Does your office have a huddle room? If not, you may be missing out on some important opportunities.
Huddle rooms are small, private meeting areas. They are equipped with video conferencing and collaboration tools, and usually have seating for three to six people. Smaller businesses rarely have a need for more than one huddle room in their office, but some larger businesses are finding that they regularly use several huddle rooms in addition to having a traditional conference room.
It may sound like just another office trend that will quickly fall by the wayside, but huddle rooms are bringing office spaces up-to-speed with current technology and can have a big impact on the way your employees collaborate and work.
A Smaller, More Comfortable, More Productive Environment
Large spaces can be intimidating, especially if you’re trying to brainstorm and work through new ideas. Today’s open-concept office spaces may look great, but they’re not ideal for collaboration and productivity.
Huddle rooms solve this problem by creating an intimate space in which a small group of people can collaborate without interruptions. Teams can have lively conversations with those present as well as those who tune into the conversation via video conferencing. With the smaller space, people don’t feel like they have to perform or ‘fill the room’. They can explore new ideas without fear of judgment and interruption.
In fact, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously promotes a ‘two-pizza rule’ to meetings, where he says no meeting should ever be large enough to require more than two pizzas to feed people.
A Solid Connection for Remote Workers
One of the biggest challenges for remote workers is that they can feel completely disconnected from what’s going on in the office. When you feel disconnected, it’s easy to lose interest or feel complacent.
But with today’s video conferencing technology, remote workers can have face-to-face conversations with multiple co-workers every day. These can be short and to-the-point, or they can be longer brainstorming meetings with a group. Either way, a huddle room facilitates connections between people who work in the office and people who work somewhere else.
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Better Use of Office Space
Some businesses are turning unused spaces into huddle rooms to accomplish several goals:
- Huddle rooms help to keep the noise down in other parts of the office. With conversations going on in these smaller rooms, everyone else can focus better and be more productive.
- Second, by installing huddle rooms at the intersections of your office’s work areas, you can encourage collaboration and teamwork. Office layout has a bigger impact on the way we work than many of us realise. The very presence of these rooms can change the way people interact and work.
- Third, huddle rooms can help you to make the most of less real estate if desk space is at a premium. When people have a designated area for conversation, their private workspaces can be smaller and quieter.
Perfect for Presentations and Videos
Have you ever tried to keep everyone in the office quiet while you made a sales presentation or tried to record a video or webinar? That scenario is frustrating and stressful.
With a huddle room available, team members can record videos for the blog, practice presentations, talk to clients using CommuniCloud and even host webinars. A small, private space like a huddle room is perfect for all of these activities that are difficult to accomplish in a traditional office space.
Are you ready to create a huddle room for your office? Get in touch with us about our video conferencing tools, which are perfect for today’s huddle rooms. You can also gain access to a free trial of CommuniCloud and start connecting your employees with each other, with clients and with collaborators around the globe.