It’s not exactly breaking news that mobile technologies are changing the way we work and enabling employees to be productive regardless of their location. What’s interesting is the pace at which they appear to be doing so.
71% of SMB’s report that their employees use mobile technologies to work outside the office, according to a new survey published by Portfolio.com. On average, these mobile workers get about 50% of their work done outside the office thanks in large part to smart phones and tablets.
Not surprisingly, a huge percentage of those mobile workers (88%) actively use social media, most of them saying they primarily use it for marketing purposes.
The survey included about 2,200 executives of SMB’s, 59% of whom said that the ability for employees to stay connected via wireless technology was “critical” to their business, with some reporting higher sales figures than companies who have yet to embrace mobility.
According to the survey:
Those adapting to the new way of conducting business on the go are bringing in double the revenue of those reluctant to adopt mobile technology as part of their day-to-day business practices. On average, mobile-fluent firms earn $10.8 million annually, compared with $5.7 million for mobile laggards, according to the survey conducted in early 2011.
Of course, this type of correlation is not always evidence of cause-and-effect, but it’s interesting nonetheless to see so many mobile-friendly companies reporting higher revenue and wouldn’t be surprising if increased worker mobility was contributing to it.
Does your company encourage mobile working? What kind of an impact does it have on productivity and sales? Let us know in the comments.
