Connections are everything for today’s knowledge workers. But it looks like it isn’t such a connected world after all.
The sheer ease of collaboration has become the defining aspect of today’s workplace. Nowhere is this more true than for knowledge workers, those “employed to think”. Workers in this broad category includes programmers, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and pretty much anyone paid to think.
When you’re paid to think, data sharing technology can be a godsend. But a surprising proportion of those involved in knowledge work feel that either the tools and policies they need to work with are either inadequate or not all that great to begin with. A few are still stuck in the 80’s, as far as IT tools go.
This infographic from Eccentex.com tells part of story:
Source
Key Points:
- A fair number of companies do not provide the mobility needed to work away from the office.
- 36.9% of knowledge workers say that their biggest challenge is “not having access to required information remotely when it is needed”.
- Most workers surveyed indicated that the use of mobile tools “increases productivity” and 27% say working remotely with those tools makes work “easier.”
- As of the 2013 survey, 45% of workers, indicated the use of cloud tools has become the norm, while 36% want their company to adopt cloud tech as well.
- We could reasonably assume that more workers find it the norm today.
- Most knowledge workers don’t really feel that strongly either way.
Observations:
- What most people think and what is actually true aren’t necessarily the same.
- Just because someone believes they are productive because of a particular thing does not mean they are.
- The opposite is also true.
- The survey only really works in the American context. Workers in other countries may see things very differently.
- The need for data access has to be balanced with the need for security, as recent high-profile data breaches have shown.
- Surveys are pretty mediocre tools by themselves for developing processes that are actually useful. As Steve Jobs famously said: “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
More:
How connected is your workplace? Does it matter for you? Comment below!
Disclaimer: YouTheEntrepreneur is not affiliated with the author of the infographic or any of the sites mentioned.