Companies that use Internet technology to empower their staff are
the business world's real high-performers, writes Karl
Cushing
Despite all the recent talk about harnessing the Internet to
empower workers, be it through intranet usage or remote working
opportunities, it appears that the majority of decision makers in
UK businesses are either not listening or failing to practise what
they preach.
According to research from the Cranfield School of Management, only
24% of UK businesses actually encourage their employees to make
decisions and think for themselves. However, 78% believed their
employees would be happier if they were given more autonomy. So it
would appear that, although senior executives recognise the
benefits of employee empowerment they are reluctant to loosen their
grip.
The report, entitled Creating the Agile Workforce, polled 540
senior executives. It looked at how flexible businesses were, how
swiftly they could change and addressed the speed at which
workforces learn and adapt to new technology and working practices.
It concludes that unless companies start opening up the
decision-making process it could become a major barrier to the
creation of an "agile" workforce and becoming a successful
business-to-employee (B2E) organisation.
The report defines agile organisations as quick to respond to
external change and using short-term targets for skills assessment.
Organisations that are lagging behind in the adoption of B2E
practices tend to take a long-term view of market trends. This
makes them less flexible and slower to react to new technologies
and business practices.
To build an agile workforce, businesses need to combine both
flexibility and speed of action, according to the report. However,
the former is more difficult to acquire than the latter.
Furthermore, the majority of the businesses in the study tended to
overestimate their degree of flexibility. In fact, three quarters
of the organisations studied in the report hadn't yet managed to
exploit B2E practices fully.
Instead of simply looking at the deployment of mobile devices the
report looked at the extent to which companies supported mobile
working practices. Just as having a Web site doesn't equate to
having an Internet strategy, nor does doling out laptops and
personal digital assistants constitute a mobile working programme.
Senior executives identified searching for information as one of
their biggest headaches, with 82% saying that the ability to access
information quicker would improve their working lives.
The research found that, on average, employees lose three to five
hours a week searching for business information. The report claims
this figure could be doubled if time spent looking for business
contacts is also taken into account.
Over a year, this wasted time amounts to £2,377 for managers and
£1,624 for skilled workers, while the cost to UK industry runs into
billions of pounds.
And those of you who send private e-mails while at work should take
note: 19% of the respondents said their companies monitored the
time staff spent sending private e-mails and 33% said they
monitored the content of private e-mails.
Creating the Agile Workforce
The report found:
- The public sector is a good user of mobile technology but fails
to exploit its potential, for example through mobile working
- The major benefit of mobile working is the ability to deliver
products faster
- The main benefit of collaboration is the ability to exploit new
business opportunities
- The key benefit of e-training is the improved flexibility in
the way employees learn
- Financial services lead the way in exploiting B2E
- The public sector was best in terms of speeds of learning, with
retail the worst
- Increased employee productivity is the major benefit of
e-administration. Cost reduction was only third.
Case study: Surrey County Council's Workstyle programme
Surrey County Council is identified in the report by the
Cranfield School of Management as a good example of an organisation
adopting new working models made possible by the arrival of the
Internet.
The council, which has 23,000 staff, set up its Surrey Workstyle
programme to create seamless access to data and services through
both traditional and electronic channels.
As a result, the council now provides secure access to the
intranets of partner organisations. This increase in transparency
has helped foster collaboration across the organisation, resulting
in a more flexible working model.
The Surrey Workstyle programme also supports mobile working
practices. The scheme currently involves 3,800 employees identified
as those most likely to benefit from mobile working.
A system of hotdesks has been set up across the council's various
sites. Staff can either work remotely from home or they can use the
nearest hotdesk facility. However, the council does not actually
provide its staff with mobile technology.
Benefits of the Workstyle programme
- Employee productivity has improved
- Off-peak travelling has led to both personal and work time
savings
- The council has become more attractive to potential employees
and is attracting interest from people over a wider geographical
area
- Staff retention has improved
- Supporting mobile working has allowed the council to begin
reducing its number of office buildings from 90 to 20, resulting in
massive cost savings
.