According to SCC’s inaugural ‘IT Insights Report’ on Workplace Productivity, 80% of IT decision-makers say working from home or a location different to their main place of work has increased in the past two years. 

The first in a new series of reports commissioned by SCC – which surveyed a panel of 550 IT decision-makers from 11 public and private sectors – shows remote working has drastically increased as well as the number of devices people use for work. 

81% of IT decision-makers say many people within their organisation now work using multiple devices, including tablets and mobile phones, in addition to laptops and PCs, as advancements in technology make it more relevant to broader roles. 82% believe their colleagues want to be able to work on the move with the support of a mobile device. 

The report suggests the public sector has been slower to adopt and promote mobile working, with 14% of respondents in the education sector and 10% in healthcare disagreeing with the statement that remote working had increased in the past two years. This is, in some part, to be expected as the nature of some front-line public sector roles are not suited to remote working. 

It is increasingly difficult to recruit experienced people who live close to their organisation’s offices, 73% of respondents agreed that, suggesting the promotion of remote working is vital to attracting and retaining skilled people. 

In the report, it is suggested security concerns are preventing the advancement of remote working, with almost three-quarters (73%) of IT decision-makers saying employees are not allowed to use their own devices for work purposes. 67% of respondents believe their organisations restrict remote working due to security concerns, this despite 84% saying they are confident their organisation complies with the GDPR for remote working. 

In terms of applications, 67% believe their organisation’s apps are holding back workplace mobility, whilst 71% say their organisation restricts the use of common cloud-based applications due to security concerns. 

James Greene, CTO at SCC said: “It has long been the view of SCC that the modern workplace is evolving. We are seeing growing trends in areas such as remote working, collaboration and communication – trends are underpinned by advancements in technologies. But as technology has advanced so do concerns around security of information and who has access to it. 

“Looking ahead, based on these insights, we expect security concerns to dominate conversation and restrict mobile working – and rightly so. In the current technology climate, it’s vital that security and protection is the number one consideration.”  

For the Daily News follow The European Magazine.