How APAC Leaders Are Ushering in the Next Generation of Work 

As Asia Pacific organisations embrace flexible work, cutting-edge technologies are becoming increasingly important for empowering communication at a distance. But how can you leverage these exciting new technologies in your workspaces to meet the diverse needs of a hybrid workforce? 

Successful hybrid workplaces enhance collaboration for all employees while facilitating new ways of working. Leading organisations aren’t just implementing new technologies to build these spaces — they’re also listening closely to the feedback of their employees. 

On 15 July, Zoom hosted our APAC Work Transformation Summit (WTS) focusing on the new role of the workplace and how to use technology to meet the needs of employees and customers, no matter where they are.

Some key takeaways from the event:

• Hybrid work is here to stay.
• To succeed in a hybrid environment, listen to employees and give them choices for how they want to work.
• Hybrid work requires renewed efforts for improving employee experience, connectivity, and equity.
• The right platform and technologies are critical to success in this new hybrid world.

Keep reading to learn about how APAC leaders continue to navigate the evolving world of work. 

Ricky Kapur, Head of Asia Pacific at Zoom, kicked off the event by discussing the current state of hybrid work and how leading organisations in the dynamic and diverse APAC region are using technology to create a smarter hybrid workspace.

Ricky explained that the data is clear in Asia Pacific — with the majority of workers across different countries and industries preferring a flexible approach to work, hybrid work is here to stay. 

“People love the flexibility that hybrid work offers them: the convenience, the less time wasted, and higher productivity,” Ricky said. “We have become used to this. Companies, in turn, acknowledge this heightened demand for flexibility.”

Ricky also explained that success requires renewed efforts into understanding and improving the employee experience, connectivity, and equity, whether they are in the home or office.

“It’s not enough to tell your employees they have the flexibility to work in a hybrid way,” he said. “You have to think deeply about the right platform and technologies to facilitate meaningful hybrid work.” 

Jay Choi, Chief Product Officer at Qualtrics, was kind enough to share his team’s findings on employee experience during the APAC Work Transformation Summit and how this often overlooked aspect of work can help organizations successfully navigate the future. 

Jay also shared some of the best practices that organisations can use to structure their hybrid work model and create effective in-person experiences using an intuitive philosophy — Why, Who, When, and What: 

• Why – Establishing and communicating why people should come into the office helps teams understand the benefits and reasoning behind in-person work. 
• Who – Different teams have different needs in terms of how they work, their responsibilities, and their needs. Empowering managers at certain levels to establish team norms helps each team build the work style they need. 
• When – Having a schedule of when teams come into the office and focusing those in-person days around team meetings or incentives to come into the office, such as birthday parties, events, or team building exercises, helps build team cohesion and offers unique experiences that employees can’t get at home. 
• What – Taking the time to optimize team bonding and brainstorming meetings in person encourages teams to come into the office, while other meetings such as town halls or all-hands events can be attended virtually. 

Carleigh Noble, Senior Product Manager, Zoom Rooms and Workspaces, gave us a dazzling look at how employees are using the Zoom platform to create the next-generation workspace. This included a breakdown of how employees can use the Zoom platform before arriving at work, in the workplace, and during meetings to streamline and enhance their day-to-day operations, communications, and collaboration.  

Carleigh also walked us through how our new feature, Workspace Reservation, can enhance on-site work and operations, as well as a peek at a feature coming later this year, seamless meeting transfer!

Theresa Larkin, Zoom Manager for UCaaS Product Marketing, went over some of the challenges associated with hybrid work and how organizations can tackle them. These challenges include: 

• Keeping company culture alive 
• Collaborating across time zones and teams 
• Effective communication to keep teams informed 

Theresa explained how Zoom can help organisations tackle these challenges by:

• Providing a unified and intuitive platform that offers enterprise-grade communications solutions
• Creating a space for efficient and dynamic asynchronous communication
• Enabling effective, streamlined collaboration for dispersed teams with solutions that create equitable experiences for all employees, no matter where they are

Ross Mayfield, Group Product Manager for Zoom Apps, discussed the ways in which Zoom Apps and the Zoom Developer Platform enable work transformation across a multitude of sectors. 

With over 1,500 Zoom Apps in the Marketplace (and counting) that range in scope from enterprise collaboration and productivity to wellness and video games, you can discover and use these integrations all within the Zoom experience. Zoom Apps are also available to use in Webinars. Additionally, the Zoom Apps SDK is now generally available for developers to create new apps or extend an existing web app.

In addition to the elevated experience Zoom Apps can provide to end users, the Zoom Developer Platform provides: 

• Business acceleration: Zoom Apps allow businesses to quickly set up and deploy the solutions your business provides. For Zoom Apps developed by customers, Zoom helps you reach more people faster with an App Marketplace listing.
• Trusted distribution: An app on the Zoom App Marketplace has the backing of a trusted brand, as well as reliable teams and resources to help developers and customers grow and perform at scale. 

Roger Burgess, an APAC-based CIO Advisor at Zoom, convened a customer panel during WTS to explore the ways APAC enterprises are equipping their hybrid workforces for success and maintaining company culture in these settings. The panel was composed of Dr. Lily Phan, Research Director at IDC Asia Pacific; Corey Beckman, AV Technology Specialist at SafetyCulture; and Ned Lowe, Head of Engineering at Singlife with Aviva. Together, they shared the best practices they’ve gleaned over the last two-and-a-half years. 

Ned Lowe on forward-thinking: “At Singlife, we were already talking about meeting non-face-to-face with customers and gathering e-signatures, so when we were forced to work from home we were well-positioned to implement the technology that would make our advisors and customers successful. We took the wants of both our advisors and customers into consideration and brought it all together in the best way possible.”  

Corey Beckman on designing hybrid workspaces: “We’ve embraced the hybrid experience —  which is so critical to keep employees these days — through technology and design. We have over 48 Zoom Rooms at our office, including one on our rooftop, to accommodate in-office and remote employees. We’ve found, though, that a number of employees choose to come to the office at least three days a week because they like being in the office. We designed a space where employees can feel comfortable and do their best work. We also kept our customers in mind, by designing themed meeting rooms that celebrate them.” 

Dr. Lily Phan on empathetic leadership: “At IDC, we have found through our research that empathetic leadership is critical to maintaining workplace culture in hybrid settings. Through five principles of empathetic leadership — building a culture of trust, transparent communication, driving engagement, taking visible action, and supporting health and wellbeing — leaders can build the kind of company culture that employees seek. 

Hybrid work is here to stay, and Zoom is here to help you, your employees, and your customers excel in this new world of work. In case you missed it or are looking for a recap, watch the Zoom APAC Work Transformation Summit on-demand session recordings. To start building smarter workspaces for your teams, contact Zoom Sales today.