Encouraging employees back to the office will be a key priority for businesses going forward, but for many employers, doing so needs to be a case of providing superior in-office experiences, rather than attempting to mandate it.
To do this, investing in a technology refresh and focusing on the devices that your employees are using the most – such as the monitors – should be a priority.
Working from home has been the dominant trend over the past two years, as professionals have embraced the home office to continue working while travel and office interactions were unsafe.
Now employers want their office environments to thrive again, and while working from home will become a standard part of work, some 53 per cent of US employees reportedly expect to be working in a “hybrid arrangement” going forward.
They face a potential disconnect in doing so, however. If they revert to the old monitors of their office workstations, the working experience and environment may be fundamentally inferior to their home office.
Given that the commute to and from an office is an imposition, and many employees know that they can work effectively from home, an inferior office work environment will no longer be palatable or acceptable to those employees.
“For most organisations, reverting to the status quo won’t be an option,” a HBR article notes. “People will expect more flexibility, better technology, and incentives to come to the office, and companies must heed that call.”
There are many ways that a business can look at transforming the workplace experience. Re-developing spaces to better focus on social communication and collaboration, for example, is one advantage that the office environment can have over the isolating experience that can come from working from home.
However, a technology upgrade should be on the cards too, because over the past few years, many employees have effectively upgraded their home spaces, and now employees need to do the same in the office. For example, IDC data shows that 2021 there was a boom in monitor sales, with the highest volume of monitors shipped since 2012, at 143.6 million, and this figure is likely due to many professionals giving their home offices a refresh.
It has been a few years since a study has been done on the amount of time a person spends in front of a screen, but certainly this statistic would not have declined from when, a few years ago, it was found that a person spent nearly 10 hours in front of a screen – 143 days’ worth of time in total.
Clearly, upgrading the monitors in the office environment is a relatively simple thing that organisations can do to deliver an immediate improvement in the workplace experience for a major chunk of each employee’s time each day. Additionally, this upgrade can be used as an opportunity to help improve workplace productivity.
What an office monitor should offer
Samsung – a leader in workplace monitors – highlights two of its models, the S9 and S65U Ultra-Wide Curved Business Monitors, as exemplary of how an office can achieve immediate productivity gains though the humble screen.
The S9 has Dual QHD resolution with 32:9 super ultra-wide display, whilst the S65U has Ultra WQHD resolution and 21:9 display – both gives you a vast encompassing view of your projects with maximum screen real estate, effectively giving the employee a dual-screen setup through a single monitor, without the middle bezel being a potential source of distraction, as occurs with dual screen setups. Meanwhile, a USB Type-C port with 90W charging allows the employee to connect their laptop to the monitor and transfer data while also charging the laptop itself. With a greater emphasis being placed on meetings and flexible movement through the office, this is a practical convenience that allows the desktop experience to integrate well with the modern way of working.
Further emphasising that seamless integration into daily work habits, theS9 monitor also features a built-in KVM switch, allowing the user to control two connected devices with a single keyboard and mouse, saving time and desk space
Most critically, both monitors are designed with ergonomics in mind. The curved screen allows for a natural viewing angle, helping the user focus over long periods of time and helping to reduce fatigue. Meanwhile, Samsung’s QLED technology converts light into a wide range of colours, of up to DCI-P3 95 per cent, and HDR support deepens the blacks and white on the screen, which helps to deliver detail clearly on the screen.
Through these features, Samsung envisions a working environment that, in the office, supports the modern worker more broadly. Rather than centralising their work, it fits seamlessly with a hybrid approach to working, connecting to the laptop to provide an incredible visual experience when the employee can spend time at their desks and ensuring that across home office and the office environment, the employee feels comfortable and focused on the work that they’re doing.
For more information on the Samsung business monitors range, click here.
