Four Insights: Simplifying IT Eliminates Workplace Stress

Featured article by Lieven Bertier, Barco Clikshare

Each day America’s 60 million knowledge workers are bombarded with countless emails, tedious processes and long meetings. It’s no wonder the American Institute of Stress names the workplace one of the leading sources of stress. The demands of a competitive environment and lack of control can lead to life-threating physical and emotional disorders such as increased rates of heart attacks, hypertension and anxiety.

In the Science of Meeting Success: Factors Impacting Meeting Engagement, a study sponsored by Barco ClickShare, researchers found that no worker feels this stress more than IT employees. Meetings are vital to the workplace, with the average knowledge worker spending an average of 8.5 hours per week in meetings. That equates to more than 440 hours a year, or approximately 11 weeks spent in meetings. Unproductive meetings at the hands of technical difficulties, can lead to loss of engagement, decreased productivity and motivation. In fact, 59% of respondents were irritated by technology issues, and 68% felt they will experience some technology issues in a meeting. Because the IT department is considered responsible for presentation technology running smoothly, and repairing it when it doesn’t, a great majority of meeting stress falls on their shoulders. Behavioral psychiatrist Dr. Peter Collett remarked that, “Normally, you would expect the tech failure to have a universal effect on everybody, but it appears not to.”

The Barco study additionally revealed while over three-quarters of respondents felt they were more engaged when multimedia was used in a presentation, half of the respondents reported a loss in engagement when these technologies failed. Once again, blaming the IT department for these failures. The challenge for today’s IT team is to provide state-of-the-art technology solutions that allow for optimal productivity and collaboration married with an easy-to-use and intuitive end-user experience. Minimum and efficient set-up means happier and more productive meeting attendees.

In understanding several key considerations, it is evident there are measures IT decision makers (ITDMs) can take to ensure a superior user experience and improved collaboration, thus reducing stress and increasing productivity of the team. In turn, the trickle-down anxiety forced upon the IT staff is also lifted.

IT staff becomes a productivity machine when factoring in these guidelines in IT decision-making:

1. The Workforce is Changing

The workplace is dynamic! From office spaces to employees to the devices they use, each facet of the workplace is evolving, and with it, the expectations of its users. Personalization and customization of the user experience has become paramount for employees. More and more offices are embracing telecommuting, and fewer employees see the benefits of coming into the office five days a week at eight hour intervals. The American workplace must adapt to this shift. These new ideals for working environments are not only for the boardroom, but for smaller more intimate working environments as well, such as huddle rooms and common areas. There is no question that workplace technology, and how we interact with it, is changing.

2. Collaboration is King

Despite the declining number of employees in the office, the idea of increased collaboration and sharing grows. Employees want to have the freedom to use their preferred devices—whether that be a PC or Apple laptop, a tablet, or smartphone—and for those devices to interact appropriately with the existing technology in the office. Similarly, employees also want to be able to connect with their peers across the office, town or the globe. These wishes become reality through comprehensive collaborative technology with the capability of audio-video conferencing, screen sharing, annotating and blackboarding.

3. User Experience is Key to Alleviating IT Stress

Simplicity of technology facilitates for seamless collaboration and low stress levels. What does a simple user experience look like to an average employee? A meeting room with one connectivity device that eliminates the need for HDMI cables, projectors, auxiliary wires and unnecessary plug-ins. The technology in the meeting room should be simple enough for anyone with any device to use at any time. By investing in technology that successfully adapts to its users, IT workers can focus on exploring and preparing the workplace for the future.

4. Design for the Future

It is time to simplify IT. Technical support staff will distance themselves from complicated devices and applications, and equip the board room for the future. Imagine a meeting space with the highest network security that recognizes and adapts to a user and their device the instant they walk into (or virtually join) the room. The workplace of the future will easily adapt the meeting room or office environment with details like lighting and temperature control. These innovations may be closer than we think!

A completely stress-free workplace is not possible. But forward-thinking technology managers can measurably reduce workplace stress, and contribute across the board to the success of the meeting environment. When that happens, the tech staff moves from frustrated support team to the office hero!

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Lieven Bertier, Director GTM Strategy & Services, Meeting Experience

Lieven has been with Barco for more than 15 years, taking up different technical-commercial and marketing roles for the company. Since 2014 he has been part of the company’s Meeting Experience business unit, heading up the ClickShare product management team before taking on responsibility for the business’ go-to-market and marketing strategy. Today he is responsible for all wePresent and ClickShare marketing activities globally.

You can follow Lieven on these social channels:

Twitter: @LievenBertier | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lieven-bertier-56b9328/

About Barco

Barco designs technology to enable bright outcomes around the world. Seeing beyond the image, we develop sight, sound, and sharing solutions to help you work together, share insights, and wow audiences. Our focus is on three core markets: Enterprise (incl. meeting rooms and control rooms), Healthcare (from the radiology department to the operating room), and Entertainment (from movie theaters to venues & hospitality). In 2016, we realized sales of 1.102 billion euro. We have a team of 3,500 employees, located in 90 countries, whose passion for technology is captured in 400 granted patents.

For more information, visit us on www.barco.com, follow us on Twitter (@Barco), LinkedIn (Barco), YouTube (BarcoTV), or like us on Facebook (Barco).