Two-thirds
of managers would work more effectively if their companies encouraged mobile
working, according to research by ICL.
The
Slough-based software company surveyed 200 managers about their attitudes to
mobile working. 60 per cent of them
felt comfortable accessing messages and e-mails from home or out of the office.
However,
some managers expressed concerns about mobile working over the next five years,
with 84 per cent of them expecting to be in "office mode" for
significantly longer hours.
Andy
Irvine, business development manager for ICL, said, “These results show that
there is an increasing trend for people to work away from home.”
He
added, “There is no such thing as a 9 to 5 environment anymore. The findings suggest that more employers are
working across different time zones. This means a significant change in working
practices and will have implications for employment contracts.”
The
research highlights that four out of five managers believe that they could work
away from the office at least one day a week, without their performance
deteriorating.
Many
managers believe that they are not offered the technological support that can
make mobile working a possibility. More
than a third of managers struggle to keep track of messages while they are out
of the office, with only 35 per cent of managers offered smart or WAP phones by
their companies.
“This
indicates that many managers are experiencing an information overload. The key to this is to control the flow of
information which some technology can allow you to do,” commented Irvine.
Other
findings revealed that managers felt traditional office support was
insufficient to help them meet the demands of the new working practices, where
they travelled to different locations or countries, working irregular hours.
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