A report by a specialist audiovisual integrator has revealed that 41% of professionals in the sector say technology installed during the Covid-19 pandemic will need to be ripped out and replaced this year. The research also reveals that while a return to the office on a hybrid basis is what most organisations want, half of those surveyed don’t feel they have the right technology in the workplace.
► Poor workflows hampering hybrid work productivity
► More organisations tracking hours worked and wellbeing data
The results come from the Trusted Connections 2024 report by Kinly. It found that while most enterprises (63%) are encouraging a return to physical offices for at least part of the time, 65% are yet to fully optimise their office spaces for effective hybrid working.
It revealed that 59% of organisations now take a hybrid approach with 16% completely virtual and 25% working in the office only. But the sudden necessity to work remotely triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in misplaced investments, overcomplicated technology stacks and ill-thought-out workflows. Of the organisations surveyed, 41% agreed they’d ‘rushed to install’, and 57% said poor hybrid workflows are damaging staff productivity.
Interestingly, the report says that 38% of enterprises now collect some form of office occupancy data to log how, and when, employees are working, and 32% have even started collecting human wellbeing data (e.g. tiredness tracking) with 37% having plans to collect this data in future. The report also said that 44% are collecting data on the hours worked at home, with an additional 33% planning to do that in future. Two thirds – 66% - have a plan in place to deal with future pandemics.
Priorities on AV tech investment have shifted over the past year. In its first 2023 report, Kinly found that focusing on enabling better hybrid working with ‘remote encryption tech’ (47%), ‘hybrid meeting rooms’ (45%) and ‘comms workflows’ (44%) were top of the list. In 2024, the priorities for AV pros are ‘network infrastructure’ (42%), ‘remote support’ (35%) and ‘unified communications and collaborations software’ (33%).
Kinly canvassed insights from 425 AV professionals in enterprise-level companies across the UK, Germany, Netherlands, and the Nordics for the report. For more details see here.
