Almost a third of workers say they work more productively when they’re not in the office, according to new research by Redcentric.
The managed services provider commissioned a YouGov survey of over 2000 UK adults to discover the attitudes of both employers and employees towards home working.
Phil Dyson, Product Group Manager of Voice & Unified Communications from Redcentric said:
“Home-working can bring real benefits to almost any organisation. It not only provides flexible working arrangements for employees who need them, it also allows businesses to recruit people from any location.
“Thanks to modern voice and unified communications services, gone are the days of home-workers being restricted to a landline or mobile phone. Today people get the same features and functionality at home as if they were in the office, even extending to call centre staff. Features like instant messaging, presence, video and online collaboration make location irrelevant, and with modern services working over home broadband, they’re really cost-effective too.”
The research found that 54 percent of UK office workers are currently able to work remotely, with on 17 percent of those workers reporting that remote working reduced their efficiency.
The majority of respondents (70%) said they feel it is important for businesses to allow their employees to work remotely, with only 22 percent believing that this flexibility is unimportant.
However, 48 percent of respondents claimed that their employers didn’t allow them to work remotely, with 23 percent saying that their business simply didn’t like them doing it, potentially for reason such as data privacy and loss of productivity. Just over one in ten (12%) stated that their business’ IT systems weren’t modern enough to facilitate remote working.
Dyson added:
“With cloud and Internet delivered communications, cost, complexity and technology should no longer be limiting factors in deploying home-working services which, as our research indicates, can offer many benefits to both the business and its staff alike.”
Steff joined the HRreview editorial team in November 2014. A former event coordinator and manager, Steff has spent several years working in online journalism. She is a graduate of Middlessex University with a BA in Television Production and will complete a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Westminster in the summer of 2015.
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