The future of work is hybrid. That much has been clear for some time, and nowhere more so than in the United Kingdom.

In May 2023, 83% of UK organizations polled by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed they had adopted hybrid working arrangements, and a separate study from the Institute for Economic Research, also using data from May 2023, found that UK employees now spend an average of 1.5 days per week working remotely – higher than any other developed nation in the study except Canada (averages 1.7 days). 

This widespread adoption of hybrid and flexible work reflects its popularity: Zoom’s own polling with Morning Consult found that only 8% of UK workers with some experience of remote working prefer working in an office full time – lower than in any other country polled.

Zoom has been helping customers in the UK and around the world to navigate these changes and maintain connections via Zoom Meetings, Team Chat, and Zoom Phone. In addition, many of our products including Zoom Rooms, Zoom Workspace Reservation, and Zoom Whiteboard have been designed to enhance physical, modern workplaces for today’s hybrid workforces. We could not be prouder that our unified communications platform continues to support the shift towards hybrid work: by keeping teams that work remotely or asynchronously connected, the Zoom platform helps foster the mutual sense of trust critical for teams to do their best work from anywhere. 

Making the most of the shift to hybrid

But having the right technology is only one part of the puzzle to getting hybrid working ‘right’ for any organization. Thoughtful workplace policies, intentional new internal practices, manager training, and workspaces re-imagined for today’s hybrid world will all be equally critical to future business success in crucial areas such as recruitment and culture.

That’s why Zoom partnered with several other businesses, membership organizations, and leading employment academics to co-found the Hybrid Work Commission. The Commission was established to examine and make recommendations to UK policy-makers on how they can respond to the rise in hybrid and remote working to the advantage of people, communities, and the broader UK economy. The research included business and consumer polling designed to gauge the perceived benefits and challenges of hybrid work among UK employers and employees, helping to paint a picture of how expectations have shifted across sectors and organizations that have adopted different working styles. 

Here are three things we learned that may be relevant to your organization:  

1. Organisations embracing hybrid work will have easier access to talent

In today’s economy, access to talent can make or break a business and be the difference between growing and stagnant organizations. Research from Nick Bloom at Stanford University estimates that workers with choices over when and where they work value it equivalent to an 8% pay rise, citing reduced commuting time and benefits to work-life balance and well-being. 

Insights from the Commission suggest that organizations that require employees on location full-time will increasingly have to pay significantly more to find and keep the talent they need both in terms of the salaries they offer and higher recruitment costs, impacting the bottom line. Our polling revealed that: 

• 70% of UK employers polled that have adopted hybrid working said it had made it easier for them to hire, and 77% said it had improved staff retention.
• 51% of UK employers polled that have adopted hybrid working said it had helped them recruit staff from further afield, boosting access to talent.
• 75% of UK employees with hybrid arrangements said it had improved their work-life balance, and 62% said it had improved their wellbeing. 

2. The shift to hybrid has given many UK women the ability to take on more hours

For decades, professional women in the UK have worked fewer hours than they would ideally like because of the responsibilities associated with caring for children and other dependents. However, the rise of flexible and hybrid working opportunities is beginning to reverse this. 

An economic analysis conducted for the Commission found that hybrid working has encouraged large numbers of professionally educated women to move to full-time work – particularly mothers. The Commission found that:

• UK women who have hybrid working arrangements are much more likely to work full-time than those who work mainly in locations other than their homes. This is especially true for women with children.
• There has been a significant increase in the share of UK women in specific sectors (banking, ICT, and other professional services) working full-time between 2019 and 2023, which again was especially pronounced for women with children.

3. Individuals with disabilities and long-term health conditions highly value flexibility 

In the UK and elsewhere, declining labor market activity has been an important recent economic challenge that has contributed to tight labor market conditions and persistent inflation. Increases in the number of economically inactive individuals with long-term conditions, especially since the Covid pandemic, have been a key contributor. The Commission concluded that greater availability of hybrid and flexible opportunities can help to address this, while also enabling organizations to benefit from the talents and skills of individuals with conditions that make full-time location-based employment untenable: 

• 42% of UK businesses polled reported finding it easier to hire people with disabilities since the rise of hybrid working.
• 44% of UK workers with long-term health conditions reported wanting more flexible working in their role, and 47% said that flexible working had improved their wellbeing. 

Time to embrace the shift – or face losing out on talent

Taken together, the three insights above indicate that organizations with rigid location-based work policies could increasingly struggle to attract or retain the skilled workers they need to grow and thrive, leading to more staff churn and higher recruitment costs. Nearly half of respondents to our Morning Consult survey now consider flexible work a basic expectation of their employment, rather than a perk, and 70% said they would consider leaving their current job for a more flexible working environment in the future.

Of course in some instances, certain organizations may feel they need their teams on location 100% of the time. However, it’s clear from the UK Hybrid Work Commission that those organizations will need to pay higher salaries to attract talent, and risk missing out altogether on the skilled contribution of individuals with disabilities, long-term health conditions, or childcare responsibilities, for whom working full-time in an office won’t be suitable. 

This need not be the case. To learn more about how embracing hybrid work can help your organization, get in touch or read the conclusions from the UK Hybrid Work Commission in full here for free. 

*Original article posted in Zoom Blog

I have viewed instructions and videos for changing video settings. They all refer to a little green Video icon under Settings. However, under my Settings, I have nothing of the kind. Nothing that refers to Video Settings and no little green camera icon. Is this because I'm a 'Basic' user? Do I not have access to this feature? My system requirements for my Mac OS are fine, so that's not it. Any help appreciated!

Hello!  Appreciative of any help asap.

Setup as follows:  I am recording someone participating in a sport lesson.  It is my Zoom account and I am using my iphone.  The clinician is on the Zoom with me.  The person being taught is on her phone with the clinician separately.  We would like to record the session with MY CAMERA VIEW, able to hear the clinician as well.  So we want to lock the screen on MY VIEW, not that of the clinician, who will be the speaker 99% of the time. We have only been able to record with it capturing the speaker, who is the clinician, every time she speaks, while we want to see the person being taught only, while able to hear the speaker's lesson.  

Thank you!

We have tried everything we know and have learned online.  Could someone please help asap?  

Hello,

I accidentally clicked Educational Institution while trying to sign up and now I cannot complete a sign up through the email I wish to use Zoom through. Is there any way to undo this so I can continue the sign-up process, can you send me a support ticket? I cannot get onto any of my school Zoom meetings. 

Thank you!

We have a very exciting webinar coming up on October 26 at 8 a.m. PST to dive into Zoom AI Companion! Join us to learn about: 

Agenda:

Challenges of Modern Work

Impact of Generative AI

Zoom’s AI Strategy and Principles

Zoom AI Companion Overview

Industry and Departmental Use Cases

Discussion / Q&A

Register here: https://success.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uc_yySOKQGe1xEJPvpjItw#/registration

You must have heard about Zoom Revenue Accelerator as one of Zoom’s top add-ons that uses machine-learning algorithms to transform customer interactions into valuable insights for identifying opportunities, assessing risks, and ultimately enabling and improving sales team performance.

Zoom Revenue Accelerator is available for Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone and supports 12 languages(in beta) in addition to English. It has a dashboard that shows your performance over time and metrics across all your meetings, lets you gain insights into the meeting with the help of Summary and Smart Chapters, and supports CRM integration.

But, has anyone imagined any other industries that have benefited from utilizing Zoom Revenue Accelerator? – Surprisingly, there’s a lot more than just Sales! One example is this client that I have recently met who does court reporting and has greatly utilized Zoom Revenue Accelerator in their day to day functions.

Traditionally, court reporters have been tasked with the arduous job of manually transcribing spoken words in courtrooms, depositions, and other legal settings. However, with the advent of technology, this essential aspect of the legal process has evolved significantly. The essence of technology in court reporting is a fundamental transformation of the way legal proceedings are recorded, transcribed, and managed.

This most especially applies to Remote Reporting. Court reporters can connect to legal proceedings from virtually anywhere in the world using audio and video conferencing technology. This has proven especially useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing courts to continue their work while adhering to safety measures. And with the use of Zoom Revenue Accelerator, no doubt that this advancement in technology empowered a more efficient and streamlined litigation process!

Do you know any other industries that benefited with the use of Zoom Revenue Accelerator?

Hello

       I'm designing a workflow for a health clinic.  If a call is started and a patient goes to a waiting room at the start, can they be put BACK into the waiting room after a doctor speaks with them?  Can a host leave a call with someone in the waiting room without the call ending? 

In short, I'd like for a host/cohost to come and go on a call with someone in the waiting room without the call ending.

Is this possible?

Thank you!

Every month we share a recap of new products, features, ZLC courses, business updates, and more with account admins and owners in our What's New at Zoom email newsletter. In September, we primarily focused on Zoom's new AI features and the release of one of our newest products: Zoom Notes! Download the latest version of the Zoom client to access all of these features, and remember to check out our release notes for a complete list of past releases across the Zoom platform. 

New Product Launch

• Introducing: Zoom Notes – Zoom Notes is a new workspace that enables users to create and collaborate before, during, and after meetings. During a Zoom Meeting, use Notes to collaborate with others for real-time inputs—eliminating the distraction of jumping between Zoom and third-party documents and tools. Users can continue to work in Notes outside of meetings asynchronously and share them for collaboration. This feature is available for all Zoom accounts.
  

Key Highlights from Zoom’s September Releases 

Zoom Web Updates

• User requests for enabling Team Chat Compose and Thread Summary with Zoom AI Companion – Paid users on eligible paid plans (may not be available for select verticals and regional customers) may be able to see the Zoom AI Companion chat compose and thread summary options within the Team Chat UI, even if the account admin has not enabled it. If these options are visible but not enabled, users can request admin enablement. Account admins can control the visibility of these enablement options through web settings. By default, these features will be visible to users in Team Chat. This feature is also available in the Zoom client. 

• Migration of AI Companion web settings to dedicated tab – The corresponding web settings for most AI Companion features are being moved to their own dedicated tab on the Account, Group, and User-level settings pages in the web portal. This includes settings for Meeting Summary, AI Companion questions, Team Chat Compose and Summary, and Email Compose, but excludes Smart Recording, as that is still included in cloud recording settings. Future AI Companion features will also plan to have their settings located in this new AI Companion tab.

• Greater admin control of which participants can interact with AI Companion – The web settings for AI Companion questions in meetings will also allow admins to control who in the meeting can ask AI Companion questions about the current meeting, if active in the current meeting. Admins can restrict AI Companion access to only the host, all participants from the point they join (meaning they cannot ask questions about topics from before they joined), and all participants for the entire time the AI Companion is active. These additional options under the AI Companion setting are available at the account, group, and user levels. If this is unlocked, hosts can also control this access during the live meeting. There are also now greater host controls over which participants can interact with AI Companion. 

Zoom Client Updates

• Team Chat Thread Summary with Zoom AI Companion (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android) – Team Chat users can use Zoom AI Companion to help summarize a chat thread and quickly catch up on the discussion without having to read each response in the thread.
• Compose or refine emails with Zoom AI Companion (Windows and macOS) – Users can access Zoom AI Companion for Mail to enter a prompt and generate emails. When responding to an email thread, users can generate an email using information from the thread and/or an inputted prompt. Users can enable or disable the Zoom AI Companion for Mail integration.

Zoom Rooms Updates

• Support for AI Companion Meeting Summary – Hosts can initiate an AI-generated summarization for the current meeting directly from a Zoom Room. Hosts will be prompted to enter an email address on the Zoom Room that the summary can be sent to. The ability to receive the meeting summary can be restricted to the host alone, the host along with users on their same account, or extended to all attendees of the meeting, including invitees outside of their organization. All meeting participants will be notified that the summary is being generated, and the meeting host can stop the summary at any time, if necessary.

Zoom Events and Sessions Updates

• Compose with Zoom AI Companion for Zoom Events Chat – Compose with Zoom AI Companion in Zoom Events chat writes messages for users by leveraging context from their conversations. They can maintain the ability to change messages by adding tone, inputting prompts, or changing the length of the message to give you confidence in what they're communicating. This setting is disabled by default.

Zoom Whiteboard Updates

• Whiteboard content generation with AI Companion – Users can leverage Zoom AI Companion with Whiteboard to unlock visual ideation for an improved Whiteboard experience. Users can generate ideas, refine and extend existing content, and add objects to a canvas with just a click.

Zoom Revenue Accelerator (Formerly Zoom IQ for Sales) Updates

• Access Email Compose from Conversations page – Users can access the Zoom Revenue Accelerator Email Smart Compose directly from the Conversation detail page, making it easier to create follow-up emails after calls. This feature includes suggested content, topics, and recipients, leveraging third-party AI models, to assist in writing messages based on context from the associated conversation. Previously, Email Smart Compose was only available from the Deals page.

Business Announcements

• Upcoming Support Site Maintenance – Maintenance is being performed on Zoom’s support site on Saturday, November 4. During this time, support.zoom.us and the support ticketing form will not be accessible, though you can still use Zoom Community, chatbot, and phone support (based on your plan). Please note that once maintenance is performed, tickets closed more than a year ago will no longer be accessible. You can refer to the support article and check the Zoom status page closer to November for more information. 
• Zoom Software Lifecycle Policy - We plan to enforce the next round of our Software Lifecycle Policy on Saturday, November 4, for all products and services, starting with the minimum versions referenced in the table found here. Users running an end-of-life version after November 4 will not be able to join meetings via the Zoom Client and will be prompted to update or join from the Web browser. As always, we highly recommend you regularly download and update to the latest version of Zoom software by checking for updates within the Zoom desktop client or by navigating to zoom.us/download to take advantage of all our latest security and functionality features.

I use my personal meeting room (same ID for each meeting) for telehealth with clients (I am a psychologist). 

In the last few weeks I have noticed that in the participants list (I use MacOS desktop zoom) participants who have left their appointment continue to show up in a submenu called "Left". 

Subsequent clients entering the zoom meeting can see this list, which obviously identifies the previous clients as their zoom names (99% of the time their full name) are visible. They can see the Left list in participants. 

I am unsure as to why this has suddenly changed.

This is an urgent matter. I can only clear this list by ending the meeting and restarting. This means all participants in the waiting room are booted out and need to rejoin, destroying the very purpose of that room. I have attached a screenshot of what a client joining a meeting will see with names blurred out for privacy. I have recreated this using my personal devices and can see each previous meeting participant that has left. I have not found any meeting or privacy setting that turns this off. 

If this cannot be solved I cannot continue to use zoom. I have a paid account that I have been using for three years.

Hi Zoomers! 

We hope you had a wonderful time attending Zoomtopia 2023 in person or virtually.  We hope your were inspired by our continued focus to innovate and meet the demands and needs of our customers. I am super excited about our AI focus and the future of Zoom docs helping us continue to set the pace in unified communications and collaboration. 

We invite you to share your experience below using the following prompts/questions: 

• Share your Day One or Day Two recap (or overall event recap experience)
• What was your favorite speaker session?
• What were your key takeaways from the speaker sessions?
• What did you think of the live performance? 
• What was your favorite connection you made?
• Which product announcement are you most excited about?

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