Insight
Using technology to solve the UK’s productivity puzzle
02 July
The productivity puzzle
The UK has seen slow rates of productivity growth over the past decade. Measures such as output per hour and real wages have failed to reach the levels they were at prior to the global financial crisis in 2008. This phenomenon is referred to by economists as the productivity puzzle.
Due to our recent withdrawal from the EU and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the future of the UK economy is looking even more uncertain. But one thing is certain: with out-of-office working at an all-time high, forward-thinking companies must increase the productivity of their mobile workforces if they are to survive and thrive for the long term.
The major driving force that will enable the necessary increases in productivity is technology. In this article, we discuss the productivity challenges facing today’s organisations and the solutions that can help them to maximise mobile employee productivity in a secure and efficient way.
Password-less productivity gains
There are numerous productivity challenges associated with people having to access multiple unconnected systems to do their day-to-day jobs. For instance, the more systems an organisation’s employees need to access, the more time is wasted entering multiple passwords and usernames. Then there’s the issue of forgotten passwords to deal with.
Consider these statistics:
40%
of employees waste a cumulative 24 hours a year inputting passwords.
£320
An estimated £320 per employee is lost in productivity annually dealing with password issues.
Overall, password-related productivity losses cost £480,000 per year for an average UK business with 1500 employees. In this respect, technology is having a negative impact on productivity, but it can also be the key to boosting productivity.
Forward-thinking organisations are implementing password-less ways of working, especially for mobile workers. By providing password-free single sign-on access and multi-factor authentication solutions for all employees, organisations are reducing time wasted on inputting, managing and resetting passwords. Plus, they are benefiting from more efficient security with reduced IT and administration costs.
In an average organisation with 1000 employees, the cost reduction generated by secure password-less solutions such as iDENprotect is up to £2.5 million.
Safe access to corporate data
Many UK organisations are adopting managed applications that provide a seamless and secure single sign-on solution to increase mobile workforce productivity.
By leveraging an organisation’s existing infrastructure, systems such as Hypergate (Authenticator and Files) give employees access to relevant company resources on their Android Enterprise and iOS smartphones. These solutions make the process of accessing corporate data faster and safer for the entire workforce.
Now mobile workers can access on-premise data on their mobile devices and enjoy the same user experience as on a desktop PC. This means when they work remotely they are just as efficient, accurate and productive as office-based employees. Plus, they can collaborate freely with their teams and edit all files directly on their mobile devices.
As well as significantly boosting productivity, these solutions are also helping businesses to drive down IT support and operational costs.
Improving work/life balance
In the digital era, everyone has 24/7 access to their mobile devices. The problem is, if you don’t get your work completed during office hours, there’s an expectancy to keep going. But working longer hours means less free time for friends, family and other pursuits.
When looking to increase productivity, especially for mobile workers, it’s important to choose the right technology solutions that will make people’s lives easier and happier. Making them more productive should ultimately mean they can complete their workload faster, more accurately and more efficiently, so at the end of the day they have more free time, not less.
The Zero Trust approach
When it comes to adopting technology for mobile workers, increased productivity and security go hand in hand. That’s why many UK organisations are adopting a Zero Trust approach to mobile security.
Put simply, a Zero Trust security model always considers the network to be a hostile environment. It is assumed that there are always threats from inside and/or outside the organisation. Therefore, in today’s complex and ever evolving cyber threat environment, the best way to secure a network is to assume absolutely no level of trust. Hence the term – Zero Trust.
Boost productivity for your mobile workforce
Here at Appurity, we are passionate about using the latest technologies to make mobile workers more productive. Over decades, we have gained a wealth of experience helping clients – across a broad range of industries – to develop and implement strategies and solutions that securely and effectively boost the productivity of their mobile employees.
If you’re looking to adopt the right technology and boost productivity with a secure and future-proof solution, speak to the experts.
Sources
https://www.realwire.com/releases/The-problem-with-passwords-UK-workers-waste-more-than-two-days-a-year
https://www.eweek.com/security/how-companies-are-losing-money-on-password-time-wasting
https://www.scmagazineuk.com/authentication-growth-hack/article/1497167