If there’s one thing we have learnt from this pandemic, it is how to adapt. Some people, like me, probably never thought working from home could have gone so well. From personally – with the dogs flying around wanting to be fussed, school out at 3.30pm and Amazon deliveries to deal with – and professionally – would my team be as productive, would they still deliver excellent service and would they still be pushing forwards with their aspirations?
Thankfully, they have. However, while workforces up and down the land have gained trust in abundance, productivity and results for most have risen, I reflected on how we managed that – we did it though our ability to continue with the ‘office’ and ‘face to face’ experience through several robust communications platforms – Teams, Zoom, Google and Webex to name some.
Fast forward two years and we’re now probably blessed with a far better work/life balance that what we had pre COVID-19, but we now need to empower our teams to accomplish more no matter where they are working because some want their office spaces back, but not as they used to be. At recent networking events I’ve been hearing more and more from businesses that want to make their office spaces more appealing from a practical perspective and from a health and wellbeing perspective. You’ll be happy to hear there’s lots out there in the tech world to help you implement a thoughtful return-to-office plan that will boost collaboration and connections that will enable your employees to do great work in our new-norm world.
Some numbers for you – 80 per cent of employees’ time is now spend collaborating yet only 15 per cent of meeting rooms are equipped for it properly with the right video and audio. 50 per cent of the working population that can adapt to a hybrid working pattern now see the office as a place to engage and socialise and are more productive on tasks such as onboarding new clients, one to one meetings, strategic planning, training and their personal development. So, what’s available in your office spaces to give your staff the flexibility to conduct in-office and remote meetings with clients, colleagues and suppliers? Do they really want to come to work to be locked away in yet another room to conduct these meetings – I suspect most don’t all the time?
So, what’s the solution? Collaboration zones, breakout spaces, flexible hot desking, community areas? All sounds great but how can these work when we still want that element of privacy, how do we know these open – and in some situations closed – spaces are available, easy to work within and allow us to connect? This is where choosing and investing in the right technology is crucial to making it a success.
There are many solutions available, whether you are a big or small office, a Windows or Google house, Apple or Android, Cloud or on Prem, Teams, Zoom or Webex. Just some thought needs to go into introducing the right solution by providing access to reliable and purpose-built spaces that allow for a collaborative ideation that further improves the work/life boundary.
Though our internal specialists and the support of our trusted Channel Partner network we here at Highlander can give you an insight to these options to make this as easy as possible to use it.
Just drop us a line to get in touch by emailing owen.hanley@highlanderuk.com or jon.carr@highlanderuk.com
