Regardless of how many days you believe hybrid workers should spend in or out of the office and its positive or negative impact on productivity, hybrid work is now the new normal for organisations across the globe. While increased flexibility has brought many positives for employees, it’s essential that employees and customers can collaborate effectively to ensure improved productivity.
I believe there are a few key areas you need to get right to make collaboration effective and keep that ever-important productivity high.
Quality Network
With a hybrid workforce, almost every meeting or call features video, screen and app sharing and collaborative working. To do this in real-time and with good-quality audio and video, businesses need the right infrastructure to use these collaboration tools effectively. Ensuring your network (wired, wireless, SDWAN and even employees’ home network) is fit for purpose is critical or employees will have a poor experience which hinders the effectiveness of hybrid work. For example, some networks cannot handle the increase in capacity and minimal latency that video-enabled meetings and collaborative working requires.
As collaborative tools become feature rich and the content becomes media heavy, network connectivity needs to adapt. With the acceleration of cloud adoption, combined with the birth of AI-powered services such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, connectivity needs to be able to be application-aware and optimise network traffic in real time.
Company-wide Security
Security isn’t about a product or a new tool. It’s about ensuring your whole organisation adopts a zero-trust approach to security rather than simply protecting the legacy network boundary that existed before. This approach ensures that employees have suitable security enabled on their devices, such as two-factor authentication. Employees also need regular
training on the latest cybersecurity threats and challenges that stimulate and foster employee engagement.
Productivity and Collaboration Tools
Productivity and collaboration tools have evolved hugely over the past three years. We’ve seen a coming together between the network, the physical spaces (offices) and the virtual/remote spaces we work in. Many organisations are transforming their traditional offices into intelligent spaces that are more appealing to work from, are more sustainable and promote a collaborative and inclusive environment that is aware and can adapt to how and where people work. These new “employee hubs” use the network to monitor air quality, people flow, and room occupancy whilst delivering secure, end-to-end cloud-managed connectivity supporting the needs of every employee.
CNA Hardy, the global speciality insurance company, is typical of many businesses. They had legacy collaboration and meeting room technology that couldn’t provide the high standard of collaboration required for hybrid working. They needed help connecting remote participants and integrating with existing tools, which caused issues around sharing content and reduced collaboration and productivity.
To create a modern, flexible workplace that supports the needs of its people and customers, CNA Hardy deployed meeting room technology powered by Microsoft Teams. This enabled seamless communication and collaboration between teams in different locations. They also refreshed their physical office, incorporating adaptive signage to show things like CO2 consumption per day based on real data and reminders to book a desk for busy days.
CNA Hardy now has state-of-the-art tech and a more attractive workplace which has increased employee satisfaction and benefits staff recruitment and retention. It has also allowed for continued flexible working, which has meant the business has saved money by reducing its London office space.
The Three P’s – People, Process, Productivity
Technology alone doesn’t make “hybrid work” work! You can have the best network, great collaboration tools and amazing new energy-efficient office spaces equipped with the latest video technology, but without due process for people, they amount to nothing. You need to ensure your people know how to use the right tools and how to get the best from them. This is not simply about training; it’s about embedding a mindset of learning too.
The latest technology puts collaboration at its heart. For example, digital whiteboards and canvasses (such as Microsoft Loop or Notion) that enable mass collaborative working, multi-screen and camera video conferencing which use AI to transcribe meeting notes, take actions, translate text into different languages and allow people to adjust zoom levels. Contrast and screen reading tools all help to foster inclusive and make hybrid meetings successful.
The right network, state-of-the-art collaboration technology, company-wide adoption, and great security make for successful collaboration. This results in an organisation that can deliver its core business successfully, whilst creating an empowered and happier workforce that is more productive.
Rob Quickenden is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cisilion, a global IT infrastructure and cloud services provider. He joined Cisilion in July 2021 and is responsible for leading the technology strategy, innovation, and delivery of Cisilion’s solutions and services. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, working with various sectors and technologies. He is also a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft MVP2.