Conference rooms are the hub of your business. They provide a space where you can connect with remote workers, impress clients and collaborate with your team to solve business issues.
Meetings are a necessary part of how most companies operate, yet many employees are confused about meeting room etiquette. Is it acceptable to work on your laptop, should you reply to emails on your phone? There are a number of questions that employees simply do not know how to answer when it comes to meeting room etiquette.
So, why is this important? Companies that fail to run effective and efficient meetings and video conferences will not realize the full benefits that come with a world-class meeting room solution. That means missing out on improved collaboration, better staff relationships, more efficient processes and much more.
In fact, according to Doodle's 2019 State of Meetings report, the cost of poorly organized meetings in 2019 was estimated to reach $399 billion in the US alone. These inadequately run meetings have a huge impact on how effective a business is.
That’s why it’s important for your company to implement meeting room etiquette standards, which improve how your meetings are run. Genesis Integration has listed five key meeting room etiquette rules that you should consider making your employees aware of:
1 - Always book the conference room before using it
Once an employee knows that they need to host a meeting, they should book the conference room in your official company calendar as soon as possible. It’s not only respectful to everyone within your organization to let them know when you need to use the meeting room, it also prevents meeting room clashes.
Likewise, if a meeting is cancelled then employees should cancel the meeting room reservation on the calendar as soon as possible. This allows others within your business to use the space if they need to.
2 - Close the door
Closing the door of a meeting room is often associated with keeping confidential and sensitive information private. While closing the door is, of course, important in that role, it’s also a fantastic way to limit distractions.
Not only will closing the door prevent your meeting from distracting the staff members that are located in close proximity to the conference room, but it will also stop other employees from interrupting your meeting when they don’t need to.
3 - Put your phone away
It’s all too easy for employees to take their phone out of their pocket in the middle of a meeting to answer emails, or at worst to respond to private messages. Cell phones, however, are a huge distraction to those looking at them, other attendees, as well as the person hosting the meeting.
It’s best practice to encourage staff members to not take their phone out of their pocket, or even leave it at their desk if possible. Likewise, encourage employees to always ask if they can take notes on their laptop.
4 - Once the scheduled time is up, leave the meeting room quickly
Meeting room attendees have a habit of standing around and talking after the meeting has run its course. This by no means is a bad thing. It helps to create a discussion around the meeting, encouraging new ideas, collaboration and innovation among your team.
However, it does become a problem when staff members stay in the conference room longer than the scheduled time. This could result in your team taking up someone else's meeting time. To prevent this, encourage follow-up conversations to take place in break-out areas such as a huddle room.
5 - Leave the conference room as clean, or even cleaner, than how you found it
Entering a meeting room that’s untidy or unkept doesn’t make a good impression. Cleaning up the mess of the last meeting room will run into the scheduled time of the meeting and put attendees in a negative mood from the get-go.
Ensure your employees clean up when they leave so that the room is ready for the next meeting. This is as simple as taking coffee cups, plates, scraps of paper with you when the meeting is over - a habit worth cultivating.
Don’t forget the importance of technology
While not necessarily a part of meeting room etiquette, our additional tip is to not underestimate just how important a world-class audiovisual (AV) technology solution is for the effectiveness of your meeting room.
Investing in innovative AV solutions - such as interactive whiteboards, effective sound systems, high-definition video capabilities and a conference phone system - will ensure internal meetings and video conferences are able to run efficiently for everyone involved.
Are you interested in learning more about AV technologies in the meeting room? Contact the Genesis Integration team of technology experts today.
