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ANZ Managers Become Accustomed To Mobile Workers |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Monday, 29 October 2007 |
A recent survey by enterprise security vendor, SonicWALL, has shown
a marked improvement in acceptance levels for mobile and remote working
amongst managers in Australia and New Zealand.
Of 224 survey respondents, 195 were from Australia and New
Zealand, while 34 respondents are based in other countries throughout
the world. Conducted by online marketing research firm
InsightExpress, to better understand their views on remote working, the survey found that more than half believe
that offering their employees the ability to work remotely is a
competitive necessity or at least a motivating perk for employees.
The state of remote workers in Australia and New Zealand
- Half (50.4%) of the respondents surveyed reported that more than 20% of their company's employees work remotely;
- The majority (74.8%) of the polled managers have a remote worker or home worker policy in place;
- Employee motivation (78.3%) and availability and cost of office space
(43.8%) were the main reasons for managers to implement or recommend a
remote worker policy;
- 66.8% of the respondents have noticed an increase in requests to work from home in the past 12 months.
Despite the growing support for offsite working in Australia and New
Zealand, managers identified several concerns unique to managing a
remote work force. The top three anxieties - each reported by more than
40% of respondents - included:
- Challenges to building strong teams, with 47.3% percent believing
remote workers are missing out on an aspect of the job by not being in
the office;
Worry over whether their remote workers will remain productive, in
spite of the fact that more managers (66%) believe remote workers are
equally or more productive;
Concerns about potential network security issues and breaches resulting from remote access.
- Location of remote workers
66.7% of polled managers prefer their remote workers to work from
home, while a hotel business centre (55.1%) and "anywhere there is an
Internet connection" (42.4%) scored high on the preference list.
"As the survey shows, the role of management today is a more complex
one. Business leaders see the benefits that remote working brings, but
at the same time, they feel added challenges in managing employee
productivity and career development, and see greater risks in keeping
company IT assets secure," said Chris Barton, Regional Manager ANZ,
SonicWALL.
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