A new Censuswide survey of 1,001 SME (business) employees, which was commissioned by broadband ISP Zen Internet, has claimed that poor internet connectivity, coupled with technology issues, could be contributing to the United Kingdom’s current slump in productivity.
Overall some 85% of those who say they have been “annoyed by unreliable internet” connectivity said that it had impacted their productivity. Zen further claims that the average SME worker could be wasting 72 minutes a day because of unreliable internet connections and technology issues.
Some 51% of workers annoyed by unreliable internet connections also believe it can lead to unhappy customers, with two-thirds (67%) saying it creates frustrated colleagues. This forms part of a wider focus on the effect of irritations at work, with more than half of SME employees admitting to being stressed out (54%) by them.
A quarter (25%) of workers also admitted to experiencing sleepless nights caused by workplace irritations with 24% saying it causes them to overeat, while a further 19% have a smoke and 16% turn to alcohol.
Georgina Lord, MD of Zen Retail, said:
“The UK has long sought ways to improve its productivity, but this research shows it’s a near impossible task if it doesn’t solve its connectivity issue too. Connectivity is a fundamental part of how any business operates from reaching new customers to streamlining their core services and operations. Businesses need a reliable internet connection that delivers the capabilities they require to do their job and doesn’t leave employees twiddling their thumbs for hours each week.”
As usual Zen has a vested interest in the outcome of this survey, not least by presenting themselves as the better alternative choice. Indeed the provider also noted that 53% of those workers who had suffered unreliable internet connections believed that their company should change ISP.
However we should point out that such connectivity issues could just as easily be caused by local network / WiFi problems or a failure of IT management to provision enough capacity or redundancy. As such it’s not always fair to blame everything on the broadband ISP, which might well be working just fine.
Having worked with a fair amount of smaller companies regarding their IT, while availability of faster services may factor into why some of them are struggling with technology, a general avoidance of any sort of investment is likely to be a bigger cause. It doesn’t really matter how quick your connectivity is if your staff are using decade-old computers running obsolete software.
Did you mean slump?
Taking part in all these dull surveys Zen keeps doing, could also be part of the productivity slump. I wish they’d stick to being an ISP, providing broadband, doing what they do best.
The biggest problem I find when providing support to small business, with poor internet speeds, is them using the ‘ISP stock routers’ and most workers using the WIFI, rather than using a proper business class router, using CAT5E and above.
Another issue is many companies are still buying computers without SSD technology, its an absolute must, in fact, its better to have a slightly slower CPU with SSD, than a super fast CPU, with a poor HDD.