Who's afraid of the big bad IT department?
Who would be scared to contact their IT department? Quite a lot of people according to a new survey from Velocity Smart Technology, which interviewed 2,000 US office workers.
It finds 60 percent say they've had a negative experience with their IT department, either because they've felt patronized, intimated or frustrated at the length of the time they've to wait to resolve issues.
More than a third (39 percent) of US office workers have had to wait longer for an IT issue to be resolved while working from home, with more than half (56 percent) having to wait at least three hours to resolve an issue.
Anthony Lamoureux, CEO of Velocity Smart Technology, says, "The results provide an insight into the pressure that IT departments have been under for the past 15 months, with many workplaces going from zero to full remote working almost overnight. This urgent demand undoubtedly led to many IT departments adopting quick-fixes out of a necessity to support their workforce, rather than putting in place a long term plan that can be scaled -- which has resulted in poor experiences."
57 percent of respondents say they had hardware replacement issues during the pandemic, leading to 22 percent insisting that poor performing or broken IT equipment caused a loss of productivity. But while 48 percent say they would welcome round the clock phone support from an IT technician, the preferred option (86 percent) is the installation of smart lockers close to the home or office, able to provide replacement equipment backed up by the cloud.
"Now is the time to invest in more robust technology to support remote workforces for the long term," Lamoureux adds. "Many employees are fed up with long, gruelling commutes or have found a happy balance between home and work life and so for many businesses, this means coming to terms with the death of the traditional nine to five working day and putting in place better IT provisions."
The full report is available from the Velocity Smart site.
Image credit: Ollyy / Shutterstock