Last week, we conducted the “Return to Office with Microsoft Teams and BlueJeans Gateway” webinar hosted by Paul Scholey, SVP and GM, International, BlueJeans Gateway by Microsoft Teams.
More and more organizations are now planning for the next stage of working in a hybrid format. Using research from industry experts and customer feedback, Paul provides guidelines on the benefits of a flexible approach to a hybrid model of work.
At this point in 2021, we are all cautiously optimistic of an eventual return to normalcy, even if that looks quite different than pre-pandemic times. Despite this positive outlook, employers and governments will remain careful before allowing remote workers to go back to offices.
Until now, employees working remotely have connected with other employees using their computers or mobile devices. While we are all in the same meetings, we are all physically apart. While this method is excellent for one-on-one team meetings, status checks, and cross-team syncs, this format is not the best for more organic meeting types. As we go into the hybrid workforce, there are many considerations to enable collaboration, which has suffered in many aspects due to remote work.
The new normal will heavily feature collaboration as the primary goal of meeting in the office. During a typical working week, employees would want to spend time doing their focus work and conduct their one-on-one meetings from home. But meetings such as brainstorming sessions, workshops, and strategy sessions that need more collaborative work will benefit from being held in person in the office.
For organizations providing flexible work locations, the key will be finding the right balance to help employees feel the same connection as employees in the office. Secondly, employees must also be equipped to easily transition their work from the home or a remote location to the office without any disruption. Cloud-based communications tools will continue to play a primary role in this. Frost and Sullivan, in their recent whitepaper, “Embracing the Hybrid Workplace” provide a framework of how to create a tech stack for hybrid work success.
Flexible working gained momentum among employees, driven by technology and the gig economy, even before the pandemic. The pandemic has created the scenario now where flexibility is almost a ‘must-have’ for many knowledge workers in most industries, with certain exceptions in industry and functions.
When hybrid work becomes the norm, a flexible approach will encourage more equitable distribution of opportunity among employees with no discrimination between their location and work style. A hybrid workforce grounded on a flexible culture that is designed to help everyone will create opportunities and well-being for all employees.
All of these concepts are important to organizations using Microsoft Teams. As widely adopted as Teams has been due to the pandemic, organizations going back to the office will need to weigh their priorities and find the best strategy to ensure their offices are ready with Teams capability for collaboration when employees come back.
For organizations trying to decide if they should revamp their office with new meeting hardware, the following checklist provides an easy guideline to determine if an alternative CVI option is better.
Cloud Video Interop (CV) is an easy, quick, and cost-effective way to connect Teams Meetings from conference rooms for organizations that already have room systems in their offices. BlueJeans Gateway, is a Microsoft certified CVI solution that enables third-party, standards-based meeting rooms to connect with Microsoft Teams, with only four easy steps and less than 30 mins.
To learn more about BlueJeans Gateway CVI and how it can help you with your return to office strategy, watch the webinar or visit our product page. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial of BlueJeans Gateway and connect an unlimited number of rooms to Microsoft Teams!