Australian and New Zealand managers show growing support of employees working offsite
Australian and New Zealand managers show growing support of employees working offsite
Majority of companies have formal remote worker policy in place but worry about team bonding, productivity and security
Sydney – 13 September 2007 – Remote or home workers are becoming an integral part of a company’s workforce, according to a survey of 224* Australian and New Zealand managers. However concerns about the impact of the remote workforce on effective team building, productivity and network security remain.
The survey of management views on remote working, sponsored by SonicWALL, Inc. and conducted by online marketing research firm InsightExpress, indicates more than half of the respondents believe that offering their employees the ability to work remotely is a competitive necessity or at least a motivating perk for employees.
The state of remote workers in Australia and New Zealand
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Half (50.4%) of the respondents surveyed reported that more than 20% of their company’s employees work remotely;
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The majority (74.8%) of the polled managers have a remote worker or home worker policy in place;
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Employee motivation (78.3%) and availability and cost of office space (43.8%) were the main reasons for managers to implement or recommend a remote worker policy;
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66.8% of the respondents have noticed an increase in requests to work from home in the past 12 months.
Managing a remote workforce
Despite the growing support for offsite working in Australia and New Zealand, managers identified several concerns unique to managing a remote work force. The top three anxieties – each reported by more than 40% of respondents - included:
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Challenges to building strong teams, with 47.3% percent believing remote workers are missing out on an aspect of the job by not being in the office;
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Worry over whether their remote workers will remain productive, in spite of the fact that more managers (66%) believe remote workers are equally or more productive;
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Concerns about potential network security issues and breaches resulting from remote access.
Location of remote workers
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66.7% of polled managers prefer their remote workers to work from home, while a hotel business centre (55.1%) and “anywhere there is an Internet connection” (42.4%) scored high on the preference list.
“As the survey shows, the role of management today is a more complex one. Business leaders see the benefits that remote working brings, but at the same time, they feel added challenges in managing employee productivity and career development, and see greater risks in keeping company IT assets secure,” said Chris Barton, Regional Manager ANZ, SonicWALL.
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* Of the 224 respondents, 195 of respondents are from Australia and New Zealand, while 34 respondents are based in other countries throughout the world.
About SonicWALL, Inc.
Founded in 1991, SonicWALL, Inc. designs, develops and manufactures comprehensive network security, email security, secure remote access, and backup and recovery solutions. Over one million SonicWALL security appliances have been shipped to protect tens of millions of computer users in businesses worldwide. SonicWALL is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and has its ANZ office in Sydney. The company trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol SNWL. For more information, visit http://www.sonicwall.com/au
Media contacts:
Iceberg Communications
Claudia Mairbock, Alicia Aldini
P: 02 8907 4932
E: sonicwall@iceberg.com.au
