Office Scheduling Tips

They say there are three things you can count on in life: death, taxes, and failed meeting schedules.

There’s nothing worse than having to rely on a meeting system you can’t trust. It impacts your morale, your workflow, and even how your business performs. You waste around 30 minutes trying to get a meeting booked, and by the time you receive every response you need, the space has been reserved out from under you!

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to get your office scheduling back in shape. Rather than a necessary evil, your meetings can become a streamlined miracle. All you need is to invest some time and money.

Getting everyone you work with on board can be a challenge, but part of business growth is change. Technology makes that switch easier than ever, and with enough patience and training, even Jan from Accounting will be holding her own.

You can finally get that meeting started with some easy steps!

One of the hardest parts of scheduling a meeting is all the back-and-forth. While you bend over backwards accommodating Jan’s preferred lunch hour, Tim insists he can only do 3:12 PM EST. It’s a logic puzzle with no answer.

Using a shared calendar system, like Google Calendar or Outlook, can change the game. Instead of emailing 30 employees, their assistants, and their assistant’s assistant’s, you can look at everyone’s schedule and see when people are free. Considering your company spends 15% of their day in meetings, that’s a real time saver.

Share as many details as you want or keep your personal calendar private, the choice is yours. Either way, whomever is organizing the meeting sends out an invite through the system to all the attendees. Once they accept, it’ll show up as busy on their calendar and will send out meeting reminders beforehand.

It’s also possible to set up a personal calendar for your meeting rooms, equipment, whatever you need! Depending on the software you select, there’s a range of options for what you can reserve.

When you send the initial invite to the group, you can include the space or equipment you’re renting! It shows up as busy/taken on the schedule when someone else books it and Jan won’t stop by your desk every hour asking where the meeting is.

If your company has been using paper signs to call corporate dibs on rooms, now is the time to end the habit. Using your scheduling program is a huge step forward, but if you keep using “reserved’ signs to claim rooms, you’re going to find it’s actually a step back.

Meetings change as often as the seasons, and paper signs weather that change like a bad paint job. More often than not, the signs aren’t an accurate reflection of the schedule, they get left up by accident, or they’re ignored! Nothing says unprofessional to an outside client like a disorganized meeting schedule. Having to wander the halls looking for free space will make your clients wonder if this business is really organized enough to do solid work.

Put the sharpie away and try a better option!

Good digital displays knock paper signs out of the park. The sleek and futuristic look of a customized display is sure to impress whomever you meet regardless of industry.

Better yet, these mounted screens (of any size) can be connected to your calendar system, displaying in real time who has the room reserved and when it’s free next. Products like Teem’s solution can work in tandem with Google Apps and Outlook/Exchange on mounted tablets for each meeting space.

Since this isn’t just a paper sign, you can also book the meetings straight on the tablet if the room is free. With digital displays, you get to impress your clients and save a decent amount of sanity.

The hardest part of switching from your current system isn’t going to be the technology or the schedule programs. It’s your own employees.

Change can be difficult, especially if you’ve been using one method of scheduling for so long. Your employees might run the gambit in terms of what their comfort levels are with technology, however they all can benefit from specific training.

Bringing in an expert for education and training can do wonders, especially if your employees are allowed to ask questions and be in the room with another person. However, many video training programs exist that can also do the trick.

If you’re worried about the rate of mistaken meetings during your transition period, there are programs that have built-in features to prevent just that.

For example, Teem’s conference room display has a special feature that allows the meeting creator to set a check-in at the meeting’s start time. If no one checks in, the meeting is automatically canceled and the room is freed up!

Most importantly, support and encouragement are key. Learning new skills can be frustrating and it takes time to understand. As long as you’re patient and provide support over time, you’ll see an improvement in both scheduling and company morale.

The improvement doesn’t stop at installation. Once you’ve been using your office scheduling program for a few weeks, you’re able to tap into data and analytics to get a better idea of how your office resources are being used.

Some programs like Teem let you know which conference rooms are being utilized the most and the least. What are the differences between the two? Does one have a Smart TV or a better kind of chair?

By using this data, you can make your conference rooms more comfortable and useable for your business based on their proven needs. That in and of itself is invaluable information. Providing employees with more equipment they need to do their work will increase output and foster goodwill in the workplace.

Now that you’ve heard what the future can be, it’s time to take the first step. If you’ re dreading going back to paper signs and chaotic reply alls, office scheduling systems are your answer.

They save time on booking meetings, provide you with data to improve your business, and impress your clients.

How will you move your business towards the future?