U.S. Cites Employee Retention, Rather than Employee Productivity, as Biggest Motivator for Adopting a Flexible Work Environment

Dimension Data, a leading IT solutions and services provider, announced the results from a global survey indicating that U.S. companies are significantly lagging behind their European and Australian counterparts when it comes to adopting and implementing flexible work environments. However, the U.S. scored highest among all regions in the adoption of unified communications, scoring 8.5 out of 10 on the unified communications adoption and maturity index. Unified communications is considered a key driver behind enabling flexible work environments, which are defined as work arrangements in which employees can telecommute, work from home or even work while traveling.

The study, commissioned by Dimension Data, included more than 524 workers and 390 IT managers, across several industries. The survey was designed to benchmark various aspects of the unified communications market. Unified communications enables richer interaction by integrating most forms of communication (voice, e-mail, fax, instant messaging and video) through a single interface. Findings indicated the following regarding flexible work environments in the U.S.:

  -- Only 55% of U.S. companies surveyed offer fully supported flexible
     working environments, compared with much higher adoption rates in other
     regions such as France (75% of companies) and Switzerland (73% of
     companies). The U.S. had the lowest percentage when compared with
     Australia and all European regions that were surveyed.
  -- In the U.S., companies generally either offer flexible work
     environments with full IT support, or they don't offer it at all.
     Organizations in other regions were more likely to offer a flexi-work
     environment regardless of IT support. Only 5% of U.S. companies offer
     unsupported flexible work environments, while companies in the United
     Kingdom and France offer unsupported flex environments in 15% percent
     of cases.
  -- More than 50% of respondents believe that a fully flexible work
     environment will be routinely used in the market within five years. For
     the near term, IT managers and workers agree that click-to-dial from
     the desktop, presence and VoIP telephony will be routinely used in the
     corporate environment within two years.
  -- Unlike the U.S., companies across Europe and in Australia cited
     "increasing employee productivity" as the key driver behind the
     adoption of a flexible work environment. The U.S., however, cited
     "employee retention" as the biggest motivator for implementing a flex-
     work environment (23% of companies surveyed). More than 55% of
     companies in Australia and France cited "increasing employee
     productivity" as the biggest motivator.

"It is interesting to note that U.S. enterprises either offer flexible work and full IT support, or they do not offer the option of flexible working at all. In other parts of the world, enterprises often tolerate flexible working, but without full IT support for it. This is more likely a result of U.S. regulatory frameworks and employment practices and has less to do with adoption of unified communications. Because while enterprises in the U.S. are lagging behind in terms of offering flexi-work, the unified communications adoption and maturity index, a composite measure of the adoption of unified communication technologies, clearly shows that the U.S. is at the forefront of the technology adoption," said Vuk Trifkovic, an analyst with Datamonitor. This Dimension Data survey was conducted by Datamonitor, a recognized provider of online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors.

"Given the highly competitive U.S. job market, our clients are increasingly turning to unified communications, such as VoIP, video and collaboration tools, to enable a flexible work environment to foster employee retention," said Mark Slaga, chief technology officer of Dimension Data Americas. "We foresee the adoption rate further increasing as the technologies continue to become even more critical in maintaining a competitive advantage. In fact, our research shows that the global adoption of unified communications and the associated technologies has exceeded industry expectations and that global investment in unified communications infrastructure is set to accelerate in the next two years."

About Dimension Data

Dimension Data , a specialist IT services and solutions provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their network and IT infrastructures.

Source: Dimension Data

Web site: http://www.dimensiondata.com/na