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How many emails fill your inbox when you’re just trying to land on a meeting time? One person is free “any time before 2 p.m. on Wednesday.” Another says, “Wednesday works.” Before you know it, someone suggests “3 p.m. on Wednesday,” even though that time was ruled out from the start.
It’s a familiar and often frustrating loop that generates more emails than the actual meeting has minutes. There is a better way. Scheduling Poll, built directly into Outlook, makes it easy for internal and external users to find a time and then move on to the work that matters.
Creating a poll
Whether you are using Office 365’s Classic Outlook or New Outlook, the Scheduling Poll option works the same. Start by creating a new email and addressing it to everyone you want to invite. The body of the email can still be used to include any additional details. Once everything is ready, click the “Scheduling Poll” icon from the far end of the Message tab. The icon looks similar to a calendar with a bar chart in front.
By clicking this icon, a “Scheduling Poll” pane will appear on the far-right side of the window. The pane will automatically display the availability of each internal recipient for each time slot, while external recipients will show as a summarized count. This allows for faster identification of which time slots, at least from an internal perspective, might work best. The meeting duration and date of meeting can be adjusted above the list of suggested times. The list is initially sorted by availability but can be switched to chronological order if preferred.
Select one or more time slots, even across multiple dates, then select “Next” to review a summary of the selected dates and times. A location, either physical or virtual, can be entered. When ready, click “Create Poll,” and your email will be sent with the poll embedded, allowing recipients to vote on the selected time slots or propose alternative times as needed.
Additional settings
Just before clicking “Create Poll,” there is an optional section entitled “Manage Poll Settings” that can be expanded. Below is an overview of what each of these options entails.
- Schedule when attendees reach consensus: This will automatically schedule a calendar event if all required attendees have voted in favor of a specific time. If multiple times were selected by all attendees, the earliest option will be scheduled automatically.
- Hold selected times on my calendar: This places a hold on your calendar to ensure it remains available. Once the meeting is scheduled or the poll is canceled, all holds will be removed from your calendar.
- Notify me about poll updates: This will send you an email each time an attendee votes including the current status of the poll and an option to schedule the meeting.
- Require attendees to verify their identity: This will require attendees to “sign in” to authenticate before voting so there is no anonymous voting.
- Lock poll for attendees: This disables the ability for attendees to propose new times or edit other attendees.
Responding to a poll
Attendees who receive a poll will see an overview that includes the poll name, meeting duration and the number of available options. Clicking the “Vote” button allows them to respond to each proposed time. Depending on the sender’s settings, attendees may be required to log in to Office 365 and may or may not be able to suggest additional times or invite others.
To cast their votes, attendees simply mark each time slot as “prefer,” “yes” or “no,” then click “Vote” to submit. A summary of the results is displayed on screen after submission.
Reviewing the results
Depending on the settings, the organizer may receive alerts after each vote to track responses in real time. Results also can be viewed from the sent email or through the FindTime dashboard.
When reviewing responses, you can see who voted, how they voted and which time slots have no conflicts, indicated by a green check.
From this view, you can add attendees, propose additional times, send reminders or cancel the poll.
Scheduling the meeting
Finally, you can either enable auto-scheduling to book the meeting once a consensus is reached or schedule it manually. From the Scheduling Poll results dashboard, click “Schedule Meeting” next to the preferred time, and a calendar invitation will be generated for all poll participants. You can also add additional attendees before sending the invite.
Scheduling doesn’t have to be a time-consuming exercise in back-and-forth emails. With Scheduling Poll in Outlook, you can quickly gather availability, reduce confusion and move from coordination to conversation. It’s a simple shift that can save time, streamline communication and keep your focus where it belongs — on the work itself.•
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Deanna Marquez is a co-owner of the Indianapolis-based legal technology company Modern Information Solutions LLC.
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