Tube strike ‘highlighted lack of flexible working’

The recent tube strikes in London have served to highlight that many businesses still do not have the means or technology in place to allow employees to work flexibly from home, one sector commentator has claimed.

Nigel Hawthorn, vice-president of EMEA marketing at Blue Coat Systems, said that whenever a similar incident took place, the sales of remote working equipment increased, which revealed many firms did not have the ability to support home working.

“Many people are optimists – we think that problems will not happen to us, but we should have plans to deal with business disruption,” he stated.

It could be said that the ability to work from home may boost productivity within a workforce.

According to research by the Chartered Management Institute, 52 per cent of respondents questioned said their organisation had plans in place to cope with business disruption.

However, 32 per cent of such firms do not test their continuity plans.