5 Ways to Avoid Conference Room Stress at Work

We’ve all had it happen. You walk into a conference room for a quick 10-minute call only to find out the room is already taken. Sigh.

Managing client accounts, creating successful marketing strategies or whatever tasks you do on a day-to-day basis is enough work. Trying to find an available meeting space shouldn’t add stress to your life.

Technology, specifically conference room scheduling software, can make it easier to do your job by taking the hassle out of finding, booking and using meeting rooms.

5 Ways to Avoid Conference Room Stress at Work

Not all meeting room scheduling technology is created equal. To improve meeting room efficiency, as well as employee productivity and happiness, keep these 5 things in mind.

1. Choose a conference room scheduling software that integrates with existing systems.

Your employees want convenience, and meeting room tools should provide that convenience by integrating with systems you already use. Because no one really wants to learn how to use a new system once they’ve grown accustomed to another.

Calendar system integration is a major must. If you use Google Calendar, meeting software should connect to it and allow users to view each room’s calendar as if they were looking at a coworker’s calendar on Google Calendar. This type of integration makes finding available rooms and booking ad-hoc meetings easier, and not having to check and switch between different systems is an appreciated time-saver.

2. Provide an instant overview of room availability.

As soon as you’ve put your shoes and belt back on after making it through airport security, where’s your next stop? The nearest arrivals and departures monitor. This overview gives you the information you need, in one quick glance. Digital monitors in your office can do the same for meeting room status.

Having digital displays outside each conference room works wonders when it comes to discouraging room squatters and late-start meetings. But sometimes you’re not near a display and still need to learn a room’s status. With Teem’s Flightboard feature, you can place a monitor in a central location on each floor so employees can reference the status of nearby meeting rooms from an easily accessible location.

Whether your employees are running to a meeting and forgot which room they’re meeting in, or just need to find an open room, Flightboard ensures they end up where they need to be.

3. Allow for ad-hoc booking and cancel no-show meetings.

When you need to jump on a quick call, you don’t necessarily want to take time to book a room via your work calendar. That’s why digital meeting room displays should allow you to instantly reserve an unoccupied room for however long you need, and show that updated information outside the room, so no one barges in and interrupts your call.

Another form of last-minute meeting behavior that meeting room scheduling software needs to accommodate is cancellations. Sometimes fires come up that need to be put out, causing people skip meetings. It happens. But it doesn’t have to tie up your meeting rooms as a result.

The right conference room reservation system will automatically cancel meetings if no one checks in to them, and then instantly update the display outside the room, the central monitor and employee calendars so everyone knows the room is open to use.

4. Make it easy for guests to check in.

Office technology should make it easy for visitors to check in to meetings, as well as employees. Rather than wait for the receptionist to get off the phone or back from running an errand, a client, prospect or partner should be able to check her or himself into a scheduled meeting right from the lobby via an iPad kiosk. As soon as the guest checks in, the visitor management system will send a text or email notification to the employee that they’re meeting with, so the meeting host can come out and greet their visitor.

Streamlining guest check-in saves your staff from maintaining annoying paper visitor logs, and cuts down on waiting time and awkwardness for visitors.

5. Ensure it’s easy to implement and secure.

Any technology you add to your office should be easy to implement and secure to use. The same is true with meeting tools. Employees don’t have tons of free time to spend being trained how to use a new system, nor do admins have time to worry whether or not it’s a safe and secure system. Find and use tools that come with easy, effective training materials and put your company’s security first by encrypting sensitive information, setting appropriate user permissions, etc.

Looking for Better Conference Room Booking

Finding and booking a meeting room doesn’t have to be stressful. Simplify scheduling and avoid stress with the right meeting room technology.

Want to learn more ways to take the stress out of meeting scheduling? Download our free paper, 5 Tips to Simplify How You Schedule Meetings.