According to Ricky Kapur, Head of Asia Pacific (APAC) at Zoom (pic), the present is the first time that businesses have a truly multi-generational workforce, representing 5 generations from "baby boomers" all the way to "Gen Z", and as companies navigate changes in workplace culture, technology will remain at the forefront, ensuring that happiness and productivity become a very important fixture.

"With a multi-generation workforce, the need for employee engagement and collaboration has never been greater. Older employees prefer formal communication methods, whereas younger employees prefer more dynamic and immersive communication formats. Yet companies still struggle with providing communications and collaboration platforms that appeal across generations, and bringing the right platforms to this multi-generation workforce is how you create happy and productive employees," he explained.

"Embracing the right tech-driven solutions supports a dynamic, diverse, and resilient workforce capable of thriving in the digital age. Happy, connected teams can do their best work wherever they are, and this will pay massive dividends in the long run, by fostering a strong company culture, happier customers, and a more resilient organisation."

Kapur said this during his keynote address at the recent inaugural virtual Zoom Employee Experience Summit in APAC and which was attended by Business Today. Featuring 2 separate tracks for enterprises and small businesses respectively, the event explored how modern tools and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are reshaping the future of work, and, more importantly, how to create a culture of digital collaboration rooted in trust.

"In business, happiness matters. Happy employees are more likely to stay with your company, put forth their best efforts, and also attract other talented individuals. Productive employees in turn enhance your output and profitability. Together, employee satisfaction and productivity are key to building a strong business ready for growth," he noted.

Kapur unveiled that many organisational goals such as increasing revenue, trimming costs, embracing new ways of working, meeting customer needs, and standing out in a crowded market, can be achieved with the Zoom Workplace platform launched this year.

"Zoom Workplace streamlines the way you communicate and collaborate by integrating video, phone, meetings, chat, whiteboard, and far more capabilities into a single cost-effective platform. We've recently also announced Zoom Docs, an AI-powered workspace to help you become more productive and collaborate far more than a simple document could ever do. Whether quickly sharing information over Zoom Team Chat or making important calls with Zoom Phone, Zoom Workplace provides the flexibility employees crave, while supporting the efficiency leaders need. Zoom Workplace unlocks your company's full potential and elevates it with generative AI."

Zoom, which labels itself as a specialist in unified communications as a service (UCaaS), changed its tagline from 'Meet Happy' to 'Work Happy' in recognition of the fact that as a platform company, Zoom concentrates on how it can help businesses work better, making sure it stays true to its roots of being frictionless and open, says Nathan Guy, APAC UCaaS Strategy Lead at Zoom.

"We're moving at 'zoom' speed, taking fast action on what we hear from SMEs globally so you can reimagine teamwork with AI Companion to streamline communications, improve productivity, increase revenues, and optimise flexibility with an open collaboration platform. We're focused on these foundational pillars with the goal of making Zoom Workplace an AI-first open platform for everyone where you can do your best work," he explains.

Guy points out that with over 2,600 applications and integrations, the Zoom App marketplace is designed to support businesses' unique work types so they can integrate various products across their different teams whether CRM, productivity tools, or industry-specific solutions. Integrations include with Microsoft Teams and 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and others.

"For SMEs, we recognise that integration isn't the only area you have unique needs. Our platform can drive increased sales conversions, and use detailed analytics from Zoom Revenue Accelerator. Use Zoom to protect personal data with customer-managed keys, and our compliance solutions manage localised data requirements. The flexible architecture ensures that you can leverage existing hardware investments where possible, such as reusing IP handsets or room systems. Do not forget our out-of-the-box CRM and application integrations, which allow your team to get to business straightaway, keeping the calls coming in, and your customers happy."

At the heart of Zoom Workspace's employee engagement solution is Workvivo, which Zoom acquired in early 2023. Workvivo bills itself as an EXP (Employee eXperience Platform), and helps companies easily reach and engage their people, and bring company culture to life.

"Our customers coined the term the digital heart of the company; the one place where everything happens, where all the positive things happening in the organization come to life. The one place where companies can easily reach meaningfully connect their people working everywhere," says Gideon Pridor, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Storyteller at Workvivo, during his keynote at the Summit.

Workvivo has been named as the sole official migration tool for Meta's employee engagement platform Workplace from Meta, which is exiting the market in 2026. "We've been very busy building the official migration tool with the engineering team on the Meta side, and we've already been busy migrating some of the largest accounts in the world from Workplace from Meta to Workvivo by Zoom," Pridor adds.

Workvivo is also in use by companies across the globe, including Amazon, Lululemon, Netgear, and the Virgin Group. A prime example which Pridor highlights in his keynote was the Motherson Group, the India-based automotive parts manufacturing conglomerate.

"At almost 200,000 employees, Motherson is one of the largest automotive manufacturers on the planet. The company has hundreds of sites all over the world, and acquired 43 companies over the past few years, inheriting a lot of technology and intranets. Motherson unveiled Motherson One, based on Workvivo. One platform, one app for every Motherston employee everywhere from the CEO to everyone on the assembly line in different countries. This replaced one central custom-built intranet that had very low adoption, as well as 27 other intranets inherited from different acquisitions. A huge consolidation, giving a big ROI right out of the gate, not to mention the improvement in engagement, leading in turn to much better employee retention, lower absenteeism, and higher productivity."

Another happy Workvivo customer is Essar Power, one of India's first private power companies, as Krishnakumar CS, Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer describes.

"Expectations are always changing. It may not always be feasible to catch up with the change in expectations of an employee, but there can be a middle part wherein the employers also respond to the changes which are happening. So we are traditional, yet modern in terms of adopting things that are new and current, because we have an organisation that has people who are with 35 years of experience and somebody who has been here 6-18 months as well. The challenge is to cater to each and every segment. We are trying to, and I think we have been successful in doing this over a period of time," he expands.

Krishnakumar explains that while there was no focused communique within Essar Power that the company would be moving to Workvivo, there was a company email notifying employees of the change in the employee engagement platform.

"We did that around 11am-12pm sometime in April, and within 3 hours we had 40% [engagement] of employees, and over 85% adoption in the first 30 days. It has changed the way we communicate; take the people in West Bengal, for instance, there are stories of young engineers who are able to showcase how their journeys have been. All of this is coming through lots of stories, which was not the case earlier. I think this is exactly what we wanted, if somebody sitting 1,000-2,000 km away has achieved something, we've been able to communicate that, and I'm able to consume that."

During the summit, Zoom also released its latest survey, titled "Navigating the Future of Work: Global Perspectives on Hybrid Models and Technology", which showcased the region's views on different workplace models, productivity levels across models, the impact of generative AI on work, and other topics related to the future of work.  The report findings are aligned with key learnings from the EX Summit, revealing that while hybrid work models dominate, employee engagement remains the biggest challenge for APAC leaders, with nearly 60% reporting declining employee engagement with current hybrid work models.