Starting this summer: Select Webex customers will have access to insights that increase and promote personal well-being, build better quality connections and a more inclusive work experience for all.
Private by design, Webex People Insights enables individuals and teams to set and achieve goals for their meetings, work-life integration, connections, and manage their most precious asset – time.
Today’s news builds upon the more than 400 features Webex has introduced in the last 6 months, designed to create engaging, inclusive and trusted collaboration experiences.
Webex onboards 600 million monthly participants and connects 6 billion calls every month. Webex is one of the few platforms with the global scale to drive this transformation.
To help people work smarter, combat burnout and drive more inclusive work experiences, Cisco Webex announced advancements to the People Insights feature.
Available through the all new Webex, and accessible through a personalised and private view, People Insights aligns with the goals customers personally set for their meetings, work-life integration, connections, and focus time.
Designed with a people-first mindset, the insights are available from three points of view: Personal, Team and Organisational. All are underpinned with privacy and security to ensure this information is only available to customers.
The pandemic is having a profound impact on the way we work. From the disruptions the company is navigating (including meeting fatigue) to the opportunities in reimaging how customers work.
Remote participants
With 58% of office employees anticipating they’ll work eight or more days from home each month, and 98% of meetings expected to include remote participants, a new hybrid way of working is emerging.
It’s more critical than ever before for people to have the tools to help them thrive, wherever they are physically working. One of the biggest areas of opportunity is to help people better manage their time and working relationships.
With a window into the trends and insights of how we work, individuals and leaders can now recalibrate how they use time, who they work with and uncover blind spots.
For example, gaining visibility into how many meetings customers accept but don’t attend, customers tendency to multi-task during meetings, who they most frequently collaborate with, the percentage of meetings taking place outside of customers team’s preferred working hours, or silos in the organisation that need support.
Interact with network
Cisco Senior Vice President and General Manager Security and Collaboration Jeetu Patel at Webex, Cisco believes it all starts with customers – from the people they interact with to the networks they build and nurture.
“We’re focused on helping people achieve more positive, productive and inclusive work experiences whether they are seated across the table or across the screen from their teammates,” said Jeetu Patel.
Having meaningful insights that let customers seamlessly collaborate and build quality connections, Jeetu Patel said it also helps customers focus their time in the best way possible abd will change how they think about productivity and prioritise well-being in a hybrid workplace.
Precious resource
Cisco EVP and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer Fran Katsoudas said any company’s most precious resource is its time.
“The decisions we make around how we spend our time and connect with others affects our performance, our mental health, and our well-being. People Insights help us to deliberately design our day – based on our priorities, personal preferences, and goals – to be at our best at work, at home, and with our teams,” said Fran Katsoudas.
Fran Katsoudas said Cisco believes that when any business that gets teams right it will win.
“Teams are where the magic happens – they’re the engine of our enterprise where individual expertise meet powerful collaboration to be the spark for our innovation. These insights enable a more inclusive work experience and empower our people to develop and leverage their collective collaboration network while helping leaders act at the intersection of performance, empathy, and service to others to build connected and effective teams,” said Fran Katsoudas.
Employee wellbeing
People Insights drives positive employee experiences and can help people prioritise their well-being at work in the following ways:
- Personal Insights: These insights, available only to you, surface daily trends and interactions (such as key collaborators and activities), so that you set and monitor your personal preferences. This lets you tailor your collaboration with coworkers and focus your time on what matters most. For example, how often are you accepting meetings you never attend, multi-tasking during meetings or not sharing your video? People Insights will help you decide when to decline or reschedule meetings to ensure you meet your personal work preferences and goals. It also helps you fully engage (visualizing your multitasking and video sharing habits during active meetings) so that you can be more mindful about giving others your full attention and presence.
- Team Insights: These insights give each team member a view of patterns between connections, collaboration habits, and work-life integration for the entire team – while maintaining privacy. The benefit is a stronger and more inclusive work experience for all team members and enables a team to jointly adjust practices and grow relationships as a collective for the benefit of everyone. For example, you can become a good steward of your team’s wellbeing by looking at what percentage of meetings are taking place outside of your team’s preferred working hours – or you can facilitate strong working relationships by making sure you and your team are connecting with the right people and teams.
- Organizational Insights: Organizational Insights give you a bird’s-eye view of your organization’s collaboration trends and patterns to help you spot silos and identify teams that may benefit from additional support or an increased focus on inclusivity. For example, if you move to a new business model or organizational design that requires new ways of collaboration, you can monitor how the model is working and take action where you see gaps.
Aragon Research CEO and Lead Analyst Jim Lundy said employee wellbeing must be prioritised as the line between work and home continue to blur, the number of work hours is on the rise, and there is a growing feeling of “invisibility” for employees who are less apt to engage virtually.
“With a hybrid work model, businesses need to wrap their arms around this very large and varied issue,” said Jim Lundy,
Cisco is helping businesses transform their workforce and workplace to create an inclusive future of work, by helping to build adaptable, engaging, and trusted work experiences for employees, customers, communities, and their ecosystem.
Security, collaboration
The breadth and unmatched experience Cisco offers, spanning networking, security, cloud, and collaboration, delivers a complete solution that empowers a workforce to work from anywhere, at any time while ensuring a workplace is always a trusted environment where employees feel safe.
As part of Cisco – with 600 million monthly participants and connecting 6 billion calls every month – Webex is one of the few platforms with the global scale to drive this transformation. Webex has a rich history of helping employees innovate and remain productive wherever they are.
In the last 6 months, Webex has delivered 400 new features. Since the pandemic, Webex has not only continued to help businesses thrive, it has also been an integral platform for governments to continue to lead remotely, doctors to meet with patients safely, and educators to teach students at a distance.
Hybrid Workplace
As a remote meeting participant, have you ever struggled to read the room to gauge how people are responding? With the hybrid workplace blending remote and in-office interactions, it’s important to create an inclusive experience for all participants.
To address this, Cisco Webex has previewed a future capability called “People Focus” which uses machine learning and AI technology to individually re-frame meeting participants who are spread across a meeting room.
The feature will make remote participants feel more connected by providing a close-up “cropped” view of each person in the room, and will be available later this year.
In related news, Cisco also announced new cloud pricing for Webex desk and room devices, making intelligent collaboration experiences even more affordable for every space with up to 50% lower costs.
Cisco Webex also recently announced the availability of features, devices and tech integrations to deliver seamless collaboration and smart hybrid work experiences.
Webex is a leading provider of cloud-based collaboration solutions which includes video meetings, calling, messaging, events, customer experience solutions like contact centre and purpose-built collaboration devices.
