#PolycomChat: The workplace of the future is wherever I decide to work from!

[Marco Landi (MarcoVLandi)]

#PolycomChat highlight: My workplace in the future is ‘wherever I decide to work from’

I recently participated as a panellist on the latest Twitter chat hosted on the @PolycomEurope handle. The panel debate this time explored the topic ‘the workplace of the future’. The panel was made up other experts in field - Michael Frendo, executive vice president of worldwide engineering at Polycom, and Christopher Neto, independent technology blogger and writer at Commercial Integrator Magazine and AVNation.tv. 

Future workplace

We kicked off the session with an easy question… ‘Where is your favourite place to work’ – my immediate response was ‘from a sandy beach’ – being a lover of the outdoors, this is my ideal location and I have even been able to dial into a video meeting from the top of Kilimanjaro – so we know it can be done. Unsurprisingly, my fellow panellists had similar thoughts to mine.  Michael Frendo preferring to be near to his family and his wine collection and Chris has worked remotely for years!

Workers should be able to decide where they wish to work from, from any device they choose. My future workplace will be similar to my workplace in the present, as I can and do work from any location!

Workers of the future

Another interesting question that came up was related to using video for HR. Many businesses find gaining access to the right level of talent is challenging. The talent pool of mobile and remote workers is growing larger and the population has already started waking up to the call of work/life balance.

Choosing the right technology will not only help you recruit talent, but also goes a long way to retaining staff through being able to offer the tools which enable management of remote workers much more effectively. Our guest panellist, Christopher Neto, shared his experience of being interviewed over video for his job, which also highlighted the fact that video should be a critical part of the Human Resources toolkit.

Using Video... 

One other area interesting discussion that came up is that of gaining the widespread use of video or adoption of the technology from within an organisation. My fellow panellists and I where all in agreement in how this can achieve... Through intuitive technology, that is high quality and offering a consistent experience is key - basically bottom line, if you have to think about to use the technology, and I am a case in point, then people won’t adopt it!

Finally, a video speaks more than a thousand words, especially if you ask an Italian to speak! So here is my top tip for businesses looking to drive adoption of video in their organisation.