Zoom’s CIO shares predictions for the future of work

We’ve all seen plenty of change since the beginning of the pandemic, but few have seen quite as much as Harry Moseley.

As chief information officer of Zoom, Moseley hasn’t just observed how industries have reacted and adapted over the past 18 months — he’s helped them do it. The teleconferencing platform inarguably helped businesses keep moving forward through an unprecedented moment in history, and as new developments and COVID-19 variants disrupt plans to return to “normal,” the Zoom team is continuing to roll out new features and products to help workplaces adjust.

Related: Employees are feeling hopeful about work again. Here’s why

Moseley recently spoke with EBN about the ways various industries and businesses are planning for the months ahead. The CIO shared his predictions on the future of work, how technology will factor into a hybrid world, and why it’s important for leaders and employees alike to feel empowered to take a break.

Courtesy of Zoom

It’s hard to believe that we’re this far into the pandemic and still experiencing as much rapid change as we are, but the delta variant has once again disrupted plans. What are you seeing, and what’s Zoom’s plan?
People are pushing back on the opening dates. The general thinking for Zoom at this point is, we’re not going to go back to an office until there’s no need for the PPE. Because the idea of sitting in the office in a mask all day, zooming with colleagues on the [same floor], what’s the purpose of that? There’s nothing more important than the safety of our employees and our clients. Everybody does seem to be in line with the opinion that work will be a hybrid model in the future.

Are you seeing similar thinking across industries?
I was talking to a financial services client earlier today, and they’re ramping up their efforts to enhance the virtual experience between their advisers and clients to make it more seamless and frictionless. And we’re really seeing that, from an adviser perspective, they’re able to connect to more clients per day. It’s easier to connect in a distributed fashion, without having to gather people in a single location. We’re seeing that in finance, retail, professional services, healthcare. This journey we’ve been on is accelerating because leadership at all these different companies — irrespective of the industry — is seeing that there’s a real opportunity to increase their top line, reduce the bottom line and decrease operating expenses, while people can become ultimately more productive.

Related: This tech platform is making office reopenings safe

It’s been interesting to see how companies are really making the idea of distributed work suit their specific needs.
Yeah, a friend of mine is a senior partner in a private equity firm, and during the pandemic they found that when they did Monday morning investor meetings in the virtual environment, they had great participation. Everybody was on time, it was very inclusive, it worked for the introverts and it worked for the extroverts. So they had a conversation about, when they go back to the office with a hybrid model, what does that look like? And they said we’re going to encourage people to come into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but not Mondays and Fridays. Keep that Monday a solely virtual day to keep those meetings as effective as possible.

That idea of inclusivity and making work really work for all kinds of employees, there’s a real fear that we’ll lose that equity in a hybrid workforce and that in-office workers will get more attention or credit than remote workers. How is Zoom thinking about that challenge?
If people go back to the office, not everybody can — they might have small kids at home, or aging parents to look after. So continuing to experience that inclusivity, the equality of participation, is critical. What we’re doing at Zoom is, we introduced our Smart Gallery, which leverages artificial intelligence to identify people in the [conference] room and have them stream out as individual tiles, if you will. It creates the same experience [as all-remote work], and lets people read expressions and non-verbal cues. Those have become critically important. People are talking about video fatigue, but I think it’s much better to see those non-verbal cues than put blinders on and not see anybody.

Related: The delta variant squashes return-to-office plans

But at the same time, there is a lot of fatigue right now.
Yes, but the suggestion to take a walk during the day and do a phone call to relax — that’s not very relaxing! When I actually do take a break, I don’t want to be on a call. I leave all my devices at home, take the puppy for a walk. And it’s not that I’m doing nothing, I’m thinking about my 3 o’clock call, or my 4 o’clock call, or I’m trying to think through a problem. So it’s not that I’m doing nothing, but being constantly on is exhausting. But if I have to be on, I’d rather be on video and see people.

When you take those breaks, how important is it for you to model that behavior and for your staff to see you allowing yourself moments away from devices and screens?
Leadership comes from the top. If you see your leadership team exhibiting certain behaviors, those behaviors become acceptable. I spoke to one client earlier this year, and they adopted a plan and told their employees, you’re welcome to work from anywhere or you’re welcome to come to the office. But what they didn’t realize was, the entire executive team was in the office five days a week, and the employees felt that they, too, now needed to be in the office five days a week. And they were very uncomfortable about it. This made its way up to the executive team and they came out with an apology — that was not their intent, to make employees uncomfortable. So they adopted a rotation plan: certain executives would be in the office on certain days, and shared the plan with employees so that they could see that it was okay to work from anywhere, and that the executive team was demonstrating the characteristics and philosophies the company had communicated. It’s just very important that you see that leadership can take a vacation, leadership can turn off. There’s nothing wrong with it.