As we gradually shift back to face-to-face work and hybrid meetings, the colossal changes and upheavals brought about by Covid-19 has also seen how a large privacy booth may be straightening itself up to become a strong contender for large meeting rooms. Let’s see how both of them fare, and why a large privacy booth may fare better in today’s climate.
Traditional working designs
Meet the traditional, large meeting room. Wall-to-wall wood panelling, black rolling chairs upholstered in leather, and the pull-down screen and projector we used for presenting slides. These are the rooms that we’ve been accustomed to pre-Covid. They help to facilitate face-to-face meetings, allow people to present to a live audience, and to inspire discussion.
With Covid-19 throttling these designs and pushing everybody onto Zoom and Teams, we see how these meeting rooms have fallen into disuse. Now, everybody either calls-in from home for meetings, or calls-in from their laptop within the office, especially as the split-team or hybrid work arrangement persists for most companies.
Consequently, no one seems to want to depend on these dreaded meeting rooms anymore. After all, it is rather inconvenient to use these meeting rooms when online calls are an option and can be easier for everyone to dial-into. Meeting rooms can also be insipid, dull, and mundane to work with.
In turn, the low usage rate has begged the question of whether such rooms are needed at all. Given its limited functionality and minimal use, now, it is perhaps time to consider how pods are changing the game.
Office pods switching up on traditional meetings
Enter the privacy pod. These have been part of the revolutionary work designs in the past two and a half years, where the increasing dissatisfaction of open-office plans and cubicle designs have rendered a need to direct a focus on flexible office design and accommodation. For most of us, indeed, hybrid work is the new 9-5.
Coming in various sizes and shapes, the privacy booth can also double-up as a large meeting room for offices, especially on a as-and-when basis. Plenty of benefits come hand-in-hand with this.
- Saves on cost and time
Cost- and time-effectiveness is certainly one of the most prevalent factors when it comes to a consideration of the benefits of office pods. Since these pods are delivered and set up for you, everything comes to you much cheaper than when building a whole room.
Herein, imagine the fuss of calling in contractors, knocking down walls, construction noises. Now, compare that to pre-set-up privacy pods which will be tactfully installed by experts. Thus, by saving on the fuss and materials from building a whole meeting room — that you might also come to regret and wish to change — the privacy booth offers that option for you.
- Relocating
Building and outfitting meeting rooms also guarantees that it becomes a rigid part of the design. Yet, Covid-19 has shunned all borders and proven to us that flexibility is something that should be a part of workplace design and procedures.
With office pods, one can now flexibly change the pod’s location, or move it from one place to another, especially if you no longer need to use it. Moreover, the relocation can be within the office, or from office to home or home to office; this is the case when setting up a home office in a small space, vice versa. Our team at InstaPods is more than willing to do the pod’s relocation for you. Simply drop us an enquiry, call in, or email in so that we can do the heavy lifting!
That being said, some of our pods come with wheels. This makes it even easier for the office’s own staff to do it themselves — and all without the hassle of needing to call in or ask for help.
- Same facilities as meeting room
Even at a lower cost where there’s no need to call in contractors and the like, the pod comes fully-kitted out with everything you will need for a meeting room. It comes with lighting, stable fan ventilation, wall plugs, USB ports, furniture, carpeted floors, etc. And these staple amenities are accompanied by a free-to-design room layout, which allows you to deck out the room in the most optimal way for productivity and work. This can mean more chairs or tables, depending on how big or small your office is.
- Resale or rental pods: What are their values?
While InstaPods offers rental, there are times where individuals may opt to buy a booth for their personal office or home; the latter in setting up a home office in a small space. This can be very helpful.
However, if you ever change your mind, you can always resell your pod. With its skyrocketing popularity, you’ll likely find that you won’t be short of buyers who are looking for their next home office or meeting room, too. The resale value will definitely not shortchange you of your money’s worth, either.
Conversely, while meeting rooms can be rented out, they cannot be sold; and albeit the fact that their furniture can be sold, this is unlikely to be the case.
- Quietude and solitude and peace
Last but not least, InstaPods is credible with its soundproofing. All our booths have been designed with the goal of sound reduction in mind, so that workers can achieve conducive focus during large meetings (as with large meeting rooms), and can focus on Zoom calls or one-on-one calls. Conference rooms, on the contrary, may not be as soundproofed.
So far, InstaPods have been proven to be credible and reputable. All our pods are also tested for, and are TUV SUD certified with up to -25db to -30db sound reduction.
Drop us an inquiry!
Interested in your next meeting room or private working space, or worried about how you can go about setting up a home office in a small space? Contact us here to find out more about our 1-4 person pods, and the variety of booths that we offer.
