Tech firm TechSmith, which provides screen capture software and other worker productivity services, had been planning a virtual work-friendly workplace even before the pandemic hit. But the shift drove even more innovation and the development of more “zoom-friendly” work spaces at the Michigan headquarters,  reports AVNetwork.com.

"While Zoom had been a part of the company’s collaboration framework from the start, the platform suddenly took center stage. “All of our collaboration spaces were built from the ground up with Zoom technology, where the push of a button can bring up all the current meetings happening across offices. As part of our ‘hybrid-first’ focus, the team rooms were specifically built with Zoom-enabled Neat.boards so brainstorming can happen from anywhere and at any time,” said David Zink, director of shared services at the company. “The Neat.board was best suited for our needs, as they offered a 65-inch size.”

"In addition to the Neat.boards, a number of complementary technologies have helped facilitate hybrid work at TechSmith. “For our larger collaboration spaces, we wanted to get away from having to pass around a microphone for hybrid meetings,” Zink said. “So we outfitted our conference rooms, board rooms, and training rooms with ceiling-mounted microphone arrays (approximately 32 microphones in each room) from Yamaha UC and Shure.”

And he may have summed up what many other corporate real estate professionals and workplace designers are thinking:

“In-person is considered the richest form of collaborative work and is important when the goal is to build and maintain relationships (onboarding, team bonding, celebrations) and working on a single project or problem to completion,” Zink said. “Synchronous is preferred when something requires immediate feedback or time-sensitive decisioning is required, and when there is ambiguity or sensitivity to the subject matter at hand (discussing a new problem that spans multiple teams, IT fire drill, etc.). Asynchronous is ideal when collaboration isn’t immediate and doesn’t need to occur in real-time (solicit feedback, review content) or when there is a one-way share of information (quarterly updates, campaign results). Our current hybrid culture enables and supports treating people equitably, empowering people to take accountability, being transparent and inclusive.