Tech Conglom Cisco Sets Up Collaboration Hubs Between Office and Remote Workers
Skift Take
Office workers are now "residents." Carefully watch the language companies are using, and efforts to address so-called collaboration inequity, and you'll see signs that the future of work is already here.
At some companies, subtle changes are being made to the terminology used to describe work. At Cisco, a new name is being coined for office-based employees: residents.
It might be a term more relevant to college students, but it’s all part of a greater plan. The technology company is also rebranding some of its offices, where they'll become a place to bring together so-called residents and its growing number of remote employees.
“We’ll be creating what we call collaboration centers, or hubs, and they won’t necessarily be in traditional key Cisco locations where our head offices are,” said Carlos Almendros, global procurement service leader for travel at Cisco. “They will play a pivotal part, but they’ll be in other locations around the world.”
[caption id="attachment_426890" align="alignright" width="785"] Speakers at the "How is technology helping the return to travel” panel, during the ITM's Revive conference.[/caption]
What’s noteworthy is that this is momentum coming from a company that specializes in virtual meeting technology, with its Webex video conferencing platform.
Almendros, who was talking at the “How is technology helping the return to travel” panel at an online event held by the UK’s Institute of Travel Management on Tuesday, said there were implications for travel.
“We’ve just kicked off something that will connect those two together. Over the coming months we’ll be doing some pilots — and this is great for the industry. Traditionally you always looked at internal meetings as very cost
