Cisco
Launches First Global Hybrid Work Index: Key Findings Reveal Hybrid Work is
Powered by Mobile and AI, Talent Sits Everywhere
- New Index from
Cisco -- based on millions of aggregated and anonymous customer datapoints
- provides global insights on people's preferences, habits, and technology
usage in the era of hybrid work
- Over 200% growth in
the use of AI capabilities shows people's desire for improved meeting
engagement
- On-the-go mobile
meetings increase by 300% during pandemic
- Security remains
paramount: hybrid workforce was targeted with more than 100 million email
threats daily in September 2021 alone
Cisco unveiled its first Hybrid Work Index (HWI) based on
millions of aggregated and anonymous customer datapoints. The Index, which will
be updated quarterly, examines how people's habits and technology interactions
have permanently reshaped work a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings show hybrid workers expect greater flexibility, accessibility and
security, while businesses grapple with meeting these increased technology
demands.
"We're
truly at a unique time, with the ability to redefine work," said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco. "All employees
around the world want a workplace that enables them to do their best, and it is
our responsibility as business leaders to learn how best to support and enable
our employees, however and wherever they work."
Cisco
has the unique ability to glean insights from a wide range of tools enabling
hybrid work across networks, endpoints and applications from millions of
customers globally. This set of anonymized and aggregated data combined with
customer surveys provide the unique insights powering the HWI. Several key
themes have emerged from the HWI that can help business leaders understand the
approach they need to take to make hybrid work a long-term success:
Key
findings for HR and People Leaders
- People want
choice and the hybrid workplace increases employee loyalty: 64% agree that the ability to work remotely
instead of coming into an office directly affects whether they stay or
leave a job. However, there is also uncertainty whether employers will
realize the potential of hybrid work: only 47% think that their company
will allow working from anywhere vs. in-office over the next 6-12 months.
- Flexibility and
Wellness are key drivers for hybrid work: An overwhelming majority of respondents
agree that personal health and wellness, along with flexible work
arrangements, are non-negotiables as we move into the future of hybrid
work.
- Hybrid work
drives a surge in on-the-go meetings: Pre-pandemic, people used mobile devices 9% of the time to
connect to their meetings. In a hybrid work world, this number tripled and
is now at 27%.
- Meetings abound,
but not everyone "participates" the same way: More than 61 million meetings take place
globally every month via Cisco Webex. And in any one of them, only 48% of
participants are likely to speak. In addition, 98% of meetings have at
least 1 person joining remotely – increasing the need for inclusion and
engagement of remote participants, so that they feel equal to their peers
on site.
- Hybrid Work
means increased access to diverse talent: 82% of survey respondents agree that
access to connectivity is critical to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
and the importance of ensuring everyone has equal access to jobs,
education, and healthcare opportunities. Increased connectivity access
will empower people to work for any company in the world and companies to
source the best talent regardless of location.
- AI is not coming
for your job; AI is at the center of the future of work: Over 200% growth in usage of AI
capabilities from July through September 2021 points
toward people's desire for improved meeting engagement. This includes
meeting features like noise reduction, automatic translation and
transcriptions, polling, and gesture recognition – making it easier for
people to engage in conversation, whether they're virtual or in-room.
Key
findings for Technology Leaders
- Home networks
are now one of the most critical parts of the enterprise network: 2x faster growth in teleworker devices
compared to small and medium business routers since pandemic started.
- Heightened
threats underscore the importance of user-centric security: During the pandemic, malicious remote
access attempts grew 2.4 times. In September
2021, the hybrid workforce was targeted with more than 100 million
email threats daily. This underscores the importance of security
infrastructures that keep work accessible to the right users and out of reach
of fraudulent actors.
- Enterprises view
collaboration apps as the most critical application type for hybrid work
success: Collaboration
apps are now the #1 most monitored application type globally.
Collaboration apps have surpassed secure access and productivity
application monitoring, which were more heavily monitored at the onset of
the pandemic and move to work-from-home.
- Cloud provider
networks demonstrate more stability than Internet Service Providers
(ISP): From January 2020 to August
2021, cloud provider networks accounted for just 5% of outage
incident volume. ISP networks accounted for the remaining 95% of outage
incidents.
- Onsite work is
coming back: Devices
connecting to office-based Wi-Fi networks increased 61% in comparison to
six months ago. This growth is led by the higher education, professional
services and hospitality industries.
Cisco's
Global Hybrid Work Index is the only report of its kind, looking across people,
technology and business to identify emerging global work trends. It derives
insights from millions of aggregated and anonymized customer data points from
Cisco's collaboration (Webex), networking (Meraki), internet visibility
(ThousandEyes) and security (Talos, Duo, Umbrella) platforms. Third-party
research surveying over 39,000 respondents across 34 countries, including CIOs,
IT decision makers and employees, supplements the research alongside Cisco's
own employee data.
Source: Cisco media announcement
