Corporate quarterly earnings calls are usually mundane affairs, but the conference with Salesforce.com Inc.’s top executives at the end of August was more revealing than most.

During the discussion, Salesforce Chairman and Chief Executive Marc Benioff suddenly dropped a startling data point. He indicated that a third of the company’s nearly 50,000 employees were “reporting mental health challenges” as a consequence of the global pandemic.

Benioff’s remark, tucked into the usual discussion around quarterly sales and the company’s marketing cloud performance, served as a stark reminder that while business marches relentlessly on, there are human beings making that happen. Some of them are not doing well.

“It’s not just about the productivity of remote workers,” said Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE Media’s sister market research firm Wikibon and host of SiliconANGLE’s livestreaming video studio theCUBE. “The health and welfare of employees and ecosystem partners is also of paramount importance. What’s more, many processes post-COVID are unknown, so the techniques and best practices required to be most successful are constantly evolving.”

An in-depth examination of what it will take to build a healthy workforce strategy for the digital economy will be the focus during the Workplace Next event, sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., a virtual broadcast scheduled for November 10. Industry experts and business leaders from human resources, real estate, facilities and IT will explore practical steps for creating an efficient, productive and rewarding workplace environment amid the challenges of remote work and COVID-19. (* Disclosure below.)

Remote work goes permanent

Even with the year not yet complete, the pandemic of 2020 has already transformed the workplace. In October, Reddit Inc. joined Microsoft, Twitter and Dropbox Inc. in announcing that employees will have the option to work from home on a permanent basis.

A recent report from Verizon Business found that the digital workplace is cementing a place in the future for a majority of companies. Verizon noted that 86% of the firms surveyed saw the digital workspace coexisting with the physical environment of the future, with 78% expecting to see a rise in the amount of remote work.

COVID-19 has essentially provided a forcing function for many organizations. Even companies previously skeptical of whether a digital workplace would be effective are being given a crash course in how to adjust to the new normal.

“Seeing how their network, security and employee collaboration systems have operated during the pandemic should provide the blueprint for the road ahead,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, president of global enterprise at Verizon Business, in a recent interview.

HPE has made adjustments within its own business in response to the pandemic. The company released a more powerful virtual desktop infrastructure in April and issued a set of workplace solutions in June, deployed through HPE’s Pointnext Technology Services, as companies sought to reopen operations using solutions such as technology for touchless entry, fever detection, and workplace alerts to help maintain employee health and safety.

Nearly every organization, large or small, has been forced to deal with workplace change. HPE President and Chief Executive Antonio Neri, who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this summer, summed this up in a recent blog post.

“Our world is mercurial, and it’s changing at an unprecedented pace,” Neri said. “Digital transformation is now at a critical point for organizations of all sizes — from large enterprises to small businesses. The promise of technology lies in its potential for positive change.”

Livestream of the Workplace Next event

The Workplace Next event is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcast on theCUBE. You can register for free here to access the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the Workplace Next event, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the Workplace Next event

Stay tuned for a complete list of guests.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Workplace Next event. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Pixabay