Book anything: What else?

For this “book anything” edition, let’s try something new. Think about your day at the office — your own, unique day. What do you interact with? What do you use? Think outside the box.

Let’s try a mock scenario to get your thoughts flowing.

You wake up. The first thing you do — the first thing 71% of people do first thing in the morning — is check your phone. While you’re perusing your social media, you remember to switch to your desk booking app and book a desk for the day. Then, while you’re at it, you remember to use your highly-efficient booking app to also reserve a parking spot in your company lot. With a few taps, you’re all set for a full day at the office. But, are you? Is there anything else you could book before even arriving on-site? Definitely.

Every company is different: every company is trying new things and finding out which resources work for them. Most strive to think outside of the box, one way or another, to give themselves an edge in the talent market or their industry.

Let’s have a look at some examples of outside-the-box ideas.

Recreational spaces

“Recreational spaces” is the most docile idea in this article. Just as a meeting room can be booked, so can a recreational space. However, the trick is, the recreational space doesn’t have to be on the same floor, in the same building, or even indoors. Let’s start with the simplest example: office workout rooms. It’s easy enough to configure a workout room like a conference room. Set the availability, and even a maximum capacity, making sure there’s enough space for people to comfortably work out. However, break down the workout space and you’ll find even more bookable resources: treadmills, ellipticals, yoga balls, or dumbbell sets. The same can be said for spaces not even on your office floor. If your workout room is in the basement, next to your pool, or in another building entirely, it can still be bookable. The configurations are limitless. Now, to think outside the office, what about soccer fields? Outdoor basketball hoops? Golf simulators? Spikeball sets? What about gardened areas for yoga or meditation? That’s right — every single one of these examples can be made bookable. With the right app in place, employees are guaranteed recreational resources when they need a break from work.

Campus resources

Let’s not be naive enough to think that everyone has an in-office desk job. There are thousands of occupations in our society. Most office solutions cater to the most common work environment: desks on an office floor, complete with a lunchroom, conference rooms, and executive offices. However, thinking outside the norm, let’s consider environments with a focus on education — colleges and universities, to be exact. There are hundreds of resources available on school campuses. Just as in-office employees are pressed for time to get their work done, so are students and professors. They, too, ought to be guaranteed resources when they need them.

Lab equipment is a great example. Consider: a professor plans to demonstrate an intricate experiment in class involving a set of beakers and a microscope. He arrives on-site and finds all the microscopes otherwise engaged — there isn’t a single microscope available. At a loss, the professor has no choice but to use the unpolished lecture he’d planned for the following week. Just like with hybrid work, staff members need to get the most out of their on-site experiences, and a booking app can make all the difference. Instead of arriving on-site to find no available resources, students and professors alike can book assets in advance, guaranteeing they can be productive when they arrive at the lab.

What’s more, a booking solution can help campuses keep tabs on valuable resources. Consider camcorders, video-editing computers, high-quality lab equipment, or maybe even a shockwave machine for kinesiology students. The point is, there are hundreds of valuable resources on campus, free for students to handle and use. A booking app can help faculties keep track of their assets and manage their security.

Safety equipment

Whether you work in construction, excavation, forestry, utilities management, work in extreme weather conditions, or inspect hazardous areas, you need protective equipment. Unfortunately, employees come and go, especially with the Great Resignation afflicting our society. It isn’t always feasible, or logical, to invest in personal protective equipment (PPE) for each employee. This is why many companies set up a sign-out system for their PPE. If an employee needs specialty headgear one day, they sign it out. Still, there can be issues with a simple signing-out system. For example, when Frank arrives at the office on Monday, he discovers that all of the PPE headgear has been signed out. Without the right equipment for working in a hazardous environment, Frank has to postpone his site inspection to the next day. Or, with a booking tool in place, Frank could have booked his PPE well in advance, even at the time he arranged the site visit, making sure he’d have the right equipment to do his job. You see, booking apps aren’t only for computers, desks, and other streamlined office resources. — it’s finally truly possible to book anything.

Hospitality industry

If you think bookable resources in the hospitality world is a farfetched idea, wait for the last one. Except, keep in mind, each of these ideas is based on a real-life case. Unless you’ve worked in the hospitality industry, you don’t know how strenuous it can be. Yes, housekeepers tidy the rooms, both bedrooms and common rooms, send towels and sheets to the laundry… but they also keep track of each and every room, organize linens, keep plants alive, maintain their spotlessly-pressed uniforms, and so much more. Hotels have a ton of resources to keep everything running smoothly. Irons and ironing boards, kettles… even tools for basic maintenance like a hammer or drill. With a booking app, employees can keep track of who has each resource and for how long. Then, rather than waiting for Lori to return the hammer to the storeroom, Sharon can reserve the tool for the next hour and carry on her day in the meantime.

Company… pets?

Just to show how truly out of the box you can think, how about a company dog? Again, every one of these examples is taken from real-life experiences.

Some companies own a company pet. Dogs in the office have proven to, more often than not, reduce work stress and improve productivity. It’s not crazy for some companies to exploit this fact in the most fluffy, cuddly, adorable way possible. Consider this. Greg is having a rough day. His client called, yelling at him for dropping the ball over a simple miscommunication that was no one’s fault. After nodding and apologizing for the past hour, Greg needs some cheer-up time with the company dog. By the time he finds the pup, Julie, Carlos, and Carol are surrounding it, leaving no room for Greg to sort out his woes. In an alternate universe, Greg opens his booking app and reserves an hour with the dog, guaranteeing the one-on-one time he so desperately needs. And, that app? Is Joan.

Joan: the universal solution you’ve been waiting for

The one app all of these examples have in common, the one that can make virtually anything bookable is the Joan booking app. What started as a meeting room booking solution grew to a desk booking tool and then expanded to, well, everything. The easy-to-use app is intuitive, requiring little to no onboarding. The booking solution is simple enough to integrate smoothly with any environment. What’s more, Joan analytics help organizations assess which resources are overused and which are underused, helping them achieve the highest ROI on their assets.

By thinking of nothing in particular, Joan has thought of everything. We’ve given you a truly customizable solution that can be tailored to your organization’s unique, one-of-a-kind needs.

Book anything.