In March we partnered with independent research company Vision Critical, and its Springboard UK panel, to delve into the user experiences of enterprise wireless in the UK – and the results are in!
While we found workers have a growing reliance on wireless access, many experience poor connectivity in their workplace resulting in a frustrated workforce, missed deadlines and disruption.
Surveying 2,000 Brits, a whopping 1 in 3 said they could not do their jobs without wireless access or connected devices, however over 60% of these wireless-workers believe they get better Wi-Fi at home than they do at work!
Surely UK PLC is doing something wrong if the thousands of pounds spent on enterprise Wi-Fi isn’t providing the experience consumers get from ‘off the shelf’ home products?
Here’s a little more of what we found …
We also found missed deadlines, frustration and excuses were common for users. Up to 40% of wireless-reliant workers polled have missed deadlines and opportunities at work due to poor connectivity, with some even having used it as an excuse when reporting back to bosses!
8 out of 10 workers are ‘very’ or ‘extremely frustrated’ when unable to connect. Wireless access should be quick and simple to enable the user, not act as a hindrance. There’s a lot still to be done here in the work environment as our new mobile behaviors and consumption demands mean traditional enterprise Wi-Fi networks need to evolve.
Connectivity More Important than Power (and Tea!):
When asked to highlight scenarios that disrupt the working day and most impede productivity, the top three spots were all taken by IT challenges.
Poor connectivity topped the list, with 40% ranking this as most disruptive to their productivity. The dreaded fire drill (…that’s packing up your things, leaving what you’re working on and walking out of the office for 15 minutes) only managed fifth spot!
Top 6 Rankings for Productivity Disruption:
- Experiencing consistently poor or unreliable (on/off) connectivity
- A temporary power cut
- The wireless goes down for 15 minutes or more
- Unforeseen last minute deadlines
- A fire drill
- Running out of tea/coffee biscuits
And yes - contrary to popular belief, Britain’s workforce doesn't run on caffeine and sweet snacks; only 3% said a tea shortage was most disruptive to their ability to do their job effectively.
The Wireless Blame Game – A Perception Gap:
Two thirds of the wireless workers polled automatically blame the infrastructure for poor connections, as opposed to the device or other users.
There seems to be a real perception gap on the cause of connection issues here. The network is getting all the blame for poor experiences, when in reality the mobile device and users themselves have a big part to play.
Despite only 1 in 10 blaming the device, switching devices is the third most popular fix for users when faced with connectivity challenges! The full rankings were as follows:
The Desperate Device Shake:
Go on – admit it. You know it won’t work, but you’ve shaken your device in the air when those bars are low! In our survey, a third of wireless workers resort to waving their device in the air in a bid to get better coverage.
Regionally, Londoners are the worst offenders at 41% while the younger the employee the more likely they are to abuse their device in connectivity despair; almost half of 18-34 year old respondents admitted to the habit.
There’s no doubt that wireless is fast becoming the primary access layer, but the user experiences from our survey would suggest that not all enterprises are ready for it! Clearly a new approach is needed that gives the performance and ease-of-use customers have at home, with the scale and security of the enterprise.
You can read more in our press release here. And I’ll be blogging again on some more of our findings from the research soon, so stay tuned!
Right, I’m off for a cup of tea to keep up my productivity!