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Microsoft announces new research and technology to make hybrid work work
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Second annual Microsoft Work Trend Index report finds employees have a new "worth it" equation, and there's no going back
REDMOND, Wash., March 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. released its second annual Work Trend Index report, "Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work." The company also announced new features across Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Surface Hub and Microsoft Viva to empower hybrid work and address employees' new expectations for the workplace.
After sitting on the cusp of hybrid work for more than a year, many companies are at a long-awaited inflection point: the lived experience of hybrid work.
One thing from the research is clear: We are not the same people who went home to work in early 2020. The past two years have left a lasting imprint, fundamentally changing how people define the role of work in their lives. The challenge ahead for every organization is to meet employees' great new expectations head on while balancing business outcomes in an unpredictable economy.
To help leaders navigate the shift, the 2022 Work Trend Index outlines five urgent trends from an external study of 31,000 people in 31 countries along with an analysis of trillions of productivity signals in Microsoft 365 and labor trends on LinkedIn:
1. Employees have a new "worth it" equation. Fifty-three percent of
employees say they're more likely to prioritize their health and
well-being over work than they were before the pandemic. And the Great
Reshuffle isn't over: Fifty-two percent of Generation Z and millennials
are likely to consider changing employers in the year ahead, up 3% year
over year.
2. Managers feel wedged between leadership and employee expectations. Fifty
percent of leaders say their companies are planning a return to full-time
in-person work in the year ahead. Fifty-four percent of managers say
leadership at their companies is out of touch with employee expectations,
and 74% of managers say they don't have the influence or resources to
drive change for their teams.
3. Leaders need to make the office worth the commute. Thirty-eight percent
of hybrid employees say their biggest challenge is knowing when and why
to come into the office, yet only 28% of leaders have created team
agreements to define these new norms.
4. Flexible work doesn't have to mean "always on." After two years, weekly
meeting time for the average Teams user is up 252%, and chats sent per
person each week is up 32% -- and still climbing. While workday span has
increased by 46 minutes, after-hours and weekend work are up 28% and 14%,
respectively.
5. Rebuilding social capital looks different in a hybrid world. With 51% of
hybrid workers considering a shift to full remote work in the year ahead,
companies cannot rely solely on the office to recoup the social capital
we've lost over the past two years. Forty-three percent of leaders say
relationship-building is the greatest challenge of having employees work
in a hybrid or remote environment.
"There's no erasing the lived experience and lasting impact of the past two years, as flexibility and well-being have become non-negotiables for employees," said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president, Modern Work, Microsoft. "By embracing and adapting to these new expectations, organizations can set their people and their business up for long-term success."
As the company marks five years since the launch of Teams, more than 270 million people rely on Teams for hybrid work.
Making hybrid work work for everyone will require intentional leadership around how, when and where to work -- and technology has a key role to play. Today the company is introducing new product innovation designed to improve the hybrid work experience.
-- Available in public preview at the end of the month, Teams Connect
shared channels enable collaboration with people inside and outside the
organization from a shared workspace.
-- To bridge the gap between digital and physical workspaces, a new meeting
layout for Teams Rooms, front row, is now available in preview.
-- The new AI-powered Microsoft Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera uses automatic
framing technology to dynamically adjust your Teams video feed to
provide remote team members with a dynamic view of in-room interactions.
-- New touch-enabled display solutions for Teams Rooms from Neat and
Yealink are in the process of being certified for Teams Rooms on
Android. These devices combine audio, video, touch display and compute
in a single unit -- allowing easy deployment and enhanced collaboration
experiences.
-- The language interpretation feature in Teams enables live interpreters
to convert what the speaker says into another language in near real
time. The meeting organizer can assign interpreters and select up to 16
source and target language combinations, while attendees will hear the
translation.
-- Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams offers a rich set of new capabilities that
bring visual collaboration to life, including collaboration cursors,
more than 50 new templates, contextual reactions, and the ability to
open existing boards and collaborate with external colleagues in Teams
meetings.
-- To improve hybrid brainstorming, completion of action items and making
decisions together without having to switch context or apps, Microsoft
is introducing Loop components in Outlook mail. RSVPing for a meeting in
Outlook now allows attendees to note whether they plan to join in person
or virtually.
-- Microsoft is introducing a new offering in Microsoft Teams Phone called
Operator Connect Mobile, in partnership with some of the world's largest
telecom operators. This assigns a single business-provided mobile phone
number for desktop and mobile devices, making it seamless to move calls
across networks and devices with no interruptions.
-- With vibrant and fun styling, over 1,800 new 3D fluent emojis can infuse
expression and playfulness into messages. And with the skin tone
selector, users have the option to pick emojis that better represents
themselves.
-- To support flexible work styles, two PowerPoint experiences, cameo and
recording studio, are being brought together. This will make it possible
for presenters to deliver presentations with PowerPoint Live in Teams,
whether or not they attend the meeting.
-- A new feature called the Inspiration library is coming to Microsoft Viva
in public preview as part of the Viva Insights app in Teams. The library
is designed to give employees, managers and leaders easy access to
thought leadership and best practices from top sources such as "Harvard
Business Review" and "Thrive."
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft 365 Blog and the new Work Trend Index report.
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-announces-new-research-and-technology-to-make-hybrid-work-work-301503819.html
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
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