Transforming the Workplace

Transforming the Workplace

Despite 80 percent of ANZ businesses believing collaboration tools can transform their workplace, survey finds most are ill equipped to
thrive in the workplace of the future Polycom commissioned report finds:

The majority, 97 percent, of ANZ businesses believe technology enabled workplace collaboration is key to competitive advantage

While 89 percent of ANZ businesses describe themselves as collaborative, only 24 percent measure the utilisation of existing collaboration tools

Currently, four out of five ANZ businesses believe their current knowledge transfer to be sub-optimal

AUCKLAND – February 16, 2016 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) today announced the results of a survey that assesses how prepared Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) businesses and employees are to compete in the Workplace of the Future - a new way of working, enabled by advances in collaboration technology.

The survey found that despite 97 percent of ANZ businesses believing technology-enabled collaboration is key to remaining competitive, most are reliant on 20th century collaboration technologies like email and phone to undertake more complex collaboration that other technologies might be better suited for. The findings also indicate that only one in four (24%) of ANZ businesses currently measure their own collaboration utilisation. Without measurement, ANZ companies might be squandering opportunities by not understanding existing utilisation and therefore not realising the true value delivered by existing collaboration technology.

Capturing insights from 1,500 plus employers and employees across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the survey comes at a critical time for companies within ANZ as many realise transformational technology is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in today’s globally connected marketplace. The survey found that while organisations rely on technology for daily collaboration, most employees are still struggling to transfer knowledge effectively. This is currently a challenge for four in five ANZ organisations, even though they understood the benefits of getting it right.

Tony Simonsen, Managing Director Australia & New Zealand at Polycom explains, “In October 2015, the New Zealand Government announced a revamped innovation policy which included scaling up research from its current $1.5 billion allocation. Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said the strategy was to support New Zealand's "very proud history" of science and innovation. There has never been a more important time for New Zealand businesses to evaluate and invest in smarter workplace collaboration strategies. Polycom is passionate about enhancing the productivity and performance of Australian and New Zealand businesses, now and in the future. We strongly believe this can be best achieved through improved collaboration, bringing in the skills, expertise and knowledge of a diverse workforce.”

A Closer Look at Workplace Collaboration Today No surprise, businesses on both sides of the Tasman collaborate on a daily basis, both domestically and abroad. Australian employees spend 40 percent and New Zealand employees spend 43 perrcent of their time collaborating with people who are not in their immediate vicinity.

However, more work is required including facilitating widespread availability of simple to use collaboration tools that are accessible to every employee along with training designed to change outdated technology consumption habits. Particularly when you consider:

54 percent of Australian and 47 percent of NZ employees believe the tools available in their workplace are not adequately optimised to facilitate collaborative working.

65 percent of Australian and 53 percent of NZ employees claimed they would be more productive if the right collaborative tools were integrated into their workplace and job processes.

Employees in Australia and New Zealand selected email as their preferred tool for a creative brainstorm when face to face collaboration like video conferencing or live content sharing may be more appropriate

A third of Australian businesses, and a quarter of New Zealand businesses, revealed they have encountered expensive errors due to miscommunication with international colleagues, which they believe could have been avoided had the right collaboration tools had been in place.

These findings were reinforced when looking at how businesses evaluate collaboration usage and measurement. Although the majority (89%) of ANZ employers described their organisation as collaborative, only 24 percent measure collaboration utilisation.

“From our research, it’s clear that ANZ employees and employers acknowledge the power that smarter collaboration solutions have to significantly improve productivity,” said, Mei-Lin Low, Director, APAC Industry Solutions and Competitive Intelligence at Polycom. “However many businesses are still not measuring the true impact of this technology on their business. By simply

establishing a baseline of collaboration and combining this with a strategy to address issues (such as the availability and type of tools, adoption programmes or workflows), employers could enhance collaboration significantly, and accelerate their journey towards the Workplace of the Future.”

Trends Influencing How Businesses Will Collaborate and Work in the Future Across ANZ, we are seeing significant increase in global teams, cross border collaboration and flexible working. Specifically:

Organisations are seeing a large increase in the use of global teams, 69 percent in Australia versus 71 percent in New Zealand

82 percent of Australian and 84 percent of New Zealand employers are seeing an increase in tasks that require cross-organisational collaboration

Majority of employees believe that their employer prefers them to work from an office, 75 percent for Australia and 45 percent for New Zealand

Employers had mixed views, 64 percent of Australian businesses prefer employees to work from an office versus 35 percent of those in New Zealand

81 percent of ANZ employees believe the quality of their work should be measured by what they do not where they do it

These findings suggest that for geographically distributed teams to be effective, organisations must find smarter ways to make distance disappear. Furthermore, 82 percent of ANZ employers believe the labour market is changing. Key changes as seen by employers include an increase in the recruitment of freelance and contract workers. This, combined with more flexible working, indicates that the workforce of the future will be complex, with vastly different collaboration needs compared to the workforce of today.

On this basis, almost 70 percent of ANZ employers believe the ability to share knowledge freely will be critical to their success.

Making the Transition from Workplace of Today to Workplace of Tomorrow Looking to the future, it’s clear that the right collaboration tools are critical to the transition of a 2016 organisation into a Workplace of the Future. Businesses agree that where collaboration tools are accessible in the workplace, business can transform itself (79 percent Australia, 83 percent New Zealand).

Likewise, employers felt that being able to connect face-to-face (in person or assisted with HD video) on-demand will be crucial to increasing the speed of knowledge transfer within their organisation. However, keeping it simple will be key to driving employee adoption. Approximately 58 per cent of Australian and 48 percent of NZ employees would use a collaboration tool like video conferencing more frequently if it were as simple as using their own personal device.

Having the right 21st century collaboration tools in place means that employers can retain valuable employees if they wanted to relocate, a view shared by 74 percent of employers in Australia and 72 percent in New Zealand.

The business value of collaboration is continuing to evolve.

Integrating collaboration into daily workspaces, experiences and workflows, can help move organisations beyond basic information sharing to more complex, higher order evaluative (e.g. decision making) and generative (e.g. idea generation) collaboration activities, that truly give rise to real competitive advantage.

ends

© Scoop Media