Positioning Microsoft as the Authority on the Future of Work.

CHALLENGE

COVID-19 forced many of us to shelter-in-place, making Microsoft technology more important than ever for families, friends and colleagues to connect and collaborate. But at the same time, it also placed greater stress on nearly everyone, leading to collective trauma, stress, mental health and digital fatigue.

Microsoft knew the current way of working wasn’t sustainable. But in the absence of a normal, it was time to figure out what the next normal would be.

Driven by its global mission “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,” and as the world leader in enterprise software and technology, Microsoft recognized its unique position to use proprietary data and scale to help global businesses and the workforce navigate the future of work.

The objectives were multi-dimensional: 1) determine the implications of the downturn and crisis; 2) make improvements to the Microsoft 365 product suite, including Teams and Outlook  and 3) find ways to help as many people and companies as possible.

INSIGHT

By using data sources only available to Microsoft, integrating first party data with research to understand the human perspective, and deploying data science, Microsoft was able to unlock key insights to tell the story of the new world of hybrid work.

We were able to quantify the digital overload that information workers globally were feeling and be one of the first reports to predict the mass resignation and turnover of employees this year. Additionally, the insights worked to provide recommendations to improve the future of work across workspaces, meeting hygiene and employee engagement, including the implementation of five minute meeting delays and others.

IDEA

Identifying deep shifts in behavior and needs, particularly among women, Gen Z and people of color, this work spotlighted needed changes for the world’s biggest business and productivity software and social networking tools.

Then, we went even further and made this data freely available to the world so people could see for themselves what the future of work looked like.

The Results