Business (275+ employees) out of office announcing & tracking (1 Viewer)

I work at a company of approx. 275 employees and the way we handle out of office announcements and tracking at this time is a complete joke. I've been assigned to figure out a better/more efficient way, hopefully utilizing technology to accomplish what we need. Looking to see what other companies use that work well. In a perfect world it would be a program that would handshake somehow with Outlook Express calendaring, but not sure if thats a possibility or not.

Below are recent talking points with the CEO that will hopefully give a picture to what we do now, thats needs changing...

Why needed?

- Emails now sent out randomly to large groups with all different advanced notices. (ex: out for dentist appt. from 1-3pm a month from now...who is going to remember that?)

- Constantly changing, so get update emails or dont forget follow up emails.

- Clogs up email inboxes with messages that ultimately dont hold much value, but has just become part of our norm (aka: CYA) per Gregs direction a while back.

- This will only get worse as flex time becomes more a part of our culture.

- Simply marking off in Outlook Calendar isnt the fix...Receptionist still needs to be made aware, people want to give others advanced notice, note special details of why out, who their backups are, etc.

What would we like to accomplish with new tool:

- Main Receptionist now has a real-time tool to reference when receiving calls on employees whereabouts.

- All agency employees are now one click away from seeing a real-time list of who is out of the office with easy to reference details of backups, etc.

- Agency employees are no longer bogged down with constant emails of OOTO updates, that ultimately just get forgotten or overlooked anyways

What about creating an Outlook "user" called "Out of Office"? Make the OOO calendar openable by everyone (and teach them how to do so), then have employees have to invite "Out of Office" to whatever time out of the office they are going to have. That way, if you are trying to figure out if someone is OOO, you can just look at the calendar.

Downside is, if you've got 50 people out, that's a lot of scrolling.

I have noticed when I look at someone's calendar in outlook and they are out all day, their "busy" line shows up purple. Don't know if we configured it that way, or that's the out of box solution though.

Sorry I don't have something more elegant...

People send out mass emails saying they'll be out? Seriously?

Out of office autoreply with who to contact in your absence or your cell number in cases of emergency. Otherwise, it can wait until I get back. And of course, the calendar. What am I missing here?

kardplayer said:

What about creating an Outlook "user" called "Out of Office"? Make the OOO calendar openable by everyone (and teach them how to do so), then have employees have to invite "Out of Office" to whatever time out of the office they are going to have. That way, if you are trying to figure out if someone is OOO, you can just look at the calendar.

Downside is, if you've got 50 people out, that's a lot of scrolling.

I have noticed when I look at someone's calendar in outlook and they are out all day, their "busy" line shows up purple. Don't know if we configured it that way, or that's the out of box solution though.

Sorry I don't have something more elegant...

Click to expand...

Just set up a shared calendar. Its up to the individual to update their absences. Secretary just has to look at the shared calendar to see who is away and when. Make multiple calendars - by division or something if you want a bit of a breakdown. the individual can add notes to their entry with more details if someone cares to look, like backups etc.

gmbacm said:

kardplayer said:

What about creating an Outlook "user" called "Out of Office"? Make the OOO calendar openable by everyone (and teach them how to do so), then have employees have to invite "Out of Office" to whatever time out of the office they are going to have. That way, if you are trying to figure out if someone is OOO, you can just look at the calendar.

Downside is, if you've got 50 people out, that's a lot of scrolling.

I have noticed when I look at someone's calendar in outlook and they are out all day, their "busy" line shows up purple. Don't know if we configured it that way, or that's the out of box solution though.

Sorry I don't have something more elegant...

Click to expand...

Just set up a shared calendar. Its up to the individual to update their absences. Secretary just has to look at the shared calendar to see who is away and when. Make multiple calendars - by division or something if you want a bit of a breakdown. the individual can add notes to their entry with more details if someone cares to look, like backups etc.

Click to expand...

We do this for my group. 20-25 people. Never an issue to find if someone is out.

Apple Jack said:

People send out mass emails saying they'll be out? Seriously?

Out of office autoreply with who to contact in your absence or your cell number in cases of emergency. Otherwise, it can wait until I get back. And of course, the calendar. What am I missing here?

Click to expand...

Its an Advertising Agency so we have a lot of "teams" from all different departments that work together on projects....so an advanced notice has become part of our culture so others are aware in advance when someone will be out so others can plan accordingly.

Below is an example of an email I received this past Monday (Nov 17).....and I literally get about 10 of these per day. Its ridiculous.

----

Quick note on my PTO and OOTO for remainder of year - the two dates in bold are this week. Art will be my backup (thanks, Art!).

1/2 day Monday Nov 17 (afternoon off)

1 day Thursday Nov 20 conference in Chicago

1/2 day Friday 12/5 (afternoon off)

1/2 day Monday 12/8 (morning off)

1/2 day 12/24 (morning off)

1 day 12/29

1 day 12/30

1/2 day 12/31 (morning off)

Shared calender is the answer except I am not sure how the permissions would need to be setup.

I have also utilized a shared spreadsheet on the network.

offdee said:

Apple Jack said:

People send out mass emails saying they'll be out? Seriously?

Out of office autoreply with who to contact in your absence or your cell number in cases of emergency. Otherwise, it can wait until I get back. And of course, the calendar. What am I missing here?

Click to expand...

Its an Advertising Agency so we have a lot of "teams" from all different departments that work together on projects....so an advanced notice has become part of our culture so others are aware in advance when someone will be out so others can plan accordingly.

Below is an example of an email I received this past Monday (Nov 17).....and I literally get about 10 of these per day. Its ridiculous.

----

Quick note on my PTO and OOTO for remainder of year - the two dates in bold are this week. Art will be my backup (thanks, Art!).

1/2 day Monday Nov 17 (afternoon off)

1 day Thursday Nov 20 conference in Chicago

1/2 day Friday 12/5 (afternoon off)

1/2 day Monday 12/8 (morning off)

1/2 day 12/24 (morning off)

1 day 12/29

1 day 12/30

1/2 day 12/31 (morning off)

Click to expand...

This is completely useless.. to the point finding out via the automatic reply after the fact is 100X preferable.

You seem to be implying prior notice is the norm - but ill bet nobody even bothers to keep track the way you have it. I'd be deleting every damn one of those emails without opening.

They do have specialized software like this.....not sure how good any are.

matuski said:

offdee said:

Apple Jack said:

People send out mass emails saying they'll be out? Seriously?

Out of office autoreply with who to contact in your absence or your cell number in cases of emergency. Otherwise, it can wait until I get back. And of course, the calendar. What am I missing here?

Click to expand...

Its an Advertising Agency so we have a lot of "teams" from all different departments that work together on projects....so an advanced notice has become part of our culture so others are aware in advance when someone will be out so others can plan accordingly.

Below is an example of an email I received this past Monday (Nov 17).....and I literally get about 10 of these per day. Its ridiculous.

----

Quick note on my PTO and OOTO for remainder of year - the two dates in bold are this week. Art will be my backup (thanks, Art!).

1/2 day Monday Nov 17 (afternoon off)

1 day Thursday Nov 20 conference in Chicago

1/2 day Friday 12/5 (afternoon off)

1/2 day Monday 12/8 (morning off)

1/2 day 12/24 (morning off)

1 day 12/29

1 day 12/30

1/2 day 12/31 (morning off)

Click to expand...

This is completely useless.. to the point finding out via the automatic reply after the fact is 100X preferable.

You seem to be implying prior notice is the norm - but ill bet nobody even bothers to keep track the way you have it. I'd be deleting every damn one of those emails without opening.

Click to expand...

Tell me about it. But, its the reality of where we presently stand and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it.

I do feel that advanced notice is valuable at some level, but there needs to be a better way than emails (especially with a company of this size)

I actually have a pretty thorough idea of an app that would work great, but would require progrmming efforts and wouldnt really handshake with Outlook calendars which are both negatives.

jon_mx said:

They do have specialized software like this.....not sure how good any are.

Click to expand...

This looks very promising. Allows you to earmark certain employees to give you a notification when they've made an OOTO update (which will eliminate need for emails), gives a real-time full agency overview all on one screen and looks like it handshakes with Outlook. All main things needed.

My company uses lync. You can tell when people are available when they put a green dot by their name. It syncs with outlook so the dot is red when unavailable.

kardplayer said:

What about creating an Outlook "user" called "Out of Office"? Make the OOO calendar openable by everyone (and teach them how to do so), then have employees have to invite "Out of Office" to whatever time out of the office they are going to have. That way, if you are trying to figure out if someone is OOO, you can just look at the calendar.

Click to expand...

We do this, similar sized office, works great.