In our first episode of the VMware Future of Work podcast, we discussed the importance of driving an employee-centric mindset to deliver success in a hybrid work environment. In our latest podcast episode, Nick Bloom, Stanford University Professor of Economics, and Bharath Rangarajan, VMware General Manager and Vice President of Products for End-User Computing, have a conversation on generative AI and the future of hybrid work. Some of the topics they discuss include disrupting myths around AI, the latest hybrid workplace trends, and what to expect for the future of generative AI.
“The Future of Work Podcast #2: How Generative AI Will Impact Hybrid Work”
In this 40-minute podcast, Nick and Bharath reveal some surprising trends in hybrid work and what the future of work might look like.
Employees value hybrid work over a pay increase.
Nick Bloom shares that recruitment and retention are a big reason to move to a hybrid work model. His research found that “employees value hybrid work over a 3% to 5% pay increase.” (7:21) This aligns with VMware’s annual distributed work research that discovered 81% of employees have higher job satisfaction when they can work from anywhere. Employees feel a greater sense of autonomy over their schedule and life. They are able to plan their time more efficiently on the days they come to the office. These in-office days become more intentional and the focus shifts to achieving specific outcomes, like collaboration. Nick says, “Moving to hybrid from fully in person reduces quit rates by 33%, so hybrid clearly beats out fully in the office.” (7:23)
Shift the focus from productivity to engagement.
As organizations began to manage remote workers, it spurred conversations on how remote work can impact employee productivity and engagement. “I’ll say something slightly controversial. I’d change the term from productivity to engagement,” says Bharath. “Employee engagement is a better metric than productivity.” (15:00) He then tells a story about an employee strike in Japan to back up this statement. Some factory employees in Japan went on strike by being overproductive and creating a large excess of inventory. Bharath says, “Once an employee is engaged, they will take care of the right levels of productivity.” (15:29) This becomes an important point to consider as work continues to evolve remotely. “Are remote employees engaged?” “Do they feel a part of the team?” These are important questions to ask.
Generative AI provides assistance to new profiles of workers.
Bharath shares how in the past we saw “a lot of automation and AI technologies focused on the task worker and blue-collar workers. For the first time, we are seeing also a significant number of use cases for knowledge workers too.” (24:33) Automation and AI allow workers to not only make better decisions based on insights they receive from technology, but also to build on what has been created before. Technologies like ChatGPT have reached more than 100 million users. This means creativity will become even more important in the future. Innovation and individual creation will come to the forefront as AI and automation will free employees’ time currently spent on mundane tasks.
Click on the image below to tune into the latest episode of the VMware Future of Work podcast series, then learn more from these related resources.
Additional VMware resources on the future of work
Podcast: The Future of Work S1 E1: The Distributed Work Dilemma
Blog: Driving an Employee-Centric Mindset to Deliver Success in Today’s World of Hybrid Work
Blog: Innovation vs. Job Satisfaction: The Hybrid Work World Dilemma
VMware Solutions: Anywhere Workspace
VMware Research Report: Innovation in a Distributed Work World
