Business owners are seeing the advantages of smartphone and tablet technology and it's making them more tolerant to employees who show up late for work.
According to new research by Mozy, mobile technologies, including smartphone apps and cloud services, now means that employers are surprisingly supportive of a flexible workforce – more than most employees realise.
The findings emerged in a study of 1,000 US, British, German, French and Irish employees and employers, which found 73% of owners have a relaxed attitude to time keeping, as many are working on emails and files via their technology long before they actually get to the office.
Employers relax over time-keeping
Despite the fact that most smartphones have alarms the average worker seems incapable of using them, however the average employer is willing to turn a blind eye to employees being up to 32 minutes late and let staff members spend a quarter of the week working from home.
US employers take the most relaxed view, tolerating their staff turning up 37 minutes late in the day, while British bosses are the strictest, expecting workers to be at their desks no later than 24 minutes into the working day.
UK workers the keenest on the planet
The study confirms the long-held suspicion that the urge to check emails first thing in the morning is overwhelming for some: by 7 am, one in five employees worldwide have already checked their email. Some nations, however, prefer a gentler start to the day. Compared to a third of all British employees who log in by 6:30 am, just 18% of U.S. and 13% of French employees are firing up their email at the same hour.
Employees not getting the essential mobile tools
The death knell of the nine-to-five worker has been rung by mobile technology, with 75% of employers giving employees the tools to get their jobs done wherever they are. In the US, 20% of employers make it possible for their workers to be able to access everything on the go (email, network drives and applications, front and back-office cloud services) – which allows people even more freedom. However, only 11% of British employers responded that they were open to providing employees full access to everything.
"Workers everywhere are making the most of the technology available to them to build more flexibility for work and family," said Russ Stockdale, General Manager of Mozy, which conducted the study. "Hard work isn't going unnoticed and mobile working and technology is having more of an impact on employer attitudes than people think."
Mozy has a complete list of activities and more findings from the study available on their 9-5 survey webpage
