Small businesses don't trust remote workers

By Tom Young on Feb 17, 2009 7:03 AM
Filed under Security

Only eight per cent of the UK's small businesses trust employees to work away from the office, despite 42 per cent of workers saying they would work harder from home, according to research.

Survey sponsor BT claimed to have seen a 30 per cent rise in productivity since introducing home-working schemes for its staff.

John Dovey, IT services director at BT Business, said the research shows that other firms need to follow its lead.

"By unifying communications systems our business customers can be more responsive to new opportunities and customer enquiries wherever they are," he said.

"Faster reaction and fulfillment times are a positive way to increase customer satisfaction, increase loyalty and encourage growth. These technologies can also help to attract and retain staff through flexible working."

John Wright, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said that recent bad weather and economic conditions showed that companies must be flexible.

“This boils down to a matter of trust," he said. "In the current climate, small firms need to be operating at full stretch. The recent bad weather demonstrated the need for British businesses to enable their employees to be productive, wherever they are.”

The survey by Yougov for BT and Nortel was carried out amongst 3,473 workers in organisations with less than 500 employees.