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See our pricing page for the full list of available plans.  

First time setting up an office with Robin? You're in exactly the right place. Follow this checklist and you'll be up and running in no time.

Build & customize your office building

Before jumping in, do you have multiple office locations to set up and manage? Appoint dedicated Office Admins in Robin to delegate office location-specific tasks.

• During the onboarding process, Robin will prompt you to add your building. Then, you can add more building details later (e.g., working hours, timezone, and address). 

• During the onboarding process, Robin will prompt you to add floors to your building and submit floor plans to be converted to Robin maps for each floor. 

• Keep the office running smoothly and gain a better perspective of how it is being used with our scheduling policies and desk policies.

  • Pro tip: Turn on the abandoned meeting & desk protection policies. These allow desk & meeting space reservations to be automatically canceled if no one checks in by a certain time. This helps free up office resources for others to use and gives office managers a better understanding of office utilization. 

• Customize your organization with branding. 

• Add your own custom amenities options under Manage > Amenities so users can easily find exactly which rooms or desks are equipped with the tools they need.

• [Requires Advanced Authentication & User Management] Do you need to restrict who is allowed to sit where or have special roles for managers who can assign and reserve seats for others? Set up groups and permissions.

• [Requires Visitor Management] Need a way to manage office visitors? Use our Visitor management feature found under the Visits tab in the web dashboard to pre-register guests, notify the host of guest arrival, and monitor visitors with the visitor log.

  • Set up a badge printer to provide your guests with a name tag. 

  • Add a guest pre-arrival health questionnaire and documentation agreements (NDAs) at check-in. 

• Share office updates, policies, & events with employees in real-time with our Workplace Announcement feature,

• Bring people together, creating a social atmosphere and a sense of community by creating and joining office activities.

• Do you want to understand what drives employees to come into the office and how to make it a place folks go to do their best work? Or managing a new facility and curious how employees are liking it? Check out our Workplace Experience survey here.

Create interactive office maps

• From a floor map, add spaces, desks, soft furnishings, and points of interest for an interactive office experience. 
• Assign seats to employees who need a permanent desk with our interactive seating chart. 

What is anonymity?

Anonymity allows admins to protect the privacy of people in chosen user groups. This feature ensures that bookings are private during your employees' day-to-day use of the Robin platform. It provides a secure environment that allows people to sit where they choose - without revealing their identities.

What does it look like?

The anonymity feature is located in the Permission Profiles section on the member role in your organization's role settings. When anonymity is enabled, certain settings and permissions within the platform are adjusted to ensure that user identities remain anonymous on all future bookings. 

This includes turning off the following features:

• People tab: the People tab will be removed for the users within the anonymity organization. Admins will have the option to grant access to the People tab to users with custom roles.
• Schedule/Workweek tab: On the web dashboard, anonymous users will not be able to access the schedule page. On the mobile app, the schedule tab will be limited to personal booking details.
  • This includes Activities. 
• Analytics tab
• Guest permissions
  

Turning Anonymity on affects some organization-wide settings. The following features are affected:

• Favorites is disabled, which means users cannot add other users to favorites. To turn this back on under Manage > Organization, you must turn off anonymity.

• The Who’s in Digest is turned off, which means we won't send your users information on who is coming to the office. To turn this back on under Manage > Notifications, you must turn off anonymity.

Additionally, new permission types for public desk and space bookings have been introduced, allowing administrators to define whether reservations default to public or private.

Public Desk Booking Permission:

This permission enables administrators to determine whether desk bookings default to public or private for users within the organization. When this permission is enabled:

• New desk bookings will default to public, meaning they are visible to all users within the organization.

• Existing desk bookings remain unaffected, and their current privacy settings are maintained.

• If the desk privacy policy allows, users can still manually change the visibility of their reservation during the booking process. More info on the desk privacy policy can be found here.

When the Public Desk Booking permission is disabled:

• New desk bookings default to private, ensuring that they are not visible to other users by default.

• Existing desk bookings remain unaffected, maintaining their current privacy settings.

• The privacy policy of the building settings remains unchanged, ensuring consistency with existing privacy regulations. More info on the desk privacy policy can be found here.

Public Space Booking Permission:

Similar to the Public Desk Booking permission, the Public Space Booking permission allows administrators to define the default privacy settings for space reservations within the organization. Here's how it works:

When the Public Space Booking permission is enabled:

• New space bookings will default to the public, meaning they are visible to all users within the organization.

• The privacy status of existing space bookings remains unaffected.

• If the space privacy policy allows, users can still manually change the visibility of their reservation during the booking process.

When the Public Space Booking permission is disabled:

• New space bookings default to private, ensuring that they are not visible to other users by default.

• Existing space bookings remain unaffected, maintaining their current privacy settings.

• The privacy policy of the building settings remains unchanged, ensuring consistency with existing privacy regulations.

How do I enable Anonymity?

To activate anonymity, administrators can toggle the "Anonymity" setting within the Member role in the Manage > Roles section. This action triggers a set of permissions and settings, ensuring that all users within the member role maintain anonymity. Administrators still have the flexibility to grant additional permissions to specific user subsets using custom role permission templates.

FAQ

Q: Why is anonymity placed on the Member role instead of the new Custom roles?

A: Anonymity is placed on the Member role since it is permanently assigned to all users and encompasses all custom permissions. Assigning anonymity to custom roles would require additional regulation on the Member role, increasing the risk of permission conflicts and compromising user safety.

Q: How are permissions decided between multiple roles with opposing permissions?

A: Permissions with "Can" logic override those with "Cannot" logic. For example, if one role enables a feature and another disables it, and the user has both roles assigned, the user will have access to the feature.

Q: What happens when anonymity is activated?

A: Activating anonymity adjusts various settings and permissions to ensure user anonymity. This includes disabling features such as visibility of people, workweek schedules, activity creation, analytics, and guests permissions. Additionally, new permissions for public desk and space bookings are introduced, allowing administrators to define default privacy settings for reservations.

With the Work Policy Settings feature, admins can set office visit guidelines in Robin for employees to reference while planning their work week and making reservations. This gives employees relevant information to make informed decisions and helps employees understand how they're trending relative to company-wide targets. 

Employees will see a banner displayed on their WorkWeek view & on the Office page that has a progress bar tracking how many times they have checked in to the office in a specific week compared to the office visit guidelines. 

Today, we use desk check-ins to count & track employee in-office visits. Take a look at the example below to see it in action. 

Admins can manage their organization's hybrid workplace guidelines and policies on the Work Policies page on the web dashboard. This is where you can define how many days your employees need to come to the office each week or month and define which days of the week.

Follow the steps outlined below to set your hybrid office visit policy in the web dashboard. 

1. Open the web dashboard and navigate to Manage > Hybrid Work Policies on the left. 

2. On the Work Policy page, click on the Default Policy to open the settings.  

3. Start with the policy status, and use the drop-down to change the status to active.

4. From here, you can set the policy parameters to meet your office's needs. Choose if employees need to meet:

• A minimum number of days a week or month OR,

• Get more granular and require specific days within a week employees need to meet.

5.  Use the default policy messages or select Custom message options to write your own message in the fields (e.g., Hybrid Work Policy, In-Office Policy, Office Mandate, etc.). You can include some context with the "Custom tooltip message" option.

Employees will see it displayed like a banner on the Schedule and Office page in the web dashboard and mobile app. 

6. Click Save settings. Don't forget to change the status to active if you haven't already if you want it to go live immediately.

Export Hybrid Work Policy data 

You can export information about your Hybrid Work Policy which includes:

• A list of employees
• Number of check-ins
• What policy was active on each day
• What is the policy configuration on each day

1. At the top right of the Hybrid Work Policy page, click the Export button in the top right corner. 

2. Select the month & the year >  Export. 

3. Check your email inbox to download the report. You should receive the email within a few minutes.  Be sure to check your spam folder too. The link in the email expires within 24 hours. 

FAQ

Q: Can I set up a policy for a specific office or location?

A: Not at the moment - HWP feature is applied to the whole organization. One policy per organization. We'll be building a more granular approach in the future!

Keep in mind that if your organization has multiple Robin admins who have access to the Manage tab, each one of them can turn the policy on/off, update it, etc., and we don’t keep any history of the changes being made.

Looking to jump-start your Robin journey?  You've come to the right place! This quick start guide will help you learn all the basics to get going.

Join your organization

You can join your company's Robin account in one of two ways:

By email invitation

If you've received an email invitation to join Robin, get started by clicking the link inside the email. Keep in mind that each invitation is unique, usable once, and can only be accepted by the email it was sent to. Invite link expires after 2 weeks. 

1

Click the link in your email invitation. It will take you to a login screen.

2

Create your account using the same email address which received the email invitation. Then complete setting up your user account.

Single Sign-On (SSO) with your work email address

If your Robin administrator has enabled single sign-on, you may sign in using your existing credentials for either Google Workspace, Office 365, or SAML.

1

Open your web browser and go to https://dashboard.robinpowered.com/login

2

Enter your work email, then select your desired single sign-on method and use those credentials to log in and complete the OAuth workflow.  

Set your user preferences 

Under your user settings in the top right corner, you can customize your Robin experience with workplace preferences, such as choosing a Robin homepage and setting a preferred office location. 

Start with the Personalization tab:

• This is where you can choose which homepage view works best for you. The default homepage is the Schedule page, but you can change it to the Office tab, which shows a map for quick bookings. 

• Decide what day of the week your schedule page should start on and whether it should include weekends. 

Next up, add a default location & schedule 

• Select the office and floor you work on most often and Robin will default to this when you're booking resources.

• If you have the same schedule each week, select "Remote" or "In office" for each day of the week. This is your default schedule that Robin will use streamline your experience. 

• If you set up a default schedule & preferred office location, the Automatic Desk booking feature is perfect for you. This feature allows Robin to book desks for you based on your past preferences, default schedule, and preferred office. You can turn this feature ON/OFF here. 

Download the mobile app

Robin has a free mobile app for iOS and Android phones. Scan the QR code with your phone or follow the links below. 

• Download from iOS App Store
• Download from the Play Store

Then follow the steps to log in to the mobile app for the first time. 

Book your first desk

Jump right in and try booking your first desk using the mobile app! 

Mobile app:

1

Open the mobile app and tap Book a desk at the top of the home screen. Or tap the + button at the bottom of the home screen, then tap Book a desk from the menu.

2

Now you're on an interactive map where you can easily see what desks are available.

A. If you need to change floors, buildings, dates, and times use the drop-down options at the top. 

B. To book a desk for multiple days tap the calendar icon & toggle on the "Book multiple days" option.  Then tap the dates you need a desk for. 

3

Tap a green desk on the map to see more information and the option to reserve it.

 

4

Tap Reserve to book the desk.  You can invite co-workers to join you in the office by tapping Share, then select the app of your choice to send your reservation link to a teammate (e.g., Slack).

 

Learn how to book a room 

On mobile

1

Open the mobile app and tap the + button at the bottom of the home screen > tap Book a space.  Or tap the Office tab. 

2

Now you're on the interactive map, set your room search criteria using the menus at the top. 

• Use the filter icon in the top right corner to find the best-fit room for your meeting. For example, if your meeting requires any special equipment, like a whiteboard,  you can add an amenities filter to focus on rooms that have a whiteboard. 

3

Tap a space on the map to book it.

4

Tap Book or New event & fill out your event details. Then tap Create to complete your booking. 

On web dashboard

From the office search page, click Find a space and select your meeting details and criteria. For a deeper dive into event bookings, head this way!

Now that you know how to book a desk and a space, let's take a quick look at how easy it is to plan your week.  

Planning your workweek

Robin's Schedule tab in the web dashboard and mobile app are interactive schedules that make it easy to plan the optimal days for in-office work. This is where you can:  

• Book a desk if you need one.

• Update your work status to let others know when you'll be in the office without having to book a desk. 

• View a list of everyone who's planning to be in the office and where they'll be sitting, so you can book near your team. Click "View all" to expand the list. 

• Join social events with office activities. 

• Stay up to speed with office announcements.

• Update any changes to your plans.

If you have a hybrid work schedule, check out How to plan your work week & see who's in guide!

How to view your desks reservations 

On mobile

You can also look up your upcoming reservations by following the View all reservations link on the mobile home screen (Schedule tab). 

On web dashboard

You can manage your desk reservations and/or seat assignments under your user profile. 

How to view your meeting schedule

On mobile

The mobile home screen highlights your upcoming meetings for that day, and for an expanded view of your schedule, tap the calendar icon in the top right corner. Tap the event to open the module where you can:

- See meeting details

- RSVP

- Edit the event if you're the organizer   

On web dashboard 

Office policies to have on the radar 

Note, that not every office implements these office policies, so if this doesn't sound familiar skip this section.

• Is your office requiring desk and/or meeting room check-ins? Not to worry, it's super simple! 
  • • How to check in to a desk
    • How to confirm your meeting 
• Do you need to complete a health check survey before entering the office? Completing a health check survey is easy!

  • • You can do it right from your email, from your laptop (web dashboard), or on the go from the mobile app. 

Office search tips 

• Desk status colors to help you find a desk quickly:

  • Green = Available 

  • Dark grey = Occupied, click to see who is occupying it. 

  • Grey Slash (/) = An administrator made the desk unavailable for use. Reach out to your office admin to learn more. 

• User permissions: You can see all spaces/desks from the map, but only the resources you have permission to book (and are available) will show as “green” and available to reserve.

• Office access: Robin will call out the days you do and don't have permission to use the office. You'll notice the "book desk" button is not emphasized and the desks appear faded on days you don't have access. 

• Office hours: Your office may restrict reservations to working hours only and we'll let you know when you're attempting to book outside of office hours. 

• Office capacity: Robin measures your office capacity--calling out the total number of desks that are available to book and when the office has reached capacity and is no longer accepting desk reservations for that day.  Note, that assigned desk types are not included in the capacity count and appear as unavailable. This is because "assigned desks" aren't bookable. 

  • As an employee, this helps you understand if you need to plan on working from home or plan for heading into the office.   

   

Robin has free mobile apps for iOS and Android phones. Scan the QR code with your phone or follow the links below.

• Download from iOS App Store

• Download from the Play Store

They work best when connected to wifi or cellular data, and are running updated operating systems. This means iOS 12+ and Android 5+ on a supported device.

In this guide, you will learn how to reserve a room and view your upcoming events using the mobile app.  

✨To make planning your week even easier, Robin will highlight any upcoming meetings you may have without a room and suggest a space to book on the days you're scheduled to be in the office. You can learn more about Robin's smart booking feature here. ✨

How to book a room 

1. Open the mobile app and tap + sign at the bottom of the home screen > tap Book a space. Or tap the Office tab in the bottom navigation bar. Both routes take you to the office map.
2. Tap the date & time fields to see what's available. And then to:
   • To create a recurring meeting, open the calendar module, toggle "Book multiple days", and tap the necessary dates.
   • To optimize your search, use the amenity & capacity filters. For example, if you need a space that can fit 5 people & has video conferencing capabilities, add filters to narrow the search results to those that meet your requirements. 
   • If you need to switch buildings, tap the floor & building drop-down in the top left corner.
3. Tap on a green space for more details (e.g., any scheduling policies enforced) and the option to book it.
4. Tap Book or tap New event and enter your event details.
5. Tap Create to complete your room booking. 

How to view your scheduled events

The mobile home screen highlights your upcoming meetings for that day, and for an expanded view of your schedule, tap the calendar icon in the top right corner. Tap the event to open the module where you can: 

- See meeting details

- RSVP

- Edit the event if you're the organizer   

Even though a meeting is on the schedule it would help everyone in your office to understand if a meeting is likely to still happen. With Robin, you have an opportunity to confirm, check in, or delete the meeting shortly before it starts, thanks to in-app reminders and room display cues.

In this guide, you'll learn how to check in to meeting rooms by tapping "Check-in or Start meeting" on the display app, or by confirming the space ahead of time from the mobile app, Slack integration, or the web dashboard.

Checking in via room display

Checking in using the web dashboard

Checking in on mobile app

1. Open the mobile app > tap the calendar icon in the top right corner > locate your upcoming event. 

2. If you're within the event confirmation window, then you can check-in/confirm the event is still happening.

Checking in via email 

If you've enabled the "unconfirmed event" email notification setting under your user settings, you'll receive an email reminder for any upcoming unconfirmed events. It'll look something like this: 

Checking in via Slack 

When you enable the "unconfirmed event" Slack notification setting under your user settings AND you're the organizer of the meeting, then you'll receive a reminder to confirm your event for that meeting space. 

Checking in via Teams

You’ll receive a notification for every upcoming event, and if you’re the organizer and the event is attached to a space, you’ll see an option to confirm.

Check in's  + abandoned meeting protection

If your office implements the abandoned meeting protection it's important to note that there are two kinds of meetings that don't require confirmations, and will not automatically remove events from the room's schedule:

1

Meetings that are 8 hours or more (i.e. all-day events), because showing up at midnight to confirm your all-day seminar is probably not a great experience.

2

Meetings booked (from Robin only!) within your set confirmation window (the default setting is less than two hours in advance), including impromptu meetings on the room display, will automatically confirm since they fall inside the confirmation window. The average organization on Robin will see about 15% of their total meetings fall into this category. You can customize this confirmation period via scheduling settings.

Introduction

You can check in to your desk with a tap of a button using any Robin platform and/or everyday tools, like email and Slack. Follow this guide to learn the various ways you can check in (or cancel) your desk and how to stay on top of your desk reservations with reminder notifications.   

How it works

You can check in to a flex desk any time from the start of the confirmation window to the end of the reservation. (The confirmation window is set by your office admin)

Check-ins for assigned desks are tied to the building work hours and the advance check-in window. For example, if the advance check-in window is set to 4 hours and the office opens at 8 am, you can check in to your assigned desk starting at 4 am. 

If you decide you no longer need your desk, change your status to "Remote" and then: 

• For assigned seats, we'll mark that you're working remotely and your desk will be greyed out (marked as unavailable) on the map. You will not lose your seat assignment. Note, now that you're working remotely, you'll no longer see your desk/seat assignment on your schedule for that day. ⏰ You need to check in every day for assigned seats or change your status to "Remote." 

• For a hot desk reservation (single day), the reservation is canceled, and the desk becomes available for others to use. 

• For hotel desks (multi-day), we'll release your desk for that day only, and it becomes available for others to use for that day. You need to confirm or cancel your reservation each day of the hotel reservation. And if your office allows desk sharing, you will not receive the checkpoint on the days you've shared your seat. 

Checking in: web dashboard

You can check in directly from the Schedule (Workweek) page or Office page. Don't need a desk anymore? Simply update your status to "Remote," and Robin will cancel the reservation for that day. 

Schedule page:

Office page:

Another option is to follow the View upcoming desks link on the Office page, which takes you to your user profile page where you can check-in & manage your desk reservations/assignments.

Checking in: mobile app

Checking in: automatically upon arrival

(If your office implements automated desk check-ins. This is a feature set up by office admins) 

If you have the mobile app downloaded and you're connected to the office wifi, then you'll be automatically checked in when you enter the office. You can learn more about how it works and FAQ here. 

Checking in: QR codes on desks 

We also have a guide that walks through how to use the QR codes & NFC stickers on your desks!

Checking in: Slack & Teams notification (hot & hotel desks only)

With the Robin app for Slack & Teams, you can receive timely desk notifications without having to switch between apps. You can check in or release your desk reservation right from Slack or Teams. It will look something like this:

Checking in: email

You can open the email from any device, then simply tap Check in or tap Release desk if you no longer need it. Logging into Robin is not required. 

And then, you'll see a confirmation message that will look something like this:

Managing check-in reminder notifications

Manage your reminder notifications to help you stay on top of your desk reservations and seat assignments. We offer a few options. Choose which one works best for you.

Mobile push notifications

Use Robin mobile push notifications to receive a reminder to check in to your desk for the day. 

Android users:

Desk check-in push notifications are enabled by default; no action is required. To opt-out, adjust the notifications on your device. 

iOS users:

New users logging into the mobile app for the first time will be prompted to opt-in to push notifications. Current Robin users can opt-in via the Pass tab after reserving a desk. 

Email & Slack notification reminders

Manage email and Slack desk reservation reminders under your user settings. Navigate to your avatar > user settings > notifications. 

Note, in order for you to receive Slack notifications, a Robin admin must first add Robin to your organization's Slack workspace. Then you need to connect your individual Slack account under your user settings > integrations.  

Is your office implementing the abandoned desk protection policy? (Applies to hot/hotel desks only)

When you book something in advance, there’s always a chance that plans will change and you may not end up needing what you booked. 

If your office policies include desk check-ins and abandoned desk protection, then you'll need to check in to your desk sometime between the start of the confirmation window and the end of the abandoned desk threshold or else it will be canceled. 

Example: A desk has check-ins and abandoned desk protection enabled, with a one-hour advance confirmation window and a two-hour abandoned desk threshold.

If you book a reservation for tomorrow starting at 9:00 am, you'll need to check in between 8:00 am (one hour before start) and 11:00 am (two hours after start) in order to keep their seat.

We'll send you an email notification if your desk reservation is automatically canceled that will look something like this:

Share your (flex) desk reservation with co-workers so they can easily find a seat next to you in the office! Simply copy the desk reservation link from the reservation confirmation message or from the reservation details card and paste it into an email, text, or app to send to a co-worker. 

Web dashboard

Example A: Confirmation message 

Example B: Office map reservation card

Example C: Workweek Schedule page 

Mobile app

Here are two examples of how a shared link appears in popular apps like Slack and Teams:

In Slack

In Teams

See it in action

Lizz shared their desk reservation via Slack with her co-worker Lauren and then Lauren found a desk next to Lizz. 

Future considerations on our radar:

• Shared desk reservation information is limited in Teams, but we are exploring ways to add more information as we do in Slack.  

• Today desk sharing links are only available for flexible desk reservations (hot & hotel). We look forward to assigned desk customer feedback for future consideration. 

Office activities help bring people together, creating a social atmosphere and a sense of community. With Robin's Activities feature, you can easily plan, share, and join social, cultural, and community events at the workplace using the web dashboard and mobile app. 

Activities in Robin make it easier for everyone to:

• Discover communities and events at the workplace.

• Create and join workplace events. 

• Know what’s happening in the office.

• Decide which days they’d like to go into the office.

Creating a new activity

By default, everyone (all user roles) can create activities from the web dashboard and mobile app. Admins can manage these permissions under Manage > Roles.

Web dashboard

1. On the web dashboard, click Create activity in the top right corner of the Schedule page.
2. Fill in the activity details. Some notes:
   • Your audience is based on the Robin office buildings you have access to. Anyone part of that building can see and join the activity from their Work Week view. 
   • The location can be anywhere. You can add a video conferencing link to include offsite folks too. 
   • 
3. Click Post activity to share it. 
4. Activities are shared with everyone on the WorkWeek Schedule tab in the web dashboard and mobile app. You can learn more about attending activities here. 

On the mobile app

1. Open the mobile app to the Schedule tab and tap Create activity.
2. Fill in the activity details and add a cover image to jazz it up. Some notes:
   • Your audience is based on the Robin office office buildings you have access to. Anyone part of that building can see & join the activity from their Workweek Schedule. 
   • The location can be anywhere. You can add a video conferencing link to include offsite folks too. 
   • 
3. Tap Post activity to share it. 
4.  Activities are shared with everyone on the mobile app & web dashboard home screens (schedule view). Learn more about joining activities here.

Editing and deleting activities

The activity creator or user roles with the Activity Management permission can edit or cancel activities.

1. To make changes, click or tap the activity to open it.
2. Click the actions menu or tap Options in the top right corner of the activity module in the web dashboard or mobile app. 
3. Select Edit Activity. 

The "Who's in" digest is a personalized forecast to help employees know what's happening in the office in a given week and when they should plan to come into the office to connect with the people they care about.

You can see who’s in and what’s happening in the office from a handful of places outside of Robin. In addition to email, users can add the Robin app to their Microsoft Teams & Slack channels to receive digest information there. 

Weekly digest email 

With the "Who's in" email digest, you'll receive a personalized email on Monday mornings (based on your local time) where you can see who's planning to be in your preferred office location for the upcoming week, along with your own plans. 

To see more about your upcoming week, click Update my plans. 

"Who's in" digest in Teams

The Robin app is compatible with Teams desktop, web, & mobile apps. 

Microsoft made a change

Microsoft recently made a change to their bot functionality and the messaging extension can no longer be initiated by @mentioning the bot.  

You can receive the "who's in" digest right in your Teams app. Open the Robin app from the overflow tool menu below the chat box or from the overflow menu on the individual message and select "Who's coming in." 

A popup modal will appear, prompting you to select an office, select an office from the dropdown menu.

Then the Robin bot will share a digest of who's going into that office that week. It will look something like this:

To see more about your upcoming week and for the option to join teammates in the office, click Update my plans. 

For more information on how to use the Robin bot with Microsoft Teams, check out this guide. 

"Who's in" digest in Slack

You can use the Robin Slack app to automatically receive the "who's in" digest each week, or you can ask Robin "who is in the office this week" with a Slack command.  

Use the command /who-is-inas a direct message to see who has plans to visit your (preferred) office this week. Having trouble with the "/who-is-in" command? See this guide. 

To automatically receive the digest, locate Robin under your Slack apps, and on the home tab under "Who's in digest summary," click Create new digest. 

FAQ

Who can receive the weekly digest email?

The requirements for users to receive the email:

• Have a default location with 1 or more people with in-office plans for the week. 

• As a user, you've:

  • Signed into Robin at least once.

  • Have a default location selected.

  • Have a valid & verified email address.

  • Have not unsubscribed from the "Who's in" digest email. 

As an admin, can I preview the email digest before it starts sending it to all users?
No; reach out to your Customer Success Manager to see a demo. 

What if I personally don't want to receive emails from Robin?

Today, employees can manage their email preferences directly from the weekly digest email, by clicking “Unsubscribe”.

What if I don't want users to receive the "Who's in" digest email?

Admins can disable the "Who's in" email notification on behalf of their employees on the organization level under Manage > Notifications.  

Why aren’t users seeing the option to manage their email preferences from their User Settings?
Today, employees can manage their email preferences directly from the weekly digest email, by clicking “Unsubscribe”. We may add the weekly digest to the user’s notifications settings page in addition to the one-click link over time, based on feedback and need.

Can users customize when they receive the email digest?
Users will receive the email Monday morning. The time and date is based on the timezone settings for the user’s default location. Based on our data, Mondays continue to be the most likely day users are planning and booking for their week ahead.

However, Slack users can set up a digest schedule to automatically receive the "who's in" digest each week in their channel of choice. 

Where else can users receive a weekly digest?
Users can see who’s in and what’s happening in their office from a handful of places outside of Robin. In addition to email, users can add Robinbot to Slack/Teams channels to receive digest information there. 

Introduction

The Automatic Desk Booking feature minimizes the time spent planning to come into the office for employees with a regular schedule. Robin will smartly book desks for employees with a default schedule set (and have opted into the feature). 

How it works

After employees opt-in, desks will be booked out for you based on the Advanced Booking Threshold for your preferred location or up to a max of 31 days from today's date. Desks will only be booked for you if the Advanced Booking Threshold for the office is longer than the Advanced Booking Threshold for the desks in the office.

Example: If your building's Advanced Booking Threshold is 14 days, desks will be booked for you up to 14 days out. If the Threshold is 3 months, desks will be booked for you up to 31 days out from today.  

Admin experience

The Automatic desk booking feature is turned ON by default, but Robin owners/admins can disable it at the organization and/or office building levels.  

1. Navigate to Manage

2. Click Organization in the left panel.

3. Scroll to the "Features" section and toggle off the Automatic Desk Booking setting for the entire organization or specify which buildings can access the feature. 

   1. Click "Manage buildings"

   2. Select the box next to each office location to turn ON/OFF the feature for that location.   

Employee experience

Employees will see the Automatic Desk Booking setting under their "Default location and schedule" settings.

Employees can choose whether to use Automatic Desk Booking. They can toggle it ON/OFF from their user profile settings or settings preferences on the Workweek view. 

User profile settings:

Workweek preference settings:

Keep in mind

For Robin to smartly book desks for an employee, the following must be true:

✅ Admins enable the Automatic Desk Booking feature for their preferred office location

✅ The Automatic Desk Booking feature is turned on under their user preferences

✅ They have a default schedule set (remote/in-office status)

Automatic Desk Booking reporting

For now, automatically booked desks show up in reporting as booked desks, even if the person does not show up. It follows the same pattern as desk bookings do today in reporting:

1. A desk is booked (by a human or automatically by Robin).

2. The desk shows up in the reporting as a booked desk.

3. If desk check-ins + abandoned desk protection policies are on and the person doesn't check in, the automatically booked desk is unbooked/given up for someone else to use.

4. If desk check-ins + abandoned desk protection policies are turned off, then the automatically booked desk will appear in reporting as if the person came in.

Instead of clicking a button or scanning a sticker, users can be checked in to their desks automatically by just walking into their office. Let's walk through how this works:

1. An admin associates one or many public IP addresses with a building in Robin. This is the address that the outside internet sees when you’re connected to the building’s wifi.

2. A user’s device connects to wifi.

3. The Robin app pings our servers over the internet.

4. The user has their work status set to "In office."

5. We check if that incoming IP address matches one of the buildings the admins told us about. If it does:

   1. Look for unconfirmed desk reservations in that building that are within the check-in window and start no more than 4 hours from now.

   2. Confirm any of those we can find.

   3. Send a push notification to the user, letting them know what happened. 

FAQ

1. How long does it take for automatic check-in to happen?

You might be checked in within a few minutes, or it may take up to an hour. Your presence is regularly checked on a timer, and the frequency of the timer can be unpredictable.

2. Should I still scan my sticker?

Go for it! If you remember to scan your sticker, fantastic! The automated check-in is great for those who have a hard time remembering to check-in.

3. It seems like I only get checked in when I wake up my phone or open the app. I thought this was supposed to be automatic.

Phones will often defer background work until an opportune time to conserve battery. Interacting with the phone, especially with our app, provides a strong incentive to do that background work and ping our servers. If you hadn’t touched your phone, you probably would have been checked in slightly later.

4. I didn't get automatically checked in. Why?

Make sure you're giving it enough time ( at least an hour) for the servers to communicate. However, if you're waiting patiently for hours and maybe you lost your desk to Abandoned desk protection, then that's not the experience we are going for. Check these things in order of most likely to least likely:

• Confirm your work location status is set to "In-office."

• Connect your phone to office wifi

• Make sure you don’t have low battery or are in any sort of battery-saver mode

• Make sure you’re logged in to the correct organization on the Robin app.

• Make sure the Robin app is up-to-date, both in the App Store and under Settings > Check for updates within the app

• iOS: Make sure Background App Refresh is enabled for the Robin app (on by default)

• Android: Check out Don’t kill my app! to see if your manufacturer is being mean

• Stuff generally works better if you avoid swiping the app away and killing it, though we should still be resilient against that

• Make sure push notifications are enabled for Robin app (on by default for Android)

• Make sure you’ve opted into desk check-in reminders within the Robin app (on by default)

• Check if you’re receiving the push notifications that remind you to check in to your desk. You should definitely get one ~30 minutes before ADP happens. If you aren’t getting them, something’s wrong. Uninstall and reinstall the app.

• Make sure the desk you’ve reserved allows confirmations. This is an admin setting. Sometimes admins have to go to the location settings page and click “Apply to all” because individual desks have weird overrides. See the screenshot below. note that “Desk Check-ins” are enabled for all desk types. “Advance check-in window,” “local check-in only,” and “abandoned desk protection” also affect behavior. 

• Make sure you aren’t using a VPN or proxy server on your phone

• While connected to office wifi, make sure that your IP address matches the one configured by the admin. You can see your phone’s IP at https://ipecho.net/plain . IP addresses can change, but US business class internet service usually provides a static IP.

5. What are the requirements for the building's IP address?

• It should be the IP address you get when using wifi at that location. A simple way to find that is to connect to wifi at the building and go to https://ipecho.net/plain, but admins should check with their IT people to make sure they aren’t missing additional possible IPs (backup connections, ranges, …).

• The IP address should be publicly routable. Private addresses like 192.168.1.100 or 127.0.0.1 are a no-no.

• The IP address should be static - this seems typical for business internet connections. Dynamic IPs are liable to change and might be feasible to use, but the admin will need to keep up with changes and reflect them in Robin.

• The IP address should be one that employees cannot use from home, e.g. via VPNs on employee phones. Otherwise, we’ll get false-positive automatic check-ins.

• CIDR ranges are acceptable, limited to /16 for IPv4 and /48 for IPv6. The limit is just because larger ranges are probably user error but can easily be changed

• Limit of 20 distinct ranges/IPs per building, same reason

6. What if multiple buildings share the same IP?

No problem - we’ll check all matching buildings for desk reservations to check-in. However, you do sacrifice some precision because you might be physically located in Building A and get checked in to your reservation at Building B.

If you want people together in person, your workplace has to work for your people. We see it in our own offices and hear it from customers. People are back in offices – now it's about ensuring their experiences in your spaces feel effortless. 

Our team continues to eliminate effort from daily workplace tasks with another way to automatically check into the office. Now, employees on office Wi-Fi who open the Robin platform from any device will be automatically checked into their reservation or have a visit created for them. This means that, in addition to mobile, employees can be checked in automatically via a network connection on the web, tablet, or our Outlook add-in. We recommend using automated check-ins if you plan to make local check-ins mandatory. 

When this feature is enabled, employees will automatically be checked into their desk reservation via their phone when they walk into the office if they:

1. Are connected to the office wifi

2. Have an active Robin user account

More information on how it works and FAQ here. 

How to configure automated check-ins 

Robin uses your office building IP address(es) to detect and communicate when an employee has arrived. Admins, follow the steps below to turn this feature on and add your office IP address(es). 

1. From the web dashboard, navigate to Manage > select an office to open the settings page. 

2. Under the "Automatic check-in" section, click the toggle to ON. 

3. Add your office's public IP address(es). You can add up to 20 IP addresses separated by commas. 

We've outlined some helpful requirements for the building's IP addresses in the next section. 

4. Click Save IP address. 

What are the requirements for the building's IP address?

• It should be the IP address you get when using wifi at that location. A simple way to find that is to connect to wifi at the building and go to https://ipecho.net/plain, but admins should check with their IT people to make sure they aren’t missing additional possible IPs (backup connections, ranges, …).

• The IP address should be publicly routable. Private addresses like 192.168.1.100 or 127.0.0.1 are a no-no.

• The IP address should be static - this seems typical for business internet connections. Dynamic IPs are liable to change and might be feasible to use, but the admin will need to keep up with changes and reflect them in Robin.

• The IP address should be one that employees cannot use from home, e.g., via VPNs on employee phones. Otherwise, we’ll get false-positive automatic check-ins.

• CIDR ranges are acceptable, limited to /16 for IPv4 and /48 for IPv6. The limit is just because larger ranges are probably user error but can easily be changed

• Limit of 20 distinct ranges/IPs per building, same reason

What is visitor management?

Your office is not only a space for employees. Organizations across all kinds of industries regularly welcome different types of visitors to the office, including:

• Customers or clients

• Vendors and suppliers

• Contractors and consultants

• Interns

• Freelancers and temporary employees

• Job applicants

Visitor management is simply the set of policies, practices, and tools you use to monitor everyone who uses your office space but isn’t an employee.

About Robin's Visitor Management

Robin's Visitor Management system empowers employees to easily book guests for office visits, gives admins the tools they need to track visitors, and ensures visitors have the information they need to confidently check-in.

Benefits

Walk-in guest registration

Upon arriving, visitors can quickly sign in without the help of front desk staff. Robin provides the option to set up an arrival display on an iPad or something similar that allows walk-in guests to sign in and scheduled guests to check-in. 

Invite guests to visit 

Schedule guests in advance, and Robin will automatically send an email invitation with customizable visit instructions. 

Create custom visitor registration forms

Create unlimited custom visitor registration forms for pre-registered visitors, including any details required for guests (e.g., food preferences or allergies). Add relevant information from the custom fields to display on badges and view custom field information in the visit log. Learn more here. 

Arrival notifications for the host

Robin automatically notifies the host when guests arrive, providing an efficient and pleasant experience for everyone. 

Cover compliance requirements with document prompts

Robin makes it easy for visitors to review and acknowledge any legal documents (such as an NDA or waiver) that offices may require. Visitors can acknowledge documents digitally either on the arrival display (such as an iPad) or before they arrive via email. Learn more about adding compliance requirements here. 

Visitor data records for security 

View a comprehensive visit log to track and access information about who has been at your office and when. To learn more about what the guest experience looks like, check out this guide. 

Badge printing

Badge printing enables offices to print badges seamlessly as part of visitor check-in workflows, keeping your employees and intellectual property safe. To learn more about badge printing check out this article here.

Roles + Permission

Admins can allocate different types of permissions to users and roles, ensuring precise control over the organization’s visitor management process. Find out more about Visitor Management roles and permissions in this article here. 

How to get started

1. Create a list of different types of visits that best fits your office. This helps hosts prepare for upcoming visitors and provides office admins with accurate records.  

2. Set up an arrival display at the front entrance for check-ins. Does your office allow drop-in visits? Enable the guest self-registration feature on the arrival display.  

3. Decide who can invite guests to the office- everyone or only specific users, such as office admins and managers? 

4. Does your office require visitors to agree to any legal documents before their visit? Learn how to upload and manage legal documents as part of the visitor check-in experience. 

5. Become familiar with the Visitor Log to keep track of who has been at your office and when. This is also where you can "Check guests out," or guests can check themselves out from the arrival display.