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Welcome, everybody, and thanks for tuning into this, our latest episode in Metrogis podcast series Metro Site. I'm Beth Schultz, I'm the Vice President of Research and a principal analyst with metrology, and I'm super excited to be speaking today with Helen Sherbin. Helen is the Division President for HP Hybrid Systems, and she's joined us to share insights from a global study that HP conducted this year. With the overarching goal of understanding the world's relationship with work. So that is a pretty tall order I would say to get there. HP survey 15,600 employees and 12 countries. The bulk of those respondents, 12,000 we're knowledge workers, 2400 were IT decision makers and 1200 were business leaders. So with all this data. HP analyzed it and compiled its 2024 Work Relationship index as well as a special Collaboration in the Workplace report from Hybrid Systems. And that report delves into how connection and collaboration impact our relationship with work. So I can't wait to find out more about what HPS learned from this project. So without further ado, welcome Helen. Thank you very much, Beth. It's great to be here. I look forward to sharing more about the the the research. And also just talking in general about collaboration. Excellent. OK, So let me start with this HP Imagine you guys held that event in September and a big focus was the release of this HP work relationship Index. So what can you tell us about the key findings of that study, how they're impacting HPS go forward strategy? Yeah. So this is actually the second year that we did the study and it's really for us to have the opportunity to understand people's relationship with work, how work impacts their lives, you know, their skills, abilities, though, how they interact with the workplace and also their expectations of their leadership. And this year, I would say one of the big takeaways we took is, is the desire for personalization and in the workplace. And you know, you could argue that comes from during COVID when we were all at home, we personalized our work environment. So now that we're coming back to the office more, we, we want that same customization. And we also know that those 2/3 of workers that want that personalized work experience want tailored workplaces. You know, they want to use the technology that they want. And they also want flexibility in how they work and where they work. And all of these things contribute to them having a more positive relationship with, with work and therefore being more productive. I, I guess it doesn't come maybe as a surprise, but I think it's important to be able to quantify that opportunity so that businesses can think about how they want to establish the, the work relationship for their employees and, and for their organizations as the whole. Great. And then collaboration in the workplace, that report is I, I know you did the work index last year, but what about collaboration in the workplace that you didn't do last year, did you? No, no, you're right. That's that was a new, we did something different. So introducing that collaboration into the work was really focused on how connection and collaboration are impacting our relationship with work, which is obviously very interesting for someone like me who's working in the hybrid space. Well, maybe, maybe that's a good lead into my next question, which is how are you defining connection and collaboration? Why are each needed to foster a healthy relationship with work? Sure. OK. From a definitions perspective, so you know, connection is that relationship between ourselves and our colleagues, between you and I things like feeling safe, feeling comfortable being able to engage with people. The collaboration piece we define as what makes that possible. So it's the tools or the space or the environment that allow employees to connect with each other and to build that connection. And we think those are are linked because of the impact that that. Has on our relationship with work. We need both. In order to have a healthy relationship, we need the channels by which to connect, and we also need to feel that connection. OK, Now the idea of creating a healthy, I'm sorry, a healthy, highly connected workforce. You could say a healthy workforce as well. Yeah. But anyways, the idea of creating that highly connected workforce and a collaborative workplace, I mean, that's long been promoted to foster the idea of of having a positive employee experience and creating business advantage, right? Yeah. The collaboration in the workplace studies shows that so many companies are still failing at establishing the connectivity and collaborating collaborative capabilities that employees need to feel good about their work. So I have to ask, are we putting too much emphasis on productivity and efficiency or other factors, you know, for the sake of collaboration? What does the study reveal about this? I, I think yes, the study definitely reveals that that companies are, are indeed putting too much emphasis on that productivity and efficiency instead of focusing on that connectivity and collaboration for their employees. And I don't think they're two different things. I think they actually work together. But if you're emphasizing the getting it done as quickly and as fast as possible instead of the connection to the work, I, I think the focus needs would, would, it would benefit to shift. That focus so that we can make sure that employees feel connected and they feel empowered and they're able to collaborate. We think about when we talk about autonomy and the ability to, you know, have agency as an individual. If someone is telling you you must come to this place and sit in this spot so that I know that you're doing this task at this time, that's quite a different message that you sent to someone then making sure that they understand what we're trying to accomplish. As a company and saying I trust you to make the decisions necessary in order to get to the end goal. That takes building that trust and connection, but it also reinforces it by by. Allowing the employees to have that, that control over, you know, themselves, but also I think would encourage them to connect with each other to, to work collaboratively to get things done rather than just executing their task and not being part of the overall direction. So I mean, we know that connected workers do feel empowered to collaborate and we know that that ultimately leads to more productivity and efficiency. It's just about what you're focused on, whether you're focused on making that. Connection, or whether you're just focused on this specific task at hand. So what are the challenges to getting this right? I mean, what do companies need to do not only as related to collaboration technology, but also to sort of encourage collaborative opportunities in the workplace? Well, obviously we want folks to treat others with respect to maintain confidentiality and comply with any kind of legal or company requirements. But I I think the change would be to, to communicate and collaborate and contribute to the team, take ownership and and empower others to take ownership so that they can deliver those results. But focusing on the what are we trying to achieve, not necessarily dictating. How we are going to do it and reinforcing that having a positive work environment where people feel like they can communicate and collaborate openly, I think is is going to be critical in building up that trust and building up that teamwork and then ultimately shared responsibility for for the outcomes that we're looking for. OK. Now, Metrogel has conducted some research recently on connected workspaces. And in that study, actually there were two studies and we had one with it and other business leaders and then we had one with knowledge workers and all, all of the, and both of those studies, knowledge gaps came up as being one of the biggest organizational pain points, knowledge gaps causing organizational silos leading to pain points. I think that speaks to data from your Collaboration in the workplace study showing that a majority, if I've got this number right, I think 73% of knowledge workers want to feel a sense of connection with their colleagues. So first question I have related to this is do you agree that an organization silos can contribute to a sense of disconnectedness for employees? I absolutely agree. Yeah, I, I, I think it goes without saying, if you're not connecting between different groups, then there are going to be gaps forming and a lack of understanding. I think we actually at HP, you know, we struggled with this a bit during COVID. I think when, when we were all in the office next to each other, you could grab someone quickly at the coffee station or when you were walking to a meeting, you might walk by someone's desk. There were opportunities for these informal interview, you know, interactions. When you're. At home full time, you're going to have to, I don't know, schedule a meeting or, or call the person, right? It's more intentional. And I, I think that did create challenges and that's why it's not about being entirely remote or entirely in the office or working together in person or, you know, work. I think the idea is to make sure that there is that opportunity for collaboration and making space for it so that you can. Close any knowledge gaps or at least be aware of areas where you may need to do more, whether it's in person or whether it's on video, I do think. There's also that piece around the visual clues and having video is super helpful because there's a lot you can glean from being on camera with somebody versus just being on the phone from a, you know, body language or visual cues. Especially if there are areas where you or the other person may not be as comfortable with the information. You might see that before you can actually, you know, hear that there's a gap there. Sure. And and certainly a big shift from just audio calls to video. Ohh over the last couple of years, yeah. So what is your studies show about the differences between workers who feel connected and those who feel isolated when it comes to factors such as purpose and confidence and fulfillment? Yeah. Well, so you had mentioned that 73% of customers that really that that these workers want to feel a sense of connection, but we know that almost half of them don't feel that connection. I think it was 40 low 40% that that that don't feel like they have that connection. And we know that those knowledge workers that are more connected, they're far more likely than they're isolated peers to feel that sense of belonging, feel that they can show up as themselves when they're at work and. They feel like they belong to the organization, that the organization makes them feel safe, which makes sense because they feel connected to other people in the organization and therefore they feel connected to the the broader company. I also think it's interesting that that there are two times more likely to feel fulfilled by their organization to feel that they have purpose or that the work that they do fulfills them. These are all the the result of having that connection. So I have to ask because you just have to ask these days, what about AI, you know, is it, will it, can it make a difference here? I need to get I mean, AI is the latest sort of buzzword, but I think it's going to have a phenomenal impact. It already has. You think about the number of things we don't even think of that are they they were I before I became this headline, like noise cancelling, active noise canceling, things like that, right? Being able to zoom in to different people in a in a call, identifying who's this, who's the speaker and the the noises that you don't want to hear. So I think there's a lot around AI. Right now, but people forget it's actually been here for a while. In the hybrid systems group, what we're really focused on is how can we use AI to actually put the technology out of the frame for the user. The more that we can do to allow you and I to connect with each other and not worry about is my mic on, is the camera focused? You know, how do I join the call? All of these things are areas where we can use AI to help augment the experience. But in the end, it actually makes technology less, less at the forefront of. That collaboration experience. So I I think there's tremendous opportunity. Good answer. Good answer. OK, Helen, Any other key takeaways from the study? Any last thoughts to share? I would just say that, well, I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's been fun chatting with you. It's obviously a an area of passion for me. We're committed to fostering that authentic human connection and we want to continue to deliver more and more innovative collaboration and workspace solutions so that companies and employees, you know, people can engage and be productive and and enjoy thriving successfully in a hybrid environment. That is quite a noble goal. I really appreciate it as somebody who works in a hybrid environment. So thank you for thank you for sharing. So lastly, where can listeners find this study? It's a great question. I don't know if we can post it in a link or something, but you can go to hp.com/W RI to see the whole study. That that's pretty simple. hp.com/W WRI. OK, great.