Smarter working set to save British businesses £1.6bn

Crucially, the report shows that allowing private sector employees to use technology devices to adopt an “Anywhere Office” approach to work could power a combined saving of 6.6 million hours per week – or a potential £1.6 billion.

The report, Redefining selling, serving and working, commissioned by O2, reveals a desire from almost half of employees to break the 9-5 to help them become more efficient and achieve greater career success – but with just 48 per cent of Britain’s businesses having integrated digital into their business strategy, they risk being held back.

For those businesses that have introduced an Anywhere Office policy, greater efficiency is cited as the greatest benefit, while a third think that using technology such as smartphones and collaboration software at work allows them to save time during their working week.

Ben Dowd, Business Director at O2 says: “In the wake of the Bank of England’s latest Inflation Report, the productivity of Britain’s businesses is under more scrutiny than ever. But our report shows that it’s not about making the country work harder – it’s about using the technology already at the fingertips of businesses to work smarter.

“Taking this approach doesn’t mean employees should be accessible 24/7; it means giving people the option to work in a way that suits them, in order to drive maximum productivity and – in turn – power economic growth for the UK as a whole.”

 

O2 has issued 5 key pieces of advice to businesses on how to introduce an Anywhere Office:

1. Introduce flexible working hours, allowing employees to work at times of the day that suit them

2. Equip employees to work securely from anywhere – this can be easily achieved by something as simple as ensuring that every employee has a company laptop, mobile or tablet

3. Provide access to fast and reliable connectivity

4. Get a web-based data storage service, which allows employees to simultaneously work on a document from wherever they are

5. Make journeys more efficient – arm employees with the tools to make journeys a productive part of the working day