As part of the quest to achieve an open-plan office, many companies no longer have meeting rooms. Walls have been taken down, spaces are communal, and group sessions are held out in the open.
But the open office work environment has more cons than it does pros, and overall, research suggests it's a negative in terms of worker productivity, stress and health.
Putting a meeting room back in to a work space takes a lot of time and money. However, we've created an executive, portable conference room that holds up to four people, as well as singular phone booths to counteract all of the open office downsides.
Why open offices don’t work
Open-plan offices were heralded as a new age of productivity and communication, but sadly that hasn’t been the case.
While communication may now be easier than ever, workers often complain that they no longer have any privacy.
Research has also uncovered the startling statistics that employees are 50% more likely to take time off if they work in an open office.
But there’s an even bigger issue when it comes to holding meetings.
Meetings require focused conversation and limited distractions. This means that they need to be conducted in private. They also need to be done in a professional manner, with everyone focused on the task at hand in what feels like a real business space.
Now transfer that image to an open-plan office without a dedicated meeting room. It feels sloppy and it's incredibly hard to concentrate and cut through the background noise to have a real conversation.
The situation is not much better when it comes to video calls and phone calls. How can your employees focus when all they can hear is their co-workers chatting? How can a client or business partner take you seriously when that is all they can hear, too?
Employees holding meetings which require active input from several members, or taking calls with loud and lively clients, can also be a disruptive force to others in the office.
They can distract people from important or difficult project work which requires intense concentration.
Conference calls using video technology, such as Skype, are now the new norm for modern meetings. There are 4.9 million people using Skype daily, and video calling is even used for job interviews.
Without a meeting room, all the members of the Skype video call will see is a large office full of people doing their daily work, which can be very distracting - and above all, unprofessional. Finding a quiet room in the workplace is a must.
Plugging the gap with a meeting room alternative
So, with all of these problems in mind, how would a meeting room help?
With the obvious application to holding meetings, our executive booths offer a private and professional space where employees can talk alone. It also blocks out background noise so that everyone can focus on the conversation at hand, instead of listening to what outsiders are saying.
But there are also plenty of benefits that a meeting room brings when there are no meetings going on at all.
Your employees will be able to go into this room whenever they need privacy or peace and quiet. This could mean taking a phone call in there, going through a particularly difficult calculation or piece of work that requires focus, taking some time out when they are not feeling their best but still need to work, and so on.
Why a conference booth works
You might be thinking that you could simply have a meeting room built inside your office space. Why bother with an office phone booth?
Well, there are a considerable number of benefits. First, there is the fact that the conference booth is mobile and portable. You can take it down and put it back up somewhere else within a day, even if you only have one person taking care of it.
It doesn’t require technical skills to do this, so you can move your meeting room to wherever it is needed as your office design changes.
This is especially perfect for companies with several branches, which may need varying numbers of meeting rooms on different days.
The conference booth will take up less space than a traditional meeting room, thanks to the way it is constructed.
It has modular walls and floors to fit together perfectly, with a clear plexiglass ceiling which blocks up to 40 decibels of noise. The custom wood desks inside will match your office and give employees a place to work & place their equipment.
This is also more efficient. It becomes its own world, rather than simply a room inside a room. With denim sound insulation to muffle any potential noises, as well as quiet ventilation fans regulating the temperature, your employees will feel comfortable and relaxed.
Two electrical outlets along with USB ports for fast charging make it a perfect place to work, no matter what the meeting or project requires.
You can plug in phones, laptops, or even big screens to support video and conference calls over the Internet.
Two or four person conference booths provide the best meeting room alternative
There are several different sizes available to suit your particular needs, from two to four people.
With a desk in the center of the room and two seats around it, everyone at the meeting will be looking inwards, not outwards.
Even the noise of the office is removed as a distraction, and everything can proceed smoothly. Don’t be surprised to see meeting times coming down once the efficiency of the booth is employed.
Get in touch with a Zenbooth representative today to learn more about our conference booth features, shipping prices and our 30 day money back guarantee.
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