As we have moved further away from the height of the pandemic, business leaders have increasingly been encouraging staff to return to the office – mainly on a hybrid basis.
Some employees have voiced concerns over this – worried they could lose out on their work-life balance and potentially struggle with adapting to new office technology when they have become so used to the technology they have used at home for the past two years. Many employees are also hesitant to experiment with new technology due to the difficulty of learning something new, and risking breaking what they deem to be working.
However, while working fully remotely does have some positive aspects, a fully designed and supported hybrid work scenario that addresses and navigates potential challenges for both employees and company leaders can be extremely beneficial to both staff and businesses.
It is important to recognise that businesses have indeed changed, as have employees, and a successful collaborative approach to both people’s needs and the ‘return to office’ plan is not only possible, but easily achievable with the right technology and support from a trusted AV and workplace solutions partner like AVI-SPL.
In order for a move back to the office to be successful, it is critical that on-site collaborative technology is as user-friendly and effective for the hybrid model as the remote solutions staff are accustomed to, and that staff are properly communicated with, supported, and trained on any technological changes they encounter.
A Key Part to Successful ‘Return to Office’ Plans is Utilising Training and Support Services
To truly unlock the business value in a hybrid technology stack, user training is a crucial component to plans to return to the office. This not only reduces staff worries about needing to adapt to new tools and software, but also removes the need for IT to be burdened with fully supporting the change in technology because everyone can be trained and helped with access to various assets.
Companies who choose to ignore this component of their ‘return to office’ plans will likely experience lower user adoption rates and an increase in staff dissatisfaction in their technology investments, and ultimately employee morale may suffer.
An investment in ongoing training and engagement programmes has shown to increase workforce productivity and efficiency, boost collaboration for hybrid teams of all sizes, and reduce IT help desk support requests.
With AVI-SPL as your partner, our Training and Adoption Services team are here to fully support your staff as part of new technology upgrades or changes to ensure that your collaboration technology is the best fit possible to suit your business needs, and to aid teamwork and productivity.
Our global delivery model ensures a consistent and standardised approach to learning and adoption in any location. With a focus on the full spectrum of adult learning principles, we work to ensure that every member of staff can increase their knowledge and ability on your new workplace solutions, helping your employees feel more confident on their technology – which, in turn, boosts user adoption and ROI.
Our team of instructional designers and learning experts are here to work with you to design a strategy tailored specifically for your team and your business, ensuring that you are able to upgrade your on-site technology to better meet new technological collaboration requirements in the hybrid model, without causing difficulties for your staff.
Collaboration as a Service: Taking the Strain off Your IT Team
In the hybrid work environments, businesses can greatly benefit from Collaboration as a Service. Without a true focus on how to collaborate in our changing digital world and how a team operates, employees are left out of the solution – thereby reducing the impact and potential of the technology itself.
Utilising this approach provides employees a seat at the table, as solutions are vetted and designed by our experience team. In the style of true collaboration, the AVI-SPL team takes a fully-immersed approach to training staff once a service model has been developed and implemented.
To ensure new technological solutions are not just turned on and left to gather dust under the weight of unmet expectations, with each implementation we provide a holistic training and support service to make sure adoption rates are high and internal IT operations aren’t impacted negatively. In fact, with the right collaboration training, IT time and resources are often freed up for other operational duties.
As workplaces are redesigned, there are some things which must change. Often these are redundancies from legacy tools or simply upgrades to older technologies. These changes are always in service to enhancing collaboration and streamlining the support of the team.
A True Hybrid Solution Empowers Teams
Given the desire of many executives to move back to fully on-site work but staff preferring the freedom of the work from home approach, the hybrid model has gained significant traction.
If the goal is bringing teams back together in person, then technology solutions must support that goal. Since AVI-SPL was founded in 1979, we have always focused on using technology to transform how teams work.
The key driver to success in a successful shift back to the office is always trust:
- C-Suite leaders must trust technology to support the hybrid approach.
- IT leaders must take a collaborative approach to designing the office of the future.
- Staff must trust that new or upgraded technology will not negatively impact their collaborative abilities.
People are willing to come back to the office if they know and believe it will work, and will not make their lives harder as employees, or more broadly as parents/caregivers who may need to adapt to a sudden shift in their weekly routines and schedules.
Teams across the globe became accustomed to the fully remote type of collaborative experience they encountered as a result of the pandemic, and business leaders are challenged to match or exceed that experience in their future planning.
That is where our UCC expertise (Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google) comes into play and our 40-plus years of experience in designing innovative workplace solutions for our customers across the globe. At AVI-SPL, we believe that with effective collaborative technology solutions, teams will not only welcome a return to the office, but will embrace the opportunity to enhance their performance and collaboration.
Get in touch with our experts today to discover how our approach to technology and collaboration can support your ‘return to office’ plans.
