Inclusive culture and enhanced digital skills key to hybrid success
- Date: 16 June, 2021
The growing popularity of hybrid working will increase the importance of an inclusive company culture and put a greater emphasis on training in digital skills and technologies.
The recent Cisco Live! event focused on how technology can help businesses find new ways to connect, secure and automate in a world that is increasingly digital, remote and adapting to hybrid ways of working.
In their research, ‘Workforce of the Future’, Cisco has emphasised why a strong company culture will be a critical component in ensuring that hybrid working is sustainable in the long term.
Organisations are looking to transform their workplaces to cater for today’s hybrid workforce, this transformation should ensure that the environment is flexible, engaging and a trusted experience for their employees.
Cisco’s research reinforces the importance not only to optimise office and virtual workspaces, but also to build strong, inclusive organisational cultures too. While many remote workers feel empowered and trusted by their managers and teams to do the job at hand, there are still significant numbers who are concerned about being left behind.
For example, 16% of remote workers in the UK do not feel trusted to do their job from home, without extensive oversight, and whilst just over half of the workforce feel recognised, the remainder believe their achievements are being overlooked (44%).
Opportunity for progression is another prominent concern, with 35% of employees admitting worrying that not sitting near their manager will impact their career goals. In addition, employees generally feel that leaders must communicate more, the longer they are dispersed, revealing the importance of communicative leadership.
One frequently cited way to ensure successful operations is to put effective training in technologies and digital skills in place as we go forward. The Cisco research confirms that training and development remain at the forefront for individuals who, now more than ever, are tasked with mastering technology in their everyday work.
Employees are looking for leaders to prioritise training on technologies and in digital skills, as they firmly believe it’s not just about having the technology in place, it’s vital that they have the expertise to utilise it effectively.
Another new Cisco report entitled ‘Accelerating Digital Agility’ has identified the core priorities that will be essential to IT success for organisations over the coming 12-18 months.
In no particular order, these are:
- Delivering collaboration tools to keep distributed workforces productive
- Protecting organisations from a growing list of expanding security threats
- Driving innovation
- Delivering the best end-user experience to both employees and customers
- Embracing cloud and ‘as a service’
In order to address these, the report reveals that IT decision makers are planning to invest increasingly in cloud applications, network security, cloud security and multi-cloud infrastructure in 2021-2022.