UK Workers Still Chained To Their Desks

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 04 May 2007

Microsoft-sponsored Research coming out of the United Kingdom has warned the country's bosses to accept mobile and remote working practices or risk losing workers. The research, revealed that 73 per cent of people consider the ability to work flexibly a deciding factor when choosing a new job, while slightly more than half (52 per cent) said they believe they would enjoy a less stressful working life as a benefit of working remotely. Buit the desire and demand from UK employees for more flexible working conditions was in stark contrast to its availability. Overall only 16% of businesses have a formal flexible-working policy in place which suggests that companies are either not embracing change or need guidance on how to implement new working policies, claims the researchers. The research revealed that although workers under the age of 24 would overwhelmingly like to work remotely, one in four rightly acknowledge employers take a dim view of this, highlighting the perception that staff cannot be trusted to work productively away from the office. More than a third (36 per cent) of respondents said they didn't have the proper equipment to working away from the office anyway. The research also revealed some striking regional differences. While people in both the North and South of the UK consider mobile working to be a vital factor when choosing a job (69% in North East, 75% in North West and 73% in London), the number of mobile workers in London is nearly double those in the North; One in two (50%) Londoners work remotely compared to 32% of respondents in the North West and only 29% in the North East. The researchers say it seems Northerners are doing less to promote mobility with only 10 per cent of companies in the North East having a formal mobile working policy in place compared to 20% in London. In fact, the research found that a high percentage of companies in the north won't even allow it. Over a third of companies (37%) in the North do not permit mobile working compared to 16% in London. Related news items iPhone Proving Tough Nut To Crack -18/07/2007 iPhone Delivers Up to Eight Hours of Talk Time -18/06/2007 Watch This! Sony Ericsson Bluetooth -17/06/2007 Sony Ericsson Says 'Email For All' -17/06/2007 New Sony Ericsson Music Accessories -17/06/2007 Newer news items ANZ Managers Become Accustomed To Mobile Workers -28/10/2007 Real Savings From Mobile Deployments: IDC -05/08/2007 Bono, Beckham Back (PRODUCT) RED -14/05/2007 Older news items 3G Used To Push Data To Electronic Signs -27/09/2006 38 Per Cent Of Execs Feel Over Connected -05/09/2006 MobileActive Is In The House -09/08/2006 SMS Surveys Get You On The Run -13/07/2006 Office Integrated With Ericsson One Phone -06/06/2006 Tag This Now: