November 24, 2008—The forecast for the workplace of the future points towards less fixed office space and more “open” space, with the adoption of alternative workplace strategies to support mobile and geographically dispersed workers. Yet the largest challenge remains lack of support from senior management, according to a recent Microsoft/CoreNet Global survey of CoreNet Global Orlando Summit registrants, with 72% representing large scale, global operations.
This survey of international workplace and corporate real estate executives (CRE) concluded that 77% of respondents see AWS programs growing over the next three years. AWS programs are already starting to enter the mainstream, as new companies join the early adopters in piloting and rolling out alternative workplace programs.
Eighty-six percent of respondents report having an AWS initiative in place. Of those, 40% have had programs for five or more years, with another 30% staring in the last two years. The number of employees participating in alternative and flexible work programs varies. In one out of five companies, more than 30% of total worldwide employees are involved, while in over half of the companies less than 10% of employees are.
Almost half the employees participating have gone completely mobile and given up an assigned office. As this number grows, the physical footprint of companies is expected to continue to shrink, as well as costs and their carbon footprint.
“We’re seeing the two main reasons corporations are implementing existing AWS are about people–first the ability to attract and retain talent and provide a better work-life balance by enabling employees the flexibility to work remotely. Second, improving productivity and collaboration. Cost, whether right sizing the portfolio or overall cost cutting, were also important, but less than the people issues, which was surprising since the survey was fielded prior to the banking and stock crisis in October,” said Katherine Randolph, Director, Unified Communications for Microsoft.
Three-quarters of respondents say they’re actively working with IT to ensure that the physical and the virtual environments work together, citing the importance of communications technologies to support mobile workers. E-mail has surpassed the phone as the primary form of business communication. Web conferencing is used by 85% of respondents companies, and instant messaging, Voice over IP, and video conferencing are all being used by approximately two-thirds of companies.
