“ReDesign” Workspaces for Hybrid Work

In this article, you will read about the latest trend, which is “HYBRID WORK” and how you need to prepare for it. The focus of this, is to talk about the Changing Nature of Work Space/Work Place, as I assume that most of you would have resumed “Work from office”.

Recently on LinkedIn, I started noticing people passing 2 Microsoft certifications “Microsoft Teams Rooms Solution Sales Professional” “Microsoft Teams Rooms Solution Technical Solutions Professional”. 

  

 I got curious. Immediately, I logged into Expertzone (https://expertzone.microsoft.com/home) to check it out. To complete these exams, you need to hop over to Microsoft 365 and Security Learning Paths | Understand the Value of Microsoft Teams Rooms Video (https://readiness.transform.microsoft.com/video-training-page/57a3b070-7302-4432-86da-74ba25bff58b/a5d8de55-7fab-4cb1-b6ca-ad7b5b0937e7) and complete the training.

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In this blog, I am explaining “Hybrid Work” trends. The focus of this is to talk about the changing nature of Work Space/Work Place

– Ronak Agarwal

The content is broadly classified into several topics: 

• Topic 1: Realize the Hybrid Work – Industry Trends  
• Topic 2: Choosing the Right Platform and Why MTR makes common sense. 
• Topic 3: Understand the Components & Value of Microsoft Teams Rooms 
• Topic 4: Overall Solution Approach  

  

Note:  Goal of this blog is to discuss on "Redesign Workspaces for Hybrid Work". 

  

Let’s Get Started… 

Topic 1: Realize the Hybrid Work 

Core Theme: Let’s make Hybrid Work “WORK” 

 As per the research conducted by Microsoft  “2022 Work Trend Index: Annual Report” which explains the Great Expectations around:

• Why Work? 
• When to go to the office? 

Employees have a new “worth it” equation And most important, there is no going back. 

 There are primarily 5 Key Themes for this research: 

• Employees have a new “Worth it” equation 
• Managers feel Wedged between leadership and employee expectations 
• Leaders need to make the office worth the commute 
• Flexible work doesn’t have to mean “always on” 
• Rebuilding Social Capital looks different in a hybrid world 

 Some important statistics that came out of this research are: 

• 54% of managers feel leadership is out of touch with employee expectations 
• 38% of hybrid workers say their greatest challenge is knowing when/why to come to the office. 
• 252% increase in weekly meeting time for average Teams user since March 2020 
• 28% of after-hours work increased 
• 14% of weekend work increased 
• 58% of hybrid workers report thriving relationships with immediate teams 
• 50% of remote workers report thriving relationships with immediate teams 

That’s a lot of numbers but it’s important to get this view and see the market trends. These trends have opened up numerous possibilities and opportunities.  

• 54% Of leaders say their company is investing in tech and space to redesign meeting rooms to make them more hybrid friendly in the coming year.  
• 52% Of employees are open to using Digital Immersive Spaces in the Metaverse for meetings or team gatherings in the next year. 
• 3X Remote jobs on LinkedIn attract 2.6 times more views and nearly 3 times more applicants compared to on-site roles. 

  

Hybrid Work has pushed the limitation on traditional ways of communication and demands: 

• Inclusive and productive hybrid meetings 
• Rethinking the role of space 
• Design for people not in the room (Virtual Attendees) 
• Remote attendees have a seat at the table 

Conclusion, so that the hybrid meetings are not complex, we need to think at 3 levels: 

• Employee Level – Give everyone (including virtual attendees) a seat at the table 
• Productivity Level – (Stay in loop before, during and after meetings) 
• Organization Level – Share and engage with your teammates in ways that feel natural and continuous, from live events to 1:1 chats.  

In my own experience after working with number of customers globally, organizations are demanding for: 

• Creating a real Digital Office and rethinking the role of space 
• Simplify technology and tune it based on user requirements 
• In Person and Virtual Attendee Equality 
• Innovation in terms of measuring User Experience in a Room 
• Remote Monitoring & Management of the devices in the room. 

  

Topic 2: Adoption of Microsoft Teams as a platform and why MTR makes common sense. 

Core Theme: Viral Adoption of Microsoft Teams platform 

  

Once you realize that work & people have become hybrid, you need to consider an appropriate solution to use. Well, I am sure all reading this are using Microsoft Teams in some capacity but to put this into perspective, let me share some facts. 

  

• 270 million monthly active Teams users 
• More than 60% of the Fortune 500 have chosen Teams Rooms to connect employees across the hybrid workplace. 
• Teams Phone has over 12 million PSTN users 
• 345 Million Paid Seats of Office 365. 

  

And this is the reason why MTR makes sense. Also as a Consultant, I have majorly seen heterogeneous environment with presence of Microsoft Teams based solutions.

   

Topic 3: Understand the components & value of Microsoft Teams Rooms 

Core Theme: Value of MTR vs Traditional AV equipment in room 

  

First of all, Teams Room is any room with inclusive meeting space and people can join from anywhere. It consists of Conference Rooms, Classrooms, Flex Space etc. They can be divided into number of categories like Huddle, Small, Medium, Large & Extra Large. 

  

From a platform point of view, either you join a Teams meeting using mobile, desktop or room system, all is powered by MS Teams platform. Benefit is same look and feel across any device. 

  

Components of Teams Room include: Touchscreen Console, Compute, Camera, Audio & Display. 

Teams Rooms are either Android based, Windows Based & Surface Hub. 

   

  

  Microsoft Teams Rooms are built on below Principles: 

• Inclusive Meeting Experience 
• Easy to Use for All 
• Flexible in terms of converting any shared space to Teams Room 
• Secured and Managed 

  

So if you look at it, it’s either you invest in a native & purpose built solution at the beginning and save support costs & improve user experience or you choose non compatible devices and put various layers of support, which ultimately will be costly and user experience will be compromised. 

Obviously, the answer to this question is based on your organization demands and the future roadmap. Hence we really needs a consultant to help you device a path forward. 

  

• Organization Budget 
• Number of rooms to configure and the room location 
• Space size 
• Furniture configurations 
• Room capacity 
• Primary meeting behaviors (formal? informal?) 
• Installation requirements 
• Existing OEM relationship(s) 
• Device management 
• OS 
• Specific features needs 

  In terms of licensing needs, see the below table. Microsoft has 2 SKU’s:  

Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Standard & Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Premium 

  

	Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Standard $15/device/month	Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Premium $50/device/month
Microsoft Teams	Yes	Yes
Phone System	Yes	Yes
Audio Conferencing	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Intune	Yes	Yes
Managed room planning and inventory control		Yes
Managed operations and support		Yes
Managed security		Yes
AAD Premium Plan 1		Yes
Worldwide availability		Yes
Channel availability	EA, EAS, CSP, GCC, GCCHigh, EES, Web Direct	EA, EAS, CSP, EES, Web Direct

    

Topic 4: Overall Solution Approach 

If you realize, when Covid hit back in 2020, all of a sudden we moved to remote work and it was the trend back then. 

Now as you read this article, the trend has changed and now it’s Hybrid and this will continue to be like this. 

  

When working on shaping a big change in the organization because of market trends and user requirements, just take a step back and see “If you really need this change”. “Are you ok with what you have today”  

If you think this change is inevitable, then you need a concrete approach and understand 3 things: 

• As a business leader, you need to access “What part of the work per persona will be remote, in office & hybrid?” 
• As an employee, you need to access “What part of the work will be remote, in office & hybrid?” 
• Combine the findings from these 2 analysis, and you will strike the right balance in terms of employee expectations verses reality. 

  This will help you device the right strategy for Hybrid/ Flexible Work. 

From a Solution Approach Point of view, you can follow the below guiding principles: 

• Understand the Requirements from a People, Products and Process perspective.
• Identify what is possible from the technology at hand 
• Calculate ROI. From step 2, qualify “Must Haves” and “Good to Have” features. Then see if “Good to Have” comes at a cost or it’s natively available. 
• Build a proper Execution & Change Management Plan. 

Another perspective for Meeting Room as a service, more from a transaction point of view, aka Transformation Approach: 

• Solution Requirements Identification 
• Solution Design  and identification of right devices & vendors. 
• Solution Procurement 
• Solution Deployment and Configuration 
• Solution Support 
• Solution Usability Metrics/ Adoption Stats/ Management and Monitoring 
• Continuous Improvement. 

  

  

Obviously, there are a lot more intricacies to the solution and needs a Consultant mindset to device a right approach, but I hope this leads you in the right direction.  

This is the end but through this article we really have discussed some critical topics and my objective is to provoke thoughts in you, as a reader. You will have different experiences and I will be happy, if you share it with me.

  

I am also attaching the  “2022 Work Trend Index: Annual Report”  .

If you are interested to read more, then you can always read my other article on MTR.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Updates and Room Configurators 2022

That’s it Folks! Let me know what you think about the blog. Please post for any comments, questions. I can also be reached at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.