Report: Productivity, Technology and Working Anywhere

This report assesses one aspect of the productivity puzzle – how the adoption of digital technologies, alongside the effective use of people and wider resources, can drive smarter working and support the missing business improvements required to turn the situation round.

Key findings:

• Around one third of employees said they sometimes or mainly worked from home or remotely.
• When asked about the provisions and culture to enable employees to work from home, 56 per cent indicated difficulties with the technology available to them.
• 15 per cent of employees said they did not have the appropriate technology to work remotely.
• When asked about flexible working there were differences in opinion between workers and managers. 61 per cent of managers said flexible working was actively encouraged, whereas only 41 per cent of employees agreed with this statement.
• 80 per cent of employees feel technology has a positive influence on their productivity at work, while two-thirds of managers saw a correlation between technology and their organisation’s performance. However, only 54 per cent of managers believe their organisation is technologically forward thinking.

This Work Foundation research questions the relationship between technology, ways of working and productivity, and whether technology is being sufficiently used to make things better.