Inavate + Neat: Designed for hybrid work

• Features

• 03/01/2024

The way we work has completely changed. Hybrid routines are being implemented and the workspace is in flux. Research from Gallup shows that 91% of remote capable employees prefer a hybrid or fully-remote model while 88% of hybrid workers prefer three days or fewer on site. Research from Stanford Business points to the fact that productivity was actually boosted by working from home. The data shows that hybrid working routines are being demanded by employees and that hybrid work is effective.

While employees prefer hybrid routines and productivity can be boosted, there are teething problems with implementation. Companies and businesses are strengthening return-to-office policies as they struggle to maintain a sense of company culture, which is being cited as the primary reason for these policies according to SHRM.

There is also the fact that proximity bias and the natural order of how humans communicate result in remote workers feeling that colleagues do not treat them equally, according to the Harvard Business Review.

The challenge faced is simple: hybrid work is being demanded but needs to be refined to meet the requirements of both employees and employers. The solution, however, can be complex. Niko Walraven, regional director for APAC at Neat, says: “We need to look at recreating the workspace at the most basic level. The function of the workspace has changed drastically, and its evolution requires new technology and new tools that have been designed specifically for hybrid routines. Both hardware and software need to account for the new realities of work.”

Neat is looking to do exactly what Walraven highlights, create technology solutions that enable hybrid work by meeting the challenges faced by employers and employees head on. Devices such as Neat Board, Neat Board 50, and Neat Bar are all designed to enable hybrid work that is effective and seamless. These devices fit into traditional meeting rooms, modern communication and collaboration spaces, as well as communal areas, allowing users the freedom and flexibility that are required to be truly hybird.

These devices from Neat are designed to be easily moved around allowing the creation of collaboration spaces in open areas as desired. This functionality addresses one of the key challenges faced by employers when it comes to hybrid work, namely the fostering and furthering of effective company culture. The freedom to turn any area of the workspace into a ‘meeting room’ brings the focus back onto in-person collaboration while also including remote participants. The fact that employees can have a conversation between a remote participant and an office worker easily even in a casual setting, like a kitchen or break room, helps maintain that all-important company culture.

When it comes to the challenge of meeting equity, Walraven discusses how technology holds the answer: “We have to make the workspace more human, and this can only be done if the technology is designed to be intuitive and in line with how humans collaborate and communicate. Thankfully, with the advances in AI this is becoming easier to do.”

Neat has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into all its products, to better facilitate hybrid meetings and to make them coincide with the natural rhythms of how humans communicate and collaborate. A specific feature that enables this is Neat Symmetry, which accurately detects the location of everyone in the office meeting room with intelligent algorithms that process sensor data. The camera then zooms in and auto-frames each individual, picking them out from the group and presenting them up close on the screens of remote participants. It even continues to follow them as they sit, stand, and walk around, enabling people working remotely to interpret their body language much more easily.

Neat Boundary enables users to set the width and depth of their meeting space so that the videoconferencing hardware only auto-frames those involved in the video call. This is particularly useful in open-plan offices and glass-walled meeting rooms. Minor distractions like the camera flicking away to an unwilling participant can cause significant disruption to the flow of ideas, so the feature ensures a focused meeting environment, even in busy settings.

Neat is further bridging the division between home-workers and those in the office by making its range of videoconferencing solutions as simple and userfriendly as possible. Any Neat device can be set up in a communal area, like a kitchen or break room, and it will automatically wake up when someone steps in the preset boundary zone. The screen brightens, the mic and speakers unmute, and the camera frames the person so they are ready to connect with a remote worker with just the tap of a button. This helps remote workers participate in brief ‘water cooler’ chats and mini brainstorms they may otherwise miss out on.

The same auto-wake feature works in meeting rooms too, removing the awkward set-up step that often takes place at the start of hybrid meetings and allowing all colleagues to connect immediately.

The hardware and software developed by Neat serve to make workspaces more human. By addressing the challenges faced by employees and employers, for example in the shape of meeting equity and company culture respectively, hybrid work can be refined to a point where its positives are amplified and the downsides mitigated.

Walraven concludes: “I think the future is more flexibility in different workspaces around the office. With Neat devices communication and collaboration can be customised to meet the unique needs of businesses. We believe we have the perfect balance of hardware and software features that can help evolve any office into a modern and effective workplace.”