Organisational culture remains a barrier to flexible working in Ireland

Trade

26 March 2013

A study conducted for Citrix Ireland by iReach Market Research has found a significant disconnect between the surge in personal and smart mobile devices in the workplace and policies in place to support flexible working.
Almost three-qarters (73%) of business decision makers surveyed said that despite the rise in trends such as bring your own device, their organisations do not support a flexible or mobile working culture, citing ‘loss of control’ as the biggest fear. A further 57% of respondents said they were not considering changing the working culture to adopt flexible working at all.

The survey also found that 37% of respondents were undecided about the benefits of mobile working, with 6% intending to introduce a policy in the coming years.

By contrast, the recent Citrix Workplace of the Future report, which surveyed 1900 IT professionals worldwide, indicated that by the middle of 2014, 83% of organisations globally will have embraced flexible working.

The biggest deterrent preventing companies from introducing a more formal ‘anywhere, anytime’ policy is loss of control highlighted by 38% of business leaders surveyed.

Other deterrents included lack of budget (17%); concerns for decreased employee productivity (12%); confidentiality of client information (4%); and lack of trust in employees (4%).

Grace O’Rourke Veitch, Citrix Ireland country manager, said: "This latest study indicates that whilst workers across Ireland are riding the consumerisation wave, Ireland PLC’s attitude to flexible working is lagging behind. For a country mooted to be the cloud capital of Europe, this needs to be addressed. Mobility in the workplace can help to improve the reputation of businesses and improve talent retention. With employees demanding mobile working to give them greater flexibility in their working lives, a better work life balance and the ability to work from anywhere, at any time – it is more apparent than ever that businesses now need to respond accordingly."

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