14 DAY TRIAL // We've long suspected that technology and the Internet are changing the workplace environment, in most cases for the better. But, lacking hard cold facts and real numbers to back the claim, this could only be classified as speculation, that is, until staffing firm Kelly Services released a new report as part of its “Global Workforce Index.” The landmark study found that the majority of workers in the US and Canada, 78 percent of them, believed that gadgets such as laptops and mobile phones that provided them with better communication tools had increased their productivity at work.
“There is an overwhelming view that the technology provides greater flexibility in working arrangements, and a better balance between work and personal life,” George Corona, Kelly Services Executive VP and CEO, says. “The revolution in personal communications has improved work-life balance through flexible work practices, working from home, and other family-friendly arrangements, while delivering a significant boost to organizational efficiency.”
The survey found that 53 percent of respondents believed that their productivity was “much better” thanks to the advent of new communications channels, while 25 percent believed it was only “slightly better.” Still 20 percent saw no influence whatsoever on their productivity, while a further 2 percent believed that mobile phones or notebooks had had a negative impact on their productivity. These views were held across all generations.
Not only has technology allowed people to have an increased performance at the workplace but, as an added benefit, it has allowed them to work more at home too, with most of those surveyed, seven out of ten workers in all countries involved in the study, seeing this trend as a “positive development.”
Also part of the “positive development,” many of those surveyed agreed that new communications channels had allowed them to work longer hours as well. The Asia-Pacific region was the most engaged, with 41 percent of the respondents from that area putting in more hours, followed by Europe with 33 percent and lastly by North America with 30 percent.