SAN JOSE, Calif., March 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
News Summary:
- 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.
To help people work smarter, combat burnout and drive more
inclusive work experiences, today Cisco Webex announced
advancements to the People Insights feature. Available through the
all new Webex, and accessible through a personalized and private
view, People Insights aligns with the goals you personally set for
your 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
Organizational. All are underpinned with privacy and security to
ensure this information is only available to you.
The pandemic is having a profound impact on the way we work.
From the disruptions we're navigating (including meeting fatigue)
to the opportunities in reimaging how we work. With 58 percent 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 you accept but don't attend, your
tendency to multi-task during meetings, who you most frequently
collaborate with, the percentage of meetings taking place outside
of your team's preferred working hours, or silos in your
organization that need support.
"At Webex, we believe it all starts with you – from the people
you interact with to the networks you build and nurture," said
Jeetu Patel, SVP and GM Security and
Collaboration at Cisco. "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. Having meaningful insights that let you seamlessly
collaborate and build quality connections, while also helping you
focus your time in the best way possible will change how we think
about productivity and prioritize well-being in a hybrid
workplace."
"Our most precious resource is our 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," said
Fran Katsoudas, EVP and Chief
People, Policy & Purpose Officer at Cisco. "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. At Cisco, we believe that when we get
teams right, we 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 empowers 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."
People Insights drives positive employee experiences and
can help people prioritize 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.
"Employee wellbeing must be prioritized as the line between work
and home continues 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,
CEO and Lead Analyst at Aragon Research.
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. 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.
Enabling the 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 availability of
features, devices and tech integrations to deliver seamless
collaboration and smart hybrid work experiences. More information
is available in this blog.
Availability
People Insights is intended to be
available globally and will be rolled out in a phased approach over
the coming year, with initial availability to select customers in
the US beginning this summer.
Additional Resources:
- More detail about People Insights is available in this
blog
- Additional Webex new features blog: Turn it Up with Webex!
Collaboration Tools That Enable You to Work Your Way
- Watch this video about Cisco Webex is helping to shape the era
of hybrid work
- Learn more about how Cisco Webex Contact Center is providing a
connected customer journey through all customer interactions across
a business in this blog
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that
powers the internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by
reimagining your applications, securing your enterprise,
transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a
global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and
follow us on Twitter.
About Cisco Webex
Webex is a leading provider of cloud-based collaboration
solutions which includes video meetings, calling, messaging,
events, customer experience solutions like contact center and
purpose-built collaboration devices. At Webex, we start with people
and their experiences first. This focus on delivering inclusive
collaboration experiences fuels our innovation, which leverages AI
and Machine Learning, to remove the barriers of geography,
language, personality, and familiarity with technology. Our
solutions are underpinned with security and privacy by design. We
work with the world's leading business and productivity apps –
delivered through a single application and interface. Learn more
at webex.com
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at
www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are
the property of their respective owners. The use of the word
partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and
any other company.
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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.