Collaboration and Remote Productivity: Is Your Business Prepared for the Hybrid Normal?

We're living in a world where work is hybrid, businesses and employees are balancing office versus remote environments, and the pervasive boardroom conversation is about productivity.

A global study by Lenovo of 4,000 information technology leaders, titled "The Future of Work and Digital Transformation," revealed that 83% of leaders and surveyed employees agree that the remote environment will account for at least 50% of post-pandemic work. Hybrid is the new normal! 

This has frequently beckoned "the productivity question": Where is it better: office or anywhere?

However, enterprises should be focusing on the real productivity question: How can an organization's tech "toolkit" of hardware, software, and support services meet the varying requirements of a work-from-anywhere workforce?

Here are IT insights from Lenovo's Future of Work study, which can help sharpen organizations' tech strategy, improve productivity, and take the remote conversation, and business objectives, to the next level.

Maximize collaboration solutions to their full potential

Collaboration success can have a positive impact on productivity and retention. Smart collaboration solutions have measurably improved productivity, and 86% of IT leaders plan to invest in such tools this year.

Here's what smart collaboration tools created for a hybrid workplace should deliver:

• Complete solutions: Collaboration tools should combine hardware, software, and services to create end-to-end business solutions.
• Flexibility and scalability: Look for platform choice and systems that scale for any room size.
• Security: Protect sensitive data and offer robust security features.
• Manageability: Minimize IT support costs with solutions offering remote management tools.

Productivity

Get smarter about smartphones

The usage of smartphones for work has increased substantially from the pre-COVID era. Not only do most employees use personal smartphones for work communication, but they also use them for reading PDFs and scanning and editing office documents.

As per Lenovo's Future of Work study, of the 79% respondents who said they use a smartphone for work, nearly half purchased the phone themselves. Smartphones made up the highest percentage of work-from-home tech that employees asked for but ended up buying themselves. Employees aged 18-34 are more likely to use personal smartphones for work and find it harder to strike a work-life balance.

Let device features sweeten the experience

The majority of Lenovo's Future of Work study respondents stated they weren't overwhelmed by tech issues, such as problems accessing company intranets or software breakdowns, while working from home during the pandemic. Most of the problems were connection-based.

Employee satisfaction with technologies is a huge driver of positive overall experience, and Forrester reports that IT investments in user experience can result in a 5x return in productivity. Employees across large and small enterprises showed interest in technologies that support privacy, noise reduction, eye protection, and device cooling. Respondents reported the following smart features would improve workflow:

• AI-based noise cancellation
• Webcam privacy shutter
• Eye care mode
• Fingerprint reader and power button
• Intelligent cooling

How to power up the productivity?

Here are key takeaways that can help your organization improve remote productivity. 

Collaboration solutions:

• Offer flexible solutions ideal for a range of use cases and offer choices on multiple fronts: UC platform, room size, peripherals, mounting options, and accessories.
• Make remote user support simple and create tool training videos or documentation for help.
• Find unused features of software to better communicate employee availability.

Services:

• Enhance aspects of your IT ecosystem with dedicated lifecycle support services.
• Drive employee productivity with device deployment services and device management.
• Support and protection services keep devices operating at optimal performance and free up IT resources. 
• A subscription-based model such as Device as a Service (DaaS) keeps IT costs sensible and predictable and ensures employees have the right devices for their job.

Smartphones:

• Include smartphones to your tech kit and segment who gets one based on current usage.
• Deploy a Device as a Service (DaaS) solution to bundle smartphones and prevent over-purchasing.
• Offer tech time management tools or smartphone strategies for better work-life balance.

Device experience:

• Update your tech equipment that improves user experience, like higher resolution monitors and curved screens.
• Offer tech tips to employees and optimize device usage by highlighting its key features.
• Enlist a solution for 24/7 IT support, helping your team free up time to strategize.

Lenovo Services

Support services are critical for driving optimal business transformation in a work-from-anywhere model. Lenovo offers a comprehensive portfolio of services, with robust security and proactive solutions for modern workplace challenges. The portfolio includes:

• Device as a Service (DaaS): Lenovo DaaS reduces the total cost of ownership and removes complexity for end-user technology by grouping hardware, software, configuration, security and services into a single monthly fee.
• Managed Services: With Lenovo Managed Services, your results are optimized by proactive management of IT assets through service professionals who remotely monitor and manage your data centre.
• Premier Support: Lenovo Premier Support offers advanced PC assistance any time you need, with a 24x7x365 line to elite technicians delivering advanced troubleshooting. This helps you offload routine support tasks, free up your IT department, and focus on long-term strategy.
• Planning Services: Strategy, assessment, and personal consultations to review and optimize an organization's IT environment.

The future of work: Improve your tech toolkit for hybrid productivity 

The future of work is in co-creation spaces, where successful collaborations (in-person and remote) will be critical for hybrid productivity. Optimizing your tech toolkit for hybrid productivity may range from portable batteries for headsets to developing a customized DaaS plan with the latest devices.

Whatever your requirement, Lenovo is here to help with modern solutions running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro and powered by the Intel® Evo™ vPro® platform, built for what IT needs and users want. Lenovo provides smarter technology that optimizes collaboration in every setting. Lenovo partners with the industry's best to offer joint solutions, built specifically for collaboration in the new hybrid normal.

Visit www.lenovo.com/PursueTheNew for more hybrid workplace strategies.