Microsoft FindTime - How to Utilize Meeting Polls

FindTime is a free add-on feature associated with your NEOMED Microsoft 365 email account that allows you to schedule meetings more easily, through the use of polling and automation.

FindTime shows you available days and times that work best for you and meeting attendees, allows attendees to vote on which dates and times they prefer, and then automatically have a meeting invite sent to everyone based on their responses. FindTime has been found to work better than other meeting polling apps because of its integration with NEOMED email accounts and visibility into calendar availability to identify the ideal dates and times that work the best for all NEOMED participants, while also enabling attendees from other organizations to vote on their preferences.

FindTime is an Outlook add-in for arranging meetings. As a meeting organiser you can send multiple time options through FindTime. Use this instead of free Doodle Polls as it allows syncing with your Outlook calendar – something free Doodle does not.

Do I need to install FindTime? 

No, it's available for all NEOMED email accounts. Just look for the FindTime icon when you open an email or a calendar invite within Outlook to activate a poll:

No, anyone can participate in a poll - including non-NEOMED users - to select a meeting date and time. You only need FindTime installed to create meeting polls. 

How to schedule a meeting with FindTime

Next time you want to schedule a meeting:

1. Open your calendar and click a timeslot to set up a new meeting, and add the attendees you want to invite
2. Click New Meeting Poll from the top menu (to the right) 
3. Select a duration for your meeting and then look at everyone's availability in the FindTime menu, which uses icons to represent you and your attendees.
   1. Green means the person is available, Purple means the person has tentatively booked something on their calendar, and Red means they're unavailable.
   2. If an icon is grayed out, their availability is unknown.
4. Select the dates and times you'd like to propose for your meeting, then click "Next."
5. You can decide whether you want to have FindTime automatically schedule a meeting based on everyone's votes once you've selected your dates.
6. Click "Add to Email" to pop your poll into an email to your colleagues. Once they receive your email, attendees can vote on their preferred date. Both you and your attendees will be able to see how everyone else has voted and attendees can even mark which states are their favorites.
7. If there's a unanimous consensus, FindTime will automatically reserve that date on everyone's calendar. Otherwise, it will choose the earliest date with the most votes (this is determined on which settings you select in setting up the meeting poll.)

More Advice

Please see Microsoft's FindTime guide and How to Vote on a FindTime Poll.