Share this post
Summary: Results of an employee survey showed personal technology increased workplace happiness and efficiency.
- More and more workers (especially the younger ones) are using personal devices such as smart phones and laptops on the job.
- Organizations that don't recognize how using personal devices can help their employees might experience productivity losses.
A research project conducted recently found that workers who use personal technology experienced more happiness and improved efficiency. In this case, personal technology means the workers used their own devices such as laptops and smart phones. The reason they may have felt happier and have been more efficient is that the fit between themselves and their own devices may be better, which means they are more satisfied with their user experiences, and more comfortable - two things that generally would make a person more efficient.
The survey of approximately 2,100 people between 18 and 64 years of age was conducted in the Asia Pacific region. All the individuals surveyed work in large organizations of 1,000 employees or more and work a minimum of 15 hours per week. India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, China were some of the home countries of the respondents. The research project is called the VMware New Way of Life 2013 study.
Some of the key personal technology findings for the survey respondents were:
- 87% own a smart phone
- 83% own a laptop
- 67% work at home some of the time
- 61% work on holidays
- 51% own a tablet
About 72% of workers surveyed said using their own personal devices makes them more efficient in the office and 75% said the same thing for times when they are working away from the office. Sixty-five percent said they experience more contentment when they are allowed self-selected software/ apps on their work devices. Familiarity and personalized functionality were two main reasons for their contentment when can choose their own technological tools.
In terms of the population's characteristics the survey found 59% of the respondents were from the Millennial generation, meaning they were born between 1980 and 1995. The implications of the already significant use of personal technology by workers in the Asia Pacific for companies could be dramatic. For example, the survey found that respondents said 93% of companies there know they use personal devices for work sometimes, but only half of the IT departments are prepared or equipped to offer tech support for them. About seventy percent of workers using their own devices for work look online for tech support information when they are having a problem, if they can't get any from their employer.
Image Credit: Andrew from London, UK, Wiki Commons
