Two-Thirds Of Big EU Businesses Still Not Set Up With Right Tech For Hybrid Work: Survey

July 11, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Hat tip to AV Interactive for first posting on this …

The Dutch workplace-centric AV and IT consulting and services firm Kinly has released research that suggests two thirds (65%) of larger companies in Europe don’t yet have office spaces that are optimized for hybrid working, even though pretty much that same number (66%) want to encourage staff back to the office at least part of the time, now that the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror.

That was a key finding in Kinly’s Trusted Connections 2024 report, based on a survey of 425 AV professionals at big enterprise-level brands across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Nordics.

From the report summary:

The survey revealed that the complexities of flexible and remote communication may be a factor in the call to return to the office — with a third (28%) of enterprises naming it as a top challenge. Over half of respondents also stated that poor hybrid workflows (57%) and outdated AV technologies (58%) are damaging the productivity of hybrid teams.

To address this, investments in hybrid technology — both in the office and for remote workers — are being prioritized. A third (35%) of those surveyed say they will be investing in remote support/management, 33% in unified communications and collaboration software, and 33% in in-office hybrid meeting rooms.

However, a major stumbling block preventing enterprises from truly seamless hybrid working is access to information. In fact, a quarter (26%) of AV professionals cite a lack of analytics around working practices as a significant barrier to meeting their organizations’ priorities such as ‘increasing efficiency’ (61%) and ‘increasing productivity’ (58%).

As a result, a third (33%) of respondents are already investing in an analytics platform for remote working and a further third (29%) are investing in ‘in-office’ analytics platforms.

Speaking of the challenge hybrid working is still posing for enterprises, Simon Watson, our Global Head of Innovation, said: “Calling employees back to the office is not a solution to poor hybrid working practices. If anything, it could make things worse.

Effective hybrid working relies on having the right technology in place at home and in the office, and most importantly making sure all these technologies work together seamlessly to give employees the same experience, no matter where they work.

If employers are going to adapt to this shift in corporate culture and ensure that workers are happy and effective, both at home and in the office, it all starts with AV technology. Ultimately, effective hybrid working makes a real, tangible impact on talent acquisition and employee retention that cannot be discounted.”

Statistics show that enterprises that have undergone an AV transformation project within the last year have reported a 42% increase in productivity, a 42% increase in efficiency and a 37% increase in staff retention.

As noted, the research is based on activity in Europe, so maybe things are different in other parts of the world. But probably not.

Getting to work in an office in Europe is probably easier than in spread-out, traffic-clogged, crappy mass transport metro areas in the US and Canada, for example. If on-site work is not mandated, it takes a lot of persuasion and good tech to get people to drive/ride/whatever 60-90 minutes to come in, if they can instead bang away at correspondence at their kitchen tables.

The obvious implication of this, for digital signage and related tech companies chasing workplace as a main vertical, is that there is still a ton of demand and/or need in the marketplace for the sorts of data-driven software and hardware tools that manage everything from meeting spaces to so-called hot desks.