How Can We Create an Effective Meeting Room Usage Policy for Our Small Team?

Dear All,

Our organization is very small with an employee strength of 200. We have 3 meeting rooms of varying sizes, but typically only 2 are utilized, with the third one often remaining unused. Now, we are looking to establish a policy regarding the simultaneous usage of all meeting rooms, including guidelines on minimum and maximum capacity, timing, booking procedures, etc.

Could anyone assist in creating a policy for the usage of meeting rooms?

Thank you all in advance.

Yes, Nipuna, this is better managed by software. Imagine you creating a policy but no one to follow... the operations are best managed electronically. You may implement the policy into your software. The policy could read as:

1 - Book it 1 - 5 days in advance depending on your company requirements.
2 - Clearly state for how long you will be using the room and try to vacate it by the end of the duration.
3 - If it is cancelled, immediately release the reservation.
4 - Book the room that best fits your number of meeting attendees, for example, for a 10-person meeting, use room 1; for a 20-person meeting, use room 2, etc.
5 - Keep HR informed.

But trust me, it is very difficult to manage manually; all the time, some coordinator is being disturbed for room availability, etc.

Hi everybody,

We already have the software to manage the rooms, but nobody is using it in a proper way. That's the reason why we now want to publish a policy regarding the room usage so that everybody can be aware of the usage and the rooms can be properly utilized.

For example, sometimes 3-4 people occupy the room capacity of 20, which leads to problems arising when the team with more strength does not get the proper room.

Now, can you people help me out in designing the policy for the same?

Dear Nipuna,

Instead of driving through software, create a policy for conducting meetings in the hall. The room should be blocked a day in advance with the expected number of attendees.

Display a chart outside the hall with details of the team or department name and the scheduled time. The chart should include team details, hours, and the date of the meeting.

Maintain an Excel format for scheduling purposes, which can be managed by any coordinator.

Thank you.

Hi,

You can ask all the meeting heads to provide a consolidated list of meetings to be held in a particular week, including details such as the number of attendees and the duration of each meeting. Additionally, the front desk can make the meeting schedule sheet available in all the conference halls to prevent any confusion.

This is the process we are currently following, and we have an employee strength of 100+.

Hope this helps alleviate the issue to some extent.

Best regards,
Sireesha

Hi Nipuna,

If you have an MS Outlook, you can make use of it to schedule timings and share the meeting calendar with all the Support Staff. First, give names to your meeting rooms. If it's for a short-strength, give it as Room-1; if it is big, give Room-2 (you can name it as per your meeting room names). Team Leads will take care of their team members. I suggest utilizing MS Outlook if you have it, instead of turning to other software.

Thank you.

Dear Nipuna,

First of all, you need to come up with a proper process to book meeting rooms.

a) You need to prepare a format to book the meeting room.
b) The format should contain - Meeting Date, Time & Hrs, Meeting room no, No of people, Department, Authorized signatory, Requester name & Department, Date of request.

Booking Process: Once you receive the above request, check the availability of the meeting room. If available, send a confirmation email to the requester or the department and also mark a CC copy to all employees in the branch so that no other employees will occupy the meeting room during the specified time.

Regards, BhanuPrakash Regional HR

Hi Madhu,

We have MS Outlook, and we have completed all the tasks related to booking meeting rooms, such as naming the rooms, etc. However, nobody is following the process, which is why there is a need to establish a policy.

Hi Shailesh,

If you have MS Outlook in your office, then you do not need any additional software for that. In MS Outlook, you can send meeting invitations, book resources, and perform other tasks efficiently.

Before you implement any new steps, you must have the mandate of your Apex Management. Please work on that. Also, why is the third room not preferred? Go into the details and increase the availability of rooms. That will ease the pressure to some extent until effective systems come into force. From the foregoing discussions, it appears that the matter is not taken seriously by the Top Management. Please ensure that the right message reaches them.

Regards,
V. Raghunathan
Navi Mumbai