Three ways to improve your meeting room management in 2022

It’s a new year. Hopefully, most of us got some time off to relax and recharge—or at least got to enjoy a quieter workplace than normal. The new year is a great time to start fresh and improve some things that have been overlooked in the past few months, both in your personal life and at the office. 

As you’re building your new year workplace plans, it’s likely you’re focusing on your hybrid work policy and updating your health and safety guidelines. Many companies are preparing to safely welcome more visitors to the workplace this year. All of those are important, but you’d be remiss not to evaluate your space management plan for the new year as well.

In the age of hybrid work, employees have the choice over where they work, so when they do go into the workplace, it’s intentional. Employees are choosing the workplace to meet in person, to collaborate, and to gather as a team. As more employees come into the workplace in the new year, you’ll probably experience a strain on your office resources—like meeting spaces.

That’s why it’s essential to incorporate smart meeting room management into your new year reopening plan. Read on for the top three ways to improve your meeting room management and better enable your team on-site in 2022.

Make room: give your team space to collaborate

In a September 2021 report, we asked 1,000 employees in the US who have returned to the workplace how they feel about being back. The vast majority (95%) of respondents said there’s an upside to going into the workplace. They cited collaborating with coworkers as one of the top advantages of returning to the workplace. 

As more employees choose to come on-site to meet and collaborate, your space resources like meeting rooms are going to be in high demand. This means that you need to make it easy for employees to manage the logistics of finding, booking, and securing the right room for their meeting. 

To make this process as easy as possible, consider investing in a meeting room management system. Look for a tool that gives employees the choice to find, book, and check into rooms however is most convenient for them. Your standard calendar system alone is no longer going to cut it. We all rely on our cellphones for nearly everything nowadays, so a key thing to look for is a sleek, user-friendly mobile app to book rooms on the go. You’ll also want to think about employees looking to book a meeting room ad-hoc. Look for a system that has a display by the door and a color-coded availability system for those employees looking for rooms on the fly. 

Start fresh: free up unused space

Once you have employees coming into the workplace and booking meeting rooms regularly, you’ll notice your resources quickly becoming more scarce. People might book a room but not actually show up to the office that day. Teams might reserve a room for a regular in-person sync but opt for a remote meeting instead. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing rooms booked but unused, especially when you have teammates running around the office looking for a quiet place to take a meeting with a remote colleague. 

You’ll want a smart meeting room management system to solve this problem for you. With Envoy Rooms, you can eliminate the frustration and time spent searching for a place to meet by automatically freeing up space for others who need it. Require attendees to check into their meeting rooms and free unused meeting space by releasing room reservations that no one checks into.  

New year, new data: improve your space for 2022

One of the best ways to start your new year is to take a look at the past so you can get insights on how to plan better for the future. This is true with space management too. 

Have your employees typically been booking meetings in advance or gathering ad-hoc? How many people are usually in your biggest meeting spaces? How often are meetings kept or canceled? This data can inform your new year working policies and workplace decisions. For instance, if your rooms are underutilized, you may want to convert some meeting rooms into quiet spaces. If your bigger meeting rooms are often booked by just one or two people, you may want to convert those rooms into smaller meeting spaces or add meeting pods around the office for more flexibility.

With Envoy, you can gain a new perspective on how your space is being used with insights and analytics. Use this to better utilize your space and make cost-saving decisions backed by data on room scheduling, cancellation, and overall usage.

No better time than now 

It’s a new year, which means there is no better time than now to start making changes to make your workplace THE place where employees want to be. Discover how Envoy Rooms can help you crush your new year’s resolutions and make the most of your space. Start your free trial today.