Editor’s note: Commercial Integrator has teamed up with the IMCCA, the New York-based non-profit industry association for unified communication and workplace collaboration, to produce a quarterly supplement, titled Collaboration Today and Tomorrow, that focuses on all things collaboration from multiple perspectives.
Hybrid work is simply work now. There is no going back to the old ways of working. Today, most business leaders are re-envisioning and reshaping their business culture, the physical workplace and technology investments. The success of the ongoing business and technology transformations hinges upon flexibility and freedom for employees — the flexibility to choose a mix of remote and in-office presence, and the freedom to choose technologies that best fit the hybrid workstyles.
Trends in 2023 indicate significant and steady progress on workplace transformation. Frost & Sullivan recently surveyed 1,252 IT decision-makers worldwide to understand the top workplace priorities. Here’s what they told us, as well as the top three areas that business leaders should focus on to get ready for the future.
Focus on Employee Experience
Although a customer-first motto has always been the driving force for businesses, employee experience has come to the forefront as a strategic business goal. Today, business leaders are equally focused on employees as they are on customers.
When we asked businesses about the top ways that they measure the success of their digital-transformation strategy, employee retention ranked as the second most important priority after new-customer acquisition; it was on par with improving customer satisfaction. Although there are continued investments in digital transformation to attract new customers, improve customer satisfaction (CSAT), enhance net promoter scores (NPS) and increase revenues; most organizations are equally focused on talent acquisition and retention as a top business imperative.
In fact, a full 85% of IT decision-makers tell us that attracting the best talent is a key driver shaping their investments in communications and collaboration solutions. Some 84% consider improving employee engagement and satisfaction to be a priority. Some 74% reported achieving reduced employee turnover as an important business goal. This step-change in priorities means businesses want to create better experiences for all employees, whether they are working from home or from the office.
Technology investments have traditionally been focused solely on improving productivity; today, however, technology solutions are also seen as a means to drive better employee engagement and satisfaction. Videoconferencing and team chat have become table stakes. Some 65% of the organizations report using videoconferencing routinely, and 56% regularly rely on team chat or messaging apps. A surprisingly large 38% of the businesses report using analytics and data-driven insights to not only help employees with self-assessments but also provide critical insights to business leaders to take corrective action so as to improve employee engagement and performance.
Redesign the Office
Over the last year or more, businesses have hoped that a wave of new corporate initiatives, driven by senior leadership, will reignite a faster return to the office. The results have been tepid so far. Millions of square feet of office space remain unused. Office real-estate vacancies stand at 19.6%, marking the highest since the Great Recession, according to data from JLL. The numbers are even higher in major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The reasons are obvious: Many employees no longer believe that the benefits of working in the shared space of an office outweigh the challenges, which include long commutes, travel hassles, parking costs and loss of work/life balance. They need more compelling reasons to be back in the office.
However, our survey shows that full-time remote work is not without its challenges. Although a staggering 92% of surveyed businesses have made hybrid work a business priority, 77% of their employees suffer from meeting fatigue when working remotely; moreover, 73% of participants feel disadvantaged when attending meetings remotely as compared to joining in person. The challenges range from the technical, such as the 80% who cite a lack of bandwidth and internet issues when working from home, to the social or professional. With regard to the latter, 79% of employees report weakened relationships with coworkers and loss of business culture/mentorship opportunities because of remote work.
Given these difficulties with remote work, there is an even stronger reason for businesses to make the office a magnet that draws employees back.
Modernizing Offices
Making investments in modern offices will re-energize employees and inspire teamwork, creativity and networking in businesses. Every aspect of the physical office — from the lobby to the boardroom — must be digitized. Meeting rooms, in particular, are getting increasing attention. Some 36% of the organizations we surveyed report they are building additional meeting spaces to accommodate the need for more meetings between distributed teams. In addition, 33% are building newer types of meeting spaces (e.g., phone booths, digital hives, jump spaces and meeting pods).
There is a growing focus on turning meeting spaces into collaboration hotbeds, with modern technologies that allow employees to be at their productive best. This includes AI-infused audio video, high-quality displays and digital whiteboarding. Meeting insights and analytics offer a better understanding of space utilization, performance and engagement. We are seeing greater adoption of technologies that enhance ease of use and boost utilization. These include intelligent workspace-reservation software; scheduling panels that display meeting-room availability and room-health metrics; in-room digital meeting controllers for fast, one-click-to-join meetings; and room sensors that not only ensure optimal occupancy but also release the space if the meeting ends early or if the participants don’t show up.
Equally important is a growing need to create inclusive video meetings for all — for both remote and in-room participants. This is being enabled by new furniture (V-shaped, instead of round or rectangular tables) and optimal camera placement, including multi-camera technologies that ensure all participants are seen and heard.
Lead with Flexible Technology Transformation
As businesses invest in newer technologies, they are realizing that one size does not fit all. A broad range of options exists today. When we asked businesses about the main benefits to their organization from remote work or hybrid work, reduced costs and greater employee choice were listed as the top two. Employee choice is the freedom to choose not only where to work but also how to work. Consequently, a greater choice of workspaces and technology options is an expectation when employees come into the office.
When it comes to meeting rooms, we see a good mix of the two options: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and dedicated in-room devices. BYOD gives users greater flexibility to collaborate over the meeting platform of choice on their preferred device. Using an interface that they’re already comfortable with, users don’t need to learn how to use the room technology. In addition, BYOD gives users access to their critical data and applications. This option is also more cost-effective, allowing businesses to build collaborative spaces using flexible components across different form factors and price points. Some 57% of the IT decision-makers in our survey report insufficient budgets as a key challenge that their department will face during the next three years.
A BYOD approach has its own set of challenges; the key ones are lack of manageability and the risk of security breaches. IT admins cannot control the user experience, nor can they monitor or manage devices centrally. There is an emerging need among IT managers for greater control and manageability across their organizations. One in four (27%) of the IT decision-makers we surveyed report manageability as a key concern with their current videoconferencing setup. This has led to the popularity of dedicated in-room audio/video devices that allow centralized control and management while also ensuring security. Dedicated devices offer more robust feature sets and higher-quality audio-video experiences to users, and they provide greater manageability to IT. However, they come at a higher initial purchase price and incur greater ongoing-support costs.
Concluding Thoughts
In the end, both approaches — BYOD and dedicated devices — are here to stay. Which approach will be deployed depends on each business’ unique needs and preferences. Many organizations are opting for the middle ground, building dedicated-room solutions for many of their rooms while designating others as platform-agnostic BYOD rooms. This hybrid strategy gives employees a range of options and choices, while balancing the business needs for security and manageability.
This year, we will see continued innovation and enhancements in the collaboration platforms and the devices that connect to them. Transformational leaps in AI and analytics, as well as growing developments in interop across meeting platforms, are making it easier for users to have effective and productive communications, while giving them the choice to work from anywhere. Businesses must take the time not only to evaluate which collaboration platform to use but also to look closely at matching the technology with use cases. Each space — in the office or at home — serves a distinct need, and technology must effectively support that purpose.
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Roopam Jain is vice president of research, information and communications technologies at Frost & Sullivan.
