Business Info - issue132 - page 7

AGENDA
Office technology unfit for business
Over a quarter of office workers think they
couldn’t live without technology, yet 50%
say the technology used in the office is
slow and outdated, according to a survey by
national fit out and refurbishment specialist
Overbury.
Overbury recently completed a new
workspace for international travel agency Travel
Counsellors at Peel’s Venus building on the
outskirts of Manchester. The brief was to create
a design that would encourage greater staff
collaboration, increase productivity and retain
and attract the very best staff.
The finished space includes two floors of open
plan office space, with central breakout areas and
the technology to enable agile working, as well
as a recording studio for webcasts and a striking
IT server room that is visible through a coloured
glass pane.
Peter Knight, managing director at Overbury,
said: “Technology is there to support and enable,
not to anchor and dictate. Environments today
need to have almost organic adaptability so that,
as the trends change, the correct infrastructure is
in place to cope.
“The ‘choose your own device’ trend in
particular has become more popular and this
is often because the technology we have at
home is typically much better than standard-
issue company devices or Wi-Fi infrastructure.
Businesses need to create an environment that
supports choice and allows people to work
however they want to.
“By creating comfortable environments, as
Travel Counsellors has done, people generally
speaking work better or are more productive,
using devices they know or want to use.”
It’s not all bad news
It is commonly believed that consumers are
much more vocal about complaints than they
are about recommendations.
While the internet certainly makes it easier
for consumers to publicly complain, research
commissioned by Yonder Digital Group reveals
customers are just as likely to share a good
experience on social media (38%) as a bad
experience (31%). The results also suggest it
would be a mistake for businesses to focus solely
on social media, as a far greater proportion of
people tell others about their good experiences
(89%) than post it on social media.
Graham Ede, Yonder Digital Group, said:
“We’re now a society that shares good
experiences and bad ones, so new techniques
need to be developed to remind customers to
share and to make sharing easier. To start with,
companies need to gain a better understanding
of the different communication channels used by
their customers, if they wish to encourage more
positive feedback.
“It is crucial to offer customers a range
of channels – both live and automated – for
getting in touch. Pioneering organisations that
understand each customer’s individual mix of
channel preferences – email, mail, phone, social,
webchat, and so on – are more likely to achieve
excellent customer service and secure top-rate
reviews as a result.”
First impressions count
More than half (53%) of job hunters would turn
down a role if they did not like the company’s
office or working environment, a survey of 1,014
UK workers carried out by etailer Furniture123.
co.uk has revealed. One in two respondents cite
the location of the office as key, 41% would be
put off by outdated décor, while a lack of natural
light would deter 38% of workers. Almost a third
(32%) would be influenced in their decision to
take a job by broken or outdated furniture and
the same number said a dirty or unhygienic
workplace is a deal-breaker.
01732 759725
magazine
07
Businesses neglect personal development of workers
UK SMEs aren’t getting the input they need to further their career, claims SME HR
software provider breatheHR.
In a survey of over 1,500 SME workers and business owners, three-quarters (75%) of
respondents said they consider personal development to be valuable. However, almost a third
(30%) said they never have meetings about their personal development outside their annual
appraisals. Only one in five (19%) gets feedback every couple of months and just 9% get
monthly input.
Jonathan Richards, CEO of breatheHR, said: “Businesses that dismiss personal development as
‘the fluffy stuff’ are gravely underestimating the impact it has on motivation and morale. Your
people are your competitive advantage; the very soul of your company. They want to know that
you understand their ambitions and support them. Personal development is key to that.”
Workspace by the hour
Worktel, the online platform that allows
professionals to book workspaces and
meeting rooms by the hour, is now available
in the UK.
In September 2016, Carlos Ortiz, Ignacio
Díaz-Barceló and Manuel Balsera decided to
launch the business with the objective of offering
meeting/working space to workers who lack a
physical office or spend a lot of time outside
their usual office.
Booking is done through the website or an
app for an average price of £6/h for an individual
workspace or £25/h for a full meeting room.
Worktel currently offers more than 300 spaces
in hotels, business centres and co-working
environments in more than 25 cities in Spain,
Portugal and Argentina and now London and
Manchester.
Graham Ede,
Yonder Digital
Group
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