The pandemic fuelled one of the biggest transformations in work life behaviour in a century: working from home (WFH).
Prior to March 2020, many companies did offer some flexibility with regards to allowing employees to where they worked from, though many preferred their employees to be office-based. As well as that, many business leaders believed that their workforce could only be productive in an office environment. The pandemic-induced shift to remote working proved this thinking to be false as many workers proved themselves to work just as effectively – if not more effectively – from home.
Though the pandemic continues, many companies have re-opened their offices and are now implementing a hybrid working model, allowing employees to divide their week between the home and office.
We spoke with industry experts from Webex, Crestron, ClearOne, LogMeIn, Poly, and Yealink to gather their insights on the working from home phenomenon and what trends they see forthcoming on the topic.
What are the most significant customer trends from 2021?
Mark Needham, EMEAR Hybrid Work Lead at Webex:
Webex’s Mark Needham acknowledged that for some workers the traditional concept of working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday in an office will always be the optimum way to work, but that the past 19 months has proven that the ability to work from home is no longer as problematic for managers as it was pre-pandemic.
Needham cited research from Cisco’s Future of Technology survey which indicated that hybrid working will be a differentiator when hiring new staff.
“Companies’ recruitment strategies are becoming more holistic to take advantage of their peers who have not evolved, and the opportunity to work in a hybrid fashion will be a differentiator which attracts staff, and supports employee engagement and retention,” he stated.
“Technology and HR policies are the critical enablers for this, and we see customers that exhibited a more consumer-like buying behaviour during the rush to enable home workers now re-evaluating choices made and thinking strategically regarding who are the critical partners that enable their growth in the hybrid world and provide the required level of security and business continuity.”
Brad Hintze, Executive Vice President Marketing at Crestron:
The most significant customer trend to emerge in 2021 around working from home was the purchase of technology that made those WFH more comfortable and engaged with their colleagues, according to Brad Hintze from Crestron.
“For ultimate flexibility and productivity individual workers benefit from dedicated devices, providing better audio and video quality, enabling them to multi-task or to ensure better quality/reliability of connection,” he said.
“By giving the WFH users access to the same level of technology as they would have at the office, you are not keeping them at home, but you are keeping them connected. Simply offering a laptop with built-in webcam doesn’t suffice anymore”
Paul Clark, SVP EMEA at Poly:
Poly’s Evolution of the Workplace report revealed that 82 percent of hybrid workers intend to spend at least one day a week working from home in the future, with 54 percent intending to split their time evenly between office and home.
Paul Clark believes that the emergence of ‘anytime working’ is of the drivers for this shift from 9 to 5 to more flexible hours.
“While employees have reaped many benefits of hybrid work, to continue to make it a success, delivering equity of experience must be a priority,” he added.
What will be the top challenges facing end customers in 2022?
Chris Perrotti, VP of Digital Workplace at LogMeIn:
LogMeIn’s Chris Perrotti suggested that one of the main challenges facing end customers next year is the paradigm shift for in-person work. This includes questioning the status quo regarding the technology needed to work from home.
“Everything we have been conditioned to believe has been upended and leaders need to be willing to question the status quo for tools and technologies (think conference room cameras) to effectively support a hybrid workforce,” he said.
“From there – it will be critical to be intentional about when and why you bring your teams together for in-person collaboration. As remote collaboration has become more effective, it has cast new perspective on the tradeoffs involved with getting together – the time lost and carbon impacts of travel, and the distractions of the office”
Paul Clark, SVP EMEA at Poly:
Poly’s Clark added that although employees are keen to return to the office in some capacity, they are somewhat concerned about how their preference to adopt a hybrid model of working is seen by management.
Clark again referred to Poly’s report to emphasise this point.
“Our Evolution of the Workplace report highlights that while many employees are excited to get back to the office for in person interactions, others are feeing anxious and worry their performance will suffer,” he noted.
“[Over half of respondents] think hybrid or home workers could be discriminated against or treated differently to employees in the office full-time and 52 percent of workers aged 16-24 were concerned that working remotely would have a negative impact on their development and career progression.”
Brad Hintze, Executive Vice President Marketing at Crestron:
Crestron’s Hintze added that business success is dependent on effective collaboration, but this can only happen when all meeting participants have the resources to make them feel their voices are equal.
“Ineffective video collaboration can drive a disconnect if all participants do not have an equal seat in meetings. By implementing intelligent video, both in-person and remote participants can more effectively engage in the meeting, spurring more effective brainstorming and collaboration, resulting in better meetings and more engagement amongst employees,” he explained.
“Intelligent video promotes an experience where every person, in the room or remotely, is represented equally by framing everyone separately, no matter the location. This technology creates an inclusiveness across the meeting and ensures every person can be an equal contributor. Software alone won’t solve this challenge. Room systems with intelligent audio and video features – paired with the software innovations from meeting service providers – ensure all meeting participants can easily contribute and productively collaborate.”
Zee Hakimoglu, CEO, ClearOne:
ClearOne’s Zee Hakimoglu agreed with this, adding that end customers are also faced with the challenge of figuring out which AV kit to invest in to ensure all employees feel empowered to contribute to meetings regardless of where they are.
“When end-customers are ready to invest in an upgrade, they want and deserve more choices and selections, so they are confident that they have surveyed all market options available,” she said.
“For their investment, they need the latest and greatest innovative solutions with more features, better performance, and without price increases. These challenges can be solved by knowledgeable and customer-oriented resellers who are not afraid to stay on top of the market and present these new solutions to their end-customers”
Which technology will deliver the greatest value to your customers in 2022?
Vincent Gao, Principle Product Manager – Teams Device Solution at Yealink:
Yealink’s Vincent Gao tipped artificial intelligence to be the technology that will deliver the greatest value to customers next year.
“More and more businesses are tapping into the power of artificial intelligence to improve productivity and enhance the collaboration experience”
“Take the background blur as an example, it makes meetings more focused by disguising messy rooms and non-workspaces. While together mode and presenter mode of online meetings help customers to be more focused and have a more immersive meeting and presenting experience.”
Zee Hakimoglu, CEO, ClearOne:
ClearOne’s Hakimoglu echoed this sentiment, stating the advances made in audio technology will next year equal those made by video over the past 19 months.
“Video – unlike audio technology – is more digital, self-contained, and less dependent on environmental conditions of the conferencing space, and not subject to the variables that audio performance is subjected to,” she elaborated.
“Great video advances have been made such as cloud apps, UHD, smart cameras. Audio, however, is subject to less predictable and highly variable environments: room size, conditions such as highly reflective surfaces, loudspeaker placements relative to microphones, participant voice characteristics, and aesthetic demands for discrete audio components will drive audio technology advancements”
