Many, many of us are today what can be called iWorkers (and though I'm a Mac, the term has nothing to do with Apple - surprisingly enough!). Still, it's the way we get things done today, and technology will play an even more critical role going forward.
Here is a fascinating slide show put together by the folks at CIO Insight. It is based on a rather large, Unisys-sponsored survey of workers from 10 countries, and it has very interesting statistics on where we are today. Still a lot of Luddite managers out there - even in the tech field itself. See and click through the slides at:
http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/IT-Management/iWorkers-CIOs-Are-In-The-Dark-About-TechSavvy-Employees-676020/?kc=EWWHNEMNL07152010STR1
Very interesting stuff - forward this post on to your colleagues - and particularly your managers! I'll look for your comments here on the blog site.
David
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87 comments:
The information reported here seems very high to me for an acceptance of using these technologies. In my own experience at my job, I would say that I do use these things, but they are mostly for personal use. There have been no guidelines issued at my small office in favor or not for the use of these things. I would not like my boss to know that I am using facebook, texting, etc. for my personal use.
I think this shows that today's worker is much more technology aware than just a few years ago. While technology can be a serious time waster (like surfing the internet, using facebook and making personal phone calls on your cell) it also has the ability to make a significant contribution to worker productivity. The tough part for the employer becomes deciding what is helpful, what is not helpful, and how to make sure that the balance is in the favor of the business.
Richard Hight
I believe that this article shows that technology is just continuing to get better and better and growing larger and larger every year. It is interesting to think about how our lives will be affected by technology withing the next 5-10 years. Flying cars anyone? lol
I believe that technology is evolving more and more everyday. So the statistics given are fairly accurate.
This is absolutely true and technology is getting more and more important. So if your great with computers you will always be needed in the workplace.
Technology is becoming more essential to the workplace. Companies, are therefore changeing their guidelines to suit these changes.
Technology is becoming more essential in the work place. However, there is always a time and place for texting on being on Facebook. When I am at work I am at work not being paid to speak to friend regarding her own issues. For those who abuse the good bosses who over look your use of Facebook and/or texting you’re lucky but one day your luck may run out.
Very interesting! I wish my workplace would use more technology! I feel like I am in the stone-age. Work would be so much easier if we had the technology like most companies do. It would make us more organized and efficient.
The most interesting thing about this slide show to me was the difference between the number of employers that said consumer tech was needed for retention and productivity and number of employees that said it was necessary. I believe that the younger generation of employees entering the work force today are more depended on the devices and think they are more important than they are.
The use of consumer technology is helpful and useful to employees and employers but most jobs can be don e without them just as well. In some cases these devices may even be harmful to the progress of work.
It amazes me the different views of the necessity of these technologies. Employees have a greater view of them than employers I believe because they make the job more interesting, easier, and up to date.
I have experienced this where I work because my boss allows you to access the internet, but social networking sites are blocked so that distraction is not there. However, we all have a cell phone and I can access the internet and text on my phone. Technology is great but I can see why companies would want to restrict time wasted on the internet and have guidelines.
I work in the office of a campground doing the bookkeeping. When I started, it was a very technology free job. I did use Excel spreadsheets and Quickbooks, but that was about it. Since I have been there, a lot of bills on taken care of online, all office workers do google chat, and I send and receive plenty emails from vendors, something that never happened before. I think technology definitely makes a business run smoother.
Most of the technologies at the jobs i have worked at our outdated. I usually know more about current technologies than do the people i work for. I think most companies are at least three plus years behind the current technology.
It is no secret that technology is evolving each and every day. From when call phones use to be as big as your arm to now being so small you can’t find them in your purse. Technology is only going to get more advanced and its going to be pretty amazing to see what new inventions they come up with next.
Unless a person is working in an industry...maybe selling or servicing technology, I think its a bad idea to integrate unneeded devices and internet capability. There's always a risk of productivity declining with unneeded technology.
On my last job, IT spent many hours cleaning up computer viruses and blocking access to certain types of websites. It's a consumption of time and money.
I believe that employers say that technology is needed less because of employees taking advantage of technology in the workplace for personal use. Just think of being in a class full of computers, how many students are actually listening compared to the students getting on facebook, myspace, or other websites unrelated to the class.
That is crazy that between 10 and 30% of companies use a social network like facebook or twitter and it is expected to grow. That is so interesting to me because it shows how things have evolved, since facebook originally started as a college website now is one of the most visited sites. I also found it interesting that 40% of workers use text messaging. Text messaging has become such a major way that people communicate these days, it seems people text more then they actually call people now.
Technology is improving more and more every day and it is starting to become very important in the business world but it also can be a distraction at work (or even school). I know if I bring my laptop to class I can't help but play on facebook or something while I should be paying attention to my teacher.
I was surprised by the % of people that used blogs and social sites for professional purposes. I will have to keep that in mind, when I post on mine never know who is going to read them.
It is suprising on some of those statistics but i have seen some of it in effect at my work. If I need a special schedule request i do not write it down for my boss. He wants us to text the request to him.
Technology is becoming a necessity. Companies with high technology advancements do better than those that are not well advanced. However, many people use technology for personal use and this takes away concentration at the job. That's why managers may not think employees need technology at work.
I work at Dillard’s and last year they started using twitter ad and appearing on facebook. Dillard’s is trying to stay ahead of the game. They produce data to gain clientele at work, which forces employee to have a leap of experience with using the computer. There no room at my workplace to use the computer as a personal use. However if I need to I am allow to sent a email to the head person if need be.
I work at home depot and they are very up to date with technology. they are always looking for new ways to make things run smoothly. They actually just invested in a device called the first phone that does pretty much everything in the store that all of the other devices throughout the store does. This way everything is at the palm of your of hands from being able to check people out at before they get to the register to something simple as caller another associate over the walkie talkie.
This slide show is so true. Technology is becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives. Technology is always growing. As the technology grows businesses grow more and more towards technology. I found a lot of these things do happen daily.
I have been getting my corporate email and calendar reminders on my phone for the last couple years. I don't know how I would function efficiently without it.
Im employed at Target for the most part of my job technology is necessary to complete certain task. There are various coporate/store wide updates sent directly through my LPDA which i cant do without. My store manager rarely communicates his expectations verbally however he will send you multiple emails in day! With that being said i dont think much would get accomplished without proper technology.
Technology is a great resources and I welcome it whole-heartedly. Tasks that would take hours to accomplish can now be done it minuets. So much time is save in my day due to the fact that I have a GPS. No more fumbling with maps and determine the most effect route to travel.
Technology is continuing to grow and become more and more useful for our everyday lives. I personally use the internet many times a day. One example would be using Google to find a definition, rather than digging out the dictionary. Technology saves us a lot of time, but it also can be a distraction with the social networking sites if you're in class or at work.
I work for the library system of St.Tammany parish, and our system uses twitter, and face book to keep the younger patrons informed about programs happening at the different branches. We also have a very large data base system to keep track of all the different items that our patrons check out. I could not imagine keeping track of our items with paper, it would be impossible.
Although we are becoming more technology friendly in today's society, I feel that most workplaces do not accept this, which can sometimes be positive or negative. For example, I work at an accounting firm and Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and other various websites that involve music and entertainment are blocked. Yes, this will almost force employees to become somewhat more productive, but it can also make employees feel like they have absolutely no freedom at all. This can sometimes cause employees to even quit their job, which will hurt the company in the long run. Sometimes employees are in a better mood even if they can get on facebook for just a few mins a day. Technology cannot be ignored and workplaces will have to eventually accept this if they haven't already.
If you aren't with it then you better to get on the bandwagon. That goes for organizations and individuals. This world is becoming so technology oriented it is astonishing. Businesses are taking advantage of this "WWW" movement in order to gain competitive advantages and those that do not conform will be left eating dust. From social networking to instant messaging, TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT BE DENIED
These statistics are not a surpise in today's world. Personally, I don't really like the high tech constant upgrading of everything today. The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more crucial it will be for people to be computer and tech savvy. Over the summer I took Omis 350 and I was amazed to see how big a role technology plays in the business process.
It's amazing how prevelant technology has become all over the work. It doesn't make much sense to me why businesses are not always up to date with the rest of the world. Maybe they should take a look at these statistics.
Technology is a very powerful tool in today's society and businesses should realize that sooner than later. I am actually pretty shocked at the statistics presented above. Employers should be more aware of what technology can do.
I'm aware that communicating is mostly done with electronic devices like smartphone. Whenever you look around, there is someone texting someone and it's not only students, but business people also. The reason some businesses may be hesitate about some social media in the workplace is to keep employees from tending to personal business instead of work related issues. But that does not stop the employee because they will use their personal device. In fact, this happened to me when I was signing in for an appointment.
This survey is proof that technology is raising within companies daily operations. Thirty percent of business willing to give an allowance for technology devices is a higher percentage than I thought it would be. Technology is also growing by more companies using networking sites to gain exposure. I also did not realize that forty percent use text messaging an instant messaging for business. Technology has rapidly grown over the past decade.
Technology is becoming more of a key factor when trying to run a company. I can recall working for a compnany in there Human Resources Department. When I was fairly new, all the employee files were on paper, in folders,& filed away. Some employee's information had been lost or misplaced for various of reasons. In short it took me almost a year to input every employee we had into our new computer database system. In the end it surely paid off. It saved alot of time and manual labor for the entire HR Dep. I cant imagine going through something like that again!
It doesn't surprise me with the amount of technology that is being used in the workplace, I am surprised it isn't more thatn it already is. I actually work at at place that doesn't even have a fax machine. They are very old school, everything is hand-written, no computers and an old cash register. The most technology we have is a credit card machine.
I read over some of the comments and noticed that some people are misinterpreting the numbers. Some of the percentages were not for the whole workforce or all businesses, but are out of "iWorkers" or all the people already using blogs, etc.
It did not surprise me that most businesses have not integrated enterprise apps into the menagerie of smart phones, PDA, iPads, etc. because, if I understand correctly, enterprise apps deal with a lot of sensitive data, and the security of that data on enterprise networks is already in enough jeopardy. Trying to make that data secure on just one cellphone network and device, let alone all the popular ones, is near impossible given the very nature of such networks and devices. (Wireless data is obviously insecure.) Keep in mind that there is a whole industry of people dedicated to industrial espionage. There are even companies of hackers for hire (although I don't think industrial espionage is their advertised purpose).
So, in short, it's a big "no duh" that companies have not embraced the technology in question.
At my past job the internet and technology was very important to complete my daily tasks efficiently and effectively. I use to help manage inventory and we would have to use excel, word, and access on a daily basis. These programs would allow us to do our jobs productively because it kept track of every item and inventory count in the entire warehouse. Looking forward, I think more companies should use technology to be more productive. I feel that technology saves valuable time and is neater and more efficient, although, not all jobs would require the use of technology.
It's great that we have all become more technologically inclined but sometimes social networking can get in the way of the job at hand. However many businesses are now using this networking system as a tool for sales and other business and I think these numbers will eventually increase.
Technology is growing at a very fast rate and is being used more and more each day. I wish that my job required the use of new technology that is being used at some major corporations because I would love to learn more about it. My job is mostly hands on work and some of our systems are kind of outdated. But as I mentioned earlier, I would like to be able to work with new computerized systems to learn more about it and keep up with the changes.
I wish more companies required a higher usage of technology. Each time I visit Hobby Lobby and purchase an armful of embroidery floss, the cashier has to manually type them in one by one. It's really a pain especially when I'm in a hurry.
My company allows for the use of technology for business plus personal. We are allowed to use the internet and cell phones for personal and business use. As for using technology for personal use, there is a limit. Technology allows for faster productivity in the workplace.
The use of technology is the workplace is growing rapidly. In some ways technology makes our jobs easier and allows you to work more efficiently. Technology can be a distraction in the workplace though. If employees use social networks to much while they are at work because they have access to them now then technology is a bad thing for the workplace. We have to figure out when and where it is okay to use technology in the workplace.
Technology in the workplace is growing each year. It is absolutely amazing when you think about it. In a few years there is no telling what type of technology may be out there. Human workers may be replaced one day :0
The growth of technology in this decade has never ceased to amaze me. Technology makes so many things so convenient for us and it goes a long way. If only we could measure how much we get done in a period of time this year versus five years ago.
Technology has changed the world in so many ways. Now employees can text, chat, or send emails at work without anyone knowing. So people abuse the system but it will be very hard for employers to monitor every employees ations. Technology is good but comes with some disadvantages.
It's crazy how fast technology is growing, and since it's evolving so fast it's hard for businesses to afford to keep up. The fact that the use of Twitter and Facebook is going to increase up to thirty percent within the next year makes me want to learn how to Twitter, since I will most probably have to keep up with it if my future business has one. I think businesses should have technology teams ready for new technologies to come out, research them and find ways to put them to productive use within their business.
Technology has boomed in the recent decade, with new more efficient ways to ddo thing its no wonder businesses are doing things to keep their employees actualized. There should be programs within the companies design just for the training of employees in new technologies.
i beleive that company's and people working for company's can not get along today without some technology. Our generation today has to be way more technology savy than ones before us.
The high percentages do not surprise me. Technology is essential in business now to have a compeditive advantage and stay efficent. Just because your position at work allows you access to the internet doesn't mean you have to take advantage of it.
I think the use of technology in the workplace is a great innovation. I am very surprised to read that most employers do not allow thier employees to access the work files through thier iphone.
I think the use of technology in the workplace is a great innovation. I am very surprised to read that most employers do not allow thier employees to access the work files through thier iphone.
The majority of my work is done on a computer here at my office. I would be devastated if we had to go back to the pen and paper work. We are very much blessed to be able to use technology on a daily basis.
My employer is defineitly behind the tech curve. Maybe that's because it's non-profit...but still having me use a CRT monitor??? Come on now!
Technology is a huge part of most peoples everyday lives, it would make sense that we would integrate that technology with our chosen careers.
I think it is true that technology is important to everyone. It helps communication, school, and jobs. I dont know what will be happen if i live in a place there is no technology.
The business environment is constantly changing. Even though a lot of social networking sites are used for non business related activities now, companies are constantly getting more involved in reaching their consumers through these popular sites.
Technology has become the most important tool in business today. It helps with everything in your life. I would consider myself an iworker as i have my own work laptop and do a lot of my work on that computer.
When I worked for the Home Depot. They introduced new technology for us to use to help with customer service. The device we were given could be used as a phone, a product scanner, and a label printer. this greatly assisted all associates with keeping up with sale prices and delivered customer service a bit quicker.
With technology growing at such a fast rate it is being used more and more in jobs today. At my current job I use the internet every day. I use excel and access to complete my every day work. I have been into some businesses and the cashier has to manually type in the product. I think technology should be used in more companies. It makes the cashier work faster and easier.
I do not see a problem with workers using technology for personal items during work hours unless it is hindering them from doing their job. I read an article about a year ago about a survey for students multitasking and most teachers said that they do not mind students texting and getting on the internet during class as long as they make their grades, because with the way technology is growing, it will be necessary for workers to multitask in the office place when they graduate school.
Sarah said..
Technology is being used everyday and is growing very fast. It seems like there is something new and better coming out with tecnology every few months. I use technology on a daily bases and I could not live without it. I use the internet everyday, for work and school. I think technology is imporant to almost everyone.
The world is becoming more evloved everyday. Technology based systems are what makes the world move. If your not up to par on your computer skills, then you will perish. Near the future, Technology savy will be a skill that companies and employers look for.
Technology is definitely growing and every year advancements are more than i would have expected. I think because of these advancements our lives are made easier for the average person. Production can increase and the ease to which things can be accomplished through technology has been simplified.
As technology is growing faster than ever, businesses must grow to adapt to new technology or they will be left behind. it is an essential part of the business model.
I believe that these technologies are more accepted due to how quickly they evolve and make our everyday life easier. Personally right now my job doesn't consist of the use of these technologies but i believe it will in the near future.
People would not be able to survive without technology. We use it in everything that we do now. Just think to your self what you do everyday and how even your parents did things differently. Now our children will wonder how we managed without the technology of the future.
I would consider myself to be an i-worker. I also use paper and pen/ pencil at work and school. I know that as the years go on, technology will be more and more widely used in businesses as well as schools. Being part of Generation Y, there is a responsibility that goes along with it and that is to keep learning all the new technological advances out there. There will always be something new!
I truly believe technology has enhanced and help the world in many different areas but in the same since it has crippled the human brain in relying on our own intelligence.
the things you can do now a days technology wise is amazing. thought some of the statistics were high, but i don't see as many notebooks and pens in the classrooms anymore.
Technology just makes it easier for Americans as a whole to do daily business. Unfortunately, it also makes goofing off easier. But as a whole, technology has improved so much in this world today that it's hard to have a negative outlook.
This information just goes to show that Technology is truly taking over. So, companies need to keep up with technology as it enhances.
Technology plays a bigger role in the workplace than years ago. Technology may be a hinderence to some but gets the job done.
It appears that the workplace doesn't know we are in the technological age. I am surprised at how little credit they give to consumer devices and social networks.
I see where they are coming from but honestly, many employees would use social networking sites for receational use at work. They should develop business filters so they cannot be used to B.S. with friends and family working.
Technology is so important in today's world. It's so important to be computer savvy at this point in time. I am so glad we have the technology we have today. It's very exciting.
Consumers accept new technology quicker than business. They have one purchase to worry about while a company has to look at implementing a new system or program across the board.
The reason many companies do not stay up to date with these new advances is simple they are expensive and if you are constantly changing your technology then your training costs will be through the roof keeping everyone up to date and on the same page.
Technology is changing day to day. Every month to every six months they are releasing new things into the world. It would be really hard and expensive to send their employees to classes all the time and very expensive to keep purchasing and updating new software.
In the type of industry I am working in, the technology advances are making huge difference in time-management. I can't stress enough about the little things we are phasing out and the new type of process we are implementing.
I really like technology because it is very interesting and innovator for me. I change from a PC to a Mac and there are different system. It is very useful and make thing to be done easy and fast. The same thing I did with my cellphone a switch from a pda phone to a blackberry and I am happy with my new phone and technology.
Working in the car business, I encounter new customer's everyday. Technology helps me to keep track of who's bought and who hasn't. The ones that did buy will have follow up calls created as a task for me to complete. This help's me to stay on top birthday's ect... This is much more time efficient in my line of work.
I agree with about half of the slides that are posted. I believe that technical devices are becoming an integral part of the work place but I also feel that some employers are reluctant to allow employees to use these devices for fear of personal matters taking place. I recently changed jobs and my old employer was really concerned about employees doing personal web browsing on company time.
Technology is constantly being changed and made better. For people who are going into the line of work where technology is involved there will never have problems finding work.
Technology is great and all, but it belongs in the workplace. Not on my phone. I dont want to have to do work off the clock, I have better things to do.
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