THE FUTURE OF WORK IS HYBRID

As the future of work clearly tilts in the direction of a hybrid model, organizations need to take the opportunity to reimagine everything from employee experiences and business processes to the definition of what constitutes an office. Preparing for hybrid work is not simply about handing employees a laptop and establishing secure enterprise connectivity. A successful and productive hybrid work model calls for real transformational, organizational, and culture change. As such, organizations must define a clear strategy, invest in future-proof technologies, and deliver a parity work experience regardless of where work takes place. A comprehensive approach to securing hybrid work is also essential, given the changing threat landscape and the expanded attack surface. As defined in the 2022 Cisco “Hybrid Work Index,” securing remote access is a necessary first step. Yet organizations need to go further and embrace a comprehensive approach that encapsulates workforce security awareness education and securing access wherever users and applications reside. The security road map must involve practices such as secure access service edge (SASE) and zero-trust methodologies. “Hybrid work is permanent, it’s mission-critical, and it isn’t a technology problem alone,” says Paul Chapman, Cisco vice president of strategy and planning. “It’s really about new models and an opportunity for transformation. We have to get people to shift mindsets to think about the work experience being a state of mind and not a location.”

The Future of Work is

Hybrid

of organizations have shifted to some sort of hybrid work structure due to the pandemic.

When employees come together, they must do so with intention and purpose. This means unleashing new ways to make collaboration effective in the world of hybrid work while still capitalizing on individual strengths and emphasizing the emotional quotient (EQ). Companies must build a foundation that creates an inclusive future for everyone, regardless of where they are. To do so, organizations must focus on building meaningful human connections, both among in-office colleagues and between employees working remotely or onsite. Individual work that might be done remotely should involve periodic in-person collaborative experiences that build human capital and help drive innovation across the organization.

Pillar #1 - People

Among the respondents to the 2022 Future of Work survey, 62% agreed that work-from-home has forced the creation of new, more efficient, and potentially lasting workflows and processes.

Tactics to boost workplace competitiveness include the following:

Top hybrid work concerns run the gamut:

Pillar #2 - Places

In today’s work environment, security, visibility, and insights are critical from a variety of locations — not just in the office and at home. That’s especially true at a time of increasing cyberthreats. In the office, leaders must use their space to create moments that matter, bringing teams together to optimize innovation and collaboration opportunities. According to the Foundry 2022 Future of Work survey, companies are reimagining office spaces to be more visually collaborative and flexible. As part of this shift, 20% of the respondents said they were channeling dollars to audiovisual infrastructure along with virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) solutions (9%) and end user experience management tools (22%).

To ensure that office spaces are flexible, organizations are investing in:

Enterprises have a variety of plans for maintaining workplace health and safety:

Pillar #3 - Technology

For true hybrid work, enterprises must consider tools that make the user experience seamless anywhere — all with cybersecurity in mind. The four main investment areas are:

Yet, to realize the ultimate potential of hybrid work, companies have to go beyond enabling basic capabilities for remote work and empower employees with a seamless, immersive experience that enables them to engage and be fully productive regardless of location or work function. Although much of the focus of enabling remote work is on traditional desk workers, all employees need to work effectively from anywhere. That means enabling a frontline worker in a field location who needs to confer with a sales support team or a manufacturing technician collaborating with in-office engineers to fix a machine on the shop floor.

Respondents said technology investment has been accelerated by the pandemic:

With the future of work clearly trending toward hybrid, it’s time for companies to move beyond technology enablement to more holistic transformation. Embracing a strategy built on the triad of people, places, and technology will evolve the nature of work from a physical place of business to an anywhere, anytime productive state of mind.

Empowering a hybrid work model that works for employees and makes for good business is a complex endeavor that covers a lot of ground. Piecing together stovepipe technologies and managing a diverse vendor portfolio can add unnecessary complexity and create gaps in the experience. Aligning with a partner, such as Cisco, that offers a full line of solutions spanning networking, security, collaboration, and smart workplace technologies ensures a more holistic approach and a seamless work experience, no matter where work gets done.

Change in how CIOs manage their IT teams

To meet the new hybrid work challenge, IT and business leaders must team up to create a holistic framework that elevates hybrid work to a clear business strategy based on three distinct pillars: people, places, and technology. They also need to align with vendors that deliver products and services across the spectrum of need to ensure a seamless experience that transcends employees, customers, and partners.

said hybrid work is the expected model for the foreseeable future.

said the majority of employees will continue to work remotely.

· Empower workers to use their preferred devices · Support employees with both quiet workspaces and open, social environments · Make it easy to collaborate and ideate when people are inspired, connecting colleagues from any space or device · Use web collaboration and virtual events to support learning in any space or forum · Make training sessions more interactive, with instant polling applications · Tap into a more diverse talent pool, hiring the best- possible person for a position regardless of where that person is based · Nurture an inclusive culture made up of global interactive virtual events

Guaranteeing flexible work options

Although such changes are making it easier to find and recruit necessary talent — 42% of the respondents to the Future of Work survey said work-from-home has sweetened the deal for many candidates — companies still harbor concerns about the impact of hybrid work, most notably in terms of collaboration and employee morale.

Improving wellness offerings

Increasing compensation

Cisco solutions: The following components work together to ensure seamless, non-fatiguing, and inclusive collaboration for all. This helps bridge remote and in-person experiences, creating a more holistic hybrid work environment.

• Meraki Z3 teleworker device • Meraki Systems Manager for mobile device management • Meraki switch and access point • Cisco Webex Suite • Webex Desk Series and phones • Webex Desk cameras and headsets • Cisco Umbrella security • Cisco Duo Beyond • AnyConnect VPN • Cisco Secure Endpoint

Ability to efficiently collaborate

Employee and/or IT staff morale and burnout

Ability to have effective hybrid meetings

Employee concerns about “proximity bias” and the impact of remote work on career success

Reduced employee productivity

· Equipping each type of workspace with devices that are purpose-built for the space and that enable inclusive collaboration with virtual attendees · Using workplace analytics to track meeting and conference room usage to better understand how employees utilize workspaces and maximize space availability · Modernizing the office to optimize power, cooling, and lighting expenses while giving employees easy access to collaborative environments such as huddle spaces · Setting people density and occupancy thresholds to drive safety and compliance · Making use of room utilization dashboards, real- time room/desk availability pages, and automatic room release for no-shows · Using smart buildings as strategic assets to demonstrate the commitment to sustainability and help attract and retain the best talent · Ensuring that employees can reserve the type of space they need before spending time and fuel to commute to an office that might be overcrowded on specific days

Automation of IT processes

• Cisco DNA Spaces • Cloud monitoring and management of Meraki and Catalyst switches and access points • Cisco Webex Suite • Webex Room/Board/Desk series • Webex Room Navigator • Webex or DECT phones • Meraki MV smart cameras and Meraki MT environmental sensors • Digital signage and wayfinding • Cisco Umbrella security

Fast and robust Wi-Fi. Gone are the days of desktops and static wire connections. Employees need to move about an office securely to take advantage of shared collaboration spaces without being tethered to a physical network connection. New video collaboration hubs, smart displays, and smart building technologies, now requisites for the modern office, also require fast and always-on Wi-Fi connections to enable seamless and efficient workspaces.

Increased investment in technology to improve customer/employee experience

The key technological tools and strategies IT is embracing include: · Cloud-based solutions that employees can deploy without onsite IT · Intelligent video cameras that can zero in on individuals and ensure that they’re being seen and given a chance to speak · Providing a full desktop and application experience on any device, anywhere · Enabling employees to use distributed applications residing on-premises or in the cloud · Offering flexible, identity-based access to the network for users and devices on every application

• Cisco Webex Suite • Cisco Umbrella security • Cisco Duo Beyond • AnyConnect VPN • Cisco Secure Endpoint • Webex headsets

94%

41%

37%

62%

37%

35%

51%

47%

33%

32%

30%

31%

19%

15%

63%

53%

49%

46%

45%

Visit www.cisco.com/go/hybridwork to learn more.

“Hoteling” applications to enable employees to reserve desk space

Room scheduling systems software

Presence technology

Ergonomic equipment

Cisco solutions: Employees expect a safe, comfortable, and productive work environment that they can reserve prior to leaving for the office. Cisco Hybrid Work components ensure that “it’s worth the commute” to collaborate in the office, for remote as well as in-person meetings.

“We need to reduce the friction so that everybody can achieve maximum productivity wherever they are — whether in the office, while driving their kids to school, or at a job site,” says Smith.

Cisco solutions: Hybrid work demands that IT leaders deliver robust security and application performance no matter where workers are located. Cisco solutions ensure that employees can work where they are most productive while not sacrificing security or the ability to troubleshoot problems.

Hybrid Work and the Impact on IT Teams

73%

33%

46%

25%

62%

Employers can take any number of steps to support workers and foster a people-centric environment. Among those with the greatest impact:

“Offices are shifting from a place to work to a place of purpose,” says Chapman. At the same time, “the home office has to be an integrated extension of the corporate office. Every meeting will have a distributed component, and reimagining your real estate and your corporate workplace is a critical component of this.” Companies need to reimagine and reconfigure their workplaces with the right technology to link remote and in-person workers and create immersive and friction-free experiences. In the office, this can include everything from rethinking seating to designing spaces that foster collaboration and rely less on singular seating. Spaces should be set up for teaming and collaboration and holding engaging events in enticing ways that “re-earn the commute.”

Employers are reimagining workplaces in several ways:

Automation of business process

Online training services for health and safety instruction

Temperature sensors and other health monitoring technologies

Enhanced HVAC and air circulating technologies

Space planning tools to ensure social distancing

Digital signage solutions to inform employees of health and safety initiatives

Touch-free facilities technologies (lighting sensors, door opening sensors, voice-activated elevators)

37%

35%

27%

26%

18%

11%

Increasing automation of IT processes

Adoption of new security solutions for remote work

Greater investment in security and risk management

Increased automation of business processes

Inclusive collaboration. Since 98% of all meetings will have at least one virtual attendee, organizations need to reimagine workspaces — from home, to office, and anywhere in between — to support flexible work styles and collaboration types that range from small meetings up to the largest hybrid events and conferences. And they need to support both synchronous and asynchronous voice, messaging, and video interactions. To ensure that no one is a second-class participant, these modern workspaces need capabilities such as cameras that can zero in on individuals in the room, interactive shared whiteboards for real-time brainstorming, and intelligent audio that optimizes for the participants’ voices so everyone can be clearly heard, no matter where they are.

Enhanced visibility. To ensure that employees have the best experience from wherever they are working, IT organizations need real-time visibility into the key services and applications available as well as the health and performance of underlying networks. IT should be able to proactively identify Wi-Fi and network connectivity issues and monitor the application experience of remote users to ensure reliable, secure, and efficient workflows and interactions.

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Selecting

the Right

Partner

Increased use of collaboration tools

Improved onboarding/training strategies

Overcommunication