I met my wife thirty-two years ago and married her about a year later. We had never met prior to that, but coincidentally we were born in the same hospital, we went to the same schools, my father sold her mother their house, and our older siblings were classmates. Sometimes your soulmate is right there next to you, and you don’t realize it.

HP and Poly have a similar story to my wife and I. As I’m sure you know, HP bought Poly this past year, bringing the leader in collaboration solutions into an organization that has been leading the way in technology for over eighty years. However, did you know that, just like my wife and I, HP and Poly also ‘went to the same schools and had the same parenting’ without meeting until now?

I was reminded of this by the recent launch of the Artemis space mission. When humankind first set out to accomplish that monumental task in the 1960’s, both HP and Poly were there – together.

The story for Poly begins in 1961 when NASA launched Mercury Redstone 4 Sub-Orbital Spaceflight with Astronaut Gus Grissom aboard. This was the second manned space flight and it lasted about 15 minutes. After splashing down in the ocean, the hatch on the capsule prematurely blew open. Water poured into the capsule and, as it flooded, the electronics short circuited. When this happened, all power was lost inside of the capsule. Nothing worked, including the radios, and Astronaut Grissom lost communications with the rescue team. He nearly drowned, and the capsule sank.

After that incident, NASA contracted for the development of a portable radio transceiver that was small and lightweight to fit into a pocket of the astronaut’s spacesuit. In the event of a power loss inside the capsule, it could be deployed to facilitate communication with the rescue team. Plantronics heard about the need and provided NASA with MS50 lightweight headsets (just developed for airline pilots) as part of the emergency radio solution.

At the same time, astronaut Wally Schirra really disliked the headsets used by the astronauts on the first Mercury missions because they were heavy and cumbersome. He asked NASA to investigate using the MS50 headset inside of his helmet for his upcoming flight.

From that point forward, all NASA space flights utilized the Poly (Plantronics) headsets in the astronauts’ “Snoopy Caps” used for communication. The immortal words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (and all other astronaut communications) were spoken on a Poly headset.

At the very same time, the “Snoopy Caps” and radios required solid state components like diodes and pin-switches that were provided by, of course, HP.  And that was not the only contribution that HP made to space flights in the 1960’s. One other example includes HP’s cesium beam frequency standards were the atomic clocks that kept the worldwide Apollo network of 18 tracking stations and communications systems synchronized within a few thousandths of a second.

It’s important to note with pride that the HP components used during the Apollo missions were off-the-shelf products. The same precision components that NASA required to complete the missions successfully were in use across the globe in many industries.

HP’s involvement in the space program also goes back to the original Mercury program. On May 15, 1963 Astronaut Gordon Cooper Jr. piloted the Mercury Earth-orbital space mission in his “Faith 7” capsule. During the nearly 35-hour flight, all of his vital signs were continuously recorded on an HP Sanborn “350” 8-channel recording system so that NASA scientists could learn how the human body reacted to the conditions at all times.

So, like my wife and I who were there together three decades ago without formally having a relationship, HP and Poly worked side-by-side over five decades ago, facilitating humanities exploration of the moon.

All these years later, HP and Poly are in a ‘moonstruck’ relationship leading the technology world and proving that innovation has and can continue to drive extraordinary contributions to humanity.

Sources:

https://hpmemoryproject.org/news/apollo/apollo_11.htm

https://blogs.poly.com/poly-and-nasa-early-partners-in-space/

Photos / videos:

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14191

It’s clear that the office environments we return to this year won’t be the ones we left in 2020. Over the past two years, many employees have come to appreciate the flexibility of working remotely. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in January 2022 found that 78 percent of people, most of whom are working from home, want to continue to do so after the pandemic. Joblist’s US Job Market Report: 2022 Trends revealed that 45 percent of people who currently work remotely, at least part of the time, would quit if their employer required full-time in-person work. Compare this to 2019, when, according to the New York Times, about four percent of employed people in the U.S. worked exclusively from home.

As a result, 98 percent of meetings include at least one remote participant and most include even more. So, it’s no longer enough to have on-site rooms optimized to allow in-person participants to communicate comfortably. Instead, all the spaces people work, in the office and remotely, must be optimized for seamless collaboration and effective communication.

As you plan your company’s return-to-office strategy this year, it’s important to understand how your people work, where they work and which technologies empower them to communicate and collaborate most effectively.

UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR PEOPLE WORK

Each of your employees has specific technology needs to excel in their role, whether they’re at home or in the office. IT decision makers must take these preferences into consideration and strategize ways to provide the necessary tools. Are employees in the office 99 percent of the time and prefer traditional communication devices and technology? Do they spend most of their time on the road and depend on mobile devices to get things done? Are they working from a remote office and need technology that allows them to participate virtually, but look and sound as good as if they were in a room with colleagues? These are just some of the many considerations.

Whether you have tens of employees or thousands, figuring out how they work and how you can best support each workstyle can feel daunting. But it doesn’t have to. Poly research shows that 92 percent of employees fit into six consistent workstyle categories. While everyone is still an individual, with different wants, comfort factors and situational needs that can affect device choice, understanding the details of these six categories will be foundational to your return-to-office strategy.

TAKE STOCK OF WHERE YOUR EMPLOYEES WORK

Today’s employees work from a wide variety of spaces, including at their desk in the office, at home, in a customer’s office, at the airport, in shared or co-working spaces, in office huddle spaces and in conference rooms. And it’s up to the IT team to enable every employee, wherever they work, to communicate and collaborate effectively.

The secret to conquering this challenge is understanding that all these places can be broken into two categories: personal spaces and group spaces. By taking geography out of the equation, you can see how an employee desk in the office and a desk at home may be alike since both are individual spaces. It can also expand your viewpoint on meeting rooms as group gathering places for all your hybrid workers, who must be able to participate both virtually and in person.

UNDERSTAND HOW TECHNOLOGY CREATES CONSISTENCY ACROSS PEOPLE AND PLACES

Your technology choices need to ensure the same level of professionalism for all employees. In the pre-2020 office, employees in the building typically had professional communications devices, while those at home and on the road used the camera in their laptop with the same consumer headphones they used to listen to music. Now, you need to enable professional-grade collaboration for everyone from everywhere.

This means taking advantage of features like high definition (HD) audio and video, features like speaker framing, seamless content sharing between devices and digital whiteboarding. It also means ensuring that no matter where the technology is being used, it’s easy for everyone to utilize. Before the pandemic, Sapio Research found that about 15 percent of the time spent in meetings is wasted time, largely due to inefficient meeting room equipment. And that won’t meet your organization’s need for productive collaboration in its new hybrid environment.

Before you develop your final return-to-office strategy, download our eBook to learn more about how to understand your employees’ workstyles, your hybrid workspaces and the technology choices that can enable everyone to collaborate at a consistently productive level.

For years, the Monterey Bay Aquarium struggled with their communication products and platforms. The inconsistencies across the business, system complexities and dropped calls were downright maddening. Collaboration was an absolute headache and it needed to change. When the Aquarium team needed to provide their diverse workforce with reliable technology, supported by a unified platform, they turned to Poly.

We spoke with John Abrahamson, Vice President of Sales, and Rob Mann, Vice President of Technology, to discuss how Poly’s technology is empowering their team to communicate and collaborate. From conception through execution, our teams worked side-by-side to equip the Monterey Bay Aquarium team with the right technology for the job.

Professional Grade Technology and Design

In our partnership, we learned that flexibility, simplicity and interoperability were priorities for the Aquarium team. They needed products that were compatible with Zoom, their preferred internal platform, in addition to other common platforms that outside clients might use to connect with the Aquarium staff. Platform interoperability has been a genuine pain point for their team. With this information, it was clear our CCX400 and CCX500 desk phones offered a natural, simple solution.

Our CCX 400 is the super-accessible model in our “next-generation” CCX family of phones. It’s easy to use and blocks out background noise, making conversations as clear and efficient as they should be ─ even if there are penguins and otters splashing nearby. The phone offers a five-inch color touchscreen, legendary Poly sound quality and Android nine-powered performance. Not to be outdone, our Poly CCX 500 features a five-inch color touchscreen, glorious Bluetooth® connectivity and Android nine-powered performance.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium team agreed that Poly’s Zoom certified products were the right choice and quickly went to work outfitting their building and staff, integrating Poly’s solutions.

Rob Mann, VP of Technology at Monterey Bay Aquarium, said, “I definitely appreciate the mounting system for the phones. Someone at Poly had the design brilliance to make a flip-flop bracket under the phone. As it turns out, it can be used multiple ways. It saved us a ton on plastic and time installation. My thanks to whoever thought of that.”

Not only were we able to help the Monterey Bay Aquarium team overcome a long-term pain point, but we were also able to wow them with design, interoperable products, reliable tech and a steadfast partnership.

Pro-Grade Products Meets Best-in-Class Partnership

With their previous set up, over 536 calls were dropped the first day Aquarium reopening tickets became available. On the new system, the Aquarium had fewer than 50 calls dropped, with greater call volume in the same period of time. With our products and partnership, they successfully diversified their calls via a phone tree system and ensured their customer service is outstanding.

John Abrahamson, said, “I’m in charge of Sales and I was blown away by the relationship Poly created with the Aquarium. I could not have been more pleased with the direct line of communication throughout the process. The representative listened to our needs and reacted to those needs specifically ─ not an agenda. That’s really the backbone of building a relationship between clients and organizations. It was incredibly refreshing and offered a learning experience for my own Sales team.”

Rob added, “Poly has been a great listener and responsive partner, which is invaluable to me. We haven’t had to compromise on anything with these endpoint devices. I wouldn’t have expected that at all, and we’ve been able to find the best equipment.”

Simply powerful communications ─ our solutions made it easy. The Monterey Bay Aquarium was never forced to choose between their priorities or even be limited to a single platform. Poly worked with the team to find the right solution, creating a consistent way of working across their business that supports their priorities, resolved pain points and offered best-in-class support. From kickass products to five-star listening, being an outstanding partner is always a priority.

Looking Ahead

We are already helping the Monterey Bay Aquarium team plan for their future. Should they ever need to transition platforms or to the cloud, they are well-equipped to do so. Our partnership will continue to evolve with return-to-office work on the horizon and as the Aquarium team charts their next steps. “Knowing what I know now about Poly, phone endpoints and room capabilities,” said Rob, “I’m going to continue looking to Poly as a service provider.”

We look forward to that shared future.

To learn more about Poly’s solutions, connect with a product specialist.

The pandemic turned the education landscape upside down seemingly overnight, challenging every university to adapt to distance learning in record time. Deciding what gear to roll-out, which features to deploy and how to ensure network readiness were major challenges for administrators and IT departments to navigate. When Chapman University needed a reliable, flexible solution that facilitated reliable communication and collaboration between staff and students, they turned to Poly as their trusted partner.

Chapman moved quickly in the early days of the pandemic to support its nearly 10,000 students and staff with Poly gear, preparing them with the necessary tools to tackle remote learning and administration. The transition to remote learning helped the university create a safe environment, support diverse needs and better prepare for the future. Poly products and services made that possible.

Innovative Features

Poly’s professional-grade video gear, including the Poly Studio lineup of video bars, were selected thanks to innovative features like Presenter Tracking that allowed teachers to move freely around the classroom while instructing instead of being locked in front of their laptops. Advanced audio features like Acoustic Fence and NoiseBlockAI are available on the Poly Trio 8300 and helped ensure remote students on the far end could hear every word from their instructors and classmates.

Multi-Platform

Chapman also had to confront another key challenge: multi-platform support. Poly equipped Chapman University with devices that are fully certified for use on Microsoft Teams and Zoom, including native app experiences for both, which provided the flexibility to move seamlessly between UCaas service providers.

The Chapman team explained that,
“…as time goes on, we, as a university, are always going to reevaluate what the best provider is given current needs. And so, it’s fantastic to see that Poly products can be converted between different platforms without additional investments.”  Hear exactly what their Assistant Vice President of Infrastructure, Phillip Lyle, had to say in his own words in this video.

Ease of Deployment & Management

The Chapman team also appreciated that Poly products are easy to deploy and set up. Getting a new deployment of collaboration devices up and running in a cloud-based management system can be a painstaking process. With Poly Lens software, the unboxing and device on-boarding process is greatly simplified. The Chapman IT team could scan a QR code on the boxes as they were setting up the units and quickly register the devices within the Poly Lens client, streamlining this provisioning process to a nearly out-of-box experience.

Poly Lens software also enabled device management along with powerful, actionable insights about how Poly collaboration endpoints and the workspaces that house them were being utilized across the Chapman network. This potent combination of professional-grade devices with a powerful software backend provides for an adaptable, flexible collaboration toolset capable of evolving as the ever-changing pandemic landscape forces universities to pivot and make quick decisions.

Moving Forward

According to BestColleges.com’s 2021 Online Education Trends Report, which collected data from 1,800 college students and 366 school administrators in the fall of 2020, nearly half of all students surveyed said they were likely to engage in online (49%) or remote (48%) learning even after colleges resume normal operations.

Chapman’s students are no exception. Phillip Lyle, Assistant Vice President of Infrastructure, suggested that, in the future, it’s likely that nearly every class would feature at least one remote user as students and staff decide what learning environment is most appropriate for their safety.

Providing an Equal Seat at the Table

Important considerations must also be made for hybrid teaching models, where students will be split between in-classroom and remote attendance. This scenario often presents more challenges than a 100% remote model, as teachers strive to accommodate the needs of in-class and remote students.

Hybrid education may present challenges, but the Chapman team will be well prepared to meet them. With Poly gear, in the classroom, conference rooms and home offices, Chapman ensures that any student or staff member who needs to participate remotely, now or in the future, can do so easily and have an equitable seat at the table.

These products also help universities meet the needs of students and staff who previously had trouble attending traditional classrooms due to a physical, mental, emotional or cognitive disability. Chapman’s built-in hybrid education solutions create more opportunities, ensuring those affected have appropriate accommodations. When best-in-class collaboration tools are ready at the click of a button, students and staff can worry less about technology and more about a best-in-class education.

For more information about Poly’s solutions for education, contact a Poly representative.

Head to Poly.com to learn more!

If you stop to think about if for a moment, healthcare facilities (including doctor’s offices, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, etc.) have always had a hard time keeping their portable telephones clean and operational.  These devices are used throughout a building (like in sub-basements and on rooftops), and must be durable enough to survive the pounding and frequent dropping they endure.  In addition – along with everything else used at such facilities – they must be disinfected frequently.  Then, when the pandemic hit and turned everything up a few notches, phones and other devices were being scrubbed so much that scratches were being etched into their surfaces, and numbers and letters on keyboards were disappearing.

Ryan Delgrosso, the CTO and co-founder of RingRX – A cloud telephony provider specifically for the healthcare market – knew that a better solution would be needed for such facilities going forward.  Ryan, who has been a long-term Poly partner for many years, immediately recognized Poly’s Rove DECT Wireless platforms as a perfect solution for these harsh environments.  Not only did the handsets let you use full desk phone capabilities in a portable device, but they are the first and only phone solution to exclusively feature built-in Microban antimicrobial product protection. (Microban is a global leader in antimicrobial technology, and when combined with Poly’s new wireless phone system, gives user’s the confidence needed to collaborate in high-touch work settings and in the most critical of conversations.)

Ryan explained that he has tried deploying other solutions (including app-based smartphones and older DECT solutions) but he has found them problematic for many reasons – including connectivity, reliability, usability, durability and price.  The Rove family allows Ryan’s firm to deploy easy to use reliable and affordable solutions specifically designed for these harsh environments

In Ryan’s words, using Poly solutions gives his customers “best in breed, absolutely second to none” audio quality and performance.  That’s one of the reasons RingRX has always partnered with Poly – to give his customers the very best communication solutions in the industry.  Now, with Microban on our Rove line (as well as our VVX Desk Phones) Poly will also have the safest to use products in the industry.  Listen to how Ryan tells it in his own words here.

For more information on Poly Rove devices, and for additional details on our exclusive partnership with Microban, please visit: Poly Rove and Poly Performance + Microban Protection.

To learn more how Poly and RingRX supports healthier and more reliable communication, please visit: RingRX.com/Poly

As the world only just begins to see light at the end of the tunnel of the most horrific pandemic in a century, it is important that we pause to appreciate the few silver linings that came out of the experience.  Surely, the ability to develop the vaccine technology that’s been implemented needs to be amongst our brightest spots, but there is another one – perhaps a bit more subtle – that needs to be highlighted as well, and that is how communication technology has finally come to be recognized as an equalizing force that enables a more inclusive workplace.

When everyone was forced into lockdown and had no choice but to work remotely, like the rest of us, Gary LaSasso and the team at Amicus Therapeutics shifted to a collaboration technology-supported remote working model.  Gary’s team quickly discovered that remote collaboration had become the great equalizer. As a biotech firm that searches for potential treatments for rare and devastating diseases, Amicus had always advocated for and implemented an inclusive workforce – including employees with disabilities of all types.  When the world switched to remote working, suddenly all employees were connecting and collaborating as equals.  For Gary, it meant the barriers to employment – be they geographical or physical – had been removed.  Clearly, another pandemic silver lining.

TECH THAT LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD

Anthony DeVergillo, Gary’s colleague, manages Amicus’ internal communications.  He has done so from his home for the past four years as the rare neuromuscular disorder he lives with, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy weakens his muscles to the point that he needs to use a wheelchair and requires a noninvasive ventilator to assist his breathing.

When all of Amicus’ employees were forced to connect remotely during the pandemic – and discovered the tremendous value in having high-quality collaboration tools – suddenly the experience of collaborating with Anthony was no different than collaborating with any other Amicus employee.  The pandemic leveled the playing field.

However, there was still one work issue that Anthony said raised his anxieties.  He was always self-conscious about the noises his ventilator made during calls.  It is loud, produces a high-pitched squeal, and makes a significant noise every time he takes a breath.  Of course, none of his colleagues minded the noise while seeking out his thoughtful perspective and vast expertise with brand architecture, but he knew that people would – at least subconsciously – find it distracting at best.

POLY’S ENGINEERING TEAM STEPPED-IN TO HELP

While Poly’s engineers designed NoiseBlock AI with more mundane distractions in mind (a vacuum cleaner, a rustling bag of food, etc.), it was conceivable that this powerful algorithm would be able to detect that Anthony’s ventilator noise was not speech – and without any additional tweaking.  It was certainly an experiment worth trying.  We shipped one of our new Poly Studio P15 personal collaboration bars to Anthony as a demo, and the results were remarkable.  Nearly all of the extraneous sound that had been passing through his old setup was blocked by the microphone array and processor built-in to the unit.  Have a listen to our recent Microsoft Teams video conversation for yourself – and be sure to note the difference in the audio when I ask Anthony to switch to the Poly microphone system:

As Gary points out, Poly has been on the cutting-edge of innovation and continues to be the industry leader with the quality of the video and the audio together in the one Studio P15.

Poly engineers strive to pioneer industry innovations that help make collaboration and communication more natural and easier to use for everyone.  This doesn’t only include NoiseBlock AI, but also production rules that allow our cameras to automatically track and adjust with TV-director-skill as people draw on a whiteboard, stand up and walk around, or simply shift into a different position in their chair.  The Studio P15 also has many other great features that you can read about here.  But clearly, helping Anthony feel more confident communicating and allowing him to get his ideas across without distraction, and therefore feel more a part of the Amicus team is one of our proudest moments.

If you’d like to find out more about the Poly Studio P Series and other Poly innovations that enable your team’s message to come through but leaves the distractions behind, visit our website or reach out to your Poly representative to get more information.

Pete Kolak, who manages the collaboration systems for a large financial services company in California, was pulling his hair out deploying conference room systems. “Our firm was a very heavy user of videoconferencing technologies – even before the pandemic,” he explained. “It would take us two to three days to install a medium-sized video conference room.”

No matter which conference or huddle room products Pete selected, it was always a challenge to wrestle with the multiple cables and/or cable harnesses all around the room connecting various components. He and his team had to closely monitor installation firms to ensure they complied with his organization’s aesthetic requirements. Sometimes this involved ordering custom-made shorter cables. However, even then, they often needed to bunch up the excess behind displays in an attempt to make the equipment look as professional as possible. The excess hidden wires often made troubleshooting the systems very difficult. Pete and his team looked around for newer, less-expensive room solutions, but they were often disappointed because many options were not designed for use in a conference room.

When Pete evaluated the Poly Studio X Family of collaboration systems, the improvement – in his words – was “dramatic.”

STREAMLINE YOUR SETUP WITH POLY STUDIO X

By putting all of the needed components (cameras, speakers, microphones, codecs, processors, and a ton of very intelligent production skills) into a single bar, his room installation projects went down from two to three days to two to three hours. And that mess of cables – gone. Not only were the Poly Studio X systems easier to install, but their embedded intelligence – such as NoiseBlock AI and automatic camera framing and tracking – meant they also performed better and faster than prior available systems.

POLY’S COMMITMENT TO INNOVATION

At the end of the day, the reason Pete continues to install these Poly Studio X systems at his company because of Poly’s commitment to innovation. He appreciates that Poly came to market much more rapidly than many competitors and that we continue to incorporate better and more rapid features than any other device out there.

Pete and his team know that Poly’s EPTZ (electronic pan-tilt-zoom) technology captures conference participants beautifully – without motors or distraction. and best of all, the software and hardware will only continue to improve with every update to Poly OS. Now, they can’t imagine installing a system with a mechanical camera motor that would surely distract the participants with its movements and disrupt the room’s environment.

If you’d like to hear all this in Pete’s own words, watch the video below.

Pete knows that Poly builds tools, not toys and that pro-grade gear for meeting rooms doesn’t have to be complicated. Poly gives Pete and his team the confidence, flexibility, and edge they need to make sure that their whole organization can command every meeting.

If you’d like to find out more about the Poly Studio X Family and other Poly innovations that can enable your team to crush their meetings, visit our website, or reach out to your Poly representative to get more information.

“When we shut down in March 2020, I thought we’d adjust over a short break,” New Jersey educator Esther Loor explained to us, “…but when two weeks became four, and four became six, and then it was the remainder of the school year… it was an interesting transition, to say the least.”

Due to the pandemic, Esther and thousands of her fellow educators around the world, suddenly found themselves, as she describes it, “locked in front of their computers” unable to stand-up, demonstrate on whiteboards or smartboards, or simply walk around in the natural style that they had always been used to. Then, as in-person learning began to resume, the requirement of teaching to in-class students and remotely connected students at the same time became even more daunting.

Classrooms equipped as ‘distance learning studios’ were rare, generally very expensive to build, and complex to operate. Educators found themselves sitting at desks and providing a less than optimal experience to both sets of students through no fault of their own.

Esther, whose husband just so happens to be a tech geek, began a project to find tools that could help her teach in these odd circumstances that the world has found itself in. She saw an offer online from Poly’s Services team to obtain a free, expert consultation to assist organizations with adopting technology to cope with the pandemic and she reached out for help. Poly answered the call and told Esther about the Poly Studio USB.

Esther’s school already had PCs and collaboration platforms that were working without incident. What they didn’t have was a way to allow educators to teach in a natural style in a hybrid environment consisting of both in-classroom and at-home students. The Poly Studio USB could simply connect to one of the PCs they were already using, be placed on a desk, and allow remote participants to see and hear the teacher as if they were in the classroom.

The Poly Studio USB utilizes an EPTZ (electronic pan-tilt-zoom) camera that has no motors and makes no distracting noises or motions in the room that could distract students. The ‘production rules’ that capture the perfect shot of the speaker as they move about the classroom are embedded in the device. They are NOT coming from a connected PC as with most of the other products on the market. This means the speed at which the Presenter Tracking follows the teacher is exceptionally quick, simulating exactly how an in-person student would follow the action – all automatically without any buttons to press or settings to adjust. Its exceptional sound pick-up and speakers also enable remote students to hear the teacher clearly – allowing for natural conversations between the remote students and the teacher.

In Esther’s words, the Poly Studio USB “unchained and unshackled” her so she could again just “teach at the board like she’s always done.” Her remote students experienced the same high-quality distance learning as that of a fully equipped classroom studio costing tens of thousands of dollars. Only all she needed was a sub-one-thousand-dollar device that required no formal installation.

Hear what Esther had to say in her own words.

School systems around the world have turned to the Poly Studio USB (and other outstanding Poly products) to enable them to meet the new challenges of educating both in-person and remote students with superb quality and at previously unheard-of low costs. (Click here to take a look at the Boston Public Schools for another example).

If you’d like to find out more about the Poly technology that can transform a classroom, learn how to get help with obtaining grants, or arrange for your free consultation with a Poly expert, go to our website, or reach out to your Poly representative to get more information.

Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, myths about remote work are being disproven

In February 2013, Yahoo’s CEO at the time, Marissa Mayer, infamously proclaimed that their employees would no longer be allowed to work remotely. Around the same time, Google’s CFO at the time, Patrick Pichette, also declared that teleworking was no good. They were far from the only business leaders that at best misunderstood and at worst scapegoated remote employees.

As an advocate for remote working – and a remote worker myself for almost two decades – it had constantly been an uphill battle getting organizations to understand and prioritize the benefits of a hybrid workstyle. The traditional business community spent a lot of energy demonizing remote workers as an excuse to cover-up other problems like rudderless teams and sluggish businesses. This view was not only incorrect, it exacerbated any real problems that may have existed in those organizations.

The common excuse that most of the remote working nay-sayers gave to justify their positions was that bringing people into the same space caused some “magic” to happen from the impromptu collisions and connections. Bumping into a colleague in a meeting or at the water cooler was supposed to be the genesis of this magic interaction. I honestly have never understood people’s acceptance of this organizational model… as if we all worked in a 1950’s small business. Yes, if you were employed at a local retail store, then you may gain an advantage having all your co-workers in the same place all the time. Realistically, I and many knowledge workers haven’t worked in an office where everyone was in the same location, same city, or even the same country for over two decades. What good is in-person, impromptu “magic” when your colleagues are rarely in the same building with you? Clearly, successful distributed workforces need to be able to develop that so-called “magic” using collaboration tools to truly be effective – and, when those tools are present on a computer or mobile device, it’s just as clear that that knowledge worker can be anywhere where they can access those tools and a solid internet connection.

That all brings us to today. A deadly pandemic has swept over the globe, forcing just about all knowledge workers to work remotely. It was the fear of infection and/or the requirement to stay home that overcame the stigma and scapegoating of remote working. We’ve learned a great deal about the remote and hybrid working model since this ordeal began.

• The past studies on remote workers were correct. Remote workers are generally more productive than in-office workers. Two plus hour daily commutes were eliminated, and most of that time went back into worker productivity. The dedication to tasks has been so great that people have risked burn-out due to over-focusing (something we never would have learned if the “lazy remote worker” stigma still existed).
• Traveling to a central office to do individual work clearly no longer makes any sense. This will force the focus of an organization’s offices to shift from housing individual work to facilitating group work – brainstorming, white-boarding, celebrating, etc.  This will require fewer desks, more meeting spaces, and more technology to support the large numbers of remote workers that will be participating in the meetings.
• Once it’s safe again, traveling for business will start up again, but it will only happen when actually needed. Visiting a client site, joining a planning session, attending a business conference, etc. will all be legitimate reasons to travel. A rote, daily commute to a desk that may or may not be as well-equipped as the one we have at home no longer makes sense – due to the time lost, cost, and carbon emissions spent.
• The role and schedule of the knowledge worker will change. Employees will be judged based upon their output, not the hours they spend at a desk or in an office. The freedom to adopt personal workstyles will be liberating. Good workers will no longer have qualms about attending a child’s school meeting or taking a day off for a leisure activity, as they will no longer have Neanderthal supervisors counting their butt-in-seat time as productivity. This will require supervisors to have the needed skills for managing remote teams – skills that have always existed (for 24-hour shifts and global teams) but have not in the majority of enterprise supervisors’ repertories.
• We’ve also learned about the drawbacks of remote working. These include the need to have a separate location in one’s residence to go to for optimal work; the need to build-in employee social and team-culture events and meetings (and breaks) as they don’t happen organically; and the need to ensure our technology is up for the tasks required. Yes, having a tablet with an embedded camera and earbuds worked in a pinch when we had to stay home for a day here or there, but working remotely for the long-haul requires a solid internet connection that supports everyone in your home simultaneously; high-quality, appropriately sized and mounted displays to prevent eyestrain; a high-quality camera, headset or speaker-mic device, lighting to ensure you look and sound your best to clients and colleagues, and a collaboration platform that supports scheduled and impromptu communication.

Our society and culture will change as a result of what we’ve learned during the pandemic. Organizations will likely have smaller offices in the future, but they’ll have more of them and they will be in a more dispersed model. People will likely choose where they live based on new criteria. One no longer needs to live “a reasonable commute time” to an office, but instead can pick areas that meet higher priority criteria – perhaps near family… or, where the action is as quiet or exciting as they prefer… or, where the schools or communities meet their needs. Restaurants that had a business model of feeding the hordes of office workers at lunch will probably never open again, but new restaurants that support a more spread-out population will open and flourish. Most importantly, enterprises will have the ability to hire the best and brightest workers regardless of geography. Working remotely will not be ideal for every role and every personality, but the percentage of knowledge workers will surely flip from mostly in-offices to mostly remote. The quality of life benefits for employees and the tremendous cost saving for organizations will surely never be forced back into the genie-bottle.

As a result, I believe the hybrid working model will be the default for many years to come. It enables knowledge workers to be productive from home, from an office, and when traveling. Selecting the right tools and the right platforms to achieve this will be a critical component of an organization’s success. As always, if you need advice on where to begin this journey, always feel free to reach out to me.

It’s difficult to realize that you’re living through a time of fundamental change in real-time. When we look back at this era in five or so years we’ll likely all be able to recognize how the awful circumstances allowed us to overcome the incorrect stigmas associated with the remote worker, and enable a more productive and happier future for knowledge workers.

Just under two months ago, I moderated a webcast with technology and collaboration managers from firms such as Google, Morgan Stanley, Poly, Verizon and others, and asked how they were handling the transition to 100% remote working.  I was expecting the comments to be about issues with technology and other 20-20 hindsight – but surprisingly, the panelists didn’t have many complaints.  They described a generally painless and successful transition.  Now that approximately forty-five days has past, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with them again and see how they were doing.

The prior participants that were available joined me on a new webcast (which you can watch here) and continued to report that things were going well.  The collaboration tools that each firm was relying upon were holding-up well, with no major failures or issues to report.  They did, however, have some interesting insights into managing a nearly 100% remote workforce and working from home for an extended period of time.

Time to Perfect the Home Office Setup

When the stay-home orders first came out, people didn’t think they’d be home for as long as they have been (with still no end in sight).  As we approached two months of remote working, employees have started making requests to improve their home set-ups.  In some cases, this is asking that larger displays and higher-quality headsets be retrieved from their prior office workspace and sent to their homes.  In fact, some enterprises have small teams doing just that and making these available for their employees to curbside-pick-up.  In other cases, employees are realizing that they need higher quality equipment than they previously used.  When joining a meeting remotely was a once-in-a-while event, it was fine to use a tablet’s embedded camera and speaker.  However, when you are making daily presentations to colleagues and clients, the quality of your sound and images is much more critical.  Enterprise managers have been generally open to providing this essential “better than basic” gear for employees’ remote workstations.

Adjusting to Managing Fully Remote Teams

The further into the 100% remote working experiences we go, the more enterprises have realized that it is easy for most employees to be very productive from home.  However, they have also realized that the job of managing a remote workforce takes a completely different skillset than most managers have used in the past.  When you don’t bump into your employees in an office every day, you need to be good at staying in touch, being available, monitoring output, fostering communications and a few dozen other skills that many managers have never been introduced to before.  There are some excellent remote-workforce-managers in the world, so expect these skills to be highlighted, sought-after, and further developed through employer provided educational programs.

Camaraderie Will Take Some Extra Effort

All the participants reported that top-down company culture was doing just fine.  High-quality/high-reliability collaboration tools and platforms were allowing company executives to stay in touch with their teams and provide high-level direction.  Town hall events are reaching tens of thousands of individuals with great success.  However, our participants reported that the typical, daily interactions between employees around the office have been somewhat neglected.  Chats about travel, community, family and similar topics foster a sense of camaraderie between employees, and remote working will not automatically provide such opportunities.  Some enterprises have not yet taken action to replace these experiences.  It is clear that this will require specific efforts to be replaced via collaboration tools.  Enterprises that have done a better job with this issue use events like scheduled “hallway chats” amongst teams for about fifteen minutes twice a week, where video calls that explicitly don’t talk about work take place to allow for social exchanges.  Other activities such as photo galleries and/or contests (with family, outdoor views, pets, etc.) can be shared on a team chat channel.

As the pandemic moves through its various phases, we will see some employees be able to return to traditional offices, but there will likely be significant changes to prevent the spread of the virus (pre- any vaccine or treatment). This phase – “The New Normal” – will see fewer people in the office, but mostly out of fear and/or caution.  Once there is a vaccine or effective treatment and fear begins to drop away from the equation, “The Next Normal” phase will be greatly influenced by the widespread success of remote working – bring about significant changes to the model that was in use before the pandemic.  Some people will return to offices, some will now make their homes their primary workplaces, and some will mix the two.  As this future unfolds you can be assured that high quality collaboration tools will be the glue that keeps knowledge workers productive for many years to come.