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magazine
11
Productivity: what’s
that then?
More than two thirds (69%) of office
workers feel under pressure from bosses
to be more productive. Yet, only 55%
understand what that actually means,
claims global recruitment company
PageGroup.
According to its research, the most popular
definitions are ‘finishing all tasks before a
deadline’ (37%) and ‘getting all work done
within working hours’ (26%).
Oliver Watson, PageGroup executive
board director for UK & North America,
said: “As businesses, we constantly drive
our employees to be more productive, but
many are not demonstrating how to get
there or what the final destination looks
like. The result is potentially endless cycles
of unproductivity with no clear goals or
objectives.”
Live agents please
Despite the growing popularity of chatbots
(see page 42), live agents still have the edge
when it comes to sorting out problems.
In a poll of more than 1,000 US citizens
conducted by NewVoiceMedia, 68% said
they would prefer to interact with a live
agent than automated self-help when
requiring customer service. Only 9% prefer
automated self-help. Almost one quarter
(24%) appreciate both options equally.
BT should increase infrastructure
investment or face split
BT is ‘significantly under-investing’ in
Openreach, its local access network
subsidiary, the Culture, Media and Sport
Committee says in its report
Establishing
world-class connectivity throughout the UK
.
The report describes how the Government’s
broadband programme, BDUK, is on track
to deliver access to 95% of premises with
superfast services by the end of 2017. However,
it points out that the programme has not
delivered coverage to whole areas. Households
and businesses in the ‘final five percent’ with
little or no access to broadband are left at a
disadvantage as the programme seems to have
tackled easier-to-reach premises first.
The report argues that under-investment in
Openreach, which runs
the UK’s broadband
infrastructure, arises
because BT appears to
be deliberately investing
in higher-risk, higher-
return assets and not investing in profitable
lower risk infrastructure and services through
Openreach.
The Committee demands that BT invest more
in Openreach and infrastructure. Ofcom has
suggested a complete separation of Openreach
from BT Group and while the Committee has
ruled this out for the moment, they do agree that
Openreach should have much more autonomy
over what it invests.
IT professionals ill prepared for cyber attacks
A third (33%) of IT professionals believe they do not have the skills, people or technology to be
able to identify the cyber attacks that matter, a study conducted by Countercept has found.
The poll conducted during Infosecurity Europe asked 301 IT security professionals about their
organisations’ ability to detect and deflect attacks.When asked to pinpoint why threats get through
defences, 62% blamed the overwhelming threat landscape, citing that they can’t protect everything
all of the time.
Other excuses included employees (51%), the fast changing nature of threats (50%) and lack of
resources (46%).
Raising the salaries of disengaged
employees will not boost commitment or
keep them loyal to your business, warns The
Workforce Institute at Kronos.
According to a survey by Coleman Parkes
Research, remuneration is 10th out of 11 as a
reason for resigning, whereas not feeling valued
comes first, cited by 60% of employees as the
key factor when considering resignation.
Almost half (45%) of employees believe
UK SMBs need to do more to promote a
healthy work-life balance if they want to
boost employee engagement and successfully
compete with large enterprises.
Joyce Maroney, director of TheWorkforce
Institute at Kronos, said: “SMBs should possess
a real competitive advantage when it comes
to employee engagement and should focus on
competing directly with larger organisations on
these terms. This research shows that providing
a healthy work-life balance and a flexible
working environment holds a strong appeal
for employees. If these are actioned properly,
employee commitment to the organisation
will increase, improving retention rates and
increasing business efficiency.”
You can’t buy employee engagement
agenda
HouseofCommons
Culture,Media and Sport
Committee
Establishing world-
class connectivity
throughout the UK
SecondReportof Session 2016–17
HC147
