It will take time for the new hybrid workplace to emerge. At Microsoft, we continue to take a people and design-centred approach to hybrid working. To help leaders build an inclusive hybrid workplace, we focus on the perspectives of four employees. We look at their wants and needs, their current situation, and what their desired normal future of work looks like.

• Balancing work and home: Sarah’s story
• Building inclusivity and accessibility: Raj’s story
• Staying connected while apart: Mike’s story
• Starting a new career: Veronica’s story

Balancing work and home: Sarah’s story

Sarah is an architect in the construction industry. She is a professional, a wife and mother, and the primary carer of two daughters. As a result, she finds balancing work and home demands a constant struggle.

Pre-remote working

Before our shift to remote working, Sarah often struggled to achieve a healthy balance between her professional and family life. Long days could involve up to four hours in the car. There were design meetings, planning meetings and site visits to attend, often at multiple locations. Sometimes she would get home late. That meant she would miss the opportunity to catch up with her family. This made her feel disconnected and like she was failing at home.

Remote working

Not having to travel has been a revelation for Sarah. Home schooling is difficult to manage. However, the extra 10+ hours a week Sarah gains by not travelling means she can spend more time with her family. Also, she has more time to keep her clients happy and projects on track.

As everyone got used to remote working, there were some initial misunderstandings and mistakes. However, everyone quickly adapted.

Whereas she would do this informally in the office, smaller scheduled meetings and more regular diarised check-ins helped Sarah stay on top of her work. Unfortunately, Sarah’s broadband was disconnected for two days and that had a big impact on everyone – work, school and entertainment were all affected. The family have since changed provider and upgraded their package to make the connection more reliable.

Sarah’s desired normal in the future of work

A year on, Sarah does occasionally miss the buzz and connection of the office. It’s made her recognise the importance of face-to-face connection. But through remote working, she has found a work life balance that was unobtainable before. Her firm are discussing their return to workplace strategy. Sarah hopes she can continue to be empowered to meet her client, project and family needs in a way that works well for her.

Building inclusivity and accessibility: Raj’s story

Raj is a partner at a management consulting firm. He has a late acquired disability. This has impacted the way he delivers his work.

Pre-remote working

Raj was happy with his career progression. However, his late acquired disabilities meant he faced a lot of challenges delivering his work. Unable to use public transport or stay overnight in new cities without elaborate carer arrangements, Raj had a lot of restrictions in terms of the customers he could serve.

For the customers he could serve, Raj had to put in a lot of effort to manage travel arrangements. Also, he had to deal with all the unknowns that come with new locations. He remembers several occasions when he had to wake up at 4am to be part of morning face to face meetings. To do that, his wife needs to assist him, as the carer can’t attend that early. At times, he would travel over three hours for a two-hour face to face customer meeting and make the same arduous journey back. There were several incidents where he came across meeting rooms that were not accessible. In all this, he never felt that he was doing anything extraordinary because that was the only way he could get work done – that was his normal.

Remote working

2020 changed Raj’s whole perspective about workplace productivity. It also changed his opinion on the meaning of equitable environments for people with disabilities. The rapid pace of digital transformation enabled an unprecedented level of digital inclusion in our society.

Overnight, everything became more accessible. All those customers that Raj couldn’t travel to are now in his reach. With all the time saved he has become much more productive. His wellbeing has also improved, as he no longer worries about accessibility when travelling to meet clients. This year, Raj is handling three times the workload compared to last year. He still has time to publish new intellectual property, mentor colleagues and students and advise start-ups. He also has more time to spend with his family.

Raj’s desired normal in the future of work

What’s been brought home to Raj is the power of technology. It’s a major catalyst to enable the full participation of people with disabilities in the digital economy. Raj realises he has a voice and role in taking this opportunity forward and removing the barriers to a truly inclusive digital future of work.

Staying connected while apart: Mike’s story

Mike is an assistant buyer for a large online retailer. He is single and has no dependents. This job is the first time he has lived away from home.

Pre-remote working

Mike has been an assistant buyer for two years. After graduating from a university – which was close to his hometown – he took the brave step of leaving his friends and family. He moved 200 miles for his job. His working life was spent either in the office, on the road, or travelling across Asia with colleagues looking for the next great product.

Mike’s social life also circulated around work. He caught up with colleagues over a coffee, is a member of the company sports team and enjoyed team socials. While Mike lived alone, most of his time was spent with others either at work or in social situations.

Remote working

In 2020, Mike shifted to working from home. Due to both his work and personal technology, he felt he could be just as productive or even more productive than when he was travelling. In the beginning, he was enjoying not having to travel. He was able to do things that he did not have time for before. After a few weeks however, he started to realise how much he relied on work for social interaction and began to feel isolated. After four months, the social isolation took its toll. Mike decided to move back home.

Mike’s desired normal in the future of work

Mike can see that there are plans to return to the office. Soon, things will start to go back to some kind of normality. He is looking forward to getting back into the office. He’s also starting to travel again as he has missed those elements of the role. However, Mike has proven that he can be productive from anywhere. While remote working has made some things complex, he believes hybrid working is the way to go.

Mike has been speaking to his manager about the possibility of a home working contract. He doesn’t want to permanently relocate again. In addition, he believes the company would get more value from this arrangement. Mike has decided that if his employer forces him to move closer to the office then he will have to look for a new position. The market for his skills appears buoyant.

Starting a new career: Veronica’s story

Veronica is an intern at a large tech company. She is excited to pick up experiences and skills which would help her secure her first job once she has obtained her degree.

Pre-remote working

Veronica’s excitement to start her work placement turned to dread in 2020. She had moved to a new city to be near her workplace. She was looking forward to onboarding into her role, meeting her colleagues and getting settled in. Yet government restrictions meant that all offices closed.

Remote working

On-boarding into her new role was difficult. There was great supporting infrastructure in the form of digital platforms, training, and tools. However, Veronica felt she would have benefited from more 1:1 guidance and mentoring, especially whilst she was settling in. Instead, she found that her days were full of meetings. Whilst everyone was generally helpful, it could at times be overwhelming. She was sometimes unsure of whether she was prioritising the right tasks. This made her feel anxious.

Veronica’s desired normal in the future of work

Veronica hopes the world will learn from the last year. Digital tools are a great benefit and enable ‘work anywhere’ flexibility. However, she has found as someone early in career, that sometimes working in the same space as her team can have benefits too, such as building a greater sense of camaraderie and connection. She feels that if she had had more help in her on-boarding it would have helped to build her confidence faster and to accomplish more during her work placement.

Designing the hybrid workspace in the future of work

The future of work needs to be intentionally focused on three things:

• The work we will do.
• How we will work.
• The value the work creates.

The workplace shouldn’t be focussed on location. Nor should it be driven by the personal preferences and habits of the influential few. With just these four stories, we can see how different individual preferences are. But what connects them? Digital technology.

By taking a people-oriented approach we can design the future of work. We’ll build strategies that work for everyone. Investing in digital tools opens the door to the opportunity but investing in a digital culture realises it. Leaders have a pivotal role to play in enabling the future of work. They can empower others to do their jobs in a way that works for them, whilst also satisfying the needs and wants of the customers they serve.

Find out more

Microsoft Viva: The employee experience platform

Create an agile and innovative hybrid workplace

Enable the anywhere office

3 steps to build a successful hybrid working framework

About the authors

Prajakt is a management consulting professional with more than 17 years of experience in serving large global clients. He specialises in business consulting and advisory services; driving digital modernisation for customers.
Currently, Prajakt is an Industry Advisory Lead for the Local and Regional Government sector in Microsoft Services.
Previously, Prajakt was heading the Europe consulting services for Tech Mahindra serving large global customers like British Telecom, Vodafone, Telefonica etc., in addition to leading implementations for various smart city initiatives across the UK.

Terry Room is currently a Managing Architect for Microsoft Consulting Services in the UK. With over 20 years of technology industry experience, he leads a cross disciplinary team of consulting architects and digital advisors, with a focus on driving large scale business and technology transformation with strategic enterprise customers through the design of compelling business cases, resilient technology architectures, and transformation programmes which deliver sustainable business value.

The post The hybrid workplace: How organisations can build the future of work, inclusively appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

The current state of employee experience tech

For employees, this can be especially bewildering. They have to navigate far too many apps and platforms during a normal working day. To leaders, it can be a challenge to manage and deliver the value that such technologies promise. It’s all got a bit too much. One company I came across had several hundred technology solutions. This caused confusion with the employees and the company. This delivers fragmentation at the expense of focus – one of the notable problems Microsoft attempts to solve.

I’ve often said that there are only a handful of companies around the world that could ever build an integrated employee experience platform. Microsoft is one of them. In just one day, Microsoft 365 users take part in more than 30 billion collaboration minutes. This is very helpful when creating a platform that flows with the daily rhythms of work. So, I was intrigued to learn more about Microsoft Viva and its capabilities.

Connecting employee experiences

The promised land for employee experience technology is a platform that helps people to effortlessly connect to the things that help them to be successful in life and work. That’s the bottom-line. Indeed, it’s the only line that matters when thinking about productivity, performance, and wellbeing. If the technology in a business is not directly helping people to deliver their best work and live their best life, then we do really need to question buying decisions.

Focussed and decisive companies are the one’s that win in the market  – it’s the same with the employee experience. I talk about this in my book, Employee Experience. At the heart of the holistic employee experience (HEX), is the Truth – a company’s purpose, mission, and values. Technology platforms are there to enable and reinforce this Truth for each unique brand every day and in every way. If a company’s technology is clunky, cumbersome, or a chore to use, this will not contribute to a positive experience in work. In fact, quite the opposite will happen, and it will seriously hinder progress.

That’s why the scale and scope of the connectivity across the Microsoft ecosystem is as exciting as it is powerful. The full power of Microsoft 365 is behind Viva, which brings together a variety of mission critical elements including communications, knowledge, learning, resources and insights. The initial start point for the platform includes Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics.

A joined up employee experience platform

Historically, there’s no doubt that employee experience technology within companies has not been joined up in any meaningful way. Microsoft Viva offers an answer to this. It will be interesting to see how it develops to add even more value across the holistic employee experience in the future. The platform itself is feature rich and covers many important aspects of organisational life.

• Viva Connections: Empowers people to communicate, access curated and branded content, and access a personalised feed of relevant information.
• Viva Insights: Access privacy-protected analytics, data, and insights that support wellbeing and allow people to focus on the things that matter most to them.
• Viva Learning: A powerhouse for experiences that educate, train, and develop people. The combination of LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and an organisation’s own content is potent. Additionally, the integration of other leading learning providers makes this is a rich and diverse learning environment.
• Viva Topics: An AI-powered organisational wiki that gives relevant company information to people fast.

Personalised the employee experience

Building on the strong foundations of Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, this new platform feels like a natural step to take. It creates a more seamless integration between both Microsoft and third-party technology. The big emphasis here is a much more personalised approach. Microsoft Viva can enable people to curate and connect to experiences that make a difference to their work at any given moment.

What this means for the future of work

The last year has created gaps between people and companies. Collectively, we need to keep pushing boundaries around what is possible in the digital space. However, keep in mind that humans drive technology. Organisations that have strengthened relationships with their people during this challenging period have fully embraced and supported the human experience in all that they do.

If we’re talking about an employee experience platform, companies need to think more holistically about the quality of the experiences people have within and beyond work. Leveraging human-centered and experience-driven technology is always a wise move that has the potential to make a powerful impact on the experience of work. Microsoft Viva offers a glimpse of the future that we’re all now co-creating. I’ll be watching its development with a keen eye like everyone else who has an interest in helping people thrive at work.

Find out more

Discover Microsoft Viva

Build a people-powered workplace

Learn more about Ben

About the author

The post Unite your people with the right employee experience platform appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

One last look at my notes. “Ten seconds guys.” Deep breaths. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big, bold logo appear on the studio monitor showing the livestream, which meant the ad break must be wrapping up. Okay, just one more look at my notes. Head back up, looking straight down the lens now. “Three, two,” – start smiling like you’re on BBC Breakfast – “one…”

Going live

Four weeks ago today, I joined the Experiential team at Microsoft, which oversees events and brand experiences in the UK. Perfect timing, then, given that our biggest annual event, Future Decoded, was just three weeks away.

Every year, over two days, Future Decoded draws in thousands of attendees to the ExCeL in East London, who come to find out what new and exciting things Microsoft and its partners are up to. This year, the exhibition floor featured a 15ft-high ‘digital waterfall’, where a number of environmentally focused organisations were stationed, all of which had received grants through Microsoft’s AI for Earth programme. Alongside Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose and Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie, keynote speakers in the auditorium included astronauts Major Tim Peake and Dr Helen Sharman, and Christian Horner, Red Bull F1 Team Principal.

So, towards the end of my first week in role, I heard that I would spend the next two working on ‘Future Decoded Live’. FD Live, as I soon learned, is a live-stream that runs throughout Future Decoded from a studio space on the Expo Floor, consisting mostly of breakfast TV-style conversations with a variety of partners, event sponsors and keynote speakers.

My job was to work out who was going to speak when, manage our own schedule against those of each guest, and then – the fun part – come up with a set of interview-style questions to guide the discussions. This meant I got to spend a lot of time researching and reading about some of the most interesting people and organisations at the event: the AI for Earth cohort, Channel 4, Adobe, the British Heart Foundation, Microsoft itself, and many more. Minus the keynotes, we had 12 hours of live video content to conjure up.

Embracing uncertainty

This would probably still feel like a fairly challenging task if I was given it in my second year – so, the prospect of taking it on in my second week felt adequately daunting. After sitting down with the FD Live lead for about an hour, I spent the rest of the day trying to get my head round the scope of the project, and how best to approach it. I had five documents to track and keep up-to-date, dozens of email threads to take over and who-knew-how-many questions to write.

I’m someone who likes structure and detail. I don’t like to begin working on something until I get a clear sense of how the whole thing fits together. Sometimes, this is great: a broad, yet in-depth understanding of a project helps me make sure everything is consistent and well-orchestrated from the bottom up. Other times, this is not so great: when progress is needed sooner rather than later, with details yet to be carved out. FD Live was an example of the latter, and the uncertainty I felt was only made bigger by the unshakeable fact that I was still just one week into the job.

I had to force myself to embrace this uncertainty, which – at first – felt unnatural, and sometimes stressful. I wrenched myself away from the need to have a clear, 360-degree view, and started work in the hope that some things would fall into place later. As it turned out, it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. I felt able to work faster and with more focus, forgetting about the overall state of the project for a while and taking on one task at a time.

On reflection, this was one of the most valuable things I learned: to view projects as a jigsaw, rather than a painting. I don’t always need to paint the ‘big picture’ myself before making a start. The final image can come together gradually, piece by piece, and with the help of others.

Saying yes

A week later, things were coming together. Confirmations were coming in, the schedule was filling up, and I’d written questions for many of the speakers. I knew there was a lot more to do, but I had found a solid routine and felt nicely on top of things. I was responsible for something, I knew what I was doing. It felt good.

On Tuesday morning, with one week to go before the event, I had a call with the live-stream presenters to run through the questions I’d written so far. We were about halfway down the document, when we reached a session with WPP, on ‘creativity in AI’.

“These are probably my favourite questions. It’s a really cool topic”, I remarked. The call went quiet for a second or two, before someone asked – “Do you want to ask them on the day?” Before I’d even processed the question, my instincts told me to say no. I get painfully nervous before public speaking – although I’m usually pretty good at hiding it – and every time an opportunity comes my way, I know I’ve got a big mental battle on my hands. I bought myself a few more seconds with an “Oh, ummmm…”, as I increasingly sensed how much I wanted to do it, deep down. “I’ll have a think about it.”

I thought about it all evening. I knew how easy it would be to say ‘sorry, I don’t think I’m ready for this yet, but thanks for the opportunity. Maybe next year.’ But I knew I could do it. I probably wouldn’t sleep for 72 hours or so beforehand, but I could do it.

So I counted all the reasons why I should say yes: great exposure, hugely rewarding, a whole week to prepare, people around me who I knew would support me, and a really good topic for a LinkedIn blog post afterwards (…just kidding).

Then I counted the reasons why I should say no: because I felt scared… that was it. Once I had broken it down like that, I knew how much I would regret saying no. So, I sent a late-night IM and confirmed, before I had a chance to change my mind.

Learning from new experiences

I saw a tweet once which said something along the lines of ‘if you’re thinking about something that makes you quite excited, but very nervous, then you should probably do it.’

The best opportunities to learn and grow are nearly always found outside of our comfort zones. Sometimes, a little push is all that’s needed to take that step; this may come from our teams or ourselves, in our personal or professional lives.

The way I like to think about this is – if a friend came to me and said, ‘I’ve just got this really big opportunity, but I’m not sure I can do it because…’, I would try my very hardest to convince them that they could. If that’s the case, why should I behave any differently towards myself?

On the day of the interview, as I sat down on the studio sofa and looked at the camera, I felt a tide of nerves flowing around my chest – just like usual – but, for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed it. This time, I embraced the nerves as a signal that I must be about to do something really worthwhile, something I had never done before.

“Thirty seconds guys…”

Find out more

‘How AI and satellites combat illegal fishing‘ – An interview with Nick Wise, CEO of OceanMind,

‘Creativity in AI‘ – An interview with Perry Nightingale, SVP Creative AI at WPP

Watch all the highlights from Future Decoded at FD Live

About the author

Chester Broad is a new Microsoft Aspire Experience hire who recently graduated from the University of Bath, where he studied Management with Marketing. Now part of the Experiential Marketing team, Chester’s focus is on skills-based and internal events, through which he takes a keen interest in how the Microsoft brand can be communicated as an experience. Prior to this, he spent a year as an intern in the PR team.

The post Going beyond your comfort zone: Why embracing uncertainty and saying yes matters appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.