Is your workplace technology an enabler or barrier to employee success?

As an employer you work hard to recruit the best people for your organisation, but what happens when they walk through your doors? Is the workspace that you have created for them a space to empower them to productivity or are you putting barriers in the way of their success?

By Peter Sutton, managing director, Pure Audio Visual

There is a lot of discussion today about making workspaces ready for the new generation workforce, the Millennials, those used to having everything they need at their fingertips, indeed using their fingertips to access everything they need. They see a screen they expect to touch it, they are comfortable with video and have been using interactive technology in their schools, colleges and at home; so what happens when they walk into your meeting room and they are faced with a pen and paper flipchart?

The way our offices are structured is also changing; remote working is far more common and individual workspaces are disappearing to be replaced with open-plan offices and communal working areas. Traditional meeting spaces are giving way to more informal huddle spaces.

These changes in behaviour and environment are driving a requirement for collaborative tools and solutions, such as video conferencing and interactive touchscreens, devices that enhance team working and bring remote workers together.

There is a whole new generation of all-in-one meeting room technology designed to enable users to walk into a meeting space present and interact with information as instinctively as they do with the smartphone they keep in their pocket. In fact, they don’t have to physically walk in; the solutions are designed to work seamlessly with web conferencing tools such as Skype for Business so that meetings can be joined and equal participation made by both remote and in-room participants.

Many businesses have successfully adopted tools like Skype for business to support one-to-one collaboration and there are significant gains to make for those who can extend those benefits to the team and meeting room environment.The key to successful investment in meeting room technology is the introduction of flexible, easy to use systems that enhance existing practice and support collaboration, in a way that feels natural. This is where we as Pure AV can help; we work with organisations to help identify and deploy the workplace technology that will solve their particular business challenge and offers the best fit for their people, environment and budget.