Given these mobile productivity challenges, clearly it is becoming increasingly important for employers to provide their work force with the right technologies when mobile. According to our survey, laptops are the most widely provided mobility tool, but only 28 percent of employees have one provided to them by their employer. Similarly, mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, netbooks and tablets are reserved for only a small minority of the work force.
The Right People
Our survey underscores the need for wider mobility initiatives. Employers need to look beyond the obvious executive candidates and expand their mobility initiatives to fully remote or mobile on-the-road workers. Although connectivity is particularly important for top executives, it is also important to middle managers, who spend 25 percent of their time away from their primary workspace, and staffers, who spend 16 percent of their primary workspace, and staffers, who spend 16 percent of their time away. And these figures are only likely to increase, further underscoring the need for employers to widen their mobility scope.
Since middle managers currently spend 25 percent of their time away from their primary workspace, they are on the cusp of the threshold beyond which mobile technologies become less of a nice-to-have and more of a necessity. Indeed, an increasing proportion of middle managers say they believe new mobile devices would be useful for work. For this segment, smartphones are the most popular (with 45 percent already owning one, and another 15 percent saying they would be useful), but netbooks (19 percent already owning) and tablets (19 percent showing interest) are also prominent.
Some specific middle management segments pose stronger requirements for connectivity in general, including sales and business development and professional services. Customer service middle management tends to gravitate toward handheld computer/ PDA devices and smartphones. Educators also show great interest in mobile technologies across the board.
