No matter what industry your company is in, staying competitive is essential for a prosperous business. Your company’s ability to acquire and maintain success is measured partly by its ability to remain innovative, and there is no innovation without collaboration. As a result, every company must have space where employees are encouraged to collaborate and share ideas. Huddle rooms will replace 70% of meeting rooms by 2022. Not too long ago, conference rooms were the ideal space for innovation. As things change, a huddle room is key to the future of collaboration within your company.
A huddle room equipped with advanced audio-visual technology is proven to boost productivity and aid employees in exerting control over the execution of their projects. In a modern workspace, companies must adapt to the needs of changing demographics by providing them with spaces in which various small groups can complete large-scale projects simultaneously. Huddle rooms meet this need when they give employees audio-visual technology to collaborate with in-office and remote team members.
What is a Huddle Room?
Companies have begun to eschew cold, impersonal cubicles for more open workspaces. While reinventing office space has led to increased productivity, there remains an unmet need for private collaboration spaces. Compact meeting spaces like huddle rooms are the solution to this modern problem.
Huddle rooms are defined as small, private workspaces designed to accommodate four to six people, with technology similar to a conference room. Huddle rooms are intended for confidential conversations with clients, interviews, and team meetings.
Benefits of a Huddle Room
The informal quality of a huddle room offers distinct benefits that companies should be aware of when they venture to incorporate them in the workplace. These benefits include:
- Privacy: Huddle rooms allow employees to have space away from the rest of the office, where they can privately brainstorm and have confidential conversations. In addition, they provide a place to have video conferences with remote employees and clients.
- Flexibility: A huddle room with the proper audio-visual technology possesses the flexibility often lacking in open office spaces. Modern office spaces are not fit for private video calls with remote employees and clients, while huge conference rooms take up too much space. However, huddle rooms provide a small space with the ability to accommodate numerous devices and audio-visual technology.
- Cost-Effective: For most companies, it does not always make sense to have more than one fully integrated conference room. Large conference rooms take up much real estate and require large capital expenditures to equip every room with the proper equipment. However, having only one conference room disrupts productivity. Huddle rooms mitigate these issues with their equipment and compact dimensions. It is relatively inexpensive to have multiple huddle rooms in which several different teams can work on separate projects simultaneously.
- Seamless Installation: Many offices do not possess the space required for large conference rooms. Since huddle rooms are compact with minimal equipment, the installation process is quick and will not disrupt your company’s workflow.
Changing Demographics
Millennials (people from the ages of 25 to 40) are projected to comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025, and with the oldest of Gen Z being 24 years old, they are following right behind them. Both of these generations are digital natives, so there is no need for them to adapt to using the latest technology in the workplace. In fact, they expect it. Their need for technology and a creative, collaborative environment is transforming the workplace.
In the years to come, the prime influences on workplace culture will be technology and teamwork. Millennials and Gen Z are motivated by peer relationships. They thrive on working in teams and receiving frequent feedback. Huddle rooms provide the perfect space for this style of collaboration.
Designing an Efficient Huddle Room
A functional huddle room is characterized by its ability to provide what conference rooms lack. Companies must be careful to avoid treating huddle rooms as smaller conference rooms. Huddle rooms are not intended to replace conference rooms.
As a result, companies are often unsure about the approach they should take to equip a practical huddle room. The needs of each company define the design of a huddle room. However, there are certain characteristics that huddle rooms must have to ensure this compact space is as efficient as possible.
Basic Huddle Rooms
Some companies choose to keep their huddle rooms simple. The most basic huddle room is centralized around a table and few chairs, along with a display device. Audio-visual experts also recommend including technology that enables content sharing to enhance collaboration. Professionals advise including a touchscreen display equipped with the proper content sharing applications and conference room audio equipment, such as a microphone and speaker.
Mid-Level Huddle Rooms
The next tier of the huddle room offers a few more technological features to enhance the collaborative experience further. A mid-level huddle room design includes built-in speakers and microphones, along with a video conferencing camera. Mid-level huddle rooms have interactive displays and technology that allows employees to connect their devices and share content.
Advanced Huddle Rooms
At the highest end of the continuum, there are advanced huddle rooms. They are uncommon and resemble a conference room. Advanced huddle rooms risk diminishing the qualities that allow them to be effective collaboration areas. Content-sharing technology accommodates multiscreen displays equipped with touchscreen capabilities. Some companies choose to incorporate scheduling applications for employees to reserve the room to work on specific projects.
The Importance of Audio-Visual Technology in Huddle Rooms
Although huddle rooms are poised to become available in every workspace, companies must not overlook the role audio-visual technology plays in the modern collaborative process. As demographics in the workplace shift and more employees opt to work remotely, it is essential that companies adequately respond to the needs of their workers if they are to remain relevant. Incorporate the best AV technology in your huddle rooms and prepare for the Digital Age today.
Marketing by Joseph Studios
