Mobile rebels refuse to switch to silent

By flexibleboss on July 18, 2013 • ( 0 )

More than a third of office workers would leave their job if they couldn’t use their mobile phone for work.

Research by cloud computing specialist VMware revealed that 67% of office workers don’t believe their organization gives them the mobile tools they need or mobility policies that allow them to work effectively on the move (62%).

And many of them are right: 47% of IT decision makers across Europe said they can’t meet the mobile needs of staff across their business. Many are turning to bring your own device (BYOD) policies to plug the gap, with 70% saying they have implemented or plan to implement this policy. A third said they were doing so to attract or retain staff.

Furthermore, almost half (46%) of UK IT leaders questioned said they are or will be designing systems and policies this year that assume employees are mobile and accessing data remotely as the norm rather than the exception.

“This is evidence of an emerging class of mobile rebels with a real cause – a new wave of employees using mobile devices to their advantage, to work more effectively and drive innovation,” said Joe Baguley, chief technical officer at VMware, EMEA. “Many companies are playing catch up to this trend; if workers aren’t provided with the mobile resources they require, many will take the initiative and drive change themselves.”

The research warned of security dangers if these issues are not dealt with by employers. More than two thirds (69%) of IT leaders believe company information is being stored on personal devices, with 43% saying they believe the information is commercially sensitive.

They are wise to be wary, with only 41% of British employees surveyed confident that the data on their personal devices was not commercially sensitive.

“Businesses must tread a fine line between embracing and promoting a flexible working culture, while protecting corporate intellectual property and customer data. There’s a mobile uprising occurring, and it’s creating management and security challenges for IT departments,” said Baguley.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/