social distancing in the office
COVID-19
2 min read

Smart meeting room management for social distancing in the workplace

Organizations are under pressure to implement social distancing measures that will protect their people from COVID-19 when they return to work.

In a recent article, we covered how to enable social distancing in the workplace using desk booking software and office floor plans. Now let’s explore how meeting room booking software can further protect your employees.

How COVID-19 and physical distancing are impacting space utilization

Given the need for social distancing in the office, it stands to reason that face-to-face meetings in confined spaces are firmly off the agenda.

Some organizations, in fact, are opting to hold online meetings with colleagues from the safety of their desks, even if attendees are present in the office.

The reduction in on-site meetings inevitably means that many conference rooms remain empty and under-utilized, while other parts of the office struggle to find sufficient capacity while observing social distancing rules.

How conference room booking tools can help convert meeting rooms into hot-desks

To solve this imbalance and inefficiency in space utilization, you can open up available meeting rooms to provide employees with additional desk space.

For instance a traditional 10-person boardroom might be able to accommodate 3 people, sitting at a safe distance apart.

In Smartway2, users can easily see which meeting rooms have safe spaces available, so they can book their spot.

When you book a desk in Smartway2, the system automatically takes the desks around you out of service. This is all configurable in seconds by marking your desired social distancing radius on an office floor plan. 

Using workplace scheduling software to open up ‘overspill’ areas for social distancing

Another way to leverage resource scheduling software to create a COVID-safe workplace is by allocating ‘overspill’ spaces in your office.

For example your cafeteria might fill up quickly, due to social distancing rules reducing capacity.

In this scenario, Smartway2 can automatically open up, say, a conference room to allow people to find and book a safe place to sit down and eat their lunch.

Discover more ways to protect your people amidst COVID-19

To learn more about physical distancing in your workplace and how meeting room and desk booking tools can help, watch this webinar on Planning a Safe Return to Work

If you have specific requirements and you’re wondering whether Smartway2 can help, please contact us today.

We’re fortunate that Smartway2 was built with extreme flexibility as a key design principle, so the system can easily be configured for most scenarios, without expensive custom coding or long implementations.

We wish you all the very best during these challenging times and we’re here to help in any way we can.

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Jane Young
Author

Jane Young

Last updated June 2, 2020