31 January 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Over half (52 per cent) of UK employees believe that their personal technology feels more modern and is more user-friendly than their workplace technology and a further 50 per cent wish that their workplace technology performed in a similar manner to their personal technology.
These UK-specific findings are from a global survey of 3,000 employees conducted by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated called Building the Workplace of the Future, which unveiled employees' opinions of their workplace technology and how this compares with the tech they use in their personal lives - as well as what they believe to be the barriers to adoption of new technologies.
However, almost half of employees (47 per cent) said that their workplace technology requires more training than their personal technology and 49 per cent stated that their workplace technology often seems to make common activities more complicated than they need to be by adding unnecessary steps.
In addition, nearly two-thirds (60 per cent) stated that it is easier for them to search for new movies on Netflix than it is to search for their work benefits information, and 43 per cent said it is easier for them to book an Airbnb than find out how many holiday days they have left.
Considering the technologies that have become commonplace in everyday lives such as Netflix, Airbnb or Uber, organisations can no longer implement workplace technologies that do not meet these same high standards of usability. The research looked at desk-less employees as well as office workers.
The research also found that while 40 per cent believe that their job is made harder because their employer relies on outdated processes and technology, over a third (39 per cent) say that their company invests in a lot of technology, but that it isn't the right technology to help them do their jobs.