Hybrid working is the future
Different location, same experience
Working from home, having video meetings, managing processes electronically, collaborating on documents simultaneously – all capabilities that support the ability of an employee to flexibly work from anywhere, whether that is office, home, café or car. This is the new normal for many organisations and their employees; hybrid working.
While hybrid working has been possible for several years, the pandemic has accelerated its deployment & advancement as software companies created better user experiences. At the same time, employers needed to ensure that their workers were kept productive through enforced lock-downs and work-from-home edicts.
With Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and Power Platform, and engagement solutions like Viva, it is no longer necessary for someone to be physically in the office. Even more importantly, the engagement and experience for the employee should be the same, regardless of where they are and what they are doing. Gone are the days when the remote worker had to accept a second class experience compared to the person working from the office.
Meeting your needs for meetingsIn a hybrid working world, Microsoft Teams is the core driving force by enabling people to chat, call, meet, and collaborate with almost no limitations and incredible flexibility. Working on a document with your colleague? No problem. You can both work on the same document simultaneously, seeing each other’s changes and updates in real-time. Need to ask a question to a colleague? You can do that through rich text chat or call them from your computer or smartphone if a conversation is more appropriate. Want to have a discussion with colleagues and an external party? Invite all the participants to a meeting and let Teams deliver a great experience, enabling you to see each other, share information, take notes and record the whole thing for future reference. Read our Meeting Spaces eBook to find out more |
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Keeping your workforce engagedPreviously, it was pretty easy to keep all your employees engaged and connected, mainly because they were all in the office, working next to each other, chatting in the rest area or going out for lunch. Nowadays, these activities and working practices have changed for many people, and new ways must be found to maintain those connections. Microsoft recognised this problem and created Viva to address many areas related to employee engagement and wellbeing. Viva runs inside Teams and enhances employee engagement in several ways: Topics – Organises content by topic and expertise to make it easier for employees to find information and knowledge across the Microsoft 365 platform. Connections – Keeps employees engaged and informed by giving them personalised information, news and conversations. Learning – Manages, recommends, delivers and tracks learning content from providers like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera and Pluralsight. Insights – Offers personal and productivity insights to employees, managers, and execs to help improve wellbeing, focus, learning and other aspects of daily work life.
Read our Employee Engagement eBook to find out more
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No compromise on security
Naturally, one of the significant considerations that virtually any organisation has when thinking about hybrid working is security. With applications and data in the cloud, and people connecting from home and other non-office locations, there are ample opportunities for security to be compromised.
Thankfully, it is possible to both support hybrid working and make it secure and manageable, even for the most security-sensitive organisations. Solutions such as device management, access control, multi-factor authentication, data loss prevention, threat management, and rights management can be used individually or collectively to support whatever level of security control is required.
These services ensure that only your users can log in to your systems, that your data is secure and protected against undesirable exposure or theft. Additionally, users can only use specific devices to connect, they cannot actively or inadvertently share sensitive data, and any threats are identified quickly and effectively.
If there is a particular security scenario that inhibits your hybrid working aspirations, there’s almost certainly a solution for that.
Read our Security eBook to find out more |
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Need help enabling or developing your hybrid working environment?We have a long and illustrious record working with Microsoft 365 and are able to help with any hybrid working scenario whether you are looking for architectural advice and guidance, through to deployment, configuration, migration and user enablement. Get in touch to discuss your requirements and we’ll show you how we can help get your organisation enabled for true hybrid working. |
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