Trust bars way to mobile working

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 31 Jan 2003 at 13:32

A survey by UK company LogicaCMG on pan-European attitudes to mobile working shows that although the vast majority of senior managers, boardroom execs and employees agree on the benefits, they are suspicious of how the technology would be used by each other.

Nearly 60 per cent of UK employees felt that mobile working would force them to take work home, while the French would flatly refused the idea. But 85 per cent of UK employees said they would take advantage of being able to fit their job around personal commitments and 90 per cent of all employees surveyed agreed mobile working was 'a great idea and right for the company'.

On average 60 per cent of senior executives felt that the ability to work anywhere was a real benefit that mobile working added to the company. But more than 40 per cent of HR directors were concerned that employees lacked the discipline to work unsupervised and UK HR directors were the most suspicious that employees would use technology for other things. Board level objections to mobile working raised security concerns and the ability to monitor workers as barriers.

Paul Barker, director of mBusiness at LogicaCMG said: 'There is an irrational suspicion that if employees are out of the office they're dodging work. However, people do need to travel to meetings and the irony is that by depriving employees of the tools they need to work on the move, employers are failing to get the best out of their executives.'

'The fast-paced development of mobile technology - with the introduction of powerful Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), multimedia enabled phones and "always on" network connectivity, is dramatically improving the quality and sophistication of the mobile workforce solutions that can be delivered today,' said Barker. 'Companies need to come to grips not only with the technology, but also understand how it will change the way they do business. Otherwise they will miss out on the immediate opportunity to improve business process efficiency, reduce fixed infrastructure costs and increase revenues through more attentive and personalised service to customers.'

Upcoming UK legislation in April, which will mean companies have to give compelling reasons for working parents not to work from home if requested, may force companies to adopt the more flexible approach that mobile working offers.