Last week I had to coordinate a meeting with nine people across three companies and seven time zones. This common struggle has been solved with Microsoft FindTime for some time, but so many people do not know about it!
Finding a time to meet is a widespread issue in global teams across companies. This is just a small list of the common challenges:
- Different times zones
- Half Time Zones
- Different Daylight Savings Schedules
- Flex Schedules
- Region specific time zones, including Arizona Time
Several ad-hoc tools exist to help with these issues, but many Microsoft 365 customers do not know they have FindTime built in to help!
An organiser of a FindTime poll must have a Microsoft 365 plan that includes Exchange Online. Members of the poll do not need to be on Office 365.
In best practices, a FindTime poll coordinates meetings with calendars you cannot see. If the meeting is internal, it is best to use good calendar hygiene and leverage Free/Busy data. FindTime can also be a good tool internally for firms with poor calendar hygiene, such as when people don’t keep their calendars up to date.
What is FindTime
FindTime is a meeting poll service. The organiser setups a poll and offers suggested times. For users for whom the organiser can see free/busy data, it will also display that information, including their working hours. Once set up, the poll is integrated into an email. Recipients, or meeting participants, will get a link to a webpage to vote for times that work.
Setting Up A FindTime Meeting Poll
You can create a meeting poll in Microsoft Outlook. When you are in a normal view with the reading pane on, you will see the “Reply with Meeting Poll” option.
In a message window, you will see the “New Meeting Poll” button.
You must have recipients in the message to create a poll. Once you select one of the new poll buttons, you can select the times. For users who you can see their free/busy data for, you will see open options first. If you need to go beyond your working hours, you will need to uncheck the box that restricts to your working hours. Times are displayed in your Time Zone and will localise for each user that opens the poll. When you select next, you will see the meeting options screen.
You can set a meeting location, including making it a Team Meeting, as well as these great settings:
Notify me about updates: Each time someone votes, you will get an email.
Schedule when attendees reach consensus: If all required attendees have an open time, the service will schedule the meeting. This will be prioritised if a time is available that includes optional attendees. If multiple times work, the earliest time will be booked.
Hold selected times on my calendar: Tentative meeting holds will be placed on the organiser’s calendar. These holds are great if you do not organise meetings often. These holds will make your calendar unusable if you hold tons of times. When the final time is selected, the holds will be automatically removed.
Lock poll for attendees: Prevents users from suggesting new times.
Email notification in FindTime language: If your language settings are not English, it will set the poll language to your local language. If this is not set, all polls will be in English.
Require attendees to verify their identity: Users must authenticate to select a time
When participants get the email, they can click on the poll and their browser is launched. On the screen they can vote for the times they can do, can’t do, or prefer. If the organiser allowed for attendees to suggest new times, they can also add their own times. Each attendee views the times in their own time zone.
When the attendee clicks on the options, they will be presented with the voting options. If allowed, they will be able to suggest other times as well.
When To Not Use Find Time
Do not use FindTime for Internal Meetings unless you cannot see attendee’s free/busy or you have to do a meeting well beyond some people’s working hours. It is best to use Free/Busy data in this situation, unless colleagues do not keep their calendars up to date.
Where is FindTime Data Stored
FindTime data is stored in the organisers Exchange Online Mailbox. When people use other tooling, like free online tools, an organisation loses control of that data. Using FindTime ensures it is stored in your tenant and not just given away to a random website. See the full details here.
Data security needs to be a part of nearly all our decisions. If I am having confidential meetings, I do not want to give a service attendee and meeting details as I have no idea what they will do with this information. For example, if you are negotiating an acquisition that isn’t public information, you don’t want a random third party seeing all this meeting data!
FindTime Challenges
Is it perfect? No, but it’s pretty good! One challenge for me is that the first available time is auto scheduled. When working with global team members, many of us are quite liberal in our meeting options for important meetings. For example, I will often take calls at 10PM or 6AM over interrupting my gym time before work or dinner with my family. For my household, that is least disruptive (especially where I am the one that generally cooks!) The morning “offering” I make is not always ideal, but I will do it for an important meeting. If you have a group of motivated people, I have had situations where everyone put “yes” to these non-ideal times and we found ourselves meeting at a really odd time when we all voted for other times. The service will prioritise the first available meeting time, which if 6AM had “yes”, then that is the meeting time!
I do wish it had these other features:
- Show attendee time zones for internal users to the organizer, not just working hours
- Allow internal users to hit “schedule” or cancel the poll
- Auto expire the poll when the first meeting time is passed or the last option passes
- Localisation of language for all attendees
- Less friction for installation
How To Install FindTime In Microsoft Outlook
FindTime is installed as an Outlook add-in.
- In Microsoft Outlook, click on the Home Tab and choose Get Add-ins
- In the search bar type FindTime
- Click add
- Restart Outlook
- You will now see “Reply with Meeting Pool” buttons in new email messages or in the Home tab. It is sometimes hidden and you have to maximise the window or use the “more” ellipse.
So, the next time someone asks how to coordinate a meeting across the globe, put up your Jazz Hands and scream FindTime!
