IT faces an ongoing challenge to deliver the flexibility and quality of experience that today’s workforce demands.
This is leaving users frustrated with unresolved issues and causing a £4 billion productivity “black hole” in lost UK working hours.
Almost half of workers don’t use the IT support service at all and more than a third (35%) admit having a problem that they did not report, losing an average of more than an hour working time a month.
These are the findings of a survey of 2,000 UK knowledge workers carried out by Opinium on behalf of Capita.
Only 16% say that their current IT experience makes them feel valued, while only 38% of staff are confident using the technology they have been issued with, and 77% say better training in IT would make them more productive.
Frustration with the lack of flexible working is also evident, with only a third of people being allowed to work remotely when they wanted to, despite 71% wanting to do so.
The problem is particularly acute among women, with 38% reporting that they are not allowed to work from home at all, compared with just 26% of men.
Of particular concern to employers is the attitude towards security, with more than 90% saying that security was mostly their employer’s responsibility and more than a third stating that security was not their responsibility at all.
These findings come at time when Gartner reports that many organisations are setting out to revolutionise their employees’ working lives by setting up digital workplaces.
In fact, CIO research Capita carried out last year found that 95% of organisations are either already in the process of digital transformation, or are planning it in the next 12 months.
However, this latest knowledge worker research indicates that there is a real disconnect between what organisations are setting out to deliver, and the experience their employees have in practice.
Employees hear a lot about how the world of work is supposedly becoming more mobile, flexible and connected.
Where in reality many of them are being denied the opportunity to work remotely, or they are allowed to do so, but experience problems joining video conferences, accessing business applications and sharing files with colleagues.
This conflict between what users expect and what employers provide is of serious concern when designing ICT solutions for 2020 and beyond. Also serious implications for attracting/retaining talent.
Overall, organisations need to address three key themes which emerged from the research:
IT needs to enhance employees’ productivity rather than hinder their ability to do their jobs.
Although organisations are legally obliged to consider requests for flexible working, many employees (women in particular) report that remote working is not available to them, implications for childcare, work life balance travel costs (financial and environmental), as well as the ability to return to work after maternity or illness.
An increasingly mobile and IT literate workforce needs a new generation of proactive support services that enable and guide rather than restrict – calling a support desk and logging a call are out of step with consumers’ experience of online services.