Official: Flexible workers are happy workers

Technology and human resources are set to come together in a workers' revolution that will send productivity and morale within companies skywards.

The flexibility afforded by technological advancements will mean workers can increase their efficiency while improving the much-vaunted, but barely realised, work-life balance.

Initiatives such as working from home or mobilising the workforce can maximise the potential of otherwise dead time spent commuting. Similarly, it enables staff to build their day around their peaks of activity - especially those working in multi-timezone-dependent businesses, while more efficiently incorporating their life outside of work.

Research from MORI suggests 47 per cent of workers believe technology is poised to free up their time while maintaining their productivity. Only 12 per cent of respondents believed technological improvements will make no difference to their work-life balance.

More than 50 per cent of respondents, said they want to ditch the nine-to-five mentality (or more realistically eight-to-seven) which persists in business and has consistently failed to change with the times.

Frances O'Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said in a statement: "We're all working longer than ever before. But it doesn't have to be this way. The idea that longer hours lead to greater productivity is simply a myth. Achieving a better balance between work and home isn't some lofty ideal we should maybe try to achieve one day, but something we must make a priority. Workers whose employers are forward-thinking enough to allow them to work flexibly will be more content in their jobs, more productive and have happier families."

Which all sounds very nice, but most companies are yet to embrace such models - despite the availability of teleworking solutions and wireless technology. Many simply can't quantify the benefits related to morale and efficiency in the same way they quantify the very real costs of investment in such technologies.

Neil Laver, group marketing manager at Microsoft, who commissioned the survey, said: "UK companies need to change the way in which they manage, motivate and support their information workers, otherwise they're in danger of squandering productivity with a consequent impact on business performance."