Half of big firms have flexible working, survey shows

But full technological integration of communications systems is not a high priority

Some 43 per cent of organisations identify higher productivity as the key benefit of flexible working

A survey by research house Vanson Bourne for communications vendor Interactive Intelligence shows that half of large businesses encourage flexible and remote working and claim to have a well-developed infrastructure to support it.

Unified communications is in use by 35 per cent of the respondent companies but full integration remains a low priority with only 18 per cent moving in that direction.

The top-level findings reinforce the prediction made earlier in the year by the analyst Gartner, which believes that by 2012, 20 per cent of businesses will own no significant IT assets.

The survey showed that 43 per cent of organisations identify higher productivity as the key benefit of flexible working. Other advantages include retention of key staff and the ability to attract new and well-qualified employees (34 per cent), reduced office costs (eight per cent) and more responsive customer services (eight per cent).

The perceived disadvantages of flexible working included limited interaction between key workers (62 per cent); lack of management control over employees (59 per cent); security and confidentiality of information (55 per cent); and employee concerns that lack of visibility may affect their promotion prospects (33 per cent). Only 16 per cent of organisations saw the requirement to invest in new technologies as a barrier to implementing a flexible working solution.