Workingmums Technology Survey 2014 – Results

1974 people responded to our 2014 survey looking at technology and working parents, and sponsored by BBC Future Media.

70% of our survey respondents are currently working, with 16% of these working self-employed or running their own business. 4% are currently on maternity leave and 26% are currently not working.

Smartphones & Tablets

86% of our audience own a smart phone. Of those currently working, 73% have a smartphone for personal use, 7% have been supplied a smartphone via their business or employer for using at work and 9% own two –  one for personal use and one for business use.

62% of the respondents own a tablet, and 95% of these are tablets owned by themselves rather than supplied by their own business (2%) or by their employer (3%).

Working life

77% of respondents check their emails outside of usual work hours – with 41% doing so daily.

69% said they have been contacted about work whilst on holiday, 17% frequently, 41% once or twice and 10% because they are self-employed or it is their own business (so they expect it as part of running a business).

66% say technology has enabled them to work longer hours. 37% feel they have a better work-life balance as technology has allowed them to work more flexibly, 12% feel that technology means they are working all hours, and the majority (51%) feel torn – they see the benefits of working flexibly due to new technologies but also feel that it encroaches on family time.

64% of those working work at home sometimes – 25% work at  home most of the time. 30% feel that working at home is most important because it enables them to do the school run. 26% find it useful being able to have the children at home whilst they work (which helps out during sick days or holiday periods), 18% like being able to focus without interruptions, and 26% enjoy the benefits of avoiding the time and money spent on a long commute.

61% use their own equipment, so when they have technical issues they have to deal with them themselves, but 36% of workers can call upon an employers own technical support team for help.

Skype, Conferencing & the Cloud

Only 17% of our audience are using Skype for work. 48% say they don’t like using Skype for work purposes, 10% say it is not suitable for their particular line of work and 42% find it positive for work use. 40% make use of conference calling for meetings with colleagues, with 15% doing so regularly. 56% say they find it about the same as face-to-face meetings in terms of productivity (10% find it more productive and 34% find it less productive).

The majority (57%) do not use cloud based systems such as Office 365, Google Docs (7% were not sure). Of the 36% who do use them, 34% have had a positive experience.

Online Training

55% have taken part in some form of online training. Of these, 15% found it more effective than face-to-face training, whilst 40% found it less effective. 45% found it about the same.

Flexible working

Our survey respondents thought that homeworking was the most attractive type of flexible working that could be offered in a new role (67%), closely followed by ‘working with flexible hours’ (66%). Also attractive are working part time (55%), working term time only (34%), working compressed hours (12%) and working in a job share (10%).

74% say an employer providing a laptop for use working at home would be most useful, above and beyond a tablet (17%) or a smartphone (9%).

Searching for a new role

When looking for a potential employer work-life balance ranked highest – 71% saying it was very important, followed by company culture 16%, training (11%), and employer brand (4%)

74% say that the make up of a senior leadership team will influence their decision to apply for a job at an organisation – 25% say it would influence their decision a lot and 49% say a little.

 



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