Aussie businesses lack the right tech to support employees, study finds

Australian workers are feeling let down by their employer when it comes to remote and hyrid working setups.

In fact, according to new research conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of Templafy, 35% of Australian employees don't believe their company has the right technology in place to support a hybrid workplace.

This finding comes as hybrid working sets in as a new normal for a vast majority of Australian businesses.

Navigating different folders, databases and tools to find the right document is not only tiresome for employees but also carries a high cost for organisations, the report finds.

With workers losing an average of 4-6 hours per week tracking down information between tech tools, the impact on business productivity could top $75 billion.

The research revealed nearly two fifths of Australian workers (37%) say their company needs to simplify the technology tools and processes in place, with one in four employees (25%) feeling frustrated by having to switch between so many technology tools each day to complete their work.

While nearly two thirds of Australian workers (63%) believe that their company will successfully adopt a hybrid workplace over the next six to twelve months, a third of employees (30%) believe a hybrid workplace will make it harder to manage information.

In addition, 84% of employees believe a hybrid workplace would be successful if their company invests in the right technology to support it.

The research also found that the most common reasons why technology fails within the workplace include; a lack of consistent use of the technology company-wide (58%); new tools that don't integrate with existing tools and workflows (57%); and insufficient training (55%).

In order to combat disconnected content and workflows, Australian employees require technology that is more; user friendly and intuitive (72%); integrated into daily workflows (71%); and company-wide so that colleagues from across the organisation can work better together.

Furthermore, nearly a fifth of Australians (18%) agreed that it's a lot harder to learn and use a new technology tool in a remote environment, meaning businesses need to invest in additional training for tech tools to support flexible working.

To ensure businesses are tackling these workplace issues, it requires business enablement stacks, such as Slack and Zoom, which would empower staff to improve their efficiency with applications and tech tools used daily.

Templafy managing director for APAC, Mads Frederiksen, says, "The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation roadmap for a lot of Australian businesses, forcing everyone to re-evaluate the workplace.

"Organisations were forced to rapidly change the way they worked, with a lot of effort put into finding the right solution that allows them to remain productive and internally aligned during the transition to a hybrid workplace. The new way of working has changed forever, with emphasis on flexibility and remote working.

Frederiksen says, "It is vital to ensure the right technology setup is in place to support the future of work, a point which will remain the focus for some time to come.

"Organisations which adopt solutions with less software that does more to enable a unified, efficient and most importantly, pleasant working experience will be the ones who get to define the future of work.