meeting room booking problems like complicated processes, duplicate bookings, overlapping schedules, and communication issues still persist. But a conference room booking solution can help you overcome most of them. Here’s how.
Below are the top five advantages of a conference room booking solution that you should know.
1. A Conference Room Booking Solution Makes Bookings Simpler
Employees spend up to 30 mins a day looking for meeting space. This could seem like a giant figure at first, but when you consider coordinating schedules, jumping through hoops, seeking approval for room booking, and other time-consuming activities, the figures start to make a lot more sense. But, nobody said meeting room booking needed to be this difficult. More so, if your office has a conference room booking solution in place.
Consider this: a centralized room-booking tool that anyone can use anywhere to reserve a room of their choice instantly, without waiting or seeking permission. Such a tool could save large portions of booking time and allow employees and managers to devote it to more productive tasks.
Not convinced? Well, conference room booking solutions can reduce room booking time from 10 minutes to merely two minutes. And that’s not even the best part. A conference room booking solution can do all of this and more through intuitive technology.
2. A Conference Room Booking Solution Eliminates Double Booking and Conflicts
Have you ever entered a meeting room only to find it occupied by another team? This is the double-booking problem. It occurs more often than you think. It is also responsible for disrupting productivity.
If you’re looking to end conflicts while room booking to save some time and preserve peace, you want to look into getting a conference room booking solution. These software-based tools help you automate the room booking processes and reduce the chances of scheduling errors. How?
Well, a conference room booking solution comes with a centralized dashboard and allows employees to view room booking timings and availability. So, employees can book rooms on a first-come-first-serve basis. This eliminates the double-booking problem entirely and streamlines the room booking process.
3. A Conference Room Booking Solution Allows Access Control and Rights
If you have a room booking process that occurs on a line-up basis, you probably aren’t factoring in reserving rooms for mandatory office events, conferences, etc. But that’s not the only reason to think of limiting room access. You could do it to limit resource spending due to inefficient room utilization. And with a conference room booking solution, you can do this easily.
A conference room booking solution makes limiting access easier due to its attached access management system. It allows managers to block certain room reservations for set amounts of time. Hence, team members who need access to meeting rooms can occupy them without waiting for meeting rooms to be empty.
4. A Conference Room Booking Solution Ensures Efficient Room Usage
The demand for meeting rooms might have risen, but the truth is meeting rooms remain unoccupied for large portions of time. To add to it, a meeting room with a capacity of 6-20 people is typically used by 1-2 employees 70% of the time. That is a gross waste of space, funds, and resources.
Naturally, you want to be aware of the room usage trends to help manage these spaces better. Thankfully, a conference room booking solution makes it easier for you.
Along with managing room bookings, a meeting room booking system keeps track of room usage trends. In fact, the solution also provides insights like room usage data, room occupancy, room booking trends like booking timings, days, occasions, etc., to name a few. This data can help you decide if your current office plan needs any changes like additional rooms, smaller rooms, open spaces for collaboration, etc., while still preserving office funds.
5. A Conference Room Booking Solution Helps Coordinate Services
Today, meeting rooms are used for live, in-person meetings and virtual meetings. Naturally, conference rooms need to be equipped with audio-visual capabilities, a stable internet connection, etc., to ensure meetings run smoothly. The responsibility of making these services available often falls with the room-keeping staff.
If you want a seamless meeting experience, you want your office room-keeping staff to set up the meeting room right before the meeting begins. And the best way to ensure this is to coordinate room bookings with room-keeping staff schedules via a conference room booking solution.
So, when a meeting room is booked using the software, the room-keeping staff is notified instantly to make the required provisions. The software also informs the maintenance staff about changes in room booking schedules so that everyone is on the same page.
Final Word
A dynamic hybrid work environment needs a conference room booking software that makes room booking and scheduling easier and helps manage meeting rooms effectively. Luckily, most software solutions available today provide the above-mentioned benefits.
So, take your time to do some research and settle for the conference room scheduling software most suited to your employees needs.
WorkInSync is a leading hybrid workplace solution. It offers a wide variety of features like desk booking, meeting room scheduling, real time floor plans and occupancy rate. Available on mobile devices, you can keep a track of office space usage. WorkInSync can be easily integrated with Google Calendar and Outlook.
