Virtual Call Center

A new study funded by Cisco (News - Alert) found that 60 percent of workers around the world believe that they do not need to be in the office anymore to be productive. This was especially the case in Asia and Latin America. More than nine of 10 employees in India (93 percent) said they did not need to be in the office to be productive. This sentiment was extremely prevalent in China (81 percent) and Brazil (76 percent), as well.

In fact, their desire to be mobile and flexible is so strong that 60 percent of workers would choose jobs that were lower-paying but allowed work outside of the office over higher salaried jobs that lacked such flexibility. 

According to the study, which involved surveys of 2,600 workers and IT professionals in 13 countries, 13 percent of respondents noted that having the flexibility to work anywhere would dictate their company loyalty, while 12 percent said it would have an impact on their choice of jobs. In fact, two-thirds of respondents said they would take a job with less pay and more flexibility in device usage, access to social media and mobility over a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

About 66 percent of respondents also expect their IT staffs to allow them to use any device, personal or company-issued, to access corporate networks, applications, and information anywhere at any time, and they expect the types of devices to continue diversifying. 

In the future, employees expect their choice of network-connected endpoints to broaden to non-traditional work devices like televisions and navigation screens in cars.

For employees who can access corporate networks, applications and information outside of the office, about half  of the respondents (45 percent) admitted working between two to three extra hours a day, and a quarter were putting in four hours or more. 

Respondents say they want the flexibility to manage their work-life balance throughout their waking hours.

Almost half of the IT respondents (45 percent) said they are not prepared policy- and technology-wise to support a more borderless, mobile workforce. Not surprisingly, security is the top concern.

Although many of the IT respondents felt security (57 percent), budget (34 percent), and staff expertise (17 percent) were the biggest barriers to enabling a more distributed workforce, employees often felt IT and corporate policies were the obstacles. This perception among employees was extremely prevalent in India, where more than half (58 percent) felt IT was the obstacle to a more flexible work style.

About one in five (19 percent) employees globally said they have noticed strangers looking at their computer screens in public, while an additional 19 percent admitted that they never think to check their surroundings. Nearly one in five (17 percent) employees admitted leaving devices unattended in public.

Almost three of every five employees globally (58 percent) admitted that they have allowed non-employees to use their corporate devices unsupervised.

One of four IT respondents (26 percent) said one-fourth of the devices issued to employees in the past 12 months had already been lost or stolen.

The study was commissioned by Cisco and conducted by InsightExpress, a third-party market research firm based in the United States.

The global study used two survey groups – one centering on employees, the other on IT professionals.  Each survey included 100 respondents from each of the 13 countries, resulting in a survey pool of 2,600 people. The 13 countries include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, China, Japan and Australia.