46 roundtable: IT skills & funding
During this discussion, facilitated by The Business Magazine and sponsored by James Cowper, Pitmans LLP and Barclays, sector exponents gave insights into our increasingly technological world, where 89% of businesses are set to offer mobile workstyles by 2020, as the
Citrix.com global report ‘Workplace of the Future‘ recently revealed. It also reported that other countries are already adopting such workstyles (and their commercial opportunities) faster than the UK, which from our Roundtable viewpoint is ...
Still shackled by a shortage of suitable technology funding and appropriate skills
Participants
David Bloxham: MD, GCS Recruitment
Bob Falconer: CEO, Gamma
Dan Havercroft: Relationship director, technology & telecoms, Barclays Corporate
Matt Hawkins: Chairman, C4L, data colocation, connectivity, cloud & communications
Wendy McMillan: Group strategy and business development director, Arqiva
Sue Staunton: Partner and head of technology team, James Cowper LLP
Tim Walker: MD, Taylor Made Computer Solutions
Philip Weaver: Corporate partner, Pitmans LLP
David Murray: Managing editor and publisher of The Business Magazine, chaired the discussion
Lined up to debate: our roundtable team Journalist John Burbedge reports the roundtable highlights
Focus on: workplace 2014 Are we ready to adopt the
mobile workplace? David Murray pointed out that although Citrix reported UK businesses (72%), France and Germany (both 71%) leading the European adoption curve, US businesses (90%) are adopting mobile workstyles quickest. Emerging countries such as China (85%), Brazil (81%) and India (77%) are hot on the US heels. “Conventional hours and workplaces will no longer exist and we will adopt a worklife blend rather than today‘s worklife balance.“
Matt Hawkins said the technology for such change already existed but it was very much UK culture that was the issue. “Traditional companies are still not making the changes but as you get new blood coming in they bring that culture shift. Also, the quality of UK Internet connectivity is poor in certain areas. As that improves, that barrier to change will disappear.“
Wendy McMillan: “Our people have the facilities to work from wherever they need to, but the reality is that most still come into the office. It‘s
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not necessarily about substituting the office with remote working but about blending the two. There are facets of employee social engagement which happen in a much richer way when people are in one place, and you struggle to get that from the end of a phone line or via a web conference.
“Ultimately it is about getting the job done effectively, and I believe people need to collaborate to do that.“
Philip Weaver: “People don‘t just go to work to earn money. There‘s the companionship and human element of work that you don‘t get working from home. Certainly, interaction with other human beings is an important part of my work.“
Bob Falconer‘s company has a flexible approach with “about 50 designated homeworkers“, and places location as secondary to getting the right people. “However, I think we all got a bit of a surprise when the CEO of Yahoo Marisssa Mayer announced she was abolishing its work-at-home policy and ordering everyone back to work in the office. She had a point. You can lose the value of that ‘water-cooler moment‘ as the Americans call it. People can get out of touch with colleagues and the company message and objectives“
Philip Weaver
McMillan and Falconer both agreed that remote working was not a problem from the productivity point of view “as long as the employee is engaged with their job role.“
But not too ‘engaged‘ David Bloxham explained: “I read an article that claimed as soon as you give someone a Blackberry they do two hours extra work each day. Technology is making the workplace more invasive into homelife, which can be dangerous, because sometimes you need to tell people to stop working.“
Is job flexibility so important? Murray said the Citrix survey also suggested
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2013
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