The must-have meeting checklist

Uplevel the workplace meeting experience with effective room booking and a must-have meeting checklist.

Collaboration has always been an essential part of doing our best work—and that will never change.

No matter the method, having adequate space to collaborate and exchange information is a vital part of the creativity and innovation process. But what happens when that process is blocked because you can’t find a space to meet, let alone the best spot for the task at hand?

Employees are attending more meetings than ever before, collectively spending over 400 hours per year in meetings.1 In order to make all these mission-critical conversations happen, employees are also spending considerably more time scheduling and coordinating meeting logistics. More meetings amounts to more time spent in conference rooms. For IT and facilities teams, this increases the strain on and requirements for existing conference rooms as well.

1 Proprietary Envoy data based on a survey of current customers.‍
‍2 Based on exclusive data from a survey commissioned by Envoy of 1,000 US office workers by Wakefield Research.

A man and a woman sit at a table in front of a large window.

The average employee spends over 400 hours per year in meetings

It may seem like the most basic of workplace tasks, but room booking and meeting management can often cause problems–for everyone. In fact, over a quarter of 1,000 office workers surveyed by Wakefield Research (26%) say booking a conference room is a tedious process.3

Finding a place to meet can be challenging, particularly in hybrid work as folks have different working schedules. Here are some challenging scenarios when booking a meeting room:

  1. Eureka! You found a room to hold your meeting. But when you arrive, someone else is in your room. 25% of office workers have taken a conference room even when someone else already booked it. Even though the room is technically yours, this creates an awkward and tense situation.
  2. You see an empty room. However, the calendar says that it’s booked—even though no one is in there. This is also known as a “ghost” room. 34% of office workers say they couldn’t get the room they wanted due to ghost meeting rooms.
  3. You find a room, but discover that someone else also booked it. More than 44% of employees have had to navigate a double-booked room.4

The above meeting room scenarios are symptoms of an ineffective meeting culture. They create real friction between employees and can be detrimental to peoples’ ability to engage and do their best work. But room booking doesn’t have to be hard.

To help you make the most of every minute you have in your meeting room, we have compiled a checklist of best practices. Organized by what should happen before, during, and after each meeting, here’s your must-have meeting checklist to fix your meeting management woes.

3 Based on exclusive data from a survey commissioned by Envoy of 1,000 US office workers by Wakefield Research.
4 Based on exclusive data from a survey commissioned by Envoy of 1,000 US office workers by Wakefield Research.

The meeting checklist

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Before the meeting

Ensure your meeting room technology is set up and ready

Make sure meeting rooms are ‘plug-and-play.’

Survey employees on how they use meeting rooms

Ask them for feedback on what tools they need and why. If needed, remove complex equipment and simplify processes.

Prepare an agenda

Craft an agenda ahead of time to figure out if the meeting needs to take place at all.

Decide how to spend the time

Write out how you’ll spend the meeting time, and include the topics to cover and any major goals.

Prioritize what has to be discussed

Go through and create action items with specific time allocations for discussion to help keep things moving and on track.

Determine how much time is needed to meet

Can it be done in 30 minutes instead of an hour? Go through and make sure that you don’t over-schedule.

Send out invitations

Determine key decision makers that should be there, and invite them. For people who don’t need to be present but might like to join, invite as optional attendees.

Video conferencing

Add a video conferencing link to the meeting invitation if it needs to be recorded, or for remote attendees to participate.

Double check time zones

If meeting attendees are in different time zones, make sure the invite clearly reflects this.

Decide who will record meeting notes

Notate this in the agenda.

Set automatic notification reminders

Depending on how far out the meeting is, or if it’s recurring, remind attendees the week, day, or hour before.

Share the meeting agenda

Send out the meeting agenda at least 24 hours in advance.

During the meeting

Begin on time

Start the meeting when it’s scheduled.

Arrive early

Arrive a few minutes early to your meeting room.

Get video conferencing up and running first

Does your meeting include remote attendees who are calling in? Double check that any video conferencing links work.

Go over the agenda

Begin by briefly going over the agenda to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Record meeting notes and action items

An easy way to do so is within the agenda itself.

Tag action items with the person responsible for follow-up

This holds people accountable for what was discussed so they know how they are expected to contribute to keep projects on track.

Conclude the meeting on time

End your meeting on-time––every time.

Thank meeting attendees

Be sure to thank all participants for their time and communicate that you will send follow-up email with the meeting notes.

Stop any video recording

Disconnect the call for any remote folks.

End the meeting early

If the meeting happens to wrap-up ahead of schedule, do your coworkers a solid, and release the room. This is not only a best practice, it’s a courteous gesture your colleagues will thank you for.

Leave the room clean

Clear personal items like water glasses and remind people to take all of their belongings with them.

After the meeting

Look over the meeting notes

Make sure all next steps are clear and assigned.

Email out the notes

Share the meeting notes with all invitees, those who attended and optional team members, in an email.

Set a date for a follow-up meeting

If necessary, also note that an agenda will follow.

Ask for feedback

Poll meeting participants’ via an email or a simple survey.

Decide what outcomes to share out

Decide what should be shared with the rest of your team, organization, or the entire company, and how.

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The future of meeting management

Meeting rooms are where collaboration happens. With meeting management software, workplace leaders can use real-time data to decide what additional space is needed to meet, if any, and what kind. Are most meetings about having a quiet space to take a call? Perhaps it’s time to invest in some single-person meeting pods. Do people tend to want to sit in different places throughout their day or week? Think about solutions such as a hot-desking for those who need a change of environment.

Mobile room booking from anywhere you are

Everyone has a mobile device within reach at all times, in their hand or pocket. We check them nearly 50 times per day on average, too. Given this, if you’re wandering around the office and run into a colleague and you need to collaborate on-the-fly, mobile room booking lets you book a room using location-detection technology. You can book an available room that’s right nearby—and quickly get back to the reason you needed to meet in the first place.

A red button that says book for 30 minutes.

The bottom line

The office of the future prioritizes flexible, highly-productive, wireless, and transformative spaces. But you don’t have to wait! Take the first step to future-proof your workplace by re-evaluating your meeting management roadmap.

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