As 2020 comes to a close, companies are starting to analyze return to office plans for 2021. Careful considerations such as how many people are in the building at any given time, contract tracing, and social distancing are all-new concerns with special considerations. Appspace can help conquer some of these larger tasks, all from the room scheduling functionality. Here are a few ways room scheduling can help you confidently and safely return staff to the office.

Building Occupancy

In the past, companies have always been aware of how many employees work out of their office, in general terms, but keeping a daily occupancy record was not a requirement or concern. Today that is one of the largest concerns of businesses, large and small, to uphold new company policies and health recommendations to keep employees safe. Room scheduling isn’t just limited to meeting rooms; it also applies to desks and workstations. This can give real-time reporting of how many people are in the office at any given time and allows administrators to make adjustments of how many open stations are available, if necessary, to meet occupancy guidelines.

Contact Tracing

Another new concern that wasn’t something of consideration in the past, contact tracing. The idea of contact tracing sounds a little daunting. Asking team members to recall who they met with and where they sat in the office a week ago can be unreliable and a bit of a headache. Room scheduling eliminates those concerns before the meetings take place. By booking rooms and workstations ahead of time, Appspace can capture meeting organizer information and meeting attendee information and keep it stored for future reference. If someone were to become ill and were in the office last Tuesday, it’s easy to see where they were throughout the day and who was near them, with confidence, and connect with those individuals. 

Room Reservations for Cleaning

Incorporating regular room and workstation cleaning is no longer an option. Now more than ever, it is a priority to keep all hard surfaces clean and disinfected. Remember the one meeting room that always seemed to have people in it and people waiting at the top of the hour for their turn to use it? Many people pass it in a short amount of time. Incorporating cleaning time between uses is something that wasn’t highly prioritized in the past. Now it is essential. In-room scheduling, create blocks of time between meetings to ensure proper cleaning protocols can be met. Rooms & workstations will be shown as unavailable, so double booking will not occur, ensuring adequate cleaning can be conducted before the next person or team utilizes the space. 

Maximizing Office Space

Many offices have decided to reduce their real estate footprint and downsize their office space. While that offers excellent benefits for the business, such as saving overhead costs and lowering exposure to larger groups of people, it does require better space management. Room scheduling allows everyone the chance to plan their workweek if in-person meetings are necessary, without double booking or overbooking space. Room scheduling for smaller office space will make employees more cognizant of their time and take full advantage of the time spent in the office than ever before.

To learn more about room scheduling and desk booking, including features, use cases, and capabilities, here.