Although workplace technology requirements are always evolving, two events are accelerating that process. The first is the Pandemic, which forced employees home and completely reshaped the idea of business meetings and collaboration. The second event is the entry of a new demographic into the workforce – Gen Z (born 1995 – 2012) – which is reshaping expectations for workplace technology.
Both Millennials and Gen Z are considered “digital natives”, meaning that both grew up with technology, and they are often lumped together in technology analyses. However, Gen Z has never known a world without the internet and social media. Coupled with the fact that Gen Z began entering the workforce during the pandemic, where work-from-home and video meetings conducted over high-speed WiFi connections were the norm, their expectations of workplace technology are heavily skewed towards high-bandwidth, video-intensive applications.
The combination of these trends, the pandemic accelerating video adoption and Gen Z’s expectation of video-first technology in the workplace, is putting a strain on existing workplace technology infrastructure. As businesses contemplate moving their workforce back into the office, they need to assess their technology in the light of attracting staff back to the office and retaining them once there.
This technology may involve enhanced collaboration tools, new productivity tools, or enhanced ability to get work done anywhere like Universal Communications as a Service. Businesses need to look at their bandwidth as well because the old broadband connections may not be able to handle the increased load that the new workplace technology will demand. Options like Fiber and SD-WAN are becoming more affordable. Finally, businesses need to take a look at their security posture so that they don’t open themselves up to new avenues of attack.
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