Member Article

Technology "Not Fit For Purpose" in Workplace

50% of workers have said that the technology they use in the office is slow and outdated, according to a new survey carried out by national fit out and refurbishment specialist, Overbury. However, over half of those surveyed did believe technology made their job easier with only one in ten seeing it as a distraction, the OnePulse survey found.

Only 8% of those who responded saw technology as being a gimmick with over a quarter saying that they simply couldn’t live without it. WiFi was highlighted as a bugbear with a fifth stating that the connectivity was either poor or non-existent.

Speaking about the results, Peter Knight, managing director at Overbury, commented: “The statistics from this survey are really interesting. On the one hand most see technology as being a valuable resource in the workplace, but on the other, employees are frustrated about the standard of both the IT equipment and the service provided by their employers.

“Many still feel that the technology in their office is simply not up to scratch. So, what should employers do? They need to listen to their employees to understand what type of technology they need in place to carry out their role successfully. Investing in the right technology should help increase employee job satisfaction, boost productivity, help to reduce staff turnover and ultimately make your business more profitable.”

Overbury has recently completed a new workspace for international travel agency, Travel Counsellors at Peel’s Venus building on the outskirts of Manchester. The brief was to create a design that would help encourage greater staff collaboration, increase productivity and retain and attract the very best staff.

The finished space includes two floors of open plan office space with central breakout areas and the technology to enable agile working, as well as a recording studio for the Travel Counsellors internal and external webcasts and a striking IT server room that is visible through a coloured glass pane.

Rob Snelson, Chief Technology Officer at Travel Counsellors, said: “The use of technology has to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary in order to ensure it can be adopted by everyone across the company. As a global business with over 350 staff supporting a further 1,600 self-employed franchisees, Travel Counsellors uses the latest tools and technology to enable consistent and high quality connectivity, ensuring each person has what they need to work smarter wherever they are located. Our culture of idea generation and innovation is ultimately supported and enhanced by this level of technology – it breaks down barriers such as timezones and allows for an all-inclusive and truly collaborative working environment.

Peter continued: “Technology is there to support and enable, not to anchor and dictate. Environments today need to have almost organic adaptability so that, as the trends change, the correct infrastructure is in place to cope.

“The ‘choose your own device’ trend in particular has become more popular and this is often because the technology we have at home is typically much better than standard-issue company devices or Wi-Fi infrastructure. Businesses need to create an environment that supports choice and allows people to work however they want to.”

Peter concluded: “By creating comfortable environments, as Travel Counsellors has done, people generally speaking, work better, or are more productive, using devices they know or want to use.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kate Healey .