In collaboration with Joel Barbier

Like most corporations, Cisco has seen a dramatic shift in staff’ attitudes and behaviors relating to distant work for the reason that starting of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the share of staff surveyed preferring to earn a living from home not less than as soon as every week rose from 48% to 91%, whereas the share of conferences with not less than one distant participant are projected to develop from 8% to 98%.

Nonetheless, these adjustments additionally mirror the growing adoption of a “hybrid work” mannequin by Cisco and plenty of different corporations over the previous few years. This new strategy is pushed by a number of key elements:

• Larger availability of collaborative applied sciences that assist distant work
• Workers’ rising want for a greater work/life steadiness, with schedules that permit them to work after they’re best
• The crucial to draw staff from across the globe – and to supply versatile working preparations that assist retain staff
• The necessity to present a extremely inclusive, equitable work surroundings for all staff, no matter their location or time zone The need to scale back underutilized workplace house, with a purpose of saving cash and enhancing the corporate’s environmental impression (much less vitality utilization in buildings, fewer staff commuting every week)

Hybrid work is not only about distant work. Cisco defines “hybrid work” as “an strategy that designs the work expertise round and for staff, wherever they’re. It empowers individuals to work onsite, offsite, and when shifting between places. Hybrid work additionally promotes inclusiveness, engagement, and well-being for all staff.”

The shift to hybrid work may be tough – and a few will fail

In keeping with trade analyst agency Forrester, 60% of organizations will shift to a hybrid work mannequin in 2022 – however one-third will fail of their first try.[i] Why? In a nutshell, the transfer to a hybrid work mannequin is laborious.

For one factor, the shift requires organizations to restructure expectations round conferences, job roles, and promotion alternatives in order that they’re now not reliant on in-person experiences. One other hurdle is acceptance by some executives. A latest PwC research discovered that in terms of hybrid work, the largest problem for executives is their concern about the way it may erode their company tradition.[ii]

For the hybrid work mannequin to work, management and tradition have to be aligned – with digital infrastructure forming the muse of the hybrid work expertise. To perform this, Cisco believes that hybrid work options have to be:

• Inclusive: Present a piece surroundings through which each individual can totally take part and be seen and heard equally.
• Versatile: Harness versatile instruments that adapt to the work kinds, roles, and gadgets of staff who could also be unfold throughout many time zones.
• Supportive: Promote a supportive mind-set all through every stage of the group to make sure that staff really feel snug, secure, and safe about new methods of working.
• Safe: Guarantee safe, worry-free connectivity and app experiences for all staff.
• Straightforward to handle: Make it simple for IT groups to provision customers and gadgets at scale; entry sturdy, related analytics; and troubleshoot points with “single pane of glass” visibility into customers and gadgets.

Recipe for fulfillment: HR, IT, and Amenities working in live performance

Whereas some individuals may consider hybrid work strictly as a expertise initiative, its success depends closely on three groups – HR, IT, and Amenities working in live performance.

HR: Cisco’s adoption of the hybrid work mannequin has turn into a vital device for attracting and retaining staff. In a latest world workforce survey staff stated they might contemplate a brand new place or job provided that it allowed for versatile hours.[i] Clearly, not supporting a hybrid work mannequin may stop corporations from attracting and retaining the expertise they want to achieve the longer term.

IT: Cisco is utilizing expertise to simplify and personalize our means of working, with a purpose of boosting worker productiveness, collaboration, engagement, and inclusion. Extra particularly, expertise is producing knowledge insights that may assist us enhance staff’ work/life integration and construct higher-quality connections amongst people and groups. It’s additionally permitting us to undertake a zero-trust strategy to securing entry throughout firm networks, purposes, and environments from any consumer, machine, and placement.

Amenities: Over the previous 25+ years, Cisco’s Amenities workforce has frequently modified our working surroundings match the corporate’s tradition and aims. When utilization of workplace house decreased as staff began working from residence extra typically, Amenities modified the emphasis in Cisco buildings from particular person areas (5%) to collaborative areas (95%). Whereas Amenities will proceed to search for alternatives to scale back the corporate’s general workplace footprint, it would additionally purpose to create workspaces that may function a central hub for staff to interact in wealthy, collaborative experiences with colleagues.

One prime instance of how Cisco’s HR, IT, and Amenities groups collaborated to allow a real hybrid work surroundings is the evolution of our “Cisco Examine-in” classes, which firm management use to share info and supply strategic instructions to staff. The idea started in 2019 when Cisco launched its Cisco Beat classes, which had been obtainable on any machine wherever, with each dwell and digital audiences. By 2020 and the arrival of the pandemic, Cisco Beat developed to turn into the Cisco Examine-in, with an emphasis on engagement, expertise, emotion, and well-being. Held each two weeks, the Examine-ins have supplied an efficient platform for addressing worker isolation throughout the pandemic; taking worker suggestions through dwell polls; specializing in worker psychological wellness; and answering health-related questions.

Influence of hybrid work mannequin for Cisco:

Improved productiveness, decrease prices, higher worker expertise & sustainability

Since 2012, Cisco’s hybrid work evolution has generated tangible advantages in a number of key areas:

• Worker productiveness: Hybrid work now allows Cisco information staff to avoid wasting greater than two hours day by day, representing $2.5 billion in yearly worth to the corporate. These productiveness positive aspects are from time financial savings realized by Cisco staff after they use the portfolio of collaboration options.
• Office: Hybrid work has allowed Cisco to optimize house utilization and shut 425 buildings. Proceeds from constructing gross sales have totaled $452 million, with an extra $80 million projected throughout the present fiscal 12 months.
• Worker expertise: By enhancing Cisco’s skill to accommodate quite a lot of working kinds, hybrid work has helped enhance staff’ work/life steadiness satisfaction ranking to its highest stage ever. The corporate additionally has been named one of many “Fortune 100 Greatest Firms to Work For” 5 years in a row (2017-2021).
• Sustainability: Even earlier than the pandemic, hybrid work was liable for Cisco staff commuting a mean of 5 fewer occasions per week. Hybrid work has enabled Cisco to keep away from 240K MWh of vitality utilization. In 2021 alone, the corporate lowered its CO2e footprint by 93.4K tons, representing $29 million in OpEx financial savings.

These outcomes show that when three domains – HR, IT, and Amenities – come collectively, they allow the hybrid working mannequin to achieve its full potential.

[i] Susan Galer, “Workforce Developments 2022: How Firms Are Constructing Digital Dream Groups,” Forbes, January 18, 2022

[ii] “PwC US Pulse Survey: Subsequent in Work,” PwC, 2021

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