The Future of Work is Here!

Announcing the Future of Work

of more than 25,000 respondents to a recent IBM survey indicated they would like to work remotely at least occasionally post-COVID. And 54% said they’d like this to be their primary way of working. This is staggering in comparison to the 20% of employees who were remote pre-COVID. What was a slow transition to new ways of working has now accelerated to a point where all I can say is: the future of work is here! (1)

Pre-COVID, workplace transformation was already underway. In fact, many organizations were embracing a future that looked very different from what we called “work” even just 5 years ago. Four generations in the workforce required meeting different work styles. Innovative, casual, and open workspaces became the norm (as did game rooms). And implementing integrated workflows was critical to getting stuff done. Allowing people to work where, how, and when they wanted to be the mantra for more and more companies.

But now we are all working remotely, which means we have to learn how to adapt to this new style of working. And we must look to the future… when, or even if, we return to our offices.

Cisco’s Future of Work Thought Leadership Initiative

To help understand, navigate, and even embrace this future, Cisco has partnered with customers, futurists, analysts, and industry experts. The results of that work launches today — our Future of Work thought leadership initiative that includes customer stories, thought-leadership articles, survey results, and assessment tools — all designed to help you as you lean into a new future of work. The portal is your one-stop for fresh, relevant articles, videos, and podcasts. You will find insights from luminaries, like Jacob Morgan, Futurist; Mike Walsh, author of The Algorithmic Leader; and Michael Bush, CEO of Great Places to Work. There are also stories about customer transformations. And through an exclusive partnership with Wired and Harvard Business Review, there is rich content on the Future of Work.

This site will provide you with the tools you need to plan your own organization’s future, whether workstyles, workspaces, or workflows.

Virtual Future of Marathon Series

Over five days (May 11-15), we’re hosting a virtual summit featuring a powerful line-up of customers, experts, futurists, and industry analysts. You’ll hear from customers including Under Armour, Nvidia, Broadcom, and Jimmy Kimmel Live on how they have innovated during the COVID-era. Futurists Mike Walsh and Michael Bush will offer insights on how the world is transforming along with their thoughts on work in the future. And you’ll hear from industry analysts on how they view business continuity in context with the future of work. No registration is required – visit the link above to join any of the five sessions. And if you miss one, they will be archived on the Future of Work portal.

There is one aspect of the portal that I’m really excited about: our Workplace Maturity Assessment Tool, an industry-first maturity calculator. Cisco recently conducted a benchmark survey of over 1,500 companies across 13 geographies and 7 vertical industries. We measured both where companies are in the process of transforming their workplace and if they’ve begun to embrace the future of work, the benefits they’ve realized.

From these survey results, we built this calculator that provides organizations a pulse on where they are in the process of transforming their workplace for the future. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete the assessment, and once completed, they receive a personalized workplace maturity score and can benchmark your organization to the other respondents and find out if you are ahead or behind in your workplace transformation — and by how much. Knowing where you help with planning for the future.

Another great piece of content on our portal is our benchmark report, “Safe and Effective Remote Working.” Based on our survey, this timely report addresses immediate remote work needs related to our response to the pandemic and offers valuable insights on laying the foundation for your future of work.

The future of work is here. And with these resources, you learn how to prepare for the future.