The Future of Profitability Lives on the Desktop
By Joseph Cornwall, CTS-D/I, AV Technology Evangelist, Legrand
An efficient desktop is a critical piece of the profitability puzzle for companies whose workforce consists primarily of knowledge workers. Little attention has been paid to optimizing hybrid and remote workstations during the last decade, despite dramatic technological improvements. Societal and workplace changes, accelerated to near light speed by a global pandemic, give us a real reason to look at desktop technology with renewed vigor.
As of late 2021, studies by Gallup and the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) revealed that over 60% of workers are currently remote. As many as 83% of workers polled have expressed the desire to be able to work from home at least one day per week, according to Global Workplace Analytics. With this global shift in the work environment, workers generally don’t have access to the advanced technology typically associated with corporate huddle spaces and conference rooms.
The bottom line is clear. It’s time to stop wasting productive hours, losing profit, and limiting the success of business opportunities by clinging to outdated technology and outmoded thinking.
Why should we invest time and money refining our desktop AV solutions for individual productivity when we already have something that seems to be working?
It will boost the bottom line.
Consider this: visual eye strain can lower productivity by an estimated 15 minutes of work per day. It may not sound like much, but this adds up to nearly 65 hours of individual productivity lost over the course of one year. Think about that for a minute. A week and a half of productivity were lost because of subpar AV technology!
What is the value of 65 working hours? Is it less than the cost of a good, productive desktop AV solution?
Let’s examine that question.
The U.S. Census Bureau lists the annual median individual income in the United States at
$35,977 (tabulated in 2019). There are 261 working days in a calendar year, and, not accounting for the impact of vacation or sick time, a loss of 15 minutes each working day equals a median loss of $1,119.97 in productivity. This, of course, includes both those who are involved in hybrid work and those who are not.
Let’s use an example that’s even closer to home.
According to Salary.com, the average Purchasing Director salary in the United States is $168,497 as of July 26, 2022. At this compensation level, 65 hours of productivity equates to more than $5,225 in payroll investment. Add in lost opportunity cost and consider the fact that an AV technology investment has a useful lifetime of several years. It’s easy to see that investing in a high-performance desktop productivity solution makes excellent business sense!
Being able to see content is not the same as reading it without strain. The value of an investment in technology improves when multiple content windows can be adjusted to a useful size to support real work. The volume of high-quality output grows noticeably when sight, sound, and ergonomic experiences support switching between specialized software programs, computer peripheral devices, and robust communications platforms seamlessly.
Viewing distance may change based on content, activity, ambient light levels, and even time of day. Understanding the ideal range of distances in the viewer-to-image equation allows us to accurately determine the screen’s appropriate display resolution and size, the number of screens, and their ideal position. Most people sit 2-3 feet away from their desktop monitor.
Beyond this, our perception of color is dependent on external light quality. Suppose the work to be done on our desktop productivity solution requires accurate evaluation and application of color (think corporate logos, marketing graphics, fashion design, etc.). In that case, we must consider ambient light and how it might change over the course of the day. A quality workstation should produce accurate, repeatable color quality. Something as simple as a monitor hood can impact viewer fatigue while improving color accuracy and perceived system quality.
Getting the physical geometry of a desktop productivity system right is at the core of optimizing its impact on efficiency. Get the screen size and position right, and the rest will follow. Let’s start by considering the point of view of a conferencing camera.
Our technology must allow the recipient of the communication to know we are actively listening and paying attention. In most desktop AV solutions, a web camera should be mounted to the top bezel of the main display. This properly places the lens’ point of view just above the user’s eyes, facilitating natural eye contact.
Eye contact is an extremely important type of body language during communication and conversation. A head-on frontal view fosters a feeling of engagement during a video call. Face-to-face communication is the most effective and efficient way to enhance social connectedness, develop meaningful relationships, and build social capital. This is critically important in business and education.
If the camera is lower than the user’s face, the result will be an unflattering view that detracts from video communication quality. Even more, an unflattering view can impact how the receiver reacts to the message. In professional communications, the camera angle should be head-on, and the best results come when the camera’s point of view is just above the bevel of the primary monitor.
If you want to maximize productivity and output, apply the largest possible workspace to the best viewing position possible, and you’ll get the most from a desktop Investment. Like RAM memory, the cost of screen size has dropped precipitously.
People work from multiple monitors to access more visual real estate. Most often, the main monitor is an indiscriminately chosen desktop LCD flat panel left over from a 10-year-old tower computer. Just as often, the second screen is the tiny built-in laptop screen.
Applying scientific standards that define optimal image resolution and display size, we discover that the most efficient and user-friendly solutions are built around a 32” diagonal measure display offering a minimum of QHD (1440p) resolution. Text and picture elements will be clearly visible, there will be enough real estate for effective multiple window work, and full-screen images will pop with detail.
When upgrading or designing a new system, we may be tempted to install two screens of identical size. This is a great way to improve multitasking and increase efficiency, but it comes at a cost. Two side-by-side monitors may look impressive, but right in the middle of the field of view is the bezel of each monitor. The user always looks off-axis because a spit image is distracting and distorted.
An ultrawide monitor, in contrast, offers up a high-quality image spanning the entire real estate of the workspace, and there won’t be any bezels or mullions in the middle of the image to interfere with full-screen viewing options. This is a serious advantage and one that must be experienced to be appreciated. Images or videos can be placed in the center of the display, where our visual acuity is at a maximum, while leaving the sides of the display free for supporting tabs and content.
However, the best monitor in the world, coupled with a high-performance video camera and quality microphone, will only make the work experience more prosperous and more rewarding when it’s also comfortable to use. Staying in good posture is critical to both productivity and health, starting at the viewing position. A quality seating solution that offers adjustable seat height, width, and depth set the stage for a truly productive desktop system.
But ergonomic considerations don’t stop there.
The quality of the monitor mounting solution is just as important as the chair. Over the day, we’ll find ourselves moving about, leaning in, and stretching back. In a recent Legrand survey, a majority of respondents pointed to the need for improved ergonomics. The Human Factors and Ergonomic Society identifies adjustable tilt, rotation, and display centering as critical features to optimize user safety and comfort.
A dynamic mount that can compensate for the weight of different displays and deliver easy, dynamic positioning with minimal physical effort lets the content and work take center stage.
The bottom line is clear. It’s time to stop wasting productive hours, losing profit, and limiting the success of business opportunities by clinging to outdated technology and outmoded thinking. An aging desktop system isn’t “good enough” for 2022 and beyond. A decade old investment shouldn’t be the anchor keeping outdated, underperforming technology in place while the competition moves forward with turbocharged efficiency and a better return on investment.
Not only should we improve our technology to meet the needs of hybrid work and education, but we must also upgrade the way we think about and use desktop productivity solutions!