Microsoft forecasts a hybrid new normal for businesses

Organisations in the Asia-Pacific are now rethinking ways of working including the change needed to address the emotional aspect of the new normal of work

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform daily lives, Microsoft, with research from TechRepublic Premium, looked into the impact the pandemic has had on the region’s legacy work styles, business operations and how it has accelerated an increase in overall technology adoption, realizing a hybrid new normal of work.

Through a qualitative research study the whitepaper, titled “Transitioning Asia-Pacific to a New Normal of Work”, sees business and thought leaders across industries – banking, healthcare, education, telecommunications, research, and professional consultancies – share their insights on how organizational cultures in Asia-Pacific are evolving to a new paradigm of work.

As different parts of the world were hit by COVID-19, life and work were changed overnight for everyone, said Kady Dundas, Head of Marketing, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Corp. All of a sudden we’ve gone from working in conference rooms to working in living rooms, and when you do that you have a high dependence on video. We know that we have about 200 million meeting participants each day, which equates to 4.1 billion minutes of meetings. Those data points show the tremendous movement to remote work.

Amid the pandemic, Microsoft found that while organizations have prioritized technology adoption to enable remote working environments and overall business transformation, the change was not driven through technology alone.

The technology side has been relatively straightforward, said Dr Joseph Sweeney, IBRS Advisor and Future of Work Expert. When COVID-19 came and everyone had to start working from home, Microsoft Teams was an obvious and natural tool to push out. It was already there, and the environment is familiar to anyone using Microsoft Office 365. It skyrocketed.

A forced mindset change was in play encouraging organizations to rethink ways of working, how individuals, groups, and managers interact with one another and the change management needed to adjust to the new normal of work focusing on the emotional impact of the change.

Often the reluctance to allow remote work has to do with a quite outdated concept of how managers need to manage – for instance, you need to be able to ‘see’ people to police that they are doing what they are meant to, said Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor, Management Discipline Group and Core Member, CBSI – Centre for Business and Social Innovation, University of Technology, Sydney.