Office Workers Don’t Want to Return and Microsoft Has Software for That
Companies that benefitted from remote work now want to connect employees back in the office with those who stay home.
Employees are resisting calls to return to the office, but Microsoft Corp. wants companies to know it has an answer for smoothing things out while some workers remain remote.
The software maker on Thursday showed off design changes to its Teams teleconference and collaboration software meant to ensure remote workers are just as involved in meetings as those seated in company conference rooms. Microsoft later this year will release “front row” in Teams, which moves the video gallery to the bottom of the screen so people calling in remotely are displayed face-to-face with those in the conference room. It also makes chat comments more clearly visible to in-person participants so they can see and respond. Slack Technologies Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. have also been offering new features to their videoconference services and Zoom is pitching new hardware to make this hybrid scenario work better.