Forbes Insights: A Video-First Culture is Critical for Overcoming the Workplace Challenges of the Future
How and where we accomplish work today are so different from previous generations that organizations have to rethink how they accommodate the modern workplace, and how they respond to such shifts today will be critical to their success tomorrow. That’s according to new Forbes Insights research on workplace trends, and the findings demonstrate just how critical unified, video communications — and a video-first culture— will be in meeting the collaboration and productivity demands of the future.
Zoom has partnered with Forbes Insights for the third year in a row to gauge the state of communications in the workplace and video’s increasingly important role in modern organizations. The 2019 report, “The Visual Advantage: Harnessing Video-Led Unified Communications to Drive a More Agile, Connected and Effective Culture,” details how the evolving nature of work poses a real threat to communication, collaboration, and productivity, and describes ways businesses can effectively respond.
The evolving workplace
The survey of more than 300 senior executives across geographies, roles, and industries finds the more distributed workforces become, the more they’ll require team-oriented approaches to higher-value tasks. Some key findings from the report:
- 71% of those surveyed say their networks are becoming more globally distributed
- 72% envision more project-based assignments spanning multiple teams
- 66% report that virtual teaming will be par for the course most days
With in-person collaboration becoming less feasible but the need for close collaboration rapidly expanding, the report states that reliable video conference software is critical for driving productivity and business success.
The growing challenges
The report clearly suggests that consolidated video communications have expansive business benefits and lead to a better connected, more productive organization:
- 95% say video communications will have a positive impact on performance
- 95% believe video creates a greater sense of trust
- 93% agree that video enhances the engagement and effectiveness of remote workers
“Video dramatically improves the quality of communication,” said Brett Durnell, manager of unified communications for F5 Networks, one of the organizations interviewed for the report. “It changes the nature of the meeting, making it more engaging, fun, and collaborative.”
But while 79% of those surveyed say video conferencing is the best team communication tool for creative and collaborative tasks, 80% say they can provide access to better-quality video conferencing solutions.
Access to quality tools is just one barrier to video adoption, however. System sprawl and a lack of leadership also play a role.
For example, 61% of executives say their organization uses three or more video conferencing solutions, making it confusing and cumbersome for employees to know which to use when. And while 73% plan to make greater use of video going forward, 75% admit that they should be the ones driving video use in their organizations.
The takeaways
The benefits of video communication are clear, and that’s evidenced by its growing pervasiveness in businesses across every industry. The best way for organizations to meet the communications demands of the future, according to the report, is to proactively adopt, support, and nurture a video-first culture.
Moreover, a unified communications strategy featuring a single app for video, chat, and phone solutions will simplify the experience and help expedite the journey toward a more productive workplace. To enable that video-first culture and meet the communication challenges of the evolving workplace, organizations must:
- Consolidate: Solution consolidation dramatically improves the user experience and is critical to employee satisfaction — and the bottom line.
- Adopt: You might have the best video conferencing solution, but C-level executives must still drive a video-first culture. If employees are expected to be on video with leadership teams, they won’t think twice about turning video on for every meeting.
- Buy in: Instilling a “video on” policy is key to consistent video use across the organization, and easy-to-use solutions like Zoom will help increase video usage dramatically. Many of the surveyed execs (63%) even believe video usage should be a formal performance metric.
Check out the full Zoom-Forbes Insights report to learn more about how video communications will help solve the workplace challenges of the future. Or set up a personalized demo with a Zoom product specialist today to learn all the ways Zoom can future-proof your business communications.
This article was originally published in Zoom Blog on February 5th 2020.
