Survey finds 48% of business professionals use video conferencing more frequently than they did two years ago

Lifesize, a global innovator of video collaboration and meeting productivity solutions, released its 2019 Impact of Video Conferencing Report, which examines the explosive growth and shift in perceptions surrounding video communication in our changing modern workplace. Its findings highlight continued trends toward flexible and remote work coupled with video’s effect on the real-time communication preferences of Millennial and Gen Z employees.

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According to the survey of more than 1,300 U.S. business professionals:

• 25% of 18 to 29-year-old respondents use video conferencing daily for work, as compared to 15% in the 45 to 60-year-old segment.
• 69% expect video communication will be equally or more important to their work than voice assistants, while 63% expect video’s impact on their work will meet or exceed that of augmented reality and virtual reality.
• 47% have reduced business travel due to video conferencing.
• 51% have taken video calls for work from a home office, 21% from their bedroom and 21% while on vacation.
• 51% think that companies using video conferencing are more innovative, 41% believe those companies have more engaged employees and 31% perceive those companies as more successful.

“Today’s workplace norms are evolving to reward companies that embody a responsive, productive and collaborative culture,” said Craig Malloy, CEO of Lifesize. “The findings of our report indicate a clear desire for constant connectivity, engagement and flexible communication solutions that suit our modern distributed workforce. Business leaders must actively provide their employees with the most efficient, impactful and reliable video conferencing tools to empower the next generation of work.”

Additional key themes and findings from Lifesize’s 2019 Impact of Video Conferencing Report include:

Seeing is Believing: Video-First Culture Improves Collaboration

Video conferencing allows for personal connection and partnership where other forms of communication fall short. A telling 55% of survey respondents agree that companies that use video conferencing are more collaborative.

Usage of video communication at work has increased for 48% of respondents as compared to two years ago, indicating an employee-driven appetite for effective video conferencing tools as well as a communications shift toward collaboration. Additionally, 80% of business professionals use video conferencing for 1:1 meetings, while 78% use it to facilitate team meetings.

Video Will Reign Supreme in Impacting the Future of Work

Emerging technologies from augmented reality (AR) to artificial intelligence (AI) are poised to reshape the future of the workplace, productivity and the nature of how we collaborate. Comparatively, however, video communication may play an even more important role by keeping dispersed teams connected and fostering a greater sense of collaboration.

In fact, 63% of respondents think video conferencing will be equally or more important to their day-to-day work than AR and virtual reality (VR), 55% anticipate it being equally or more important than automation and robotics, and 69% expect equal or greater impact from video than voice assistants. Another 51% agree video communication will be just as or more important to their work than enterprise collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and 51% foresee it being equally or more impactful than AI and machine learning.

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Being in the Moment at a Moment’s Notice: Workplace Flexibility

Thanks to now-constant global connectedness, employees have flexibility in where they work from and how they prefer to work. Findings show that 51% of respondents have taken video conferencing calls for work from a home office, 21% have taken such calls from their bedroom and 21% have taken video calls for work while on vacation, signaling the merging of personal spaces and time with work.

With many organizations catering to clients on a global scale, video conferencing allows companies to deploy real-time communication anytime via any device. An overwhelming 77% of employees use a laptop or desktop computer for video calls at work, while 31% use mobile phones for video conferencing. Furthermore, 47% have seen some reduction in business travel due to video, with 35% having reduced up to half of their business travel in an average year.

Video Conferencing Is Growing in Popularity Among Younger Generations

By 2020, nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce will be comprised of Millennials. As the first generation to grow up as digital natives, this new workforce majority expects the proper technology tools to accommodate their collaborative approaches.

The shift toward video for Millennials and Gen Z is already well underway, with 25% of 18 to 29-year-old respondents reporting that they use video conferencing daily for work, as compared to 15% of respondents who are 45 to 60 years old. As mobile increasingly becomes the preferred mode for collaboration, 38% of 18 to 29-year-olds use phones for video conferencing at work, contrasted with just 23% of respondents in the 45 to 60 range.

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