Understanding our teams: who we work with and how they collaborate best

5 Faces of Today’s Employees

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 2

Next time you’re in your office, take a look around at your employees and colleagues. You won’t find one type of worker. Instead, you’ll find a variety of employees spanning different work styles, personality types, skill sets and generations. Some might work better in large groups, while others do their best thinking in isolation. And while you might notice your younger employees looking for the latest and greatest communication tools, older generations might want nothing more than email.

But bear in mind that your company probably expands beyond the employees in your office. More likely than not, you have remote workers, independent contractors and business partners, all working outside your office walls.

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 3

Today’s teams are very diverse with different working styles.

What generation are today’s employees?

How long does it take to get into the office?

How often are they working?

Where do they want to work?

(in the US workforce in 2015)¹ Hours/week worked on average by US workers

(full time, over age 18)²

80%–90% 50%It takes the average US commuter 26.4 minutes to get to work each day.³

of the US workforce has

a job that is compatible

with at least partial

telework.⁴

of the US workforce

says they would like

to telework at least

part time.4

34%Millennials

Gen Xers

Baby Boomers

Silent Generation

Post-Millennials

34%

29%

2%

1%

42%

21%18%

11%8%

<40 40 41-49 50-59 60+

¹ “Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in U.S. labor force”, 2015, Pew Research Center ² “The ‘40-Hour’ Workweek Is Actually Longer – by Seven Hours”, 2014, Gallup³ “American Community Survey”, 2015, US Census Bureau ⁴ “Latest Telecommuting Statistics”, 2016, GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 4

In the past few years, you will probably have seen the differences between your employees’ preferences expand even further. There are more Millennials in the workforce than ever before, remote working has become commonplace, and the tools we use to collaborate have expanded far beyond emails and conference calls.

With all of these different work styles, preferences and locations, it’s easy to see why you shouldn’t expect all of your employees to collaborate in the same way. However, you’re probably conscious of the productivity loss, cost and security risks associated with adopting too many business applications.

Organisations use an average of 730 cloud-based applications.⁵

When it’s time to plan for your company’s next technology purchase, how do you give employees the variety of tools they want, while meeting the security and productivity needs of your organisation? It starts with understanding employees and how they want to collaborate.

Let’s look at examples of five employees with different work styles to better understand what technology and tools they need to get their work done.

• Victor, Head of Finance

• Wendy, CIO

• Miklos, Social Media Specialist

• Renee, Business Development

• Pia, Independent Contractor

HERE’S YOUR TEAM:

⁵ “April 2015 Cloud Report”, 2015, Netskope

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 5

Victor, Head of Finance DEPARTMENT: FINANCE

LOCATION: WORKS AT COMPANY

HEADQUARTERS

Victor is a long-time employee of your company and has been with the organisation for more than 20 years. He has moved up from an entry-level position to managing a full team of employees. Today, he advises senior management on the financial health of the organisation.

When it comes to technology, Victor has been part of many changes over the years. While he hears that new technology could help him and his colleagues get work done, he is hesitant to

adopt yet another new tool. He prefers to use the phone, in-person conversations and email to communicate with his co-workers, and he shies away from using instant messaging apps at work.

When it comes to online collaboration solutions, 97% of employees report using email as a communication tool. 78% report using an Intranet site, and 45% report using a social collaboration tool.⁶

⁶ “2016 Digital Workplace Communications Survey: Companies Need to Rethink How They Communicate with Employees”, 2016, TheEmployeeApp

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 6

What does Victor need?

Over the past few years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the amount of collaboration. Employees are on a lot more teams than before and need specific tools to collaborate in new and different scenarios. But remember, when deciding what tools are right for your organisation, you also need to think of employees like Victor who have gone through adoption after adoption of new business tools.

As a longer-term solution, and one that satisfies those different scenarios, you need a suite of programs that has integrated communication tools. When your instant messaging, phone, email and calendar tools work together, different employees can communicate in the ways that work best for them. i

Victor manages many younger employees

who often try to reach him over instant

messaging. Because Victor is rarely

signed in to the instant messaging tool,

he relies on the app’s integration with his

email to catch any messages he would

have otherwise missed. With Office 365,

Skype for Business chats go straight to

Outlook conversations, keeping employee

communication integrated and succinct.

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 7

Wendy is the brains behind the company’s IT infrastructure. While her team makes sure that every employee is up and running with the hardware and software they need to get work done, Wendy is in charge of the IT purchasing and planning decisions, and she advises senior management on the software she believes is the best choice for the company. Because of the multitude of apps installed at the organisation, Wendy’s team works with a lot of outside vendors.

Wendy, CIODEPARTMENT: IT

LOCATION: WORKS AT COMPANY

HEADQUARTERS

In addition to retrieving employees’ lost passwords and managing updates and the implementation of software, Wendy’s team monitors the cybersecurity strength of the company. They’ve been noticing that employees are using unsupported applications, specifically when it comes to cloud-based file sharing.

A 2013 survey by Symantec found that 77% of all businesses experienced rogue cloud situations.⁷

⁷ “Avoiding hidden costs of the cloud”, 2013, Symantec

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 8

What does Wendy need?

Wendy (and the rest of the IT department) must ensure that employees have the tools they need. If employees use the tools IT provides, Wendy can worry less about the security risks that come with the use of unsupported applications. Some employees will need business analytics tools. For others, cloud-based file sharing tools and instant communication applications are a must.

When all of these programs can be provided by a single vendor, everyone wins. Employees will have fewer passwords to remember and fewer interfaces to learn and swap between. Wendy will have fewer application vendors to manage and fewer security hassles to deal with.

Even when they’re away from their desks,

Wendy and her team are receiving IT

requests. From resetting lost passwords,

to deleting data from a lost device, or

adding a new user to the company system

– mobility is a must. The Office 365 Admin

app allows them to do all of this and more,

across all the apps employees use, with

oversight from a single vendor.

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Miklos is exactly who many managers think of when they hear the term “future employee”, and has just recently entered the workforce. Miklos has grown up in the technology age, and his job title didn’t exist 10 years ago. Miklos takes to new technology with ease and is often seeking out the latest communication and organisational tools to test out on his own.

As a social media specialist, Miklos’s job doesn’t always end at 5 p.m. He often checks in on his projects and email from home and tends to sign back in online and work later at night. He works at least 45 hours each week and is truly invested in the company’s success.

US Millennials work, on average, 45 hours per week. In China and Singapore, this average reaches 48 hours per week.⁸

Miklos,Social Media SpecialistDEPARTMENT: MARKETING

LOCATION: WORKS AT COMPANY

HEADQUARTERS AND FROM HOME

⁸ “Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision”, 2016, Manpower Group

5 Faces of Today’s Employees

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 10

What doesMiklos need?

Up-to-date technology is important to Miklos’s job and his collaboration style as a Millennial. Look for a suite of tools that has some (if not all) of the supported applications Miklos needs. Doing so will keep his productivity and collaboration levels high, while relieving IT of the security fears that come with unsupported applications. Instant messaging applications are a favourite of Millennials, used to increase free-flowing communication.

45% of Millennials say instant messaging tools are their preferred workplace collaboration tool.⁹

Additionally, think about implementing tools and policies that enable employees to use their mobile phones to access work-related apps and encourage a flexible work environment. A Bentley University study found that 77% of Millennials think flexible working hours would make them more productive, and 89% regularly check emails from home after working hours.⁹

One evening as Miklos was scrolling

through social media, he saw that a

competitor was on the verge of making

a major product announcement. Instead

of waiting to cross-reference internal

messaging documents in the morning, he

was able to connect to the files he needed

in SharePoint and compile a report for his

boss’s immediate review.

⁹ “The Millennial Mind Goes to Work”, 2014, Bentley University

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 11

Renee is on the sales team and is typically travelling from city to city, meeting with current and potential clients and business partners, and attending conferences.

She’s a strategic salesperson and an extrovert who works closely with colleagues in multiple departments on specific customer accounts. Her role relies

Renee,Business DevelopmentDEPARTMENT: SALES

LOCATION: WORKS ON THE ROAD

AND IN THE OFFICE SPARINGLY

on her being in constant communication with them and also with her clients. When she’s not in a business meeting, she’s working alongside her team in the office to develop proposals and evaluate leads. In the past, this would have required her to email versions of files back and forth with her team and often answer calls and emails from her mobile.

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 12

What does Renee need?

Renee needs to be able to communicate and collaborate with her team as if she was in the office. For her, this means more than just a phone call. Knowing that 55% of communication comes through body language alone,¹⁰ implementing a video conferencing tool will enable her to collaborate with her team more efficiently.

The web conferencing software and services market is expected to reach $3.6 billion in 2020.¹¹

Renee would also benefit from cloud-based document sharing and editing. Instead of relying on sending versions of documents back and forth between herself and her team, the ability to co-author a single document and store it online will reduce confusion and help her stay organised while on the go. She also works on several accounts with different internal support teams, and having a workspace where she can create larger, threaded chats with each team would keep her far more organised and connected than dozens of private instant messages.

As she boarded a train to travel to a

week-long sales meeting, Renee’s various

account teams were finishing pitch

decks and proposals for her meetings.

From the train, she was able to connect

with each account team using threaded

Team conversations in Microsoft Teams.

Within the Microsoft Teams application,

they’ve created a channel for each

customer account, which helps them stay

connected with what’s happening with

that customer. All the tools they need

for collaboration are accessible right

within the app – co-authoring files, video

calls, chat, planning tools, etc. The group

was able to work together to co-author

the pitch decks in real time through

PowerPoint Online without ever leaving

the Teams app.

¹⁰ “Is Nonverbal Communication a Numbers Game?” 2011, Psychology Today¹¹ “2016 Web Conferencing Market Trends and Infograph”, 2016, Frost & Sullivan

November 2016 1313

Pia was recruited for a six-month temporary position to help with the organisation’s rebranding efforts. She is a freelance designer by trade, who chose to put all other freelance projects on hold and commit to the project for the next half-year. She has access to some of the company’s internal documents and applications, but figuring out what has been shared with her (and what can be shared) is a little difficult. Pia uses her own laptop and mobile device to communicate with colleagues inside your company.

49% of organisations say their need for contingent workers will continue to grow over the next 3–5 years.¹²

Pia,Independent ContractorDEPARTMENT: DESIGN

LOCATION: WORKS REMOTELY

FROM A HOME OFFICE

¹² “Workforce on Demand”, 2015, Deloitte

5 Faces of Today’s Employees

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 14

What doesPia need?

While Pia needs to be able to work with the internal team as if she was a permanent employee, the truth of the matter is that she is not with your organisation on a permanent basis. Your IT team needs to know that the documents shared with Pia can be revoked if necessary, and they need a way to track what she has and has not received.

A secure file-sharing system that enables admins to set different permission levels for each classification of employee will help her get her job done, while abiding by all compliance and security measures put in place. That way, contractors can securely access the files they need, while giving IT peace of mind. When Pia reaches the end of her contract, a cloud-based file system will enable IT to clear her permissions without ever affecting Pia’s personal devices.

Pia works best late at night, typically

when the rest of the company has signed

off, due to time zone differences. Hard at

work on a logo redesign, she realises that

she has not received the new font files.

Instead of being stalled, she pulls them

down from the organisation’s SharePoint

Online folder she’s been granted access

to as a contractor.

November 2016 15

At the end of the day, your entire team still needs to work together. With a collaborative suite of tools, you enable your employees to use the tools that work best for them, without compromising security, productivity or budget. By reducing the number of vendors involved in the business applications you use, your IT team will have peace of mind and your employees will have fewer passwords to remember.

Bring your diverse team closer together with an integrated suite.

External collaboration Collaborating with those outside your organisation is possible with secure external access to different applications in Office 365. The best part? As soon as a contract or partnership is over, IT can revoke permissions remotely.

A suite of tools, like those available through Office 365 plans, can help break down collaboration obstacles that your employees may have traditionally struggled with. Instead they will be able to reap the benefits of an all-encompassing solution, including:

Ease of use With a suite of tools, employees hesitant to adopt new technology will be able to transition from one application to the next without having to learn a new interface or keep track of multiple passwords.

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The end of versioning Instead of passing versions of files back and forth, co-authoring a document in Word Online will enable direct and concise feedback. If revisions need to be found, the historical changes to a document are easily retrieved.

More productive online meetings Instead of relying on voice-only calls, cloud-based video calling through Skype for Business lets employees around the world collaborate as if they were in the same room. Screen sharing and chat functionality built into every meeting means never needing to rely on third-party apps.

Free-flowing conversations Employees can choose the conversation medium that works best for their team, whether chat, email or enterprise social is preferred.

Secure cloud access to files With organisationally supported cloud-based access to files from anywhere your employees have Internet access, secure remote working is truly a possibility.

5 Faces of Today’s Employees

5 Faces of Today’s EmployeesNovember 2016 17

It’s time to see how a cloud-based suite of tools can boost your diverse team’s collaboration.

Learn more about what Office 365 tools can do for your organisation. Start with Microsoft Teams to see how it creates a digital workspace for high-performing employees:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU-FMzZFF0

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