With hybrid work becoming the new norm, more companies turn to unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions to make the transition between remote and office work more seamless. From video meetings to team chat and file sharing, the benefits of UCaaS allow employees to communicate and collaborate anywhere in the world. In this article, we’ll look at the top UCaaS features to support hybrid work and how you can utilize them to improve productivity.
1. Video Conferencing
Video meetings come with tools that promote an intimate and collaborative meeting culture. For example, screen sharing lets you share the contents of your screen, while breakout rooms split attendees into small groups. Meeting recording allows you to record the full meeting and share it with those who can’t attend the session.
A study by Owl Labs reveals that 64% of remote employees prefer a hybrid conference call. This is because UCaaS platforms allow a level of scheduling flexibility by gathering employees in a single meeting space while staying at different locations. In a hybrid workplace, face-to-face meetings could get tricky if participants are a combination of office-based and remote employees.
Use the following video conferencing features for more productive hybrid meetings:
- Remote control
- In-meeting chat
- Whiteboard
- Screen annotation
- Polling
- Q&A
- Virtual backgrounds
- Meeting summary
- Live captions
- Hand raising
2. Team Chat
Team chat or instant messaging is another valuable UCaaS feature that helps hybrid employees stay connected despite different work schedules. It works as an asynchronous communication tool where users can send messages in real time and respond at their own pace—perfect for hybrid workers with conflicting time zones.
In a team chat environment, conversations take place in channels—dedicated spaces for workgroups or departments to discuss a specific topic, project, or interest. All channel members can share files, start an impromptu audio call, post announcements, search the message history, and react to messages with emojis and GIFs.
A study by Harvard Business Review reveals that collaborative work consumes 85% of an employee’s workweek. UCaaS solutions help teams overcome collaboration workload with asynchronous messaging, where users can get work done without constantly interrupting each other.
3. User Presence
User presence is the heart of any UCaaS platform that allows users to determine the current availability of a team member, whether they’re online, busy, away, or don’t want to be disturbed. Whether a colleague is at home or in the office, tracking their presence helps you find the best way to contact them based on their situation or circumstance (e.g., traveling or in a meeting).
A presence state uses color indicators to easily identify the user’s availability at one glance. For instance, online indicates a green dot, busy indicates a red dot, while away indicates a yellow dot. UCaaS providers allow greater customization of user presence by allowing users to edit or add new status options.
With user presence, hybrid workers can see your hybrid work location, work hours, and availability to meet. This benefits teams by elevating the daily experience of working from different locations by turning it into something more connected and collaborative.
4. File Sharing
One of the biggest challenges of hybrid work environments is decentralized file sharing. This puts teams at risk for data loss, increased security vulnerabilities, and communication silos. With UCaaS, file sharing allows hybrid teams to bring all their files under one roof, with the ability to view, edit, collaborate, and manage files securely.
File sharing can be used for sending images, audio files, videos, and documents. Most UCaaS providers offer cloud storage services where shared files are stored on a server, allowing other users to access them from their workstations. Providers like Microsoft Teams enable users to work on common files together by collaborating on shared projects.
5. Artificial Intelligence
To further support the evolving needs of a hybrid workforce, modern UCaaS platforms have begun adding elements of artificial intelligence (AI) into their platforms. Automation features enable teams to strive for efficiency and personalize how they communicate with others.
Noise reduction, for one, ensures only relevant speech gets through instead of unwanted noise. Meeting summary automatically transcribes and summarizes the meeting discussion using associated keywords, allowing participants to focus solely on the interaction.
Organizations can also utilize AI by learning worker schedules and assessing the impact of their hybrid work strategies. AI-powered analytics in UCaaS can generate insights on how to schedule hybrid teams to boost productivity and collect activity information to detect patterns to enhance workflow management.
6. Third-party Integrations
Given the lack of in-person interactions, hybrid teams must resort to dedicated solutions to synchronize their workflows. However, implementing a collection of separate apps is not only costly but also causes a disjointed user experience. A fully integrated UCaaS platform addresses this by providing a unified touchpoint for third-party apps.
UCaaS providers support integrations with popular business apps, adding new functionality to their platforms. This could be anything from customer relationship management (CRM) systems, productivity suites, and marketing automation to developer tools.
7. Desktop & Mobile Apps
The location-flexible arrangement of hybrid working enables employees to combine on-site and off-site work as they see fit. This prompts users to maximize the benefits of remote applications to access work files from anywhere, whether from home or on the go.
Desktop and mobile apps work well on computers, tablets, and smartphones. If a hybrid employee divides their time between home and place of work, they can easily switch between devices without losing their files and active conversations. Plus, information sharing and status updates can happen asynchronously, allowing users to be productive without being glued to their desks all day.
Top UCaaS Providers for Hybrid Work
As more UCaaS platforms emerge in the market, others stand out from the crowd with their feature-rich offerings, competitive pricing, and unparalleled flexibility. Below, we listed the top four UCaaS providers that successfully meet the demands of hybrid work.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The answer depends on the security features of your UCaaS provider and how you employ the right security practices in your organization. A strong UCaaS provider has end-to-end encryption, security certifications, and multi-factor authentication. In turn, provide staff with sufficient training on the importance of data protection in the UCaaS landscape.
The key benefit of unified communication (UC) and collaboration solutions is to streamline the communication of geographically dispersed teams within a single platform. Instead of having separate apps for video meetings, phone calls, chats, and email, a UC provider offers everything your team needs to connect and collaborate.
Since team members in a hybrid work model won’t always interact in the same workspace, they’re bound to send and respond to messages at different times. This presents coordination challenges, including information loss and organizational silos. Unconscious bias can also happen between remote and in-office workers, where those working remotely are more likely to feel they are missing out, especially during meeting discussions.
Bottom Line
UCaaS provides distributed teams a way to enhance the hybrid work environment by providing a single workspace for calls, chats, meetings, and file sharing. This creates a unified collaboration experience where no team member feels left out, and everyone makes a meaningful contribution to the team. Make sure to explore other top UCaaS features to support hybrid work and earn the full benefits of unified communications.