April 23, 2018
Poor mobile connectivity in the workplace is undermining UK productivity
Mobile connectivity in workplaces all around the UK is inadequate and is holding back the country’s productivity, claims a new report from telecomms provider CommScope. In the poll of 2,000 British office workers almost half (44 per cent) said they need to step outside to make a phone call, or access 4G services on their mobile devices. The same report claims that 77 per cent of respondents see mobile coverage as ‘important’ for being able to complete tasks, and being productive, in general. There are also differences in connectivity, depending where you are located. London, Yorkshire and West Midlands have a relatively stable 4G connectivity, compared to the likes of North East or Wales.
More than a third of employees’ waste significant chunks the working day because of difficulties retrieving valuable information, with two-fifths of businesses admitting to having no processes in place to capture, record and retrieve business communications. The research conducted by 3Gem on behalf of TeleWare, claims that 36 percent of employees have wasted a lot of the working day attempting to resolve an issue when they have forgotten valuable information. A similar number (34 percent) explained that forgetting information has led them to deal ineffectively with customers, suppliers or clients. While around a quarter have missed important deadlines (26 percent) or let their colleagues down (25 percent) due to not having the necessary information front of mind. Britain is not doing very well when it comes to workplace productivity. According to the latest G7 productivity analysis from ONS, in terms of output per hour worked, the UK scored 15.1 percent below the average for the rest of the G7 advanced economies.
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