Flip Your Meetings: Leverage Open Spaces for Maximum Productivity
Transforming open office spaces into optimal meeting areas can turn previously inactive spaces into thriving collaboration and productivity hubs. But where to begin?
The Return to Office Wave is Overwhelming Companies
According to a recent report by HR software maker Leapsome, 56% of HR leaders say CEOs are pushing them to arrange for a return to the office. Meanwhile, a Resume Builder survey found that 90% of companies plan to implement some form of return-to-office policy by 2025.
However, many organizations are realizing there simply isn't enough office space for returning workers. As reported by NPR, some employees have been directed to report to storage units instead of offices due to space limitations. Amazon also postponed some of its return-to-office orders for similar reasons, reportedly lacking about 800 desks in its San Francisco area offices.
While physical space is scarce, employees also fear encountering the same frustrations they had in the office before, particularly the inability to find and book a meeting room, leading to lost productivity. The need to move beyond old methods and find new options to overcome the challenge of finding available meeting rooms is crucial. For many, the solution lies in open meeting spaces.
This document will outline the key benefits and challenges of open meeting spaces and offer suggestions for optimizing your office spaces to accommodate more of these types of meetings.
Hiccups in Office Meetings
What's happening with traditional meeting spaces?
According to a Steelcase report, 40% of employees spend an average of 30 minutes a day searching for an available meeting room or collaboration space. A Gensler Workplace Research study revealed that workplaces with flexible and well-managed meeting environments report 23% higher employee productivity rates than those with constant logistical challenges.
When a suitable meeting space cannot be found, meetings are often canceled or rushed, diminishing collaboration quality. With employees spending 37% of their time in meetings, it's essential to maximize these scheduled communication and collaboration times.
The misuse of office space also impacts company finances. A Gable study found that 40% of office space is unused daily, leading to unnecessary overhead. This underutilization can cost a company $11,000 per employee annually.
So, how can organizations break free from this destructive budget cycle?
Open Spaces: The Winning Option
Leveraging open spaces can help better utilize office space and eliminate the productivity loss associated with the frantic search for meeting rooms. Open spaces offer several strategic advantages for company meetings:
Enhanced Collaboration and Communication
Open spaces provide opportunities for spontaneous interactions, facilitating team member participation in discussions, brainstorming sessions, and impromptu meetings. This can lead to more innovation and faster problem-solving as employees can easily share ideas without the barriers of closed offices.
Cost-Effectiveness
Open spaces can be more economical than constructing private offices, meeting rooms, and cubicles. They save on construction and materials, allowing companies to allocate these resources to other areas.
Flexibility and Adaptability
Open spaces can be easily reconfigured to accommodate meetings of various sizes and purposes, benefiting companies that require dynamic collaboration spaces.
Promotion of Company Culture
Meetings in open spaces can break down hierarchical barriers, promoting equality and community among employees, fostering trust and open communication, and contributing to a stronger company culture. Regularly surveying employees can help identify issues and adjust scheduling and policies for open meetings as needed.
Better Light and Aesthetics
Moving from windowless meeting rooms to open spaces allows for natural light, creating a more pleasant and welcoming environment. Exposure to natural light can improve employee mood and productivity.
Activity-Based Working
Open meeting areas can promote an activity-based work environment where employees choose their workspace based on their tasks. This can lead to higher employee satisfaction scores and increased efficiency and productivity by allowing them to select environments that best suit their work needs.
Avoiding Interruptions
While the benefits of open meeting spaces are numerous, they are not without challenges. Meetings in open office spaces can pose logistical challenges for some organizations. While open spaces are intended to promote collaboration, flexibility, and agility, they can end up being less productive if not designed correctly.
Key Challenges of Open Meeting Spaces
- Distractions from Noise: Conversations, phone calls, and other background sounds can interrupt concentration and ruin conversations, making it difficult for meeting participants to concentrate, contribute, and collaborate.
- Lack of Privacy: There's a risk of others overhearing sensitive or confidential meetings and conversations.
- Interruptions: If others pass by, intentionally or not, they can cause interruptions during meetings in open environments.
- Lack of Space: Since open spaces are designed for impromptu meetings, they are sometimes all occupied, meaning meetings cannot take place.
- Lack of Tools: Open spaces often lack access to necessary meeting tools like whiteboards, projectors, and video conferencing, which can affect collaboration and productivity.
Despite some inherent challenges, the benefits of open meeting spaces are hard to overcome.
Optimize Your Open Spaces
Define Meeting Zones
Determine which open office areas are best for meetings and which are preferred for personal work. This can reduce interruptions for both meeting participants and nearby colleagues trying to work in silence.
You can start by creating semi-private spaces in open areas. Use mobile partitions, if available, and arrange furniture like sofas, chairs, tables, and stools in loosely defined collaboration zones. Visual markers like signage or floor markings can identify areas where meetings are permitted.
Implementing mobile furniture, folding tables, and adjustable seating options can create spaces that can be redesigned according to the meeting's size and volume. Consider using open shelving as space dividers to visually delineate areas without blocking views and access.
Use Acoustic Solutions
Reduce background noise and improve concentration and communication during meetings with easy-to-use solutions like soundproofing panels or noise-dampening materials. Carpets and rugs can also help insulate sound, while noise-canceling technologies like desktop sound barriers or white noise machines can help reduce noise.
Establish Behavioral Norms
Implementing guidelines and etiquette recommendations for meetings can ensure that meetings in open spaces flow smoothly without causing too many interruptions. Guidelines can include controlling volume, avoiding interruptions, and disabling notifications during meetings. You can also establish quiet zones where workers can concentrate even if a meeting is nearby.
Further reduce interruptions by setting scheduled times for meetings in open areas. Allow employees to reserve key meeting zones and encourage the consolidation of smaller ad-hoc meetings into scheduled blocks.
Use Technology
While a challenge in open spaces is the lack of technology, new and useful technological solutions can help make open spaces more dynamic and versatile, promoting collaboration and productivity. Solutions like digital whiteboards, projectors, and modern presentation kits are key, as is ensuring reliable Wi-Fi and available power in areas where meetings are likely to take place.
Meet the Rally Board 65
A solution that can transform open spaces into superior meeting areas and help organizations overcome space-related challenges is the Logitech Rally Board 65. This all-in-one portable collaboration device can turn any open space into a full meeting room for video conferencing. With a 65-inch touchscreen, Rally Board 65 ensures teams can collaborate anywhere creativity strikes.
It offers AI-powered audio and video for optimal framing and clear sound in any meeting environment. In open and busy spaces, it helps eliminate distractions and interruptions by using AI to blur background activity, minimize ambient noise, and balance voices so remote participants can concentrate and feel included. Rally Board 65 can be wall-mounted, placed on a table, or paired with a mobile cart to move around open spaces and meeting rooms easily, adapting to the needs of the moment.
Rally Board 65 also helps organizations overcome the common challenge of a lack of technology in open spaces by being easy to set up and use. Simply place it, plug it in, and it's ready, with minimal configuration required.
Rally Board 65 Unlocks Numerous Advantages for Open Office Spaces
- Clear and Balanced Audio: Guarantees clear and balanced audio for all participants with a powerful speaker system optimized for open spaces.
- Advanced Noise Filtering: Filters unwanted noise and ensures voice clarity with advanced microphone arrays integrated with AI algorithms.
- Portability: Take Rally Board 65 anywhere for stand-up meetings, ad-hoc collaborations, or recurring meetings in open spaces.
- All-in-One Functionality: Eliminates the need for additional equipment with the all-in-one functionality that combines audio, video, and display.
- Quick Setup: Configures quickly and easily with minimal setup support for installation and operation, offering Plug and Play functionality.
- Interactive Display: Facilitates idea sharing, team participation, and interactive discussions with a 65-inch touch-sensitive display.
- Flexible Camera Positioning: Rotate Rally Board 65 to have the camera at the top or bottom of the screen for greater flexibility, aligning better with participants' eye level for a more inclusive meeting experience.
All-in-one solutions like Rally Board 65 can help your organization leverage unused open spaces and optimize them for collaborative and inclusive meetings that might not have otherwise taken place. Therefore, transforming open spaces into viable and valuable meeting areas can mean saving money and improving productivity.
