The 2020 pandemic caused massive changes to the cultural, social, economic, and technical worlds. Everything changed, almost overnight, and the shockwaves of this sudden explosion are still rippling through the world today.
Within months of remote working, new digital strategies for connectivity, and social distancing, tech companies agreed that there was no going back to the way things were. We all must be prepared for a new world, and workplace. Now Microsoft is doing its best to determine exactly what that workplace will entail, and where it’s heading too.
Microsoft’s “The New Future of Work” whitepaper (opens pdf), released as part of the new WorkLab publication, explores the present and future of the work environment. According to Microsoft, the current moment represents a unique opportunity to understand where the nature of work is headed, and empower the staff moving in that direction.
The report includes information gathered by various researchers across Microsoft, as they worked to understand the impact of new working practices. There are more than 50 research projects bundled into the whitepaper, as well as more than 30 years of expertise and existing studies.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most interesting findings.
The Rise of Collaboration and Remote Meetings
Microsoft is one of the technology companies working hard to support modern teams as they enter the remote working world. Solutions like Microsoft Teams offer an effective meeting environment and a place for collaboration in the virtual world. Within the 65-page WorkLab report, Microsoft discusses how collaboration and meetings have transformed.
According to Microsoft, switching to remote work meant people were having more meetings during the pandemic than they did before. 57% of people said their meeting load increased. Additionally, voice and video calls doubled from 7 to 14 hours.
Further studies suggest that scheduled meetings are running for longer, and one found that these meetings were less likely to end on time. Analysis of the Modern Workplace transformation team also found that check-ins and social meetings grew by 10%. Instant messaging substantially increased by 65%, as people looked for ways to stay connected.
Microsoft’s research further considered the impact of remote meetings on “meeting fatigue”. Studies found that many employees felt significantly more stressed in video meetings than in non-meeting work. However, preliminary study results also found lower levels of concentration and stress when Teams “Together” mode was used, other than the more typical “Gallery” mode.
Together mode seemed to reduce some of the “artificial separation” of the typical meeting video grid. However, there are still a variety of challenges to face to make meetings and collaboration more effective, including employees having too many tools to choose from.
Productivity and Well-Being
From a productivity and well-being perspective, Microsoft noted that the kind of experiences that employees had were dependent on a few different things – including the kind of team. A study into thousands of software developers found that around 46% experienced difficulties with communicating to team members, and a reduced ability to reach milestones. Similar patterns were also evident in external surveys. One internal study focused on developers also said that teams often lacked clear systems for communication and sharing information, resulting in problems in tracking data.
Over a wider variety of studies, Microsoft found that productivity reported by employees was mostly unchanged, but this varied based on role and experience. Studies looking at information workers found that some people flourished, while others struggled. Around 34% of Microsoft program managers said their productivity decreased when working from home. Elsewhere, more than 30% of employees disagreed with the idea that returning to the office would help work quality.
To provide more depth on its own studies into productivity and wellbeing, Microsoft also referenced a US worker study commissioned by Stanford in 2020. According to this report, 35% of employees said they felt they could be fully effective at their job when working remotely, while 28% said that they would be able to do their job with 50-90% efficiency.
Aside from the differences in remote success between various job roles, Microsoft also found that the individual circumstances of the person mattered too. A lot of workers found that whether they could be productive from home or not would depend largely on if they were living with others, and what their workspace looked like.
When it came to inclusion and forming connections, Microsoft notes that many companies have been struggling with building a consistent company culture on a remote basis. A recent study into the first 90 days new hires spent in Azure found that hires in 2020 were struggling more to connect with other people. However, there could be some benefits to remote work for inclusivity too. Some participants who previously felt excluded, including those with a disability, felt more able to embrace teleworking.
IT and Security
It’s not just the way that we feel at work that’s changing because of the pandemic. The tools that we use daily are adapting too. An examination of Microsoft studies on IT and security found that there’s been a growing problem with security in the business landscape lately. Throughout 2020, the number of attacks on the web skyrocketed, driven by people spending more time online.
Around 62% of respondents in one study said that phishing scams were a more significant security threat in the COVID-19 crisis. The IT pros in the study also noted that they were concerned about people logging into tools from unsecured WiFi networks.
