Business professionals are spending a lot of time talking about huddle rooms and huddle spaces--after all they are proven to help remote employees collaborate and even improve employee recruitment and retention--but what exactly are they?
TechLogix CEO Cameron Smith spends a lot of time evangelizing the trends and benefits of huddle rooms. Below are excerpts from a popular course he leads:
Huddle rooms are gaining traction because employees are increasingly working remotely, forcing the need for external collaboration.
- 50% of the workforce hold jobs that could be done remotely
- 80 – 90% of employees would prefer to work remotely
- The average Fortune 1000 employee spend less than 50% of their time at their desk
- Employee working from home has increased by 103% since 2005
- 3.7M employees (2.8% of the work force) now work from home at least 50% of the time
- The employee population grew by 1.9% from 2013 to 2014; however, the telecommuter pool grew by 5.6%
This drives the need for small meeting spaces that allow for local and remote employees to collaborate. These rooms share several common themes:
- 6 or less users per room
- Adhoc scheduling
- 45 – 60 minutes per meeting
- Simple to use technology
- Buildings often have multiple huddle rooms per corporate location
Huddle rooms often have a lounge-like feel with basic furniture, and the technology tends to be extremely user friendly and often includes:
- A simple speaker phone
- A flat panel display
- Very simple connection interfaces, including table inserts and wallplates
- A whiteboard
- Sources such as user provided laptops and tablets
About TechLogix
TechLogix is a leader in collaboration technology, focusing on solutions for huddle rooms, meeting rooms, and classrooms. Their Share-Me room systems have won numerous awards. Additional information is online at www.tlnetworx.com.
