Smart working ‘inhibited by technology frustrations’

Over three quarters of UK employees say that collaboration technology is vital to how they work with colleagues and clients on a daily basis, but many face significant tech challenges, whether working in the office or remotely, according to a new survey.

The Humanising the Enterprise study of over 1,500 knowledge workers by communications firm Unify shows almost four in every five experience technology frustrations at work.

Over half identify the loss of access to social media as the biggest inhibitor to collaboration. This is followed by video conferencing problems, experienced by a third, and the capability to receive/send/write emails when needed, which affects 12%.

“A new type of knowledge worker is entering the workplace – Millennials,” said Robert Keenan, Head of Portfolio Management at Unify UK & Ireland. ”Millennials, those born between the 1980s and early 2000s, have grown up with digital technologies, social media and anywhere connectivity. This is driving demand for something different from ‘tried and trusted’ enterprise technology; they want technology that helps in the way they communicate, work and live. That means flipping seamlessly from using their smartphone to a video conference with their colleagues – without having to open multiple applications to achieve their objective.”

The Humanising the Enterprise study has shown that UK workers expect collaboration technology to be an even more prominent part of their working life. Some 62% of those surveyed said the need for collaboration technologies will increase significantly in the next two years.

“As companies change the way they work from silos into holistic all-encompassing units, so will employee expectations about how they engage and connect with each other,” said Keenan. “This isn’t just confined to the Millennials; employees across the age spectrum are striving to find new ways of working and collaborating. It’s up to the enterprise to enable this through technology. If they don’t, employees will simply circumvent enterprise tools and use consumer applications instead, leaving employers open to security risk and even worse a fundamental loss of productivity.”

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