It has long been an axiom of business that the customer comes first. While this still holds true, in today’s environment, the employee enjoys an equal priority. We are, after all, in a time being characterized as the Great Resignation, with workers being far more demanding about the quality of the technologies and experiences their organizations provide.
Organizations that allow workers to be more flexible, productive and capable of achieving a better life-work balance are already experiencing a competitive advantage in 2022. That edge will only increase in the future as hybrid work becomes a must-have rather than a nice-to-have.
Hybrid work is now essential to a company’s HR strategy for hiring, retaining, training and inspiring all employees, especially young professionals. So, what are the new rules? What are the new priorities? How can your organization ensure success in a hybrid work environment?
New Challenges, New Ways to Rise Up
It is important to recognize that hybrid work is here to stay. According to a proprietary survey of IT professionals conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), more than three quarters of organizations will provide hybrid work options for employees who worked in offices or at other on-site facilities before the pandemic.
Understanding the new reality of hybrid work is the first step. Beyond that, each organization must make a commitment to deliver a secure, simple, resilient and rich experience to all employees wherever they may be working. Hybrid work creates a new set of challenges for IT teams and new rules for how to operate and empower the workforce.
What do we mean by new rules? For one, it means focusing on the business functions that are most critical to the employee experience—specifically, the platform workers use for communication and collaboration. In today’s environment, organizations need a flexible, cloud-native, unified communications platform to deliver the breadth and richness of experience required to keep hybrid workers productive and enthused.
When it comes to using a cloud communications and collaboration platform designed for the hybrid work era, it is necessary to look for specific functions and capabilities. Embracing the new rules of hybrid work means focusing on key deliverables, such as:
- Simplicity, automation and intelligence
- A unified platform for communication and collaboration
- Built-in security with end-to-end connectivity
- An immersive employee experience—remotely and in the physical office
- User flexibility and confidence in the devices and tools used to communicate and collaborate
Hybrid Work Preparedness Guide
This paper presents a guide to help your organization successfully navigate the changing tech requirements of hybrid work as you strategize next steps.
Download NowA Roadmap for Success
The ESG research provides a roadmap for these new rules of hybrid work, drawn from the perspective of IT decision-makers at the front lines of driving digital transformation. As such, it is extremely relevant for business decision-makers as well.
The research highlights the importance of aligning business objectives with the direct benefits in IT process improvements, risk reduction and automation. This focus on the IT organization’s operational efficiency—along with employee experience, communication and collaboration, security and hybrid work—is reflected in survey respondents’ top priorities for the end-user computing environment, as shown below.
NWN Carousel: Delivering on the Hybrid Work Roadmap
When it comes to meeting these new rules for the hybrid workplace, NWN Carousel offers an unparalleled portfolio of cloud communications services. Its portfolio is differentiated from competitors because it is unified, integrated, cloud native and singularly able to deliver on the top priorities identified by leading IT decision-makers.
See related article: Top Five Hybrid Work Priorities for 2022 . . . and How to Achieve Them
The NWN Carousel cloud communications service portfolio consists of Device as a Service, Unified Communications as a Service, Contact Center, Integrated Security, Visual Collaboration & Workspace, and Advanced Technology Solutions. All services are unified and supported by a proprietary Experience Management Platform that delivers a unified view into your environment—from core to cloud.
When it comes to addressing the new rules of hybrid work, this is no time to be complacent. It is time to take the steps necessary to make hybrid work a competitive asset for your organization, your employees and, ultimately, your customers. For more information on how to make hybrid work really work for your organization, please review the articles and other content on this site and visit NWN Carousel.
