In the first of a three-part series looking at how hybrid working practices, spaces and cultures are changing the world of work forever, UC Today spoke to Poly experts to understand the working practices of the future.
The world of work is likely to have been forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, the outcome that workers can be more productive and happier working from home – at least for some of the time – is a genie that is now well and truly out of the bottle. Companies now are more willing to recognise that people don’t have to be in traditional offices to be working diligently for their employers.
Research has shown that traditional office workers lose one hour of productivity each day because of open office distractions and reduced commuting time is a benefit to workers in their lives. That social aspect of office life is a concern for some but 70% of workers are keen on using video for remote and office collaboration thereby performing the vital function of creating a community of workers regardless of location. The majority of workers – 74% – seem to like the new flexibility and say they are keen to make the move to working from home permanent.
“Back in 2015, collaboration tools had already emerged and even though cloud accelerated adoption, every organisation struggled to justify investment in unified communications and collaboration,” said Darrius Jones, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Poly. “This situation has flipped that and there is a reason to invest.”
Jones added that 85% of people think location flexibility increases productivity and said that some of the bad habits of the office can be streamlined with collaboration tools. “The future will be all about flexibility,” he said. “For the last three to five years the talk has been about the open office and making improvements but there are now so many meetings to the extent that the day is now longer.”
“Now, we recognise that if you’re sick you shouldn’t go into the workplace and we’re now thinking more about what truly needs a meeting and what just needs a standard collaboration,” he added. “The thought process of needing a meeting for everything is changing and it may be quicker and simpler to have shorter, faster interactions.”
Jones’ colleague, Carl Wiese, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer at Poly, sees a three-stage reinvention of working practices: Respond, Redesign and Reinvent. “’Respond’ related to the first reaction to the COVID-19 crisis when it was all around survival. Speed was key and organisations had to just power through,” he explained. “In the ‘Redesign’ phase, where many companies are now, organisations are looking to become digital first.”
“The third phase, ‘Reinvent’, will focus on work practices that reflect the an era in which digital transformation is a state of mind,” he added. “As organisations explore the full extent of possibilities, they’ll look to a future in which the way we work and live will be reimagined”
