Hybrid work is here to stay. So, how can you design optimal hybrid work arrangements that empower employees and boost productivity? Shalini Shukla finds out more.
We are transitioning to a new world of work; one where the remote participant is becoming increasingly important. These changes are falling under the umbrella of ‘hybrid work’ and are being driven by a multitude of factors.
For example, business travel was essentially non-existent during pandemic induced restrictions between 2020 and 2022. Even now as travel is picking up, the percentage of frequent business travellers who say they will never return to the road has ticked up from 39% in October 2021 to 42% in February 2022, according to Morning Consult.
Add to this the demands for flexible working arrangements from a new generation of young employees, corporates reconsidering office footprints and the need to be flexible to face possible challenges over the horizon and you can see why we need to focus on the remote participant.
Videoconferencing [VC] has emerged as the key component to create hybrid work. VC is the glue binding the office and the remote location and it is no surprise that usage of UC&C platforms has spiked.
Whatever your hybrid work strategy might be and whatever the balance between work-from-home (WFH) and return-to-office your employees might have, a UC&C strategy that prioritises an excellent VC experience is a requirement in today’s workplace.
Easy hybrid
As technology-driven hybrid working environments increasingly become the new norm, offices will need more video-enabled meeting rooms to allow participation from remote workers.
However, with hybrid meetings, employees face some challenges around workplace collaboration and communication. These boil down to meeting equity, or rather lack thereof. “When not all participants are sitting together in the same room, their experience differs,” Tony Sandberg, Vice President of Sales, Meeting and Learning Experience, Asia Pacific, Barco, explains. “The meeting dynamics change and not everyone is inclined to participate to the fullest.”
“Most people don’t care about technology, they care about experience,” he adds.
Barco has found that 78% of employees just want to walk into the meeting room, connect to the technology available and start working right away. They also want to use their laptop to do so, with 70% of employees preferring Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) to host calls from their laptop.
These findings and more insights can be found in Barco’s 2022 report “Exploring the challenges of the hybrid workplace” which can be found online: bit.ly/3iqabj6.
How can technology blend virtual and face-to-face into one simple experience?
A wireless conferencing solution such as ClickShare Conference ties all technologies (e.g., speakers, microphone, camera, display) in any room together seamlessly, like a hub. Moreover, ClickShare is agnostic and requires no specific vendor lock-in. It works with any device and UC&C platform and has one of the widest plug-and-play compatibility with different AV peripherals in the market, easily transforming even existing spaces to become well-balanced hybrid meeting rooms without needing to redesign floor plans or engage in year-long transformation projects.
“Simple, easy, wireless. ClickShare Conference allows users to intuitively experience the simplicity of BYOM and ease of wireless conferencing with a click of a button,” says Sandberg. “This allows users to collaborate with remote colleagues and also on-site ones in different meeting rooms, making for better hybrid meetings and increased engagement between all stakeholders.”
Level field
Productive and engaging video collaboration is becoming more commonplace thanks to technologically advanced meeting room ecosystems that facilitate more connectivity between physical and virtual participants. In fact, more than half of end users Barco surveyed for its report say applications for joining a videoconference in one click should be available within the next year, if they are not already.
“When you look at what employees want to see from future meetings, it’s clear that they have high expectations for technology-driven improvements, with the biggest priorities being to improve efficiency and usability, and streamline workflows,” says Sandberg.
However, while such technology can facilitate collaboration for business continuity and success, it also brings new challenges. On the top of the list for IT is ensuring data security in their organisations.
“Covid-19 has forever changed the cybersecurity landscape as IT professionals worked overtime to keep data and connections of these tools secure when so many workers are working hybrid and remote,” says Sandberg.
“It bodes well for wireless conferencing solutions such as ClickShare Conference to continuously balance usability with security,” he adds. “We are very conscious of the environment our products are being used in and have extra attention for data security when designing exactly those solutions that meet our customers’ needs.”
To make sure ClickShare is a secure solution for enterprise, the design started from intensive threat modelling, which means analysing possible vulnerabilities in each layer and assuring the hardware, firmware, software, network, and the protocol specially designed for such applications can cope with such threats.
Not only making sure all communications are encrypted with signed certificates, Barco also received ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 certification for ClickShare and its cloud management platform XMS, further assuring its processes of developing these solutions are secure.
Barco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) also continuously monitors privacy and security risks and drives security improvements to ensure ClickShare maintains its earned reputation as one of the most trusted wireless collaboration tools in the market. An enterprise grade wireless conferencing system such as Barco’s ClickShare Conference helps IT mitigate cyber risks in many ways. The cloud management platform allows IT to monitor all systems in real time and schedule updates to apply security patches regularly, avoiding potential risks before they become real threats.
“Ultimately, when implementing any technology solution, IT must be involved from the get-go,” Sandberg advises. “While the objective to simplify the life of end users is crucial, IT must be convinced that along with being plug-and-play and easily scalable and deployable in nature, these solutions are secure.”
To conclude the conversation, we bring the discussion back to the end user i.e., the worker hopping on and off VC calls. It is clear that over the past few years, their laptop or mobile device has been at the centre of their VC experience.
Any effective hybrid work strategy has to take this into account. The worker’s device of choice can serve as a powerful gateway for them to be able to participate in creating a VC experience that works for them.
“To truly thrive in the new world of work, businesses will need to invest in new technologies, redesign or at least reconfigure their office spaces, and give their employees the tools they need to work in the best way possible, no matter where they are located or how they choose to connect,” says Sandberg.