New report urges UK’s large organisations to adopt more flexible working

The UK’s large organisations are missing out on some of the opportunities presented to them by mobile working methodologies according to a new survey from Deloitte and (what else?) telecoms provider EE. The Upwardly Mobile report questioned more than 1,000 employees of firms with more than 1,000 staff including Kier, Royal Mail, Oxfam and BP and found that this situation would change as Generation Y employees assumed the power needed to introduce a more flexible working culture. The report goes on to predict that by 2016, at least one FTSE 350 company will have a Gen Y CEO at the helm.

The survey portrays this as a ‘changing of the guard’ with a whole generation of employees currently frustrated by the lack of a ‘mobility culture’ soon to become the decision  makers who will reverse this sorry state of affairs. The report claims that nearly two-thirds (60 percent) of British workers believe they have to contend with a culture of presenteeism and over half are actively discouraged from working away from their desks.

The survey found that only 21 per cent of employees in large businesses are equipped to work away from their desks with 19 per cent of employees are already using a personal mobile device at work, whether they are officially allowed to or not. Only one in five workers surveyed considered themselves to be mobile at work, with 68 per cent seeing a clear disparity between their mobile experience at home and at work. Less than one in five large organisations provide mobile apps to employees to complete routine tasks and only five per cent of employees use a mobile device to access corporate information.

As Gen Y decision makers adopts a more open minded approach to technology and mobile working, the report urges business leaders to pre-empt this upcoming development by developing wide ranging policies that encourage more flexible working. Gen Y workers welcome new technology. The report finds that 78 per cent of Gen Y workers would value greater use of mobile technology within their company. They are the heaviest users of mobile apps and 52 per cent say they think mobile working improves their productivity.

‘The most important asset any business has is its people,’ said Gerry McQuade, chief marketing office for business at EE before going on to claim that he believed the children are our future. ‘We are approaching a mobile watershed where future leaders will demand that organisations make use of mobility in a way that is not evident today. We urge businesses not to wait until the first Gen Y CEOs arrive before revising their mobility strategy.’