Since the onset of a global pandemic, the working world has been completely reshaped. Globally, workplaces were forced to accept the dynamic of remote working, and this has come with challenges, not the least of which is feelings of isolation and exclusion.
Teams are at the heart of modern enterprise. Not only are they the nucleus of innovation, productivity and motivation – but they’re the social unit of the workplace. In today’s working environment, with staggered working hours and locations, it’s often difficult to connect with team members when you need to, and this leads to feelings of confusion, loss and alienation. This absence of human connection is affecting mental health and the private lives of a great number of workers.
The future of work is hybrid collaboration
So, Cisco has sought to define the differences between remote and hybrid working, and bring them together. By developing collaboration solutions that enable inclusion, connection, and seamless team collaboration, they have found ways to promote personal wellbeing no matter where you or your team members are located.
In a recent Webex by Cisco special event, ‘Hybrid Work Made Real’, Francine Katsoudas, Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer at Cisco says:
“Remote feels distant and separate, keeping people apart, making people feel like an outsider. Remote has walls, both physical and virtual. Hybrid breaks down the walls that make people feel apart. Remote is not hybrid. Hybrid is driven by inclusion and connection, and the realization that empathy is a superpower. Work is not a place where you go – it’s what you do”.
Webex by Cisco – putting people first
Today, organizations are fast discovering that their focus must be on their people and teams – and the way they work. Hybrid collaboration enables a world of work where people come first, and no person feels like an outsider.
The development of Cisco’s Webex suite has resulted in hybrid technology together with the use of physical space to allow users to marry a seamless collaborative experience with work-life integration.
Webex Meetings enables teams to work together, achieve goals and remain motivated and productive, while promoting personal wellbeing.
It’s never been more apparent that work-life balance is essential for productivity and morale. Teams need new means to surface and develop relationships so they can work smarter and more inclusively.
Usability and richness of experience
Webex collaboration solutions are designed for creating an inclusive and engaged work experience. Insights, curated highlights and engagement tools are all easily accessible directly from Webex apps to empower resilience within organizations.
But one of Webex’s most significant attributes is its commitment to putting usability and a great experience first – without sacrificing security and reliability.
As a fully inclusive collaboration platform, Webex seamlessly integrates different ways to communicate that cater to individual users specifically. For example, those who prefer to use a chat option in a meeting rather than raising their hand and openly sharing thoughts and ideas. Or…those attending meetings where the language is not their first language, can use the live translation capability to ensure they capture all the nuances of a conversation.
The ability to cater to everyone means that no matter where users are located, they can collaborate easily and effectively.
Webex People Insights
To further enhance its commitment to putting people first, Webex has developed a new feature that helps teams manage their time. Insights provides detailed anonymized intelligence about meetings to managers, individuals and teams.
Insights is not a tool for scoring or measuring productivity; instead, it’s about collecting data to enable individuals and teams to set and achieve goals, work-life balance, connections and focus their time.
- Insights can help users decide when to decline or reschedule meetings to ensure they meet personal work goals.
- It can show the amount of video time users are logging.
- It reveals how much time users spend listening vs speaking.
- It shows whether users have achieved their personal goals for the week.
- It helps managers spot silos and those team members who may benefit from additional support or more inclusivity.
- It can help keep track of a team’s wellbeing by revealing what percentage of meetings are taking place outside of the team’s preferred working hours.
- Managers can see whether they are spending equal amounts of time across their team, and even which team members are collaborating most often.
Source: People Insights from Webex
As the line between work and home continues to become less defined, the number of work hours is rising. The feeling of ‘invisibility’ is growing for those employees who are less apt to engage virtually. This issue is not going to disappear, so organizations need to focus on hybrid as the future work model.
“The all-new Webex Suite ensures everyone in a hybrid workforce has equal opportunity and voice,” Jeetu Patel, Senior VP and General Manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration
Webex by Cisco Experience Management
Even though Cisco’s Webex suite of collaboration tools have been designed to focus on user experience, any collaboration platform or environment can encounter variables that can affect meetings and turn a great user experience into a stressful one.
This includes poor quality video and audio, inability to join meetings, glitches with file sharing, devices, network and so much more.
This is where IR Collaborate can make all the difference. Check out our new solution for Webex in action and see how IR Collaborate experience management can help improve collaboration in your organization.
