A BT point-of-view paper.

The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace. It’s about technology, culture and so much more.

The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace.

As a concept, mobile and flexible working is nothing new and the idea of where people work has widened to pretty much anywhere. The issue is no longer ‘where’ people work, the question we’re now asking is ‘how’ people work. A recent survey of business decision makers by BT showed how having the wrong tools can seriously hamper workplace efficiency and productivity. The survey, conducted by an independent research agency, interviewed 100 IT decision makers in mid-sized UK companies.

Today, many of us live on instant deadlines, 24/7 connectivity, and an ‘always on’ mentality. There have been more changes to the modern office in the past ten years than the previous 100; never has our working environment changed so much in such a short space of time. Nobody could’ve predicted the rise in smartphones, tablets, wearable technology, Google, IM, SMS or apps. This has created an explosion of information and the rate is only increasing; everyone can now produce data-rich video content. Machines are talking to each other to share information on everything from vending units to automated cars. Analyst firm IDC estimates that every 18 months, the amount of information in the world doublesi. But what does this mean to the way we work and interact with each other? High-rise offices are still being built; the commuter line is still standing room only. We still fight over scarce meeting rooms or crowd together in shared offices.

Q1 2016: The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace.

We still crave collaboration and interaction; it’s just the nature of the way we work and collaborate that’s changing. Firstly we need to ensure employees have the right tools and applications in place to do their job. But technology alone won’t usher in the long awaited age of the remote and collaborative worker. For workers to truly collaborate with one another and with customers as they would face-to-face, it must be both cultural and technological changes working hand in hand.

Analyst firm IDC estimates that every 18 months, the amount of information in the world doubles.

The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ Technology alone isn’t the answer. The conundrum we face is that for all the devices that are designed to make our lives easier, our actual productivity rate is falling. Economists are calling it the ‘Productivity Puzzle’ii. This is especially a problem in the UK, where workplace productivity remains stubbornly below our main economic competitors such as Germany and Franceii. Productivity increases when workers communicate effectively with each other and where a spirit of teamwork and cooperation exists. But this doesn’t just magically happen. It means that collaboration must be at the heart of a company’s philosophy. How do you ensure that your workforce is connected and working efficiently when they are more mobile and disparate? It comes back to those two factors: company culture and technology. According to Dr. Nicola Millard, Head of Customer Insight & Futures at BT, the office will not disappear anytime soon. “I don’t think offices will ever die. We are inherently social creatures and offices provide a unique platform for us to collaborate and socialise about work. Offices are collaboration tools – even though we don’t necessarily design them as such.

“Open plan was originally conceived as a solution to get employees to collaborate but, as any of us who work in them know, they tend to be a one-sized fits all solution that tends to not fit anyone. The trouble is that we tend to try and concentrate and collaborate in the same place, which makes them one big distraction machine. “The critical thing is to provide people with choices as to where, how and when they work, depending on what they need to do.” In other words, it is not enough to equip your employees with the latest mobile technology and expect them to become instantly productive as a result. As Dr. Nicola Millard points out: “Collaboration doesn’t magically happen. People need a reason to collaborate (a purpose), be encouraged to do so, be recognised for their contribution and trust the people that they work with. Much of this comes down to leadership. Collaborative leaders need to move from a command and control mindset to establishing purpose, connection and common ground (whether it is physical or virtual).”

I don’t think offices will ever die. We are inherently social creatures and offices provide a unique platform for us to collaborate and socialise about work. Offices are collaboration tools – even though we don’t necessarily design them as such. Dr. Nicola Millard Head of Customer Insight & Futures at BT

The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace.

Meeting employee expectations. For the first time, employees are starting to dictate technology requirements and policy to their IT departments, with devices and applications playing an increasingly important role in our working lives. A recent survey of business decision makers by BT showed how having the wrong tools can seriously hamper workplace efficiency and productivity. The survey, conducted by independent research agency Vanson Bourne, interviewed 100 IT decision makers in mid-sized UK companies including those with 1000-3000 employees and those with more than 3000 employees.

Having the wrong tools can seriously hamper workplace efficiency and productivity. Almost half of the surveyed mid-sized companies in the UK were getting it wrong by not providing the right device for the job (laptop, tablet or smartphone).

13% Hampering efficiency Impeded mobility Lack of online resources

17% 45%

25 % 8% in house end-user 2%

non

50%

vendor support

è

Smartphone

ownership

2016

A quarter (25 per cent) of respondents managed their devices in-house, while a further 50 per cent managed devices themselves with vendor support. Only 8 per cent of companies surveyed had devices managed by the endusers themselves and 2 per cent didn’t have any form of management in place at all.

Last year, smartphones overtook laptops as the most popular device for getting online, according to UK telecoms regulator Ofcomiv. With the introduction of 4G connectivity, receiving, storing and downloading information has never been easier.

4G ►

The research found that 45 per cent of respondents felt that not having the right device for the job was hampering efficiency. It also highlighted that almost one-in-five (17 per cent) saw impeded mobility as the biggest challenge associated with employees not being equipped with the latest technologies, followed by a lack of online and cloud-based resources (13 per cent).

UP

33% 90 %

50 %

16 - 24

There’s been a massive leap in smartphone uptake in just 12-months; 33 per cent of the British public prefer to access social media, watch news and videos, or shop online using their smartphones, compared with only 22 per cent in 2014iii.

A recent Ofcom survey shows 90 per cent of 16-24 year-olds own a smartphone, and ownership for 55 to 64 year-olds has more than doubled in the last year from 19 to 50 per cent. There’s a generation gap, but it’s narrowing.

55 - 64

Q1 2016: The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace.

How do you manage multiple devices - securely? Many companies are having to manage the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) challenge, which can present the IT department with a security headache. It has to deal with a myriad of operating systems, devices and applications, little of which it has much direct control over. So increasingly, companies are turning to Devices-asa-Service (or DVaaS) as a way of managing a company portfolio. In much the same way as a company car fleet is managed, companies pay a monthly fee for access to the latest technology, with full backup and support as part of the package. It ensures that IT costs are controlled, budgets are more flexible and employees are motivated and productive by having access to the latest technology.

A new way of collaborating. Our environment is about to see a fundamental change in the way we interact with our workspace. Wearable devices and fitness trackers are increasingly common and active objects with built-in sensors are set to become part of our working lives. Expect to see smart chairs that measure our posture and how long we’ve been sitting; or smart surfaces that know when we’re present. Linked to this organisations need to provide the right devices, systems and application tools to allow workers to do their jobs; dissatisfaction with workplace systems force many of them to use ‘shadow IT’ or non-sanctioned IT services, creating a possible security risk.

Many turn to popular file sharing sites such as Drop Box or Huddle for instance, for file sharing services. They’re user-friendly and cost next to nothing but can present serious security concerns if not sanctioned by the company. Increasingly IT teams and workers need to share their work challenges so that approved and secure practices that are right for the business are embraced by all. “I think that shadow IT is inevitable given the power, usability and affordability of consumer technologies,” said Dr. Millard. “BYOD is just the start of it – with bring your own software, apps, office and wear your own device also becoming increasingly common. The danger is just ignoring it or banning it, because people tend to do it anyway. This isn’t malicious, it’s simply that we’ve found something that makes our life easier and we don’t think about the things that obsess IT departments (security, control, licensing). IT departments need to embrace the trend, make it easier for people to make good choices and make things secure.”

The Generation Gap We’ve always had a multi-generational workforce; what we haven’t had in the workplace before are different ways of communicating and collaborating. Millennials – born between 1982 and 2002 – are the first generation to grow up in a connected world. Most do not remember the time without the Internet. They opt for quick, casual and efficient collaboration and choose tools to meet those needs. According to a 2015 study by comScoreiv, more than nine in ten millennials have smartphones and they use them extensively, spending an average of 50-100 per cent more time on mobile than on desktop today. This takes the collaboration conundrum to new heights. It is not a case of the senior workers telling the younger (and presumably more junior) members to put up and shut up. If their company collaboration tools do not meet their needs, Millennials will seek and find options elsewhere, either by choosing different tools, or finding somewhere else to work.

The ‘Productivity Puzzle’ and the new workplace.

Embedding new technology into working culture. Some of the time, the failure to collaborate can simply be down to miscommunication, particularly when it comes to aligning new technology with company culture. Often there’s a disconnect between the investment in collaboration technologies and making employees aware of them. Leon Benjamin, director of collaboration at BT partner Sei Mani Ltd agrees: “After five years of managing the adoption of unified communications applications touching over 30,000 employees in dozens of enterprises, the difference between low and high adoption is ironically the way it’s communicated. Information makes people think, but emotion makes them act. With a few exceptions, most deployments are driven by IT departments and they simply don’t have the skills to communicate the value, benefits and outcomes of these technologies to end-users.” “The profitability and sometimes the survival of a consumer product company relies almost entirely on marketing. Would Apple or Samsung use engineers to sell its products to consumers? We all know that wouldn’t end well, and that’s how application deployments should be treated – like consumer led product launches that leave nothing to chance from straplines and slogans to packaging and customer support.“

With a few exceptions, most deployments are driven by IT departments and they simply don’t have the skills to communicate the value, benefits and outcomes of these technologies to end-users. Leon Benjamin Director of Collaboration, Sei Mani Ltd

Ensuring a successful transition. Poor user adoption is hampering many companies’ efforts to deliver on their collaboration projects. Investing heavily in an IT infrastructure is useless if it isn’t communicated to employees, or if they have had no input into its implementation.

A collaborative change culture is something that organisations should consider if they are to hit the right note with their customers. Place more faith in your staff, provide them with the tools to get the job done, and trust that they can deliver.

Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) projects aim to provide the tools to do just that. Sea changes in workplace behaviour don’t happen by chance – it takes considered planning, guidance, training and support to ensure the new collaboration technology is fully embedded into the day-today processes of an organisation.

According to Dr. Millard, this shift in mind-set is all that currently stands in the way for most businesses:

Working with a consultancy service can help change the procedures and understanding of what Unified Communications can deliver, especially when it comes to enhanced customer service. BT’s Collaboration Adoption Service does exactly that, providing consultancy and training to ensure the UCC implementation is a success. It is not just about installing a piece of kit or software – it’s about embedding the technology into employees’ working lives.

“It is interesting that technology ALREADY allows us to change the ways that we work but it seems that commute times are going up rather than down at the moment and many jobs are still advertised in a particular geographic location.“

Organisations wanting to change the way their people work would benefit from selecting an ICT partner that puts employee collaboration and productivity at the core of their business proposition outcomes.

Having a provider that can accommodate skills management, coaching, public relations and internal communications ensures that a UCC policy can derive the maximum desired impact. By partnering with a UCC specialist, it is possible to configure the correct collaboration tools a business needs, define the rollout processes and deliver a range of training based on user requirements.

Increased connectivity, intelligent technologies, wearable computing, augmented reality, virtual reality, the internet of things, clouds of clouds, smart buildings and autonomous vehicles all have the power to change aspects of the ways that we work. However, we also need culture change to untether ourselves from the past. Dr. Nicola Millard Head of Customer Insight & Futures at BT

BT’s Discovery Workshops are for customers that have already established collaboration tools in place and want to get more from them, or for customers who are looking for a solution to be built from the ground up.

i

EMC/IDC, The EMC Digital Universe, 2014, quoted in Infoworld article, dated August 22, 2014, entitled How to survive the data explosion, accessed March 14, 2016.

ii

Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), The missing pieces: Solving Britain’s productivity puzzle, August 2015, accessed March 14, 2016.

iii

Ofcom, The Communications Market 2015 (August), August 2015, accessed March 14, 2016.

iv

comScore, The Global Mobile Report 2015 – How multi-Platform Audiences and Engagement compare in the US, Canada, UK and Beyond, July 2015, accessed March 14, 2016.

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