Poorly planned meetings can result in fatigue, lack of motivation, and inefficiency. According to a Microsoft survey conducted in 2023, out of 31,000 professionals worldwide, two of the top 3 factors negatively impacting productivity in the workplace were identified as “inefficient meetings” and “excessive meetings.”
By planning meetings effectively, these issues can be resolved. It can reduce the number of unnecessary meetings and lead to improved quality of interactions.
Finding a time that suits everyone is a crucial aspect of successful meeting planning. Yet, this can be a daunting and time-consuming endeavor. The endless exchange of emails can be extremely time-consuming, and it can be quite challenging to coordinate a suitable time through a series of phone calls.
Meeting scheduling tools are used in that situation.
With the appropriate meeting scheduling tool, all the stress and frustration can vanish.
What are meeting scheduling tools?
Meeting scheduling tools assist individuals in identifying a convenient meeting time, distributing meeting invitations and agendas, as well as issuing timely reminders.
At a broad level, the process of scheduling meetings involves utilizing data from participants’ digital calendars in order to propose a suitable meeting time that accommodates all individuals. These scheduling tools can either function as independent software or be integrated into various collaboration tools like communication platforms and project management systems.
If your team needs to frequently schedule calls with colleagues, work teams, or clients, the use of meeting schedulers can simplify the scheduling process. This allows them to concentrate on crucial elements of the meeting and allocate more time to productive tasks.
Streamlining your company’s meeting culture can also have a long-term positive impact on how teams find time to meet.
Why you should start using a meeting scheduling tool
Before the meeting even begins, if you manually attempt to find a suitable time, it can negatively impact the morale of your team or client. Your client might perceive your methods as outdated and develop hesitation or concerns about conducting business with you.
If your team is burdened with manual scheduling and has to meet at an inconvenient time, it may negatively impact their mindset and engagement for the meeting, rendering it a futile use of time for everyone involved.
One benefit of using meeting schedulers is that they allow everyone to devote more time to other crucial aspects of the meeting.
- Planning the meeting agenda
- Defining meeting goals
- Preparing meeting materials and presentations
Benefits of Team Scheduling Software
- Team scheduling software improves visibility when it comes to staffing. Part of what employees find frustrating about the scheduling process is how much it can change from week-to-week, or how shift changes can occur last-minute, sometimes without any notice. Software alleviates this aggravation by making it clear what’s happening, who’s scheduled, and what changes may occur.
- Most modern scheduling systems make it easy for both employees and employers to manage scheduling conflicts and employee shifts. For example, managers can often see when team members request time off and approve or reject the request through the software itself.
- Workforce management becomes simpler when you have a host of scheduling features at your fingertips. It’s easier to optimize your overall shift scheduling when you get a clear picture of which employees work best and at what times. Furthermore, this improves overall productivity and employee satisfaction, as your team will be able to establish a work-life balance as their shifts grow more consistent.
Team scheduling solutions that are effective aim to empower both managers and team members to collaborate, leading to enhanced employee relations, job satisfaction, and overall productivity improvement.
How to choose the best meeting scheduling tool for your team
When it comes to choosing a meeting scheduling tool, there is no universal solution. While many businesses prioritize the Return On Investment (ROI) in software purchase decisions, it is crucial to also take into account other factors of equal importance. Provided below is a compilation of some crucial factors to consider.
- Features: Aside from automating meeting scheduling, what else does your team need from a meeting scheduler? Some scheduling tools can send meeting reminders, sync your calendar across multiple devices, record meetings, and even take notes. Knowing just which features are enough is essential, as most times, the more features a tool has, the pricier it is. And you certainly don’t want to pay for more features than your team needs when there are cheaper alternatives that’ll work just fine.
- Pricing: Some meeting scheduling tools have both free and paid plans. But most free plans have limited features and may need more key functionalities like calendar integration, data security and privacy, and dedicated customer support. Learning about your team’s budget and the features they consider must-haves can help you get good value for your money.
- Security & Privacy: If you deal with corporate clients, using a meeting scheduler that offers enterprise-level security can reinforce trust in your company. Some meeting scheduling tools provide enterprise-level security and privacy by default, but you may have to pay for it on others.
- Integrations: This is about how well a meeting scheduler can connect and communicate with your team’s existing tools. For example, if your team uses Google or Microsoft calendar apps, you must choose a scheduling app that integrates seamlessly.
- Customer Support: The level of customer support is always a huge determining factor when buying software. Look out for how responsive their customer support is and how truly helpful their support resources, like help center articles are. Online review platforms, like G2 and Trustpilot, are good sources of credible, use-based reviews.
Although this isn’t an exhaustive list, it encompasses the crucial factors to consider when selecting a meeting scheduler.
Now, let’s delve into our review of the top five meeting scheduling apps available.
The top 13 meeting scheduling tools in 2023
Calendly
Calendly is an easy-to-use online platform for scheduling appointments that helps teams save time by avoiding the hassle of manual scheduling. With its meeting availability feature, teams can easily set meeting blockers in their calendars for various times throughout the day. Additionally, Calendly offers a user-friendly interface that is simple and clutter-free.
In order to utilize Calendly, you need to go through the process of signing up, connecting your calendar, and thereafter configuring your meeting availability and preferences. By incorporating your specific choices, Calendly tailors your booking page and generates a link that others can regularly access to schedule meetings with you.
Key features
Calendly’s key features include the following:
- Multiple calendar options for different purposes, such as personal, work, and travel calendars.
- Meeting availability and preferences
- The option to send booking page invite to others from within the calendar
- Past meeting history
- Booking confirmation notification
However, if you are seeking a scheduler that aids in organizing your days, Calendly might not be the best option. This is primarily because all event types are displayed in the same color, which makes it challenging to quickly distinguish between different types of events.
Doodle
Doodle is a robust scheduling software designed for individuals and teams to easily share their calendar, booking page, and availability through a poll. By utilizing the poll results, Doodle suggests meeting times that suit everyone’s preferences.
To access Doodle’s poll feature, the first step is to create an account and set your availability for a meeting using a poll. Once done, you can then invite others to do the same by sharing the poll’s link with them.
If they go through the routine more than once daily, this fun way of scheduling meetings with teammates and people you know can become distracting.
Booking meetings with corporate clients, C-level executives, and generally busy people may not be an ideal approach.
Key features
Here are some of the main features of Doodle:
- Create a poll that up to 1,000 invitees can participate in
- Get an individual and team booking page
- Send meeting invites
- Send email and SMS reminders
- Receive notifications for booked meetings
Motion
Motion is an AI productivity application that aids individuals and teams in enhancing their organization and supervision of meetings, tasks, and work schedules. It introduces a meeting assistant which eliminates the need for lengthy email exchanges and constant phone calls by offering an integrated team calendar and an uncomplicated booking page.
By enabling teams to save time for more significant tasks and enhance productivity, Motion’s automation and AI functions contribute to maximizing workday efficiency. Motion’s user-friendly nature ensures that new users do not spend unnecessary time navigating its features.
Key Features
With Motion’s meeting scheduling assistant, you have the ability to:
- Send meeting confirmation messages via email and text
- Send follow-up emails and reminders after the schedule is confirmed
- Automatically detect participants’ timezone and avoid booking clashes
- Indicate your meeting preferences and dedicate timeslots on your calendar specifically for meetings
- Customize your booking page with brand images and logos
- Connects multiple private calendars, like Google, Outlook, and iCloud calendars, to sync events and tasks
- Embed on your personal or company website
- Integrate with your video conferencing and virtual meeting tools
Shiftboard
Shiftboard is a software designed specifically for industries that are essential, like manufacturing, energy, and healthcare. Despite this, other businesses can also benefit from the same reliable level of service provided to these industries. They have two products available: SchedulePro and ScheduleFlex.
Key Features:
- Employee self-scheduling software
- Bottom-up scheduling management
- Mobile punch clock and geofencing
- Bulk Upload Schedule Templates
Monday
Monday, known as one of the top employee scheduling software for small businesses, offers a visual approach to scheduling your employees. Although it is difficult to determine the absolute best scheduling program, Monday definitely ranks high on the list. At the time of writing this post, Monday holds a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra, derived from 2411 reviews.
Key Features:
- Responsive Dashboard
- Automations
- Varied Integrations
- Team Files
- Workdocs
OnTheClock
OnTheClock, similar to Buddy Punch, is an employee time clock that includes workforce scheduling software features. As of the writing of this post, OnTheClock has received 4.7 out of 5 stars and has 505 reviews on Capterra.
Key Features:
- Employee shift scheduling
- Time Clock for Desktop, Mobile & Phone Apps
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Surveys
- GPS Tracking
- Messaging
OpenSimSim
If you are a business owner seeking free employee scheduling software to download, it is worth considering OpenSimSim’s SocialSchedules. You can either use SocialSchedules as part of OpenSimSim or as a separate program. When used with OpenSimSim, it is included in the free plan for one location, one department, and up to ten scheduled workers.
Key Features:
- Employee Scheduling
- Time Clock
- Team Messaging
- Compliance Tools
- Integrations
Hubstaff
Hubstaff currently has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars and 1240 reviews on Capterra, as of the date of this post.
Key Features:
- Employee Scheduling
- Online Time Reporting
- Automated Payroll & Invoicing
- GPS Location Tracking
- Employee Productivity Monitoring
Shift Scheduler
Yes, Google does have a staff scheduling tool available. You can find various team scheduling software, including Shift Scheduler developed by Connor Burke, for free download on the Google Workspace Marketplace.
Microsoft Teams
If you were looking for an employee scheduling software created by Microsoft, you’re in luck as some business owners prefer the security provided by software made by large technology companies.
Key Features:
- Staffing/Scheduling
- Workforce Management
- Instant Messaging
- Online Meetings
- Video Conferencing
DeskTime
DeskTime is an app for Desktop or mobile devices (iOS and Android) that serves as a versatile time clock and employee shift schedule.
Key Features:
- Shift Scheduling
- Automatic Time Tracking
- URL and App Tracking
- Document Title Tracking
- Idle Time Tracking
- Project Time Tracking
- Automatic Screenshots
- Absence Calendar
- Invoicing
QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time, previously identified as TSheets, functions as an application for employee scheduling.
Key Features:
- Staff Scheduling and Messaging
- Time Tracking
- Time Card Reports
- Payroll and Human Resources Integrations
Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch, topping the list of shift software solutions, is designed to provide a wide range of options for flexibility to both managers and employees, empowering them.
The reason why Buddy Punch is such an efficient team scheduling software is because it prioritizes simplicity. Our extensive range of scheduling features, including Job Locations, Drag & Drop Shifts, Notifications, Punch Limiting, Overtime Calculation, Automatic Scheduling, Shift trades & Covers, Automatic Breaks, and IP Address locks, are designed with a focus on ease-of-use.
Key Features:
- Employee Time Tracking
- PTO/Sick/Vacation Time
- Customized Reports
- Time Card Approvals
- Multiple Punch and Login Options
- Adding, Editing, or Deleting Punches
