Is the office really necessary? A study by networking major Cisco reveals 60 per cent of workers believe being in the office is no longer needed to be productive especially in Asia and Latin America.
Cisco announced on Wednesday the results of an international workplace study that reveals two of three workers around the world believe that they do not need to be in the office anymore to be productive.
In fact, their desire to be mobile and flexible in accessing corporate information is so strong that the same percentage of workers said they would choose jobs that were lower-paying but had leniency in accessing information from outside the office over higher salaried jobs that lacked flexibility.
The study was commissioned by Cisco and conducted by InsightExpress, a third-party market research firm based in the United States.
It involved surveys of 2,600 workers and IT professionals in 13 countries.
More than nine of 10 employees in India (93 per cent) said they did not need to be in the office to be productive. This sentiment was very strong in China (81 per cent) and Brazil (76 per cent) as well.
Two of every three employees surveyed (66 per cent) expect IT to allow them to use any device -- personal or company-issued -- to access corporate networks, applications, and information anywhere at any time, and they expect the types of devices to continue diversifying.
For employees who can access corporate networks, applications, and information from outside the office, about half of the respondents (45 per cent) admitted working between two to three extra hours a day, and a quarter were putting in four hours or more.
However, extra hours do not translate to always-on, on-demand employees. They simply want the flexibility to manage their work-life balance throughout their waking hours.
What is your take on this? Would you like to work from if given an opportunity?
Working from home is indeed a better option as:
- It saves travelling time and hence the employee can put in more hours at work than at road.
- No worries to pack the lunch box and go. As he is at home, food is available too
- Saves substantial infrastructure cost for employers. Due to the rising reality and infrastructure costs these days in all parts of the world, it is good idea to promote work from home. The saved workstation cost of employees can add up to company's profits
- Helps employees stay close to their family in case their office in their native city. If the employee is satisfied emotionally, he is bound to perform better.
I know that you would like to add more such reasons in favor of working from home...and i would like to hear all of them in comments...
Source :
Rediff.com