Singapore employers to provide more tech support for mobile staff

A nationwide survey commissioned by Avaya, conducted by research firm YouGov, has revealed that employers in Singapore are not providing the right tools for employees to effectively collaborate and communicate internally across the organisation, and externally with customers.

Gathering interviews from 507 employees, staff cited their communications and collaboration tools are not mobile-friendly, and are not embedded into the applications and browsers that employees “live in” every day.

In fact, almost one quarter (24%) of employees say their employers do not provide the right technology tools for effective communication.

The survey focuses on three key areas of concern as companies seek more collaborative communications tools in the workplace:

• Being able to work seamlessly across any device of their choice, having access to emails, shared files
• Tele- or video-conferencing facilities to manage work related calls
• Easy access to collaboration tools

According to the survey, 39% of respondents spend an average of 8 working days away from their desks in a typical month; and need easy access to tele- or video-conferencing facilities to manage work related calls, along with access to emails and shared files on the go.

Additionally, results showed that 37% want independent access to email on their mobile phones, with calling and mobile data packages (43%), and remote access to file servers and databases (43%) from their mobile devices or outside the company network.

Furthermore, less than one in three have access to third-party conference calling solutions (32%), video conference facilities (27%) and desktop conference facilities (23%). On another note, 39% are away from their desk less than 40% of the time in a month.

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Employees also want to be able to work effectively and seamlessly on device of their choice – desktop, laptop, mobile, or tablet. Currently, only 30% of full time employees in Singapore are able to.

In fact, more than 41% of office workers say they would want a hot desk facility to work effectively from any location.

While office workers rely on technology to keep track of and manage their work, from scheduling meetings, to sharing digital, video and audio content, to recording meetings and sharing notes afterward, many do not have easy access to collaboration technologies outside of work – only 35% have calendar access on mobile.  

Meanwhile, 70% of employees in Singapore are using personal social messaging applications such as WhatsApp and WeChat for business communications without oversight from IT teams, exposing organisations to data breaches and security risks.

These applications also do not integrate with other enterprise tools such as email, work calendar and file storage services.     

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Additionally, more than half (53%) surveyed would build communication and collaboration abilities into existing enterprise apps; and 71% said that a technology-assisted environment can help employees to be more productive.

Sami Ammous, sales engineering director, APAC, Avaya said: “Digital transformation can be described as a way of helping companies reduce complexity of customer interactions. Employees are internal customers and the employee experience is the future of work.”“The survey results clearly show employees are looking for simple, easy to use mobile friendly collaboration tools that fit within their workflow. Avaya Equinox is the industry’s first real unified communications solution that enables employees to seamlessly use communication and collaboration tools within their workflow,” he added.

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