Lee Underwood, Channel Manager UK & Ireland at Snom, looks at why Huddle Rooms are growing in popularity and how UK businesses can make the most of them
People have never communicated as much as they do today. Experts estimate that, by 2023, around 347.3 billion emails will be sent worldwide every day. At the same time, employees are becoming more mobile and working wherever it suits them best: at the office, at home, at their customers’ premises or on the move.
It has been scientifically proven that face-to-face conversation is far more effective than digital messaging – at the same time, calling a meeting every five minutes where employees need to be physically present can be tedious and unproductive. Instead, smaller ad-hoc meetings in so called “Huddle Rooms” are becoming a popular solution, helping teams to work together more closely and productively – whether they’re located next to you, or on the other side of the globe.
What is a Huddle Room?
Huddle Rooms are small private meeting spaces designed to host informal conversations or brainstorming sessions. When the room is small and time is limited, audio conferencing and video solutions can help to improve communication.
We’ve all experienced a terrible conference call. One of the biggest pains is when you can’t hear people clearly and they have to climb across the desk, just to get closer to the phone. However, distance from the phone doesn’t need to be an issue, since many audio-conferencing devices today come equipped with handy accessories such as portable microphones. So if you want to get up and move around or grab a drink, you can still be heard loud and clear by those on the other end of the line.
Why are they becoming so popular?
Many small and medium sized companies do not have the means to provide lavishly equipped conference rooms. In larger companies these rooms often have to be reserved far in advance. Therefore, turning your own or a temporarily free office into a Huddle Room for quick meetings is far more in tune with the flexible requirements of everyday life. No matter how far apart they are, this is helping to bring your workforce together.
How do you make the most of them?
As many Huddle Rooms are not much bigger than the size of a large phone booth, having the right audio and video conferencing technology for the room will help to enhance the quality of the meeting.
For those employees working remotely and dialling into the meeting, this is particularly important as it can make them feel more included in the conversation. In a larger meeting, they may not necessarily get the opportunity to have their voices heard, but this smaller meeting setting is the perfect opportunity to do just that and develop stronger connections with co-workers.
These smaller meetings will also require less complex and costly equipment. However, there are a few essentials that you’ll need to have to make it productive – in particular a reliable conference phone. The speakers available on conference phones today provide better audio quality than a laptop can, while detachable microphones offer the potential to get up and move around without having to lean close to the phone every time you want to say something. You want the technology you have to make the meeting feel as smooth and seamless as possible.
The spoken word is and remains the most effective form of communication. There are plenty of technical solutions available to bring everyone together in an easy way and get the most out of the smaller setting of a Huddle Room.