Cisco has years of experience in building a culture around hybrid work-here are the company's five characteristics for hybrid work success.

By Denise Lee, Vice President and Executive Leader, Cisco Customer Solutions Marketing

Millions of employees around the world are returning to work after a long stretch of working from their homes. To ease this transition, businesses of all sizes are considering new Hybrid Work rules, guidelines, and policies. The problem is that the hybrid workplace is a new concept, and identifying this journey's starting point is not always clear.

Here's the good news. Cisco has years of experience in building a culture around Hybrid Work. It's supported by our technology (networking, security, collaboration, and applications), which gives us a unique position from which to offer guidance on the 'what/why/when/how' of Powering Hybrid Work.

But Hybrid Work is more than where work is done - it's about who is doing the work as well. This means businesses must consider both technology and cultural aspects to the solutions, policies, and guidelines they implement. Cisco believes Hybrid Work successes are grounded in five characteristics spanning technologies and organizational culture.

Hybrid Work is: Inclusive: offering an inclusive experience for everyone

Flexible: adapting to any work style, role, environment

Supportive: focusing on safety, empathy, and well-being

Secure: being secure by design, private by default

Managed: delivering modern infrastructure, frictionless administration

Create inclusive experiences for everyone

Cisco research revealed that 98 percent of meetings now have at least one employee attending remotely from home.

Considerations for a more inclusive environment

How do you assess whether remote meeting participants enjoy an inclusive experience relative to their in-office counterparts

Do your employees have secure network access and a full collaboration suite to work anywhere

Practice flexibility and adapt to any workstyle, role, environment

A critical component to executing Hybrid Work is giving employees the flexibility to work from home. This begins with policies that can be adapted to any work style, role and/or environment where leadership empowers managers and employees to decide the best way to work. In fact, 64 percent of employees we surveyed said they expect that level of flexibility at work. Flexibility is likely to create happier and more productive employees, which generates better business results and talent retention.

There must be ground rules, of course. Providing flexibility comes with the implicit understanding that the work is getting done and done well. Some businesses may not be able to provide as much flexibility due to compliance and rules governing certain industries. Establishing clear expectations can help ensure that flexibility is used to create productive, inclusive, and safe Hybrid Work environments.

Key questions

What is your leadership team's view on remote work

Do your employees have the latest 'work from anywhere' technologies including collaboration, security, mobile data

Supportive through focus on security, empathy, and well-being

As more companies ask employees to come back to the office, many are voicing their concerns about safety in the workplace. Some 97 percent of employees surveyed for the Cisco 'Rise of the Hybrid Workplace' report said they wanted 'changes to make work environments safer.' Businesses must adopt a culture that reinforces the benefits of technology to work from anywhere and support employee well-being.

Summary

In implementing a move to a successful Hybrid Work model, it's crucial to keep in mind the two components of Hybrid Work - enabling the workforce and transforming the workspace. While Adapting to these changes may be challenging for you and your employees, the benefits of creating a more inclusive, flexible, and empowered work environment is a generational opportunity that's well worth the effort.

Contact:

Tel: +61 2 8446 5205

Email: aamanowi@cisco.com

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