As a part of the Discover Cisco program, I got an opportunity to visit the Cisco Campus in Bangalore. Located at Cessna Business Park, Kadubeesanahalli, it is the second-largest campus after the HQ at San Jose, USA. It spans over 36 acres, covering all domains right from sales to engineering to management.
We were taken for a short campus tour, where the infrastructure and beautiful design of the building were showcased.
It’s just amazing how much thought has been put into ensuring the welfare of the employees. Refreshment areas, gaming areas, gyms, nap rooms, cafeterias, and so on are just a few highlights. It almost felt like you can live from within the office, without having to worry about anything at all.
This was followed by keynotes by the leadership in Cisco. They explained how the hybrid paradigm of work is being implemented and their efforts in promoting a hybrid work environment across various industries.
Restating something all of us know:
Before the pandemic started, the offline mode of working was predominantly followed, though companies like Cisco were equipped to work remotely, the latter was rarely chosen. Fast forward to March 2020, companies were forced to adapt to remote working to keep up with business demands.
Some companies did immediately, while some failed to adapt, given various constraints. With time, remote work was the paradigm followed.
Today, companies have a choice to make, a choice between the traditional offline work model and the hybrid work model.
The pandemic posed as a natural experiment for the world to understand the effects of remote working. Remote working did have its fair share of benefits, but do these outweigh the negatives associated?
A hybrid approach is the solution many companies are deciding to adopt.
Cisco is evidently one of the leaders in empowering its employees to follow a hybrid model and has made tremendous progress in doing so.
According to internal and external surveys conducted by Cisco, the flexibility and choice offered to the employees via the hybrid model have been very beneficial.
A hybrid model doesn't just mean logging into work from home. The crux of this model is to provide an inclusive and similar experience to those working from home and those who choose to work from the office. Consider a team of 5, where 4 choose to work from the office, while the 5th person chooses to work remotely, ensuring the 5th person is included and feels exactly how the other members who work from the office, is the true essence of hybrid work (just an example)
A few technological developments made by Cisco to improve the experience of hybrid work :
- Simple but necessary, AI-based noise cancellation headphones
- Voice recognition, on Cisco Webex, transmits only the speaker's voice and cut down disturbances
- Dashboards to constantly monitor the movement of packets and quickly resolve faults caused on Cisco Webex
- High-definition video to provide an immersive experience to those attending video meetings
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I am excited for what the future beholds!