Empowering hybrid workforce through smarter tech

All the businesses worldwide are identifying new ways and harnessing cutting-edge technologies to enable their workforce accomplish a high level of productivity

Empowering hybrid workforce through smarter tech - CIO&Leader

In the last two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses had to shut down their offices and set-up remote working environments for their workforce. But, as the pandemic subsides, everyone is exploring the possibility of a middle path —  between going to office regularly and working from home. And that's how the new hybrid work models are emerging.

All the businesses worldwide are identifying new ways and harnessing cutting-edge technologies to enable their workforce accomplish a high level of productivity. 

Metaverse

As we all know, the metaverse is powered by the combination of virtual reality and augmented reality. It is real-time, infinite, persistent, interoperable, and more. The critical feature or the advantage of working in the metaverse is overcoming the challenges you face during remote work. Some challenges and tasks are better solved visually than theoretically, but that's quite impossible with remote work. Metaverse allows you to work in a virtual environment and interact with coworkers in a much efficient way. 

Digital Fluency

Due to the relatively new work from home concept, everyone is exposed to computers and not tech-savvy. That's why the digital fluency program will enable the workforce to leverage the latest digital toolsets securely. With the help of the digital fluency program, employees will be more comfortable with working from home as they will not have to face technical problems daily.

Audio and Video enabled Unified Communication

The audio and video-enabled communication channels like Zoom and Microsoft Teams play a very crucial role. Today, they have understood the importance of employees' needs, and they have several features That can be helpful for employees while attending meetings. Not only audio and video-enabled communication channels but instant messaging tools are equally important because we will not have video meetings all the time. 

Secure Home Office

Every employee is going to spend most of their time behind screens doing work. That's why they need a perfect and secure home office setup. An ideal home office setup should include a monitor, ergonomic keyboard and mouse, and a comfortable desk and chair. If an employee has a secure home office, then the productivity level will increase. A proper office-like setup will motivate the employees to work more effectively.

Remote Access using Virtual Desktop 

As in work from home, we don't have direct access to other computers. That's why remote access with the help of virtual desktop infra or direct access through app gateways is an essential part of the work from home concept. Remote access using virtual desktop infra can be helpful in situations where someone is not able to rectify any error. In such scenarios, a technical person can help with remote access using virtual desktop infra or app gateways that the company has developed.

 Mindfulness tools

One of the most significant downsides of working from home or remote is that people are exposed to excessive screen times and endless online meetings. As a result of that, employees have started to experience a sharp drop in productivity. That's why businesses need to invest in mindfulness tools. These kinds of tools will help employees to maintain their mental wellness.

Composite AI solutions

To increase employees' productivity in work from home or remote work environments, composite AI plays a crucial role. With the help of some AI-based tools, we can get real-time data that will show us how much time has been spent on which activities. These tools will guide the employees on whether they should reschedule or decline an invitation to a meeting to focus on other essential tasks. 

Activity Driven Apps

As the situation of the covid-19 pandemic is now settling down, many employees want to attempt their office. That's why businesses should provide a safe return to office platforms. To ensure a safe return to office platforms, companies should conduct contact tracing, and they can also offer office seat booking apps with which employees will be able to book their seats in the office.

Online Team activity 

Due to work from home and remote working concepts, the social fabric has been damaged. That's why businesses should learn and invest in online team activity platforms, where employees can get to know each other and have some sense of bonding. These kinds of online team activity platforms will help businesses to build a more robust social fabric.

The author is Vice President & Global Lead - Everything on Azure Solution Strategy & GTM at Avanade


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