Zoom’s July Work Transformation Summit: Working Toward a Smarter Hybrid Model

Hybrid work - we’ve all become familiar with this new term as companies have shifted their operations to meet the ever-changing business landscape. But what does it mean to succeed in a hybrid work setting, and how can employers best equip their hybrid employees to succeed? 

At our Work Transformation Summit event on July 13th, we brought together industry experts and thought leaders from Zoom to help answer this question and provide our attendees with the best practices and strategies they need to build a smarter and more successful hybrid workspace. 

Here are some highlights and key takeaways from the event: 

Aparna Bawa, Chief Operations Officer at Zoom, kicked off our event by discussing the state of hybrid work and how we can approach work both now and in the future. Aparna explained that the data is clear — with the majority of workers across different countries and industries preferring a flexible approach to work, hybrid work is here to stay. 

Aparna also explained that while most employees found it easy to build relationships remotely, many still want to attend team bonding in person. To meet these diverse needs, Aparna recommends that organizations: 

• Listen and act - Listen to employees and how they feel to address concerns and pain points. 
• Upskill employees in creative connection - Provide the training and best practices employees need to enhance their ability to connect and collaborate with their coworkers at a distance.
• Provide the right platforms and technology - Providing the solutions and technology that empower dynamic collaboration is critical to the success of organizations in the future. 

Jay Choi, Chief Product Officer at Qualtrics, was kind enough to join us at the Work Transformation Summit to share his team’s findings on employee experience and how this often overlooked aspect of work can help organizations successfully navigate the future. 

Jay also shared some of the best practices that organizations can use to structure their hybrid work model and create effective in-person experiences using an intuitive philosophy - Why, Who, When, and What: 

• Why - Establishing and communicating why people should come into the office helps teams understand the benefits and reasoning behind in-person work. 
• Who - Different teams have different needs in terms of how they work, their responsibilities, and their needs. Empowering managers at certain levels to establish team norms helps each team build the work style they need. 
• When - Having a schedule of when teams come into the office and focusing those in-person days around team meetings or incentives to come into the office, such as birthday parties, events, or team building exercises, helps build team cohesion and offers unique experiences that employees can’t get at home. 
• What - Taking the time to optimize team bonding and brainstorming meetings for in-person encourages teams to come into the office, while other meetings such as town halls or all-hands events can be attended virtually. 

We put together a group of industry experts who are no stranger to hybrid work for our customer panel - Chris Bedi, Chief Digital Information Officer at ServiceNow; Douglas Edwards, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Associate Business Solutions at Humana; and David Picot, Senior Vice President, Real Estate, BJ’s Wholesale Club; joined us for a panel lead by Alana Collins, Head of Real Estate & Workplace at Zoom.

These Zoom customers detailed how they are leveraging the Zoom platform to create unique meeting spaces, enhance equity and inclusivity in the meeting experience, and dissolve the divide between the office and the remote workspace.

Carleigh Noble, Senior Product Manager, Zoom Rooms and Workspaces, gave us a dazzling look at how employees are using the Zoom platform to create the next-generation workspace. This included a breakdown of how employees can use the Zoom platform before arriving at work, in the workplace, and during meetings to streamline and enhance their day-to-day operations, communications, and collaboration.  

Carleigh also walked us through how our new feature, Workspace Reservation, can enhance on-site work and operations, as well as a sneak peek at a feature coming later this year, seamless meeting transfer! 

Mark Barrigan, our North America Zoom Rooms Manager, walked us through how Zoomies experience a typical day at the office, including a ton of neat Zoom hardware! 

His walkthrough included showing how Zoomies check in at a Zoom kiosk with a virtual receptionist, reserve desks using Workspace Reservation, and book a conference room using the Scheduling Display. Mark even took us through different meeting spaces and showed us how Zoom uses Digital Signage to provide useful updates from the company and give our Zoomies a preview of what’s for lunch! 

To wrap up our event, Theresa Larkin, our Manager for UCaaS Product Marketing, went over some of the challenges associated with hybrid work and how organizations can tackle them. These challenges include: 

• Keeping company culture alive 
• Collaborating across time zones and teams 
• Effective communication to keep teams informed 

Theresa explained how Zoom can help organizations tackle these challenges by:

• Providing a unified and intuitive platform that offers enterprise-grade communications solutions
• Creating a space for efficient and dynamic asynchronous communication
• Enabling effective, streamlined collaboration for dispersed teams with solutions that create equitable experiences for all employees, no matter where they are

Want to learn even more about how Zoom, our customers, and industry experts are approaching hybrid work? Watch the recording of our Work Transformation Summit event on demand!