Over the past couple of years, a lot has changed. Around the world, we have been reimagining how we work, live and balance everything together. At the same time, work productivity has notably increased whilst employee well being has declined.
Problems that were once isolated to certain groups, like jumping from one meeting to another with no breaks – became a general issue for everyone. Adoption of collaboration tools accelerated but managing those tools presented a problem for IT. And while everyone had an equal space on the screen, did they have an equal seat at the table?
We are currently experiencing a massive transition in society. Hybrid work, whilst bringing many benefits, also means that we are working harder than ever. It’s a trend here to stay – over half of global workers are reported to want to keep working remotely 50% of the time, and when they are in the office, they want it to be on their terms.
Ensuring employees are engaged and productive when some are in the office and others are remote presents new challenges. The barrier presented by the screen needs to be overcome to make hybrid work as efficient as possible. Workspaces and tools will need to change while organizations identify solutions that balance employee demands with the overall needs of the business.
Reimagined Workspaces
As people return to the office, expectations have changed. Organizations are reconsidering the physical footprint – with those planning for a hybrid strategy 4.5 times more likely to expect a reduction in space of more than 10%. Losing productivity and redesigned workspaces for safe and effective work are also on the minds of workers.
Webex is creating solutions to solve these issues. The company has reimagined workspaces – whether they be at home, in the office, or on the go. With a suite of devices and applications, Webex is helping businesses to deliver the best experiences for their teams, no matter how, where, or when they work. For home workspaces, the Webex Desk Camera and Cisco headphones deliver a high-quality experience from any workspace – crisp audio for calls, clear video in meetings, and noise cancellation to help focus. The Webex Desk Mini is portable – you can move it from space to space, use it as a second screen – no more crouching over your laptop at home. The Webex Desk Pro is an all-in-one, AI-powered collaboration workstation. HD cameras and dynamic framing keep you in the frame – even when you get up to stretch your legs. Learn more than video conferencing solutions: Reimagining work experiences
While many return to the office on a part-time basis, office spaces are changing considerably and hotdesking is an increasingly popular strategy – allowing employees to share workspaces. hot desking should be more than a space to work for the day – it should become your personal office – and it needs to deliver an experience that’s the same or better than people had at home.
A new Webex hot desking experience is now available across the Webex Desk series so you can offer more options for shared spaces to meet your footprint requirements while giving your people the fantastic experiences they expect. It’s easy to sign into a device – just scan a QR code, plug in your laptop, or tap your smartphone on a Webex Deskhub. The Webex device transforms into your personal collaboration device, giving you access to your work, your whiteboards, and calendars – and you can join a meeting with the push of one button.
Conference rooms are also undergoing transformations, and they need to ensure all participants have an equal seat at the table – no matter where they are. People Focus helps solve this problem. Webex camera intelligence enhances the view of the conference room for remote participants by detecting people in the room and creating individual video streams of each. Each person shows up equally on-screen – even when joining 3rd party meeting platforms.
While organizations are now using multiple video platforms to host calls and conferences, it’s also notable that Webex devices now support interoperability with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, so you can join meetings seamlessly throughout the day. Apple AirPlay technology will also now be available on Webex devices. This marks the first AirPlay integration for a dedicated enterprise video conferencing device.
Working on the go
Today, people can work from almost anywhere using just their mobile phones. But not everyone wants to give out their personal number for business interaction.
Webex Go solves that problem. It allows users to add a Webex business number as a second line in their phone, meaning you can separate work and personal contacts out on your mobile. When the phone rings – you know which line it’s for. No need to download and launch a separate app – it’s built into the native experience on the phone, for a great quality call.
Flexible Workstyles
75% of workers think it’s important to retain flexibility over their schedule. With teams distributed around the world, it can be a challenge to get people together at a time and in a way that works best for all. So how do you ensure that everyone can participate fully?
The all-new standalone Webex whiteboarding app enables high-quality whiteboarding that makes it easy for everyone to contribute and keep the ideas flowing, across time zones, in real-time, and offline asynchronously.
With teams increasingly internationally scattered, teams are now defined by multi-linguality, and Webex is helping to remove any barriers that may arise from this. Whether you need language assistance or simply prefer to read along, real-time translation is now available across the Webex Suite and Devices. Currently, the tech can recognize 13 languages, empowering a more inclusive experience.
Exceptional Hybrid Events
In-person events may have had to pause for a couple of years, but they are back and as popular as ever. The benefits enjoyed from digital events are still around though, and so now the challenge is how to combine and bring the best of both worlds together. It leaves event organisers with the question – how to bring together the reach of a virtual event and the personal interactions of in-person events, to deliver the best hybrid event experiences for people, regardless of how they join?
The new Webex Events helps solve that challenge. Webex Events is an end-to-end event management platform that supports in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Memorable Customer Experiences
Not only has the world changed in how employers and employees interact, but also how businesses connect to customers. Experiences need to be more inclusive and consider the needs and preferences of the individuals they interact with. Human connection and person-to-person service interactions are ranked as the most critical consideration in “feeling valued by a brand”. People also want the ability to engage with the channel that is most likely to resolve their issue on the first attempt to connect.
With Webex Connect, businesses are enabled to intelligently orchestrate those connections end-to-end to deliver seamless, personalized experiences across customers’ preferred digital channels such as WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, and more. This provides opportunities to offer more interactive messaging, through rich media – links, carousels, and quick replies.
Webex is helping businesses and startups navigate our ever-changing world of work. To get a free return to office consultation, get in touch with them here. The Webex team will also be joining us at this year’s EU-Startups Summit, so make sure to join us and take the time to have a chat with them.
This content was originally published on the Webex blog site, available here.
