As more companies commit to a hybrid work model, they are faced with a key decision of how to design the best work experience for their workforce that may now be logging in from absolutely anywhere. Clearly, modern collaboration skills and tools are a must. In addition to the technology, there is an even more important element – the human side. With many employees working miles apart, companies need to bring people back together as if they were in the office with personalized and human interactions.
With this is mind, our Webex team has been designing products to support our vision of building an inclusive future for all. We want to ensure that remote workforces feel a sense of connection with their teams while always feeling included no matter the activity. This can especially be challenging when work can be happening from a home office, a kitchen table, a coffee shop or anywhere in between.
Speaking of a coffee shop, for anyone who decides to stop for a cup of joe while taking a work call – we‘ve got you covered. We have been working hard to ensure you have a high-quality experience so you can take that call with confidence. With our background noise removal – you can filter out background noise from the barista or people talking around you to ensure you’re the only one represented in the meeting.
We are building upon our audio intelligence capabilities with our new feature, Optimize for all voices. This will bring equality among voices in a group setting, so nobody’s voice is lost. For our remote workers, this means that you can dial into larger meetings happening in the office – and you can hear people clearly on the other end. No more days of feeling left out since you’re the remote participant. With optimize for all voices, it doesn’t matter if participants are close or far from the microphone, if there’s a soft talker, or a loud talker – Webex equalizes everyone’s speech while eliminating background noise. Whether it’s an adhoc meeting for hybrid work, or a classroom setting with a teacher and students – optimize for all voices allows everyone in the room to be heard. This new capability will be available in early 2022.
While we are busy creating inclusive experience from anywhere – we are leading with a mobile first strategy. Recently, our team announced the enhancement of the mobile worker experience with Webex Go. This new capability enables you to no longer need to carry two mobile devices, one for personal and one for business, instead, you can use Webex Go to extend your Webex Calling business line natively to your personal mobile phone. Webex Go helps our remote workforce stay connected with co-workers, customers, or anyone on the other line directly from their personal mobile device, while never disclosing personal information or charging the personal phone line. Overall, our team is hard at work to improve our Webex Calling experience – make sure to see my recent blog to learn about our recent momentum.
As we settle into hybrid work for the long run, there is a new culture emerging. A workforce that can’t just bump into each other in the hallway or have a team lunch. Instead, we are physically miles apart, and we need to be more conscious and aware of making time to connect with each other.
With our new Team Insights feature inside of the Webex App, you can learn about your teams’ culture and watch for cases where the team just isn’t connecting enough, or accidentally leaving people out. You can see how much time the team is spending together regardless of where they work from. While we never tell you about any one teammate, we want to make sure everyone is aware of how the team is doing.
Team Insights provides users insights into the well-being and cohesion of the teams they are a part of. The great aspect is that all team members can view the same data – no private or individual information is shown.
Team Insights highlights the best time to meet as a team given different time zones.
It also shows workload trends and occurrences of back-to-back meetings.
Team Insights provides insights into cohesion for all team members to view and improve on breaking down silos and looping in teammates that may be on the fringes of the team communications. This new feature will be available in the first half of 2022.
As we look across all these exciting innovations for a hybrid workforce, there is one that I believe we will all fall in love with! It’s our Vidcast video messaging solution that enables users to collaborate more efficiently … without having to attend yet another meeting! Yes, I said it, we all need less meetings and more time back in our lives. Yet, we don’t want to miss out on the richness of that conversation or presentation. Well now, you don’t have to!
Vidcast allows for meeting-free, asynchronous collaboration via short-form videos that are easy to record, edit and share. Recently, our team started using Vidcast to share quick updates and it’s helping us communicate across different time zones and reduces the amount of fatigue from back-to-back meetings. This is a game changer for hybrid work!
As you can see, Webex is bringing to market many new innovations that will enhance the workforce experience for hybrid work. I hope you are ready to explore what’s possible with Webex – and to create a more inclusive workforce for your organization.
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