The managed services provider, Redcentric, commissioned a YouGov survey of over 2000 UK adults to discover the attitudes of both employers and employees towards home working.
The research found that 54 per cent of UK office workers are currently able to work remotely, with 30 per cent feeling that their productivity increased when they work away from the office and only 17 per cent stating that remote working reduced their efficiency.
In terms of attitudes, an overwhelming 70 per cent of office workers said that it is important for businesses to allow their employees to work remotely, while only 22 per cent believed that this flexibility is unimportant.
However, 48 per cent of respondents claimed that their employers didn’t allow them to work remotely, with 23 per cent saying that their business simply didn’t like them doing it, potentially for reason such as data privacy and loss of productivity. Just over one in ten (12 per cent) stated that their business’ IT systems weren’t modern enough to facilitate remote working.
Phil Dyson, Product Group Manager of Voice & Unified Communications from Redcentric, said working from home can be beneficial to any business.
“Home-working can bring real benefits to almost any organisation. It not only provides flexible working arrangements for employees who need them, it also allows businesses to recruit people from any location.”
Today people get the same features and functionality at home as if they were in the office, even extending to call centre staff,” Mr Dyson said. “Features like instant messaging, presence, video and online collaboration make location irrelevant, and with modern services working over home broadband, they’re really cost-effective too.”
