Dell and Intel released the findings from Phase II of its Evolving Workforce Research Programme, highlighting the responses of employees to major evolving workforce trends.
The findings show the continued migration of consumer-inspired technologies and attitudes into the workplace as well as a strong correlation between the quality of technologies provided and supported by employers and employee satisfaction, motivation and productivity.
Technology choice and the ability for workers to influence technologies within the workplace is also paramount – to help customers facilitate the varying levels of choice for employees, Dell brings together a complete portfolio from PCs to desktop virtualization for a range of organizations to meet their end-to-end computing needs. The report also documents differences between attitudes towards workforce evolution in developing countries – characterized by optimism and flexibility – and the developed world, where technology is viewed as less inspirational and employee choice is being embraced more gradually.
Based on responses from 8,360 interviews with employees worldwide, ‘Report II: The Workforce Perspective’ highlights employee attitudes towards new working practices, emerging approaches to measuring productivity, employee-led innovation and potential schisms between employers and employees as well as between workers with differing levels of technology expertise. Among the key findings of the report are:
Six out of every 10 employees around the world would enjoy work more if able to choose their own technologies. Interoperability is rapidly becoming the norm, with 59 percent of employees able to share data between all of their devices.
The Evolving Workforce Research is a series of three studies that have been commissioned in response to these challenges as well as to predict some of the key trends that will shape how IT will support the workforce in the years ahead. Working with TNS Global Research, this quantitative phase of the research comprised a 20-minute survey speaking directly to the working consumer in 11 countries. A total of 8,360 interviews were conducted in October 2011.
The first phase of the research introduced seven key trends or hypotheses to a group of influential global experts – including senior technologists, analysts, consultants, journalists, HR/recruitment professionals, advisers, architects/designers, futurists and organizational psychologists – who came together to offer commentary and predictions on the implications of these trends for workers and organizations as well as IT departments.
“As technologies continue to evolve and individuals become more sophisticated in their usage, so too will their desire to transfer these experiences to the workplace to be more productive and effective,” Paul Bell, President, Public Large Enterprise, Dell, said.
“The results of this research demonstrate the growing correlation between quality and choice of technology access within the workplace and employee satisfaction, productivity and innovation. Smart organizations can no longer ignore the consumerization of IT phenomenon and should be aware of the forthcoming changes and assess how best to adapt IT to meet growing employee demands.”
“As IT consumerization continues to take hold in the corporate world, the number and types of devices IT is being asked to provide and support is exploding,” said Dave Buchholz, Principal Engineer, Client Research & Pathfinding, Intel IT. “By giving employees the opportunity to choose the device they are most comfortable with using, based on the service and environment, IT can power a new-wave of employees that are highly productive and have the power to drive innovation and collaboration within their organizations.”