Editorial

HYBRID WORK ENVIRONMENTS: WHEN YOUR TEAM IS RELUCTANT TO RETURN TO THE OFFICE

Published on:

March 9, 2022

Fallout from COVID-19? The landscape hasn’t just changed, it’s almost as if it’s been dynamited and reconstructed, and dispersed teams, necessitated by the virus, are becoming the norm. Like it or not we are now in the hybrid work era, and the term “everywhere enterprise” seems to apply to almost every business and organization. The digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, seems to continue apace with no signs of slowing down.

Global organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry conducted a survey of 570 professionals across the USA earlier this year, and almost 75 percent of survey respondents told Korn Ferry they feel “a return to the office will be negative for their mental health.”

Fallout from COVID-19? The landscape hasn’t just changed, it’s almost as if it’s been dynamited and reconstructed, and dispersed teams, necessitated by the virus, are becoming the norm. Like it or not we are now in the hybrid work era, and the term “everywhere enterprise” seems to apply to almost every business and organization. The digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, seems to continue apace with no signs of slowing down.

What was originally implemented to decrease our exposure to COVID-19 has proven to be the desired situation for millions of workers who found out they no longer had to spend at least an hour commuting to and from work, who found more time to cook meals at home (and didn’t have to buy lunch and coffee every day), who had more time to spend with their children and their significant others…

In many cases, working from home turned out to be nothing less than a gift to anyone looking for a better work-life balance; there was a lot more work, of course, but a lot more life came with it. Some of us got a lot more sleep (and we needed it). And even employees who are willing to return to offices only want to do so, on average, about two days per week.

At this point just about every company has at least a significant percentage of its staff working from home, from a Starbucks, in a beach house…even if you’re an SME, it makes sense in the current environment to become an “everywhere enterprise,” and it starts with your phone system. The industry’s best? Vodia. It’s feature rich, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and turns any mobile phone, laptop, tablet or PC into a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) client your employees can use anywhere. You can move your phone system to the cloud, without having to duplicate your IT infrastructure, and enable seamless collaboration amongst your entire team, regardless of how dispersed they are.

  • With the Vodia phone system, all calls to employee office extensions are routed to their mobile devices (callers only see the number they dialed, not your employees’ private numbers).
  • All the systems you currently have in place – voicemail, caller ID, conferencing and DND – simply migrate to the cloud.
  • Set up is fast and painless, as are integrations with MS Teams, FreshBooks, Zoho, HubSpot and Salesforce, SMS and Android and IOS mobile apps.
  • We give you a robust, resilient, easy-to-use suite of tools to help you and your team create and collaborate via the cloud – Vodia is the most feature-rich phone system available.
  • Moving to the cloud with Vodia will reduce your telephony costs.
  • No one has to receive calls outside of business hours – your employees can set these hours with our app, mobile or PC, or through a standard web browser.
  • Separation of work and personal calls.
  • SMS and MMS, conference calls and call recording.

So are your employees reluctant to return to the office? With the Vodia phone system, they don’t have to. Deploy Vodia, and you’ll probably see enhanced collaboration and increased productivity. We’re happy to tell you more about it, and to put you in touch with one of our amazing resellers. Contact us to get started, sales@vodia.com.

Latest Articles

View All

Webinar | Real-Time Media Streaming in Vodia PBX: AI, Call Transcription, and Security in V69.5.6

Join Vodia Networks on April 8 for a live, in-depth webinar on how real-time media streaming is powering the future of voice communication. Discover how Vodia PBX version 69.5.6 enables seamless AI integration, live call transcription using the Whisper API, and secure voice data handling. Hosted by Sales Engineer Eric Altman and VoIP Engineer Hamlet Collado, this session will walk you through real-world use cases, including OpenAI and Google Speech-to-Text integrations, MS Teams support, and new security features. You’ll also get a first look at Vodia’s AI roadmap and have the opportunity to ask your questions during a live Q&A.

March 28, 2025

The Vodia PBX On-Premise Whisper AI Deployment​

Whisper, OpenAI’s Automatic Speech Recognition system, delivers multilingual, noise-tolerant, and technical-language-ready transcription through a streamlined encoder-decoder architecture. With Vodia PBX’s integration, organizations can choose between using OpenAI’s service or hosting Whisper AI locally for complete data sovereignty and control. This on-premise option ensures that sensitive call data stays within your infrastructure while still benefiting from powerful transcription capabilities. To explore deployment options, see our Whisper AI on-premise setup documentation, review a self-hosted integration example, or follow our cloud-based call transcription guide.

March 27, 2025

Vodia at Enterprise Connect 2025: Embracing AI and Advancing Communications

Vodia Sales Engineer Eric Altman attended Enterprise Connect 2025 on March 18 and 19, where he connected with partners and gained insight into the future of enterprise communications. AI was the clear focus of the event, with discussions centered on agentic systems, chatbots, and generative technologies. “It was certainly the main element in the atmosphere,” Eric noted. He also shared his excitement about Vodia PBX version 69.5.6, which includes real-time AI integration with OpenAI and call transcription using the Whisper API. The event confirmed that AI is rapidly becoming a core component of modern communication platforms—and Vodia is well-positioned to lead the way.

March 26, 2025