Invent a hybrid employee experience that works for you

Enterprises are trying to figure out how to adapt to a permanently changed, post-pandemic work environment. As hybrid work continues its evolution, the overarching question we consistently hear from our customers is, “How can we create a great employee experience for those working remote, in-office, or both?”

Organizations around the world continue to grapple with this challenge. Our job at Microsoft is to provide solutions that help bridge the experience divide between in-person and remote work for our customers.?

Workers of the world unite on flexibility

How big is that divide? The September Microsoft 2022 Work Trend Index interviewed over 20,000 workers worldwide. Post-pandemic, their input tells us 73% of employees want a better reason to return to the office than simply company expectations. But they also crave more in-person time with their teams -- even as they want flexible work options to continue.???

While acknowledging these employee expectations, 74% of managers in the 2021 Work Trends Index said they do not have the resources to fulfill them. The challenge is, how do we provide that flexibility without sacrificing productivity, collaboration, and overall employee experience??

A key responsibility of leaders is to set the pace of adoption for hybrid work. But there is no single correct answer on how to do it. Every organization has its own operational needs and cultural nuances to consider.?

How Microsoft is helping customers thrive in a hybrid workplace

When I speak with customers, I am continually impressed by how they have adapted to hybrid work with technology. Many of our customers are leveraging Microsoft Teams heavily.

Previously, remote employees could feel disconnected from an in-person gathering at headquarters. Now, the digital inclusion of all employees is the norm.?Senior management uses Teams to run all-hands meetings with thousands of employees. Mid-level managers are hosting highly interactive management offsites using virtual whiteboarding. Frontline employees are having one-on-one discussions seamlessly with colleagues back at the office.

And as new product features are introduced, such as Dynamic View , these experiences become even more natural. For instance, with Microsoft Teams Connect , employees anywhere can work together using a shared workspace for easy collaboration, whether assigning tasks, exchanging documents, or even inviting external team members to join securely.?

With dramatic advancements in technology also comes the risk of digital burnout. Employee wellbeing is central to the successful adoption of a hybrid work model. Our customers are using Microsoft Viva Insights to provide actionable insights into individual work behavior. An employee can see how she spends her day, and make changes such as taking more breaks, setting up one-on-ones to strengthen relationships, or reducing her habit of working late nights.

The Workplace Analytics feature within Viva Insights also provides a management listening post, where leadership can find anonymized data on employee behavior. Items like meeting overload and weekend work can be identified, and actions can be taken mitigate those concerning trends. The goal is to use these insights to help employees thrive at work every day.

One of our newer hybrid-first capabilities is Microsoft Teams Rooms , our purpose-built meeting room solution. It allows participants in a physical meeting room to link up with those in a virtual Teams meeting through a simple click on the calendar invite on their laptop. Slides are screen shared on the Teams app, and wirelessly projected to the room’s big screen. Virtual team members can hear the conversation loud and clear, because the physical room is wired with mics. Simple. Seamless.

We also know from research that meetings are three times more effective if people feel comfortable participating, including those who are remote. That is why we created a Hybrid Meetings Guide to help customers build a more inclusive experience.

And whatever hybrid tools you decide to deploy, it is essential to ensure their ease of adoption and use. Microsoft Unified Support is designed to help users experience technology friction-free, transforming customer experience from a tiered, case-centric support model to a customer-centric model. All Microsoft resources are aligned with a company’s business objectives. It is architected to bring the right support capability to users at the right time – and often proactively.

Reimagining the workplace with our customers

Every organization is different, and we enable our customers to build hybrid capabilities that work best for them. A few recent examples have stood out for me.

For REI , the biggest U.S. consumer retail cooperative, Microsoft Teams has become the gateway for their employees’ daily work, whether in-store with customers or in the corporate back office. Teams Rooms and Surface Hubs facilitate collaboration, while Microsoft Bookings help employees reserve desk space. Even REI’s CEO is forgoing a private office in favor of bookable workspace.

Nationwide , one of the world’s largest insurers, closed several offices and upgraded their remaining ones with Microsoft Teams-enabled rooms, combined with Surface Hub 2 , to create a premium hybrid meeting experience. Features such as Microsoft Teams with Front Row permits employees to more naturally host virtual meetings with each other, or even with customers.

Employees at TransCore , an innovator in global traffic management solutions, work in highly diverse environments from the field to the front office. They chose Teams for all aspects of employee collaboration – chat, voice, video and document sharing. Since adopting Teams, TransCore has seen dramatic improvements in productivity and meeting participation. They have even revamped recruiting by doing job interviews mostly on Teams, and forgoing the logistical hurdles and cost of flying in candidates for in-person interviews.

Finally, British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) uses Teams as a single employee front door. Tasks in Teams have replaced corporate emails as the primary vehicle to assign daily store priorities. An overwhelming repository of more than 40,000 documents has been reshaped into a searchable Teams platform, reducing that total volume by 93%. M&S now views Viva Connections as the final piece in their hybrid puzzle, using it as one-stop shop for employees to find personalized information, from pay slips to news and conversations.

Embrace hybrid to unlock your full potential

With the end of the pandemic, organizations of all kinds are at a crossroads. Some will choose to return to their former work styles, while others will seize the opportunity to create a better future that is more empowering for employees who are at home, at the office, or both.

We are only beginning to realize the benefits of hybrid work and the greater flexibility it offers to workers. But to unlock its full potential, management must be clear-eyed and focused on creating the best employee experience, while retaining a mindset of continuous innovation as needs change.

This transition requires new skills, tools, and processes in order to minimize disruptions to your workforce and maintain productivity. Not to be overlooked is the need for managing cultural change by embedding flexibility and digital empathy throughout your organization.

We have witnessed many visionary customers who are taking bold steps in that direction. We will be with them every step of the way.