How Australians are Connecting: Connectivity Report 2020

Foreword

This year has redefined what disruption means. People have had to separate from their colleagues – and often their families – and physical workplaces have been transformed to ensure people maintain social distancing. These transformations required a greater leveraging of technology than we’ve ever had before, giving us a glimpse of the future of work and accelerating our progress toward it. At the heart of this movement into the future are changes in how we connect with each other.

There’s never been a better time for businesses to find out how connected their employees are. Has the pandemic made us feel less connected or has technology made us feel closer? This impacts business but is also a deeply human question. It encompasses the relationships colleagues have with each other as well as their attachment to their companies.

Zoom conducted a unique research project in Australia designed to find out:

• The benefits of connectivity in the workplace
• The risks of not feeling connected
• What drives connectivity
• The role of technology
• How technology use has changed since the pandemic
• Differences among key segments of the workforce (remote workers, senior vs. junior, and so on)

Surveying more than 1,000 Australian workers, we created an index that quantifies connections at work. The methodology is repeatable so the index won’t just be useful for this year – it will help us track how connectivity changes over time. With 2020 as a baseline, it is almost guaranteed to shift significantly.

The fact that just over half (55%) of respondents say their organisations are properly set up for  communication in the post-COVID world proves the timeliness of this report.

The findings of this report suggest that there is no going back to the way things used to be. We can’t view the past with rose-tinted glasses, and we must push forward. The forces driving greater connectivity have to be addressed by leaders of all organisations if they want to be ready for the future.

We hope you find the report illuminating, and thanks for reading.

Michael Chetner

Head of Australia and Asia Pacific
at Zoom Video Communications