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UK flexible workers held back by tech troubles
05 February 2020 Professional Development Workplace Culture
Two thirds of workers say they are more productive when they work flexibly but are being held back by technical troubles, according to a recent report.
New research from 99&One, carried out by Censuswide, surveyed more than 2000 UK flexible workers. It found that nearly one in five employees experience connectivity issues when working remotely and only two in five employees have received additional training on the technologies used to work more flexibly.
The survey found often employees have yet to fully master technologies such as instant messaging (67%), shared documents (61%), cloud-based collaboration tools (48%), video conferencing (40%) and audio conferencing (36%).
Steve Haworth, CEO of the TeleWare Group, says: “Digital transformation is key to encouraging productivity, engagement and collaboration. However, many companies have still not got to grips with their IT investment. Just 1% of UK businesses have productivity growth above 1%. Optimised technology could improve productivity, profitability and employee engagement.”
The research found employees who have had sufficient training on flexible working technologies are five times happier at work than those who are not offered any support. Trained workers are also more than twice as likely to say that they get more work done in the same amount of time when working flexibly.
Haworth concluded: “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.”