Favourite device, apps can boost employee efficiency: Study

NEW DELHI: Allowing employees to use devices and applications of their choice can result in a more efficient workforce, says a study.

According to VMware's 'New Way of Work Study 2012', 72 per cent of the Indian respondents claimed to be more productive when they worked on devices of their choice.

About 70 per cent respondents said they were happier in their role when they were allowed to use a device of their choice, while 66 per cent said they find work less stressful when they have a choice of what IT tools they use and have better job satisfaction (70 per cent).

"With the growth of the smartphone and tablet market, the study indicates that corporate India may be seeing growth in the preference of employees for bringing your own device (BYOD) practices," VMware Managing Director India and SAARC T Srinivasan told reporters here.

The study suggested that organisations may need to keep an open mind to allow for the change in the way their people want to work in the post-PC era, he added.

The study was conducted across 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region across Australia, Singapore, India, Hong Kong and South Korea covering 2,077 people. The study was conducted by Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants.

There is a growing incidence of employees bringing their personal smartphones, tablets and social media to work, commonly known as the Bring Your Own Device concept.

While 72 per cent of respondents said they were bringing a personal device to work and using it for work-related purposes, the prevalence seemed higher in India, where 77 per cent said they were following the concept.

The study pointed that while a large number of employees (82 per cent) in India are provided with a portable device from their employer, many (77 per cent) still bring their own device to work to help them complete their tasks.

With concerns like security of official data, many employers have restrictive IT policies, which do not let employees access the official documents and solutions from their personal devices.

The study revealed that 47 per cent of Indian workers felt their organisations' current IT policies on using personal devices actually lowered their potential work efficiency.

"With the consumerisation of IT, the mobile worker is today evolving to a virtual worker for whom location and device are becoming less relevant. As these virtual workers define the IT culture at the workplace, technologies such as virtualisation and cloud computing can help companies adapt to the changing work culture," Srinivasan said.

India's desire to use personal mobile devices at work is driven by the need to be mobile (47 per cent) and to be more connected (39 per cent).