A new survey from 99&One has found two thirds (66 per cent) of workers say they are more productive when they work flexibly. 99&One is a new initiative from TeleWare Group to help organisations with technology and productivity.
99&One’s research – carried out among 2,016 UK flexible workers – revealed that companies are still not getting some basic technology configurations right. In fact, nearly one in five (17 per cent) employees still experience connectivity issues when working remotely.
Part of the problem is that employees have been overloaded with technology they have not yet fully adopted or mastered. This includes instant messaging (67 per cent), shared documents (61 per cent), cloud-based collaboration tools (48 per cent), video conferencing (40 per cent) and audio conferencing (36 per cent) .
“Digital transformation is key to encouraging productivity, engagement and collaboration,” says Steve Haworth, CEO of the TeleWare Group. “However, many companies have still not got to grips with their IT investment. Just one per cent of UK businesses have productivity above one per cent. Optimised technology could improve productivity, profitability and employee engagement.”
The research revealed just four in ten (43 per cent) employees have received additional training or support on technologies to work more flexibly.
However, employees which have had sufficient training on flexible working technologies are five times happier (56 per cent) at work than those who are not offered any support (11 per cent). Trained workers are also more than twice as likely (45 per cent compared to 18 per cent) to say that they get more work done in the same amount of time when working flexibly.
Haworth concludes: “Setting employees up with the right tools to carry out their role is not enough. They need to feel confident using them. Companies should be prepared to deliver and embed technology change in a people-first way. Helping everyone in the organisation to fully embrace change.”