Conference rooms are often like the VIP area of the company. Much like VIP areas at popular events and places, you have to sign up in advance to hang out there, and the people who, for whatever reason, neglect to sign up, occasionally try to get around that rule. By taking a few preparatory steps, you can make room booking and using those conference rooms a much easier process for your employees.
Name the Conference Rooms
In order for this organizational system to work, you need to name your conference rooms. Names ensure everyone at your company knows which conference room is which, and eliminates any confusion over who scheduled which conference room. If you want to keep it simple, just use a letter or numbering system, such as conference rooms "A," "B" and "C," or rooms "1," "2" and "3." Don't be afraid to get creative, as people could find it easier to remember the room names if you make them unique. Locations, bands, movies and animals work as name sources as well. Not to mention, creative name choices give you the chance to tell people you're "going to Valhalla at 3,”. How fun would that be to say? After you name the rooms, print up conference room signs with each room's name to display on the room's door or window. Create a map showing the conference room names and locations that employees can access online, and put copies up in high-traffic areas.
Assign Scheduled Meeting and Last-Minute Rooms
While the majority of your conference rooms should be devoted to scheduled meetings, set up some "first come, first served" rooms as well, so employees in need of a last-minute meeting room have a professional option available. This also eliminates the awkward situation of employees attempting to hold a last-minute meeting in a conference room that has already been booked. While it's fine to have the meeting rooms better equipped than the last-minute rooms, make sure all the scheduled meeting rooms are consistent with one another. You don't want certain rooms to go unused because they don't have projectors or other important equipment.
Select a Meeting Room Manager
A scheduling tool makes booking meeting rooms much easier for employees, and helps prevent rooms from being double-booked. Google Calendar and Outlook are both popular scheduling options that your company may already use, which would make integration simple. Room booking software, such as YArooms and EventBoard, are other popular choices, and they work well for large organizations with many meeting rooms to manage. Both offer applications that employees can access on a cellphone, making it easy to book a conference room on the go.
Educate Employees on Using Conference Rooms
Educating employees on conference rooms means more than just showing them how the scheduling tool works. It's also important to emphasize what meetings should be scheduled for a conference room, how to make the most of conference room time and the importance of staying on schedule. Not every meeting requires a conference room. Job interviews and strategy planning sessions are both high-priority tasks that warrant use of a meeting room. Booking a conference room for 30 minutes to give a 10-minute performance review to one employee simply wastes resources. Additionally, explain the importance of planning a meeting to make the most efficient use of conference room time. This guidance will help keep meetings on schedule and on topic so everyone feels like they truly gained something out of the meeting.
The right software and a little bit of setup are all you need to have your company's conference rooms running smoothly. Once all the essentials are out of the way, you can start adding extra amenities, such as bottled water and snacks, to make meetings a more pleasant experience.