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.