Microsoft’s Work Trend Index highlights a rising disconnect over hybrid work
The vendor’s annual survey confirmed a rising divide between employer and worker attitudes in the direction of hybrid work.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s second annual Work Trend Index report has highlighted a rising disconnect between employer and worker attitudes to hybrid work, in keeping with a survey of 31,000 folks in 31 nations and evaluation of consumer knowledge from Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn.
Microsoft discovered that fifty% of leaders say their corporations are planning a return to full time in-person work within the 12 months forward, despite the fact that a majority of staff choose the flexibleness of distant and hybrid work.
A small majority of managers (54%) did acknowledge that the management at their corporations is out of contact with worker expectations, with 74% of managers saying they don’t have the affect or assets to drive change for his or her groups. And 43% of leaders say constructing relationships is their best problem on account of having staff work in a hybrid or distant surroundings.
“The challenge ahead for every business leader is understanding the misalignment and trying to figure out how they can align what employees expect and are going to demand, with the pressure they’re going to have to drive business results in this very difficult environment,” Jared Spataro, company vp for contemporary work at Microsoft advised reporters throughout a briefing earlier this week.
The report additionally discovered that 38% of hybrid staff say their greatest problem is understanding when and why to return into the workplace, but solely 28% of leaders have laid out group agreements to outline these new norms.
The report, titled Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work, Work, identifies 5 key work developments which have emerged because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Managers typically really feel wedged between management and worker expectations.
- Leaders want to make sure the workplace is value commuting to.
- Flexible work doesn’t must imply being at all times on.
- Social capital seems to be completely different in a hybrid world.
- Employees have a brand new “worth it” equation which goals to steadiness work with well being and wellbeing.
“How we define the role of work as a result has really shifted in our lives,” Spataro mentioned. “In other words, people’s value systems and where they think work fits in their lives has changed.”
This final level is underlined by the very fact 53% of respondents mentioned they might now be extra more likely to prioritize their well being and wellbeing over work than they had been earlier than the pandemic.
Updates to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft additionally recognized that the typical assembly time for Teams customers is up 252% because the begin of the pandemic, and chats despatched per individual every week are up 32% and nonetheless climbing. The common work day has elevated by 46 minutes on common too, with after hours and weekend work up 28% and 14%, respectively.
As the proliferation of distant and hybrid work will increase, enterprise leaders might want to rethink each bodily areas and cultural norms to make workplace time definitely worth the commute and be intentional in regards to the who, why, and the place of in-person gatherings.
Microsoft is responding to those altering work habits with a slew of updates to Microsoft Teams to additional help hybrid employees.
These embrace an replace to Outlook to permit customers to point in the event that they’ll be attending conferences nearly or in-person after they RSVP. The Teams Rooms companion machine will now immediate attendees to show their laptop computer video on to allow them to be clearly seen by distant members, irrespective of the place they’re within the room.
An up to date Microsoft Whiteboard will probably be included in Teams, together with collaboration cursors, greater than 50 new templates, contextual reactions, and the flexibility to open current boards and collaborate with exterior colleagues in Teams conferences.
Microsoft
Microsoft Teams Rooms
Furthermore, to bridge the hole between digital and bodily workspaces, Microsoft is releasing a brand new assembly structure for Teams Rooms referred to as entrance row, bringing the video gallery to eye degree on the backside of the display screen so folks within the assembly room can see distant colleagues in a extra pure face-to-face means.
Other additions to Teams embrace:
- Microsoft Teams Connect shared channels.
- Bringing collectively of cameo and recording studio for in-meeting shows.
- Live language interpretation.
- Teams Phone, offering customers with one cellphone quantity for his or her desk and cell phone, it doesn’t matter what community or machine they’re on.
- The introduction of over 800 3D emojis.
- An inspiration library, offering customers with entry to greatest apply content material from Harvard Business Review, Thrive, and Microsoft, out there by means of the Viva Insights app in Teams.
Alongside the updates to Teams, Microsoft has additionally launched an AI-powered Microsoft Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera, with computerized framing know-how throughout the machine to dynamically alter to the view of the room and reframe when somebody leaves, extra folks are available, or an individual interacts with content material on the show.
Most of those options will probably be out there from the second quarter of 2022, whereas the Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera is already out there.