Today’s leaders have a responsibility to invest in technologies that drive engagement and implement inclusive policies. This will help ensure company culture is aligned with the collaboration solutions they employ. Enterprise leaders also need to understand the unique differences across their workforce in order to empower every worker to do their most effective and productive work, wherever and whenever that may be.

A new study from cloud-based communications platform Fuze, backs this up, revealing that the latest technology is enabling organisations to reach peak productivity by facilitating an overall cultural shift in how we work.

The ‘Productivity @ Work’ report incorporates global usage data reflecting engagement with the Fuze platform by more than five million workers in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the USA, including 2.5 million meetings, 20 million calls, and 33 million messages. The report found that communications and collaboration preferences are often as diverse as the workforce they support. By understanding these preferences, companies can empower their employees by implementing solutions to support a collaborative work environment.

The report reveals that video and screen share meetings support employee engagement and meeting efficacy by reducing the opportunity for multitasking, a proven productivity-killer. When users turn on their video or screen share during the meeting, attendees stay connected for 87 percent of the time. Without a screen share, they only remain connected for 75 percent of the meeting. With an average meeting time in the United States of 36.3 minutes, this increase in attendance translates to an extra 4.4 minutes of engagement.

The Fuze report uncovers how technology can improve communication and collaboration processes and enable workers to be more productive. Key data and insights include:

• Global meeting productivity––On average, meetings with members from one country last 19 minutes, but when adding team members from an additional country, the meeting length doubles to 38 minutes. Including four or more countries triples the length of the meeting to 57 minutes. The duration of a meeting should increase for each new country added to reach maximum productivity. Additionally, organisations should consider switching calendar settings to 25 and 50 minutes to ensure that meetings start on time by allowing employees ample time to get from one meeting to another.
• Engaging distributed teams––While video and screen share meetings are shown to improve meeting engagement, only 23 percent of global respondents report that they use both video and screen share during meetings. This gap creates an opportunity for companies to build meeting cultures that improve employee engagement and productivity.

Technology has already made a huge impact on the lives of consumers and has revolutionised the customer experience. It will now continue to reshape the workforce, having a similar impact on worker preferences and growing desires for flexible work policies.

For the future workforce to stay engaged and productive, unprecedented connectedness and top-notch experiences will be required. Technology leaders must invest in workplace innovation now, redesigning it to support tomorrow’s dynamic, distributed and on-demand workforce.