RWS_Summer_21

Webex Powers Personal Wellness , Inclusive Collaboration at Home T o help people work smarter, combat burnout, and drive more inclusive work experiences, Cisco Webex unveiled advancements to the People Insights feature. Avail- able through the all-new Webex and accessible through a personalized and private view, People Insights aligns with the goals companies and workers set for meetings, work-life integration, connection, and focus time. Designed with a people-first mind- set, the insights are obtainable from three points of view: personal, team, and organizational. All are underpinned with privacy and security to ensure the information is available only to those who need it. The pandemic has had a profound impact on the way we work, from the disruptions we’re navigating (includ- ing meeting fatigue) to the opportuni- ties in reimaging how we work. With 58 percent of office employees anticipat- ing they’ll work eight or more days from home each month, and 98 per- cent of meetings expected to include remote participants, a new hybrid way of working is emerging. It’s more critical than ever for people to have the tools to help them thrive, wherever they are physically working. One of the biggest areas of opportunity is to help people manage their time and working relationships better. With a window into the trends and insights of how we work, individuals and leaders now can recalibrate how they use time, who they work with, and uncover blind spots. For example, it’s possible to gain visibility into how many meetings you accept but don’t attend, your tendency to multi-task during meetings, who you most fre- quently collaborate with, the percent- age of meetings taking place outside of your team’s preferred working hours, or silos in your organization that need support. “At Webex, we believe it all starts with you – from the people you inter- act with to the networks you build and nurture,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at Cisco. “We’re focused on helping people achieve more positive, productive, and inclusive work experiences whether they are seated across the table or across the screen from their team- mates. Having meaningful insights that let you seamlessly collaborate and build quality connections, while also helping you focus your time in the best way possible, will change how we think about productivity and prioritize well-being in a hybrid workplace.” Cisco’s executive vice president and chief people, policy and purpose officer Fran Katsoudas added, “Our most pre- cious resource is our time. The decisions we make around howwe spend our time and connect with others affects our performance, our mental health, and our well-being. People Insights help us to deliberately design our day – based on our priorities, personal preferences, and goals – to be at our best at work, at home, and with our teams. “At Cisco, we believe that when we get teams right, we win,” Katsoudas continued. “Teams are where the magic happens – they’re the engine of our enterprise where individual expertise meets powerful collaboration to be the spark for our innovation. These insights enable a more inclusive work experience and empowers our people to develop and leverage their collec- tive collaboration network, while helping leaders act at the intersection of performance, empathy, and service to others to build connected and effec- tive teams.” People Insights was developed to drive positive employee experiences and help people prioritize their well- being at work in these ways: • Personal Insights – These insights, available only to the user, surface daily trends and interactions (such as key collaborators and activities), so the user can set and monitor their personal preferences. This lets users tailor their collaboration with cowork- ers and focus their time on what matters most. • Team Insights – These insights give each team member a view of patterns among connections, collaboration habits, and work-life integration for the entire team – while maintaining privacy. The benefit is a stronger and more inclusive work experience that enables a team to adjust practices and grow relationships as a collective for the benefit of everyone. • Organizational Insights – Organiza- tional Insights provids a bird’s-eye view of an organization’s collabora- tion trends and patterns to help work- ers spot silos and identify teams that may benefit from additional support or an increased focus on inclusivity. The goal, said Cisco executives, is to help businesses create an inclusive future of work by building adaptable, engaging, and trusted work experi- ences for employees, customers, communities, and their ecosystem. As part of Cisco – with 600 million monthly participants and connecting six billion calls every month – Webex is one of the few platforms with the global scale to drive this transformation. J By Bruce Christian 40 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com CONTROL