2022 TSIA STAR Awards - Featured Application

2022 TSIA STAR Awards
  Featured Application

Innovation in Support Employee Engagement
Experience and Loyalty
Next-Gen Employee Experiences with a Hybrid-first Approach

Overview
The shift from in-person, in-office work to fully remote work brought massive IT disruption across Cisco’s organizations, tools, and
processes. Virtual meetings skyrocketed and Cisco's collaboration solutions became the go-to for everyday engagement as we adapted
our entire company and culture for a fully online world. We took over 140k full-time employees and contractors to fully virtual in 10
days. Now, as we transition to hybrid work, key indicators guided us toward a future in which everyone now has access to a
sustainable, equitable work experience whether they’re remote or in the office. There is a saying that to grow a company, you need a
differentiated customer experience, and you get that through employee engagement. The quickest path to improving employee
engagement is through the tools and experiences they deal with every day. Those experiences are a daily reflection of what a company
thinks and feels about its employees. Our data today reflects a nuanced experience that we had to solve for: 95% of employees
working from home, 44% increase in total meetings, 63% increase in video meetings, 45% increase in meeting minutes, 174% increase
in instant messages sent, 37% increase in meeting participants, and 198% increase in files shared via Webex

What have we solved for?
As we planned for our offices to reopen, we had to account for multiple workstyles. Our disrupted workforce needed an equitable
experience, and we needed to maintain collaboration – both with our internal teams and value chain, while being agile/flexible and
sustainable. We surveyed our employees and global leaders and their top concerns about returning to the office were around personal
safety and ensuring we sustain effective collaboration with those not in the office. We uncovered these findings from our employee
survey and Cisco Hybrid Work Index: 57% of Cisco employees surveyed expect to be in the office 10 days or fewer each month, 77%
want a flexible workstyle, 97% want changes for a safer office, and 64% agreed that work from anywhere vs. coming into the office
directly affects whether they stay at or leave a job. Cisco has experienced 200% growth in use of mobile devices to access meetings
since early 2020, Wi-Fi 6 went from 0% to 80% penetration in 2 years, and of 650M monthly meeting participants, 47% aren’t
speaking. While Virtual Private Network (VPN) & remote access grew (as expected) by 1.5x at the start of the pandemic, malicious
remote access attempts grew by 2.4x over the same period, and in 50% of meetings, on average, Cisco employees turn on their video.
It was clear that work will never be the same.

We learned that providing a work-from-home solution is now non-negotiable, that video is a key enabler to keep connections alive and
that security is more important than ever. We needed to optimize our employees’ technology experience for both home and office
and transition our offices to become event-based culture hubs. We solved for this by making the home office experience simple,
secure, and connected and adapted our technology tools, processes, facilities, and office spaces. Whether Cisco employees choose to
remain in their home office or work in the Cisco office, we now deliver a safe, inclusive, and accessible environment. With those
principles, we are delivering a next-gen experience with a hybrid-first approach anchored by these four innovations for driving
employee engagement and loyalty:

Hybrid Worker Bundle: We simplified our employee experience from the time new
hires order their equipment, to provisioning, support, and refresh. We curated a
consumer-like online ordering experience to give employees visibility to key
information like laptop specs, tags for ‘out of stock’ and ‘recommended’ items,
inventory status and delivery tracking. We now deliver a hybrid worker bundle that is
pre-provisioned with fully-secure devices and includes: Fully-secured laptop with Cisco
Zero Trust to manage security, ThousandEyes Observability to tell employees when
things aren’t working so well, managed Cisco noise canceling headset and Webex
camera to give employees the best Webex experience, monitor, keyboard and mouse
for flexibility and comfort, Meraki Advanced Malware Protection ( AMP) & Threatgrid
for security that extends to the entire home, Quality of Service (QoS), lower latency,
faster Domain Name System (DNS), and an Operations Center to optimize the home
network. This is a high-quality experience that makes working from home seamless. Key
outcomes as we scale include reduction in latency and loss, identification early on of cellular/multi-ISP needs, improved employee
engagement and reduced attrition.

Ops Center: We stood up a state-of-the-art Hybrid Work Operations center to
                                              proactively monitor and protect the hybrid worker. The Ops Center monitors and
                                              protects the home office against network and security issues with full-stack
                                              observability. If network or security issues are identified, we connect employees to the
                                              right support team to minimize disruption to productivity. Using the Meraki dashboard
                                              and insights with built-in ThousandEyes functionality, we can proactively monitor
                                              employees’ home network, applications, and uptime experience in real-time.

Hybrid Help Desk & Kiosk: For employees who visit the Cisco office we
make it flexible and easy for them to engage with our help desk
support advisors via video, access a vending machine to pick up
computer accessories or personal protective gear, and a locker system
to pick up or return devices. We have reimagined what office support
looks like and can now offer 24/7 coverage versus the traditional 9-5
deskside office support.

                                              Smart & Safe Workspaces: We replanned our workspaces to be smart and safe. By
                                              bringing together the powerful Cisco infrastructure (Webex devices, Meraki access
                                              points, catalyst switching, and third-party sensors) employees can walk into an office
                                              and see critical information to help them identify booked and empty rooms, overall
                                              occupancy, air quality, and much more. Digital signage also enables wayfinding and
                                              resource management, along with density notifications for capacity and meeting
                                              spaces. Videos: Singapore Return to Office, Australia Return to Office

Customer Impact
-   47% ↑ in home network quality, 21% ↑ in users feeling their network is secure and 36% ↑ in their network being reliable, 17% ↑
    in work productivity in home environment & 78% of employees report less workplace fatigue
-   16% ↑ in employees meeting their performance targets for job role, 50% reduction in emails being delivered to employees during
    onboarding and device refresh, Enabled 24x7 support for employees for every worker virtually, 28% ↑ in feeling safe to share
    workspace with other people
-   140k devices enabled for Zero Trust, over 5.7 million health checks per month, < 2% users now contact help desk per month, 11%
    ↑ in the ability to collaborate effectively virtually, 23% ↑ in feeling connected to colleagues and/or customers, 95% of users are
    somewhat or very satisfied with their Cisco-provided technology resources

Business Impact
-   Cisco named #1 on Fortune Magazine's Best Companies to Work in 2022, Cisco was named the #1 World’s Best Workplaces in
    2022 (Great Place to Work), 96% of Cisco employees say Cisco is a great place to work (Great Place to Work Survey), 98% of
    workers say when they joined the company they were made to feel welcome (Great Place to Work Survey)
-   Employees are 89% more likely to recommend Cisco to a friend because of the next-gen hybrid experience & 81% more likely to
    recommend our products to a friend (Initial Hybrid Experience Insights)

Lessons Learned
-   Identify the right technology: For employees to collaborate effectively their technology must be available 24x7 and secure. If
    the home office is going to stay, the technology must be self-service and easy to use and upgrade.
-   Engage leadership: The future of work is a collaboration and partnership with HR, facilities, and technology.
-   Create a cultural connection: Know when your employees enter a building and simplify their in-office experience. Give them the
    capabilities to “feel” like they are immersed in the office when they are at home.
-   Be creative: Take the experience you expect from your personal lives and bring it to work.
-   Improve self-provisioning: Give employees greater control and reduce friction when it comes to adding and updating their
    software and devices.

For more information, visit the
TSIA STAR Awards Winners Page