Covid-19 WFH Archives ~ My Mobile India

“When we look back, what we see today is that the pre-COVID and post-COVID world is very different” The power of rapid communication and efficient collaboration is paramount in these unprecedented times and tools such as video & audio conferencing, headsets and other collaboration technologies are playing a vital role in ensuring some sort of ‘normalcy’ across sectors. And Poly makes it easy for us to integrate seamlessly. And in a recent interview with the MyMobile team, Ankur Goel, Managing Director for Poly India, spills some more beans about the same. What do you think about Hybrid Work Culture and how do you see it grow in the near future? The pandemic has changed the way we live our day-to-day life and the way we live, work, play or interact with each other. When we look back, what we see today is that the pre-COVID and post-COVID world is very different. I have been talking to a lot of customers and CIOs across verticals be it government, manufacturing, IT/ITeS, education or healthcare and we see that the future of work is hybrid working. Remote working is widely accepted now, employees are more accustomed to working from home and are finding that they have better work-life balance. So, there is a large segment of the working population that prefers to continue with remote working. On the other hand, there is another segment of workers that are finding it difficult to continue with the work from home arrangement – they miss the human interaction and find that they are more productive in office. So, we see that the future of work will be hybrid working wherein employees will be working from home two or three days a week and meeting in office for the remainder period. This is beneficial not only for organisations as it has a lot of advantages like cost savings and efficient utilization of resources but also to employees as it offers a very good work-life balance. Organizations are in a unique position as they must meet the needs of all these different workers and workstyle. Going forward, the focus for leaders will be to ensure that they cater to the needs of all employees despite their work location and making sure that they implement an employee first strategy. In order to do that, organisations will specifically have to go through a phase of 3Rs i.e., respond, redesign and reinvent their workplace strategy so that they can accommodate the workstyle of every employee. You are into hybrid workplace tools. Have you extended your portfolio witnessing the rise in WFH culture? What are some of Poly’s popular WFH solutions? Yes, given the rise in work from home and hybrid working culture, we have pivoted our product roadmap to meet the needs of a hybrid worker. Today, we address the requirements of a hybrid worker with our complete set of solutions – headsets, voice, and video and our portfolio and product roadmaps are improving our ability to meet this hardware-for-anywhere demand, creating equipment that can be set up and used easily by anyone, in home offices or remote workplaces, not just IT departments. Some of our popular Work From Home products include: POLY SYNC USB/BLUETOOTH SMART SPEAKERPHONES – A remarkable sounding three-in-one device, it is a personal speakerphone, a portable music speaker and a smartphone charger all in one. Its compact, sleek design and carrying case make it perfect for users on the go. POLY VOYAGER FOCUS UC - Even though you may be working from home office, your favorite café, or even the office, distractions are everywhere. A headset like the Voyager Focus UC comes in handy with its ability to filter out the background noise, while projecting your voice clearly and confidently so your contribution to the meeting can be heard. Also, the Voyager Focus UC delivers rich bass, crisp highs, and natural mid-tones to let you enjoy your favorite tunes. POLY VOYAGER 6200 UC - The Voyager 6200 UC neckband delivers professional-grade audio performance for mobile and PC calls and features an immersive stereo for the music lovers. The earbud is comfortable, stable, fits nearly all ear sizes and shapes and is easy to put on and take off, while the neckband contours to any user while remaining lightweight. POLY VOYAGER 5200 UC - The Voyager 5200 UC, a mono Bluetooth headset which lets you work from wherever you like, and with all-day comfort. Six layers of WindSmart technology and four omni-directional microphones work in tandem to reduce distracting background noise, letting nothing get in the way of a clear connection. Most of our products are platform agnostic i.e., our equipment works seamlessly across multiple platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom and delivers professional results every time and hence, is an ideal choice for a hybrid worker. How important is the Indian market for you? What is your market expansion plans? The India market is extremely important for Poly. We have customers across all sectors – government, manufacturing, healthcare, IT/ITeS using our audio, video conferencing solutions and headsets. For 2021 and beyond, our focus will be to educate and help our customers navigate in the new world of work i.e., hybrid working. We want to provide best-in-class conferencing experience for users from all segments – whether they are working from home, in office or client location and have many exciting products that we will announce in the next few months to meet this vision. With respect to segments, we see a lot of opportunities in the healthcare and education sector in India – the way that these customers are using collaboration technology is exciting. The pandemic has propelled these customers to disrupt the way they use technology to serve customers and there is a lot of opportunity for Poly to be the collaboration partner for them in their digital journey. What are some best practices for business leaders while thinking about the future of work – how should they redesign, implement to enable hybrid workforce? Across all workspaces, be it home office or the traditional office, the focus for business and IT leaders should be on creating environments that motivate and empower workers to be productive and do their best work no matter their location. A few tips for enabling a good hybrid work environment include - Rethink Work Patterns - Hybrid working brings flexibility on location, times and days that work is carried out. Review and revise work-from-home policies and focus on what employees need to be productive in their role. Foster Better Collaboration - Encourage inclusive and productive work as teams become more virtual in nature. Create engaging and productive virtual workspaces, using noise-cancelling and intelligent acoustic solutions in dynamic headsets and video soundbars. Optimize Investment - Banish under-utilized office spaces that bring little return on real estate costs. Prioritize investment beyond the office walls to create flexible, collaborative, technology enabled personal workspaces everywhere.

Covid-19 WFH

“We address requirements of hybrid workers with our solutions”- Ankur Goel, MD, Poly