Working Remotely Not Possible For Many Irish Workers

Working remotely is quickly becoming more popular with employers in today’s workspaces. One of the many reasons is that remote working can help to improve the productivity levels of employees, which is understandably something that most businesses will want to achieve.

This is bolstered by the State of Workplace Productivity Report in the United States that found that 65% of full time employees felt that a flexible and remote work schedule would help to increase their productivity.

Along with this, remote working can also prove to be good for the environment as instead of employees having to drive to work and back, thus contributing to pollution; they can instead work from home with no travelling required.

Another benefit is that by allowing employees to work away from the office, it can help to reduce the amount of employee turnover. There may be many cases when employees decide to leave their job because it becomes impractical to travel or they begin to struggle balancing their work with commitments at home.

By a business offering remote working to employees, it will allow these employees to remain in work that they may have had to have left otherwise. This can reduce the cost on a business, as hiring and training new employees is not only time consuming but costly as well.

Workers In Ireland Struggling To Work Remotely

Unfortunately for workers in Ireland however, the dream of working remotely away from the office is far away for many people. According to new research from Ricoh Ireland, carried out in association with TechPro magazine, only 37% of Irish workers have the access tools and authorisation to work remotely.

Along with this, over half of the respondents (54%) felt that technology issues are a main barrier to innovation in work style, resulting in employees not feeling empowered. While workplaces are changing rapidly due to the increase in technological advancements, 49% of Irish workers believed a rigid culture and a further 43% believed that their senior management is unwilling to embrace this transformation of the workplace.

This can understandably lead to some resentment in the workplace, along with the worry that businesses that do not embrace transformation and innovation could be quickly left behind. By keeping up to date with technological advancements and allowing employees to engage in remote working more often, Irish businesses can help to not only improve their productivity levels but the work/life balance of their employees.