A newly-commissioned global study on video conferencing usage hints at this and other trends pointing to the democratization of global workforces.
Now that video conferencing is a staple activity in remote-working due to the pandemic, one firm that supported this explosive trend has concluded that hybrid working models are here to stay.
Based on a global study of 5,820 video conferencing users (1,320 from the U.S., 921 from the U.K., 954 from Germany, 824 from France, 808 from Japan, and 993 from India), Zoom has announced some highlights of the past year for the education, healthcare, technology, professional services, finance insurance, real estate, retail/wholesale, government, and others sectors.
In addition to the finding that there has been a 2.5 – 3.0x increase in employees working remotely (among respondents), the following statistics can give organizations some idea of what the ‘new normal’ of business operations may entail going forward:
- Video conferencing usage had increased 2.4–2.7x in most workplaces surveyed.
- The time spent on video conferencing solutions had increased between 3x and 5x.
- Small-to-medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) respondents globally experienced a 2.6x increase in the share of employees working remotely.
- For education respondents, there was a 3.5x increase in the use of video conferencing solutions.
- 70% of managers were more open to flexible remote working models than they were before the pandemic started, specifically 72% of managers in the U.S., 70% in Germany, and 92% in India.
- Hybrid working models and geographically more-diverse workforces —are here to stay: businesses surveyed expected over a third of employees to work remotely even when the pandemic is behind us.
As the projections consistently show, video conferencing will decline in every type of organization by 2022 and beyond, but continue to be a mainstay of communication modes compared to pre-pandemic levels.
