The London Olympics are well and truly on the horizon but a new survey shows many companies have yet to get their IT plans in place to meet the staffing demands thrown up by the event.
Almost two-thirds of UK small and medium-sized businesses do not currently have flexible or remote working policies in place and many have no plans to invest in IT to meet the demand.
London 2012 will be a multi-million pound boost to the UK economy, but it will also mean significant transport problems, making flexible working an attractive option for employers that are able to offer it.
However, allowing staff to work from home, to work mobile or to work off-site requires investment in services like virtual hosting and IT outsourcing, and the Lexmark survey shows many companies are unprepared for it.
According to the poll of employees, just one in five of respondents’ organisations have plans to introduce a policy before the start of the London Olympics, despite the significant demand from workers for increased flexibility during the 17-day event.
Some 29 per cent of businesses said they have invested or planned to invest up to £10,000 in the necessary IT infrastructure to support these flexible working policies before the summer of 2012, but almost one-fifth had made no investment or plans to invest in the IT devices in strong demand from staff for this time.
Three quarters of businesses said they have no system in place to aid workflow or collaboration, such as cloud computing or remotely accessible servers.
“It is quite remarkable that with less than nine months to go until the Olympics, so many organisations have still not finalised a flexible working programme and the required IT infrastructure to support this,” said Gary Bourland, country general manager for Lexmark UK & Ireland.
“Having the correct IT systems in place will help businesses boost output and cut costs associated with delayed meetings and absenteeism due to travel disruptions and time off to see these events.”
Recent research from Deloitte found that a third of large companies are planning to introduce flexible working hours during the Olympics so that staff can take time off to watch the live events.
Source:http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/801250697/Firms-urged-to-get-IT-plans-in-place-for-Olympics
