We live in unprecedented times. Our personal and professional lives are under enormous strain from a pandemic nobody predicted. And if that was difficult to predict, it’s even harder to know what lies ahead, with so much of the workforce now working from home and social distancing measures likely to remain for the foreseeable future. The working environment will stay fluid and unpredictable, with widespread homeworking lifted slowly, and at different rates in different locations. During this transition, organisations will provide guidelines that encourage employees to minimise contact with each other if they can avoid it. What was a highly co-located workforce before 2020 will become a constantly changing mix of in-office and remote workers. This will put new demands on IT teams. Together with Logitech, SCC can help you meet these demands and adapt as necessary, as the situation continues to evolve, and videoconferencing replaces teleconferencing and physical meetings as the default way to stay connected. SCC and Logitech for Collaboration With the onset of the pandemic, remote working is already creating entire new organisational structures and even new business models. Managers are rethinking different ways to generate sales and deliver services using remote working practices. Collaboration brings innovative ideas together. Technology can help this by making it easier to share these thoughts. We enable the diversified workforce to work together irrespective of where they are. To stay ahead of the curve, IT leaders must be proactive about technology deployment and training to support the mix of in-office and remote workers. While business continuity remains a core mission of IT, meeting that goal will now require much more support for a remote workforce. And what the remote workforce needs more than anything is the ability to stay connected to systems, applications, and each other. Collaboration is now mission critical. Every room, no matter how small, should be video enabled. Even private, one-on-one meetings will increasingly be handled by video. Given the large number of video meetings taking place, IT will need to automate and centralise the management of conference rooms and all the equipment they contain. Building a Social Connection Meetings are inherently social – and this aspect of meetings is often undervalued. Social connection is a vital part of work life for all employees. Healthy social connections also deliver benefits for the business or larger organisation, in part by fostering employee engagement and loyalty. Unfortunately, the social aspect of office work has been severely tested by the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown in many businesses. By taking advantage of the capabilities of video conferencing, meeting organisers can revitalise social connection during this time of social distancing. There is evidence that videoconferencing not only improves overall meeting effectiveness but could have positive downstream effects such as improving productivity and employee engagement. Office workers now routinely meet on video from the privacy of their own kitchens, living rooms, and backyards. It’s not unusual during these meetings for a parent to be interrupted by their children, who are always at home due to the quarantine. Pets also make cameo appearances. We get to see the artwork our colleagues choose to display, or the books and knick-knacks on their shelves. All of these details from our own homes and personal lives give us a glimpse into who we and our colleagues are. This context can create familiarity, empathy, and deeper connection. Why Logitech Technology? According to a recent CIO.com survey of 400 IT leaders, ‘improving work experiences’ is new joint number one priority with ‘digital transformation’. Leaders understand the importance of employee satisfaction. They know that user experience is one measure of IT’s success, and that a poor experience during this transition period can lead to a series of costly problems for IT. To get ahead of potential problems, IT leaders can take steps now to ensure remote workers have the right tools they need to work efficiently and effectively, whether at home or back in the office. Logitech is the market leader on peripherals and products designed to enhance your experience across every workspace. Logitech Ergo products are designed and scientifically tested to improve posture and reduce muscle strain. They are universally compatible, built with durable materials, and fit into any enterprise IT standard equipment list. For many organisations, providing videoconferencing is part of a larger goal of maintaining employee health and social distancing. One way IT can support this goal is by monitoring meeting room usage and occupancy to ensure rooms are not overcrowded. A remote device-management tool can offer insights on metrics such as room utilisation. With a Logitech webcam and headset, you can turn any workspace environment into an instant collaboration space. For existing collaboration spaces, Logitech conference cameras deliver crystal clear audio and razor-sharp video that is so amazingly affordable, meaning any meeting room can become a video collaboration space. For more information on Logitech Video Conferencing solutions, click here to visit the website.
