Build An Effective Meeting Room Policy for Your Law Firm

You know the feeling: you get to the office and your first meeting of the day goes over. This causes a ripple effect for the rest of the day: as clients come in, meeting start times are off and everyone gets frustrated. 

Or maybe, in your law office, all of your rooms are being used up by internal team meetings that you can’t find a space for your client meetup. 

If scheduling priority meetings is chaotic and meeting room usage is ineffective, then it’s likely time for a meeting room policy. Whether that’s: 

• Promoting efficient resource allocation 
• Prioritizing client meetings, depositions and discovery
• Hosting professional development trainings
• Improving overall workplace experience

By establishing clear rules and expectations for use of meeting rooms, companies can create a more productive work environment for all employees.

In this blog, we will help you create a conference room reservation policy that simplifies the process of future reservations, maximizes productivity, and reduces the problems of double booking and wasted space.

How To Create An Effective Meeting Room Policy in Your Law Office

With limited private spaces available for meetings in open office layouts, individuals may be tempted to schedule a meeting room for individual work and use it for hours on end, leaving other employees without a place to collaborate.

In order to avoid conflicts and ensure that all employees have access to the resources they need, it is crucial to implement a clear and effective meeting room policy. Here’s how to get started.

1. Define the Policy’s Scope and Intention

Before drafting the meeting room policy, you need to determine the scope and purpose. Your policy should have a clear purpose, such as: 

• Maximizing space allocation
• Optimizing utilization
• Limiting distractions
• Fostering collaboration 
• Eliminating booking frustrations

If you have multiple law offices, consider whether or not your new policy will apply to each location or if individual offices will decide on their own guidelines. 

2. Establish the Purpose of Each Room

Before you start building your meeting room guidelines, count up the number of rooms in your office and start deciding what the purpose of each room will be. 

Start by defining the easier elements like capacity and resources. How many people can fit in each room? Which rooms have which types of equipment? From there, you can start making general rules around conference room usage. 

For example: big rooms with large capacities shouldn’t be booked for 1-1 meetings. Rooms with video-conferencing options should be reserved for hybrid meetings with clients or remote employees. 

By defining the purpose of each room you better map out what rules and guidelines you’ll need to communicate to your teams. 

3. Develop a User-Friendly System for Booking Meeting Rooms

The booking process is incredibly important in the success of a meeting room policy. The booking system should be easy to navigate and accessible to all employees across different departments. 

Some companies rely on manual systems to manage their meeting room bookings, which can take up a lot of time and resources. Most companies take advantage of meeting room booking software which can automate scheduling, booking, cancellations, and beyond. 

In fact, most conference room scheduling software can integrate with your calendar system so employees can book a room right from their own calendar. Teams can also search rooms based on availability, resources and capacity and request or reserve a space in advance.

4. Clearly State the Rules for Using The Meeting Room

To ensure that everyone understands and follows the meeting room guidelines, the policy must be communicated clearly. When outlining your rules, you should: 

• Provide instructions on how to use the equipment in the meeting room, such as projectors, speaker systems, and screens.
• Detail any rules that apply to specific rooms or locations (e.g., quiet zones, conference rooms).
• Clearly indicate time limits for bookings and auto-cancellation settings (ie: 15 minutes without check-in frees up the room).
• Consider any health and safety measures or clean-up protocols for teams after using a space. 

It’s essential to have clear guidelines on how and when employees can use spaces so that everyone understands what’s expected of them. Conference room displays are a great way to make this information readily available for teams.

5. Develop a System to Monitor and Enforce the Policy

One of the biggest challenges in implementing a meeting room policy is ensuring that it is actually followed by all employees. To ensure that the meeting room policy works, you need to establish a system that monitors and enforces the rules. Consider designing a system that sends reminders to employees who violate the policy or those who do not book rooms in advance. 

In order to be effective, policies need to be communicated clearly and regularly. Managers should be proactive in enforcing the policy and addressing any violations that occur. By being diligent and consistent in enforcing a meeting room policy, companies can maximize its effectiveness and prevent any negative consequences from arising.

6. Collect Feedback and Continuously Improve the Policy.

The meeting room policy is not set in stone, and it needs to be reviewed periodically to ensure that it is still effective. Collect feedback from employees and gather input from IT, facilities, and people teams to identify areas for improvement.

For instance, you can adjust the meeting room booking system if there are complaints from teams or add more rooms if it appears that they are in high demand. Similarly, if there are critical equipment upgrades or room upgrades required to meet new safety measures or a transformation of the meeting dynamic, create guidelines to implement these changes while keeping in mind the meeting room's continuity.

A Checklist to Define Your Meeting Room Booking Policy

A meeting room policy is an essential step towards streamlining the booking and utilization of meeting rooms effectively. It provides a framework for various groups of employees to work collaboratively while ensuring that rules are respected and schedules are maintained.

When building your own meeting room guidelines, ask yourself these questions:

• How many rooms are in your office? 
• What equipment does each room have? 
• How many people can fit in each room? 
• What is the process for booking a room?
• How long can a room be booked for? 
• How long is the grace period to check-in before the meeting is canceled?
• Are any meeting rooms restricted for specific use? 
• What are your expectations around cleaning the room? 
• What kind of catering is required? 

By following the above steps and other customized measures, businesses can develop an office culture where people respect and utilize meeting rooms optimally. It is crucial to develop a policy that can be easily enforced and continuously improved by all stakeholders in the company or organization.

Download our meeting room policy template to access our checklist and get started on your plans today.

End-to-End Meeting Room Management with Robin 

Want to take the management of the spaces in your law office a step further? 

From room scheduling to wayfinding, with a tool like Robin, you can create a productive and user-friendly workplace. Robin is the trusted workplace experience platform for thousands of law firms. Let’s chat about how we can help take your offices from good to great.