Hybrid Workplace
The future of work
Collaboration in a Hybrid Workspace
Where your team can be informed, engaged, and productive whether they work from home, at the office, or on the go.
Experts say that the hybrid workplace is the new normal
Of the many lessons learned in 2020, remote work has proven not only to be cost-effective and productive, but it has reaffirmed when and how in-office collaboration and spaces are uniquely beneficial. Industry leaders are actively introducing:
- Flexible working locations
- Use of online collaboration tools
- Connected physical spaces
- Social distancing & safety measures
Source: Crestron Customer Survey 2020
How do you build a hybrid workplace culture?
For an exceptional workplace experience, the focus centers on awesome communication – both within departments as well as across teams and in corporate spaces. Now, more than ever, it’s critical to keep everyone connected and working together, whether they’re at work, at home, or on the go. Many of the world’s most recognizable brands build their own exceptional workplace experience with Appspace’s simple communication and space management platform at the heart of their communications strategy.
A communication program is only effective if the messaging can reach the right people
Teams come in all shapes and sizes. People can be part of a functional team, a team in a specific geographical location, or a team assigned to a strategic initiative – sometimes all of the above. Communication planners need to be able to reach every individual when the time comes. People may be in an office, they could be on the road, so it is critical that reach – offices, mobile devices, devices in the home – is part of the DNA of the tool that powers your communication strategy.
Source: ComputerWeekly.com
Navigating the new normal is made more difficult because of an overcrowding of unfit tools
Our teams and work locations look a lot different than they have in the past. Whether having some dispersed team members has always been part of your normal or if this is new territory, finding ways to communicate key information can be hard to do. Electronic communication is dominating the landscape and taking the time to craft effective messages to various teams and members is time consuming. Deciding which channel to use poses another challenge, overcrowding an email inbox will lose the most important messages to employees.
Organizations will thrive if they prioritize building and maintaining their culture in a hybrid world
Company culture is a vital component of a successful organization. One of the easiest ways we develop and share our company values is in our face-to-face interactions. When in-person meetings cease, how do you keep the culture alive? The in-person communication everyone once relied on must continue online. Finding ways to effectively connect with employees and keep them engaged via online tools can be challenging but has clearly been made known that it is of utmost importance in keeping employees happy.
Source: Built In
Source: Populo
A successful communications strategy requires careful monitoring and tweaking
Right now it feels like we’re in constant communication with people over several different mediums. There’s plenty of wondering if someone saw the message served to them, let alone read all of it. Planning messaging campaigns for internal team communications have become hard to orchestrate given all the different options for delivery and making sure it’s engaging. All of these things point to analytics, from open rates to click-throughs, this type of data would be crucial for HR teams in order to save time and send communications that work.
TEAM COMMUNICATIONS
Reach your team anytime, anywhere with Appspace
As you know, teams come in all shapes and sizes, but targeting messaging across many different teams in the hybrid workplace can seem daunting. How do you easily deliver the company Town Hall recording to software developers in Kuala Lumpur, marketing managers in Dallas, and account executives located all over the globe? At the same time, how do you deliver the latest sales leaderboard to the commercial team or financial reports only to the board? Having a simple way to create and distribute updates to different locations, devices, and people is critical.
Create with easy-to-use templates
Anyone can create effective messages with Appspace’s templates. The simple, pre-designed formats have fields that are easy to update. Add your text, business data, media files, and finally your branding to output a visually impactful, on-brand message. Templates can also display data from dynamic sources such as RSS feeds, web pages, and third-party systems, so you can set it up once and let it update automatically.
- People + Culture
- Marketing
- Sales
- Finance
Collaborate across departments
Even with decentralized and hybrid teams, it’s possible—and increasingly important—to share the communication load. Assign specific templates to different team members so they can create relevant messages for their own teams. Here at Appspace, we have different template styles for each major functional organization within the company so that all employees know exactly where messages are coming from at a glance.
- TVs
- Conference Displays
- Computers
- Tablets & Phones
Create and publish once - view anywhere
With Appspace templates, you don’t need to worry about recreating messages for different devices or screen sizes. Appspace’s branded templates are device agnostic and automatically adapt to the display they are viewed on. Because your content can play anywhere on any device, you can focus instead on delivering relevant messages to the appropriate teams, driving your business goals, and building your corporate culture.
Like what you see so far? Speak with our team about powering your hybrid workplace with Appspace
Simple content organization with channels
To make it easy for relevant information to reach the right teams, group your content into logically named playlists called channels. Build channels for specific topics (new hires or upcoming events), teams (Marketing, Product), or for strategic initiatives (COVID-19 Workforce). Add new content and it’s easy for your team to find it. For instance, the new hires channel might publish to the entire organization, while the sales report channel may only reach the sales team. You can also share a particular piece of content in one channel that’s relevant to the whole company (for instance, a release update), that content can be delivered to the entire organization.
Reach employees no matter where they work
With workforces spread out across home offices, company facilities, and on the road, it’s paramount that you can reach your employees wherever they are. Appspace is compatible with devices you’re already using today and many that you’re probably not. Whether employees use their personal devices, a company laptop, or happen to be walking by the digital signage in your headquarters, they will receive the same critical information as other employees.
Access information 24/7 on personal devices
Reach employees on the devices that they use the most — theirs. With Apppsace’s unique integration with the enterprise messaging apps your team knows and uses daily, messages sent from the Appspace platform can appear right on a phone, tablet, or laptop directly into a channel that employees are accustomed to viewing. By simply clicking these messages, or logging into the Appspace content portal, users can learn more about the important messages you are sending, and can access these additional details right from their browser.
Enterprise messaging apps
As workforces went remote in 2020, the use of enterprise messaging apps exploded and both business-critical and more casual conversations moved onto the apps. When you use Appspace to deliver your corporate messaging across Slack, Webex, or Microsoft Teams, you not only capture an active audience, but you also cut through the clutter with attention-grabbing, on-brand content.
Appspace content portal
To further leverage the power of enterprise messaging apps, Appspace links content published in enterprise messaging apps back to a web portal. Team members can read additional information, watch a related video, or follow a call to action. Employees can also check out other channels available to them in the portal, like recent town hall recordings, new hires, or the latest performance KPIs.
Reach teams when they are in the workplace
Corporate culture originated in the physical workspace, and it’s important to continue to drive that culture within the office. Office displays are a powerful tool for communicating with team members and for enabling communication between in-office and remote employees.
Digital signs & video walls
Digital signage is perfect for when your message depends on your location. Welcome visitors and share check-in information on the digital signage in your lobby and reception area. Reinforce company values and celebrate individual and team accomplishments on digital signage throughout your facility.
Publish important business messages and performance metrics in team areas and open spaces. Many of these messages may be the same as the messages delivered to personal devices, but others will be unique to a location. With pre-determined scheduling rules and channel configurations, posting different content across your facility’s digital signage is fast and simple.
Collaboration displays
Collaboration displays—screens in meeting rooms or huddle spaces dedicated to video conferencing and screen sharing—are another powerful tool for sharing relevant information and encouraging employee collaboration and communication in the hybrid workplace.
To maximize efficiency in video conferencing, Appspace-powered collaboration screens offer voice control features and how-to instruction on the screens. Dispersed teams can easily and quickly gather via video conference, breaking down any location barriers. Displays can also be used in signage mode when they’re idle and show targeted content or general corporate messaging.
ANALYTICS
Measure what matters and track how communications are performing
With Appspace analytics, you can measure the effectiveness of your strategy and chart your progress toward building an exceptional workplace experience.
At-a-glance get a performance summary from specific channels, enterprise messaging apps, users, devices, and content portal usage with links to detailed reports. Track successful content and authors to create a comprehensive picture of your corporate communications.
Easily analyze channel usage to identify communication gaps, and track user engagement with an easy-to-read dashboard to identify your super users and to understand the effectiveness of specific campaigns.
Clear communication is critical to the success of your culture in the hybrid workplace
Pervasive and effective workplace communications are more important than ever in a hybrid workplace. Managing a dispersed workforce will continue to shape how we communicate as organizations. Adapting early and adopting a platform that allows you to reinforce and reevaluate your communication strategy will be crucial to create a strong company culture moving forward.
Combining workplace displays, enterprise messaging app integration, and an all-in-one content portal, communicators are able to share content to multiple channels and keep employees informed and engaged. Appspace is the unified platform that offers communicators all of these tools.
Want to take a closer look? Virtually, of course
Take our workplace experience demo for a spin and see how Appspace can supercharge your workplace. Our account team is ready and waiting.
