Hybrid working is now, without doubt, an essential part of any large enterprises’ strategy for the future. Markets that had previously been resistant to the hybrid model, have now witnessed large corporations embracing the change and adjusting their previous policies to aid and enable this new way of working. 

But was the initial caution justified? There are obvious benefits to the hybrid working model, with a reported rise in productivity and a better work/life balance for employees. However, this new workplace culture needs to be monitored if there are concerns that individuals are suffering from burnout associated with working long hours because they find it difficult to ‘switch off’. 

Performance management and the wellbeing of employees has now become a critical consideration in the support of hybrid working. It also places additional pressures on IT departments who have been forced to move from managing only the performance of their network and applications on-premise, to having to put tools in place to manage the network, and the availability of apps, wherever workers need them.  

A further concern is keeping networks secure and connected as the attack surface is potentially widened by a distributed and remote workforce. Research by Firewall specialist Check Point has revealed that cyber-attacks increased by 50% in 2021, with a global peak of 925 a week per organisation.  

IT departments have quickly recognised this and shifted the focus to creating stronger and more secure networks to help combat unwanted cyber-attacks, whilst maximising networks for efficient and effective collaboration. 

Perhaps a simpler way to understand the evolution of hybrid working is the changed habits of hybrid workers and the impact that this has had on the office environment. In real estate terms, the ability to work from anywhere has seen significant impacts on the traditional office design, where multiple workstations catering for a large physical workforce have been replaced with fewer workstations over the same amount of space.  

This new era means you don’t need workstations for 2,500 staff in a room – but you do need a facility that satisfies the need for people to meet and collaborate.  

This has been seen in France recently when multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi agreed a lease on an office complex in Paris that covers almost 9,200 sqm with only 250 workstations. The rest of the space will be for collaboration, smaller meetings and team building. 

This interaction is essential to enable valuable career and job function experience to be passed to junior workers, and for ideas to be shared and refined. 

However, for this to be achieved, these new working spaces and environments must be truly flexible. 

Audio capability is a key enabler of this and new spaces demand audio which is consistent in a room of five people or 50.  

With this in mind, global audio manufacture Shure has developed its Stem Ecosystem and Microflex Ecosystem portfolio of products in order to support these new ways of communicating and collaborating within the hybrid office.  

With the ever-increasing use and dependence of communication and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, products such as the Stem and Microflex Ecosystems are even more important and essential to meet the demands and requirements of the modern hybrid professional. 

Now, the modern office can deploy superior audio throughout networks. But, for the hybrid work model to evolve fully, the quality of equipment used within the home needs to be addressed, with embedded audio solutions analysed and redesigned to match the performance and clarity within the office. 

This lack of audio continuity is being addressed by Stem and Microflex Ecosystems, who are providing solutions that are flexible and can be integrated seamlessly within the new office environment.  

The goal is clear: To deliver clear, concise audio across an area in its entirety; split audio within zones, as and when necessary; and support remote workers better to foster meeting equality –providing them with the enhanced audio solutions needed for the modern hybrid professional. 

 

 



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