Making Microsoft Teams conferences a better experience for all
The way we work changed forever with the pandemic. While many companies are still fine-tuning how employees divide their time between home and office, the general trend is to have workforces that are more distributed, which means team meetings and collaboration sessions are rarely confined to people in the same room.
All of us have become comfortable with the fundamentals of video conferencing, the logging in and screensharing, but these are now table stakes in the new world of work. People are looking for a better experience. Anyone who has spent a day hopping between virtual meetings where one or more participant has a poor camera or bad Wi-Fi will know how exasperating it can be.
At Ergo, where we run a hybrid work model, we know that there is a need for equality of experience, where everyone’s opinions and contributions are heard, regardless of whether they are in the office or working remotely. For instance, using a video clipper to quickly trim and share highlights from lengthy meetings can help ensure everyone stays aligned, even if they couldn’t attend the live session.
Helping talent shine
Proximity bias has been studied by psychologists for decades but has a new cultural resonance in 2023. The idea that someone is disadvantaged because they are not ‘in the room’ is a very real phenomenon with remote working. A big benefit of having a distributed workforce is that access to talent is no longer determined by physical location, but it’s undermined if the people in the room always make the best impression.
In response to changing demands, Ergo recently received the Microsoft Advanced Specialisation for Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams, which demonstrates Ergo’s proven delivery in the deployment and management of Microsoft Teams Meetings Room Devices, Network Planning and Remediation for Meeting workloads. There are two pillars to the service: the technology that makes better communication possible and the office workspace that accommodates the equipment.
Technology is the great enabler, not just high-quality audio and video but increasingly rich media tools, such as smart software and interactive whiteboards which provide a digital canvas that everyone can use to contribute. This is about facilitating the two-way exchange of ideas, rather than one person giving a presentation; allowing colleagues in different locations to take control of a display as easily as a someone in the room.
Maximise the workspace
Research published this year by Okta, an access and identity management specialist, reveals that 55% of companies with more than 10,000 employees rank ‘facilitating collaboration’ among their top priorities for the workplace, and 77% say that investing in the quality of their real estate footprint is more important than expanding it.
The two elements come together when Ergo designs and fits out a conference room. It’s about optimising the area, recognising that digital workspaces have become as important to the employee as the physical office. First we ask clients to consider how they want to use the space available to them, because there are all kinds of meetings. Is it an area for one or two people to touch base on a project or for a manager to make a presentation to a large team?
The answers to these questions will inform how to best utilise the space available in terms of lighting, backgrounds and office furniture, as well as the audio-video equipment that needs to be procured. We’ll take into account the existing cabling and IT infrastructure, and make sure there is sufficient network bandwidth to meet the demands of the new Microsoft Teams Conferencing Room.
We appreciate that many organisations are still coming to terms with hybrid work, trying to find ways to protect their company culture as they accommodate a dispersed workforce. Here too Ergo can make a difference. Our Adoption and Change Management team can help employees familiarise themselves with the new conferencing technology and show them how to use it in ways that will complement and improve the way they already work.
The endgame for Ergo is to seamlessly integrate state-of-the art conferencing into organisations, to reap all the benefits of hybrid working and close the gap between face-to-face collaboration through video conferencing and being in the same physical space as a colleague.
Find out more about Microsoft Teams Conferencing Rooms Service from Ergo.
