The Future of Work: Redefining Employee Experiences in the New Normal

A hybrid workplace is becoming the new norm. The pandemic acted as a catalyst in accelerating the remote work model much faster than most enterprises and employees anticipated. The Microsoft Work Trend Index for 2022 — covering 31 countries and backed by an analysis of "trillions of productivity signals in Microsoft 365 and labor trends on LinkedIn” — found that 53% of respondents are likely to consider transitioning to a hybrid model in the year ahead. The report correctly called this an inflection point. Enterprises worldwide are discovering that the remote work model is more than a solution to a one-time crisis. It is also prompting enterprises to lean more heavily on digital and accelerate their transformation journeys.

While hybrid is expected to be the default work model by 2024, businesses are struggling to adapt, with 72% of businesses still lacking a clear hybrid work strategy. Many are apprehensive about switching to a hybrid model because it impacts every aspect of their organization’s infrastructure. Even minor flaws in strategy and technological choices could affect employee productivity and impact device, application, network, and data security. Our experience shows that enterprises focusing on digitization initiatives powered by cutting-edge workplace technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for automated workflows are finding success.

Creating an efficient hybrid work model

Wipro’s implementations of hybrid work technologies for global industry leaders show that success requires a focus on three vectors:

• Employee Experience: As the Harvard Business Review observes, “technology and workplace tools are, for all intents and purposes, the new workplace”. Wipro leverages the latest workplace technologies, tools, and accelerators from partners like Intel and VMware to create hybrid work environments. These technologies elevate employee experience and productivity while providing IT admins a strong foundation and support structure.
• Employee Safety and Well-being: A safe and secure work experience is critical to the faster adoption of a hybrid model. Employees are already under considerable stress. The American Psychological Association found that 3 in 5 employees (in the US) reported negative impacts of work-related stress in 2021. New and complex processes around security and compliance add to the pressure. Wipro constantly works with Intel, VMware, and the larger ecosystem to enhance and simplify workplace security solutions. While VMware solutions keep the workforce’s security in check, Intel’s hardware-based technologies ensure security on the client side. The partnership offers the best delivery, eliminating any compromises on data safety without affecting employee experience.
• Augmenting Interactions with Intelligence: The hybrid trend is a revolution in how we work and offers an opportunity for innovation. Wipro is harnessing next-generation technologies like AR/VR to build exciting solutions that make workforce collaboration interesting and fun. More importantly, these technologies deliver data, detail, and insights in formats that improve employee performance. Wipro partners with tech pioneers like Intel and Oculus to offer next-gen digital employee experiences that are immersive and engaging.

Leveraging the possibilities of remote management

A critical fabric of the remote-first mindset is a change in the technology used by the workforce. Employees demand devices that offer ease of use and seamless experiences. However, ensuring the security of remote devices without interrupting the workforce from doing their job poses a challenge to IT teams. Astute investments in remote management solutions must be made in sync with the changes in technology used by the workforce. These solutions should maintain security while improving employee experience and safety.

Our collaboration with Intel and VMware allows us to harness cutting-edge technologies for remote management. Solutions like Intel vPro® platform and Intel® Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel® EMA) enhance remote field support services with both in-band and out-of-band remote management capabilities. This enables IT teams to be smarter, faster, and more efficient with remote troubleshooting. Similarly, VMware Workspace ONE® Intelligence™ suite offers data-driven insights to improve employee experience, strengthen security compliance, and optimize business operations.

Technological choices are crucial to ignite and build a remote-first organizational culture. Cloud-native, zero-trust security is paramount to a hybrid workforce. The right technology partners enable enterprises to empower on-site and remote employees to go about their jobs efficiently and securely without additional stress or interrupting their regular work patterns.

We believe that three aspects will define the future of the workplace:

• Digital Workplace Mesh: We are heading to a future where the physical and digital worlds will converge. In such an environment, it is critical to adopt the Mesh concept to benefit employees and organizations. Built on Microsoft Azure, Mesh was designed to improve remote collaboration and provide immersive training and communication tools for businesses. You can provide a comprehensive range of digital features through Mesh to encourage and enhance communication and collaboration among various teams.
• Foster Social and Human Capital: In a hybrid world, talent acquisition and retention are paramount to business success. Human capital offers enterprises the all-important extra growth potential. Enterprise can bring the top talent together by providing world-class experiences that allow people to deliver their best.
• Ecosystem Support: Wipro is continually exploring ways for you to leverage a 360-degree ecosystem. This is where you need partners like Intel and VMware who help you bring the next set of technologies to the real world on a use case-centric basis, to ensure that everyone in your workforce has the right set of devices. This creates a competitive advantage for your employees as well as for you in the marketplace.

To make the right strategic choices that enable a hybrid workforce and select the most appropriate remote management solutions, tune into this Prediction Panel on Driving Workplace Dexterity: Modern Manageability at the Edge for a Productive, Distributed Workforce — that features Sidharth 'Sid' Mukherjee—GM and Global Practice head for digital Workplace Services at Wipro, Yasser Rasheed— Global Director at Intel, and Josh Olson—Global Director at Intel Corporation, Experience Solutions & GSI Sales at VMware and Mrinal Rai – Senior Manager and Principal Analyst at ISG.

Sidharth Mukherjee

Sidharth Mukherjee, Global Practice Head of Wipro’s Digital Workplace Services, is a dynamic leader and a true technology enthusiast at heart. He comes with more than 18 years of rich, holistic experience in driving cutting-edge cloud and infrastructure services transformations for Fortune 500 organisations. 

Sid has a passion for delivering “what’s next” and technologically improving “what’s now” for enterprises, while keeping a keen focus on employee experience and innovation. He has an academic background specializing in IT & Management and is currently engrossed in harnessing the power of AI, cognition, blockchain and analytics to create an intricate workspace metaverse aligned to the future of work.