Ensuring an Optimal Microsoft Teams Experience for End Users

It goes without saying that 2020 has been the most chaotic year of our lifetime, and changes we have experienced this year are likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future—if not indefinitely. The way that we collaborate with each other at work, the way our children are educated at school, and even how we spend our personal time with clubs, family, and church have changed.

When employees were first sent to work from home, organizations scrambled to provide work-from-home software, devices, and infrastructure. As we transition to a new normal, it’s now important to reevaluate the initial infrastructure laid to support remote workers against a lasting, best-practice architecture. In the last entry, I shared the first three pillars for a thriving remote workforce. Let’s now explore the final three pillars.

Operating a remote workforce is no longer just a remote possibility. A work-from-home war is being quietly waged across many organizations throughout the country, as workers who were forced to quickly establish home office environments now wish to remain in their home rather than return to commuting to an office. This tipping point has deep and wide ramifications for organizations attempting to return to pre-COVID-19 productivity levels. 

Zoom: Perception vs. Reality

Negative Press:

We have undoubtedly all heard the many reports questioning the security readiness of Zoom as of late. Are there impactful vulnerabilities, and is Zoom safe? We have even seen negative fallout due to some of the reported concerns. For example, the New York City school system has banned the use of Zoom as a direct result of the perceived security flaws within the Zoom platform. The problem is, much of what we are hearing is more about perception than reality, and the challenge is to sift through the facts versus fiction.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to compel people to work from home, countless companies are now holding daily meetings using web, audio, and video conferencing services from a variety of well-known providers. Though not the sole focus of our attention here, one that has received a significant amount of press is Zoom.

One of my best friends turned 40 a few of weeks ago. He lives in Colorado, I live in Illinois, and both of our states have been under shelter-in-place orders for a while now. Going to see him was not an option. The bigger problem, however, was that our local friends were not going to be able to join him, either. Instead, his wife put together a surprise Zoom meeting, and we all joined together in singing “Happy Birthday” and sharing a few minutes of conversation and well-wishes, along with the now-customary, “Stay safe.”

Historically, I’ve worked in an office setting where I grew familiar interacting with people and co-workers face-to-face. Having spent the bulk of my adult life working in offices and among other people, I grew accustomed to the luxury of dropping in on co-workers, chatting at the coffee machine, and walking down the hall to ask a co-worker a quick question. The casual drop-ins became the norm for me and my co-workers, and it was a critical part of how we worked together and created a strong and positive work culture.

Gone are the days when the IT department was relegated to the bottom floor of an office to perform tasks that few in the organization understood. IT professionals today are the innovators, troubleshooters, cybersecurity watchdogs, data masters, and business process experts of the organization. The role of IT has become more critical and complex even as budgets have become compressed.

The stakes are high in engineering. You are tasked with driving innovation, but designs must also perform flawlessly in the real world. Collaboration is critical to the process. You must communicate design specifications, work across teams to identify and resolve potential failures, and test your design – all before you can begin product development. Further, you must do it all efficiently and cost effectively.

Flexibility has become an integral part of Human Resources, or Human Capital Management (HCM). You must have flexible recruiting and hiring strategies that embrace traditional W2 employees and on-demand workers, while also offering flexible work options to attract and retain top talent. Flexibility also extends to your role, as the changing landscape requires HR or HCM professionals to adapt their methodologies and strategies to the modern workforce. Below are a few ways to improve flexibility through video collaboration.