Employees are leveraging digital workflows more frequently while working from home (WFH) due to the pandemic, but many lack the right tools and solutions to fully enable remote work, a new report from global document productivity company Nitro Software (ASX: NTO) revealed.
Today, Nitro released the second installment of The Future of Work report, which examines how workers’ document behaviors, productivity levels, job satisfaction, and work expectations have changed during the global COVID crisis.
“We believe we’re in the early stages of what is to become a permanent shift towards more flexible work, including largely remote work for many industries, and so as business leaders, we can’t afford to be complacent as we think about how we need to adapt to this new normal. Before the halo dims, we need to proactively address the workflow and productivity challenges workers continue to face, especially when working remotely, in order to continue to drive greater efficiencies, effectiveness, and ultimately, engagement amongst employees,” said Gina O’Reilly, COO of Nitro.
According to the report, 46 percent of workers said their company was only somewhat prepared at best when offices closed in response to the global pandemic. As remote work becomes a permanent norm for many companies, IT leaders must commit to digital transformation and invest in the right solutions to improve their organizations.
The report also found 56 percent of workers are still printing and 50 percent still scanning, despite over 60 percent not having printers or scanners at home. As a result, 95 percent of workers see room for improvement in how their organizations handle documents. The report identified immediate needs for IT leaders to provide better training, more automated workflows and remote working tools, and an increased focus on collaboration.
Additional highlights from the report include:
- 40 percent of workers reported being very productive at home, and only 29 percent felt moderately stressed, while 10 percent felt no stress at all.
- 64 percent of workers are satisfied with their job, which is an increase from 60 percent in 2019.
- 66 percent say WFH policy is very or extremely important to future job opportunities.
“While it is encouraging to see many positive outcomes of remote working, it is important to consider the long-term impacts of such a significant shift within the workplace,” said O’Reilly. “At Nitro, we’re in the process of implementing a new ‘Flexible Forever’ policy, a hybrid approach to the future of work that enables our team to have the flexibility to work remotely and optimize for their respective personal situations and circumstances, but also have access to in-person time when it makes most sense – specifically for things that are simply better and easier in person – team meetings, planning sessions, social events, etc. . The nature of work has permanently changed and consequently, we must change and continue to evolve our thinking around the concept of workplaces and redefine the role of offices. Ultimately, we believe this is a really exciting opportunity to innovate around the workplace of the future.”
This report concludes Nitro’s Future of Work report series, with Part One report outlining four COVID-induced workplace trends, including declines in printing and paper usage, improvements to productivity, and a spike in digital collaboration.
For the full report, visit https://www.gonitro.com/future-of-work-part-2
For more information, visit www.gonitro.com
About the Research:
Nitro partnered with Qualtrics, a global research and customer experience firm, to survey 1,632 knowledge workers in the US, Australia, UK and Ireland between May and June 2020. For details and complete findings, go to https://www.gonitro.com/future-of-work-part-2.
About Nitro:
Nitro is a global document productivity software company driving digital transformation in organizations around the world across multiple industries. The Company’s core solution, the Nitro Productivity Suite, provides integrated PDF productivity, eSignature and business intelligence (BI) tools to customers through a horizontal, SaaS and desktop-based software suite. Nitro’s software solution is highly scalable, serving large multinational enterprises and government agencies, as well as small business and individual users. Nitro has over 2.2 million licenses sold, and over 11,000 Business Customers in 144 countries around the world, including global market leaders across multiple industries, over 68% of the 2019 Fortune 500, and two of the 2019 Fortune 10. Nitro is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Dublin, London and Melbourne.
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