2021 Velocity Market Research Report

SUPPORTING
your remote workforce in 2021 and beyond
Velocity Smart Market Research Report 2021

An insightful Market Research report that investigates the changes in working
behaviour pre and post Covid-19 lockdown. This report uncovers unique insights
from UK & USA office workers and predicts how workplace IT support will change
in 2021 and beyond
CONTENTS
Key Highlights page 4
Introduction page 8
Mixed Experiences page 12
Reconfiguring IT support page 16
New operating model page 20
Flexible support page 22
A day in the office page 24
Conclusion page 30

KEY HIGHLIGHTS
83%
WORKING SMARTER!
Working Smarter! Over four fifths
(83%) of survey respondents in
both the UK and USA insist flexible
working is here to stay.
83%
USA 44%
UK 29%
PRODUCTIVITY ON THE RISE
Nearly half of USA workers (44%) say
productivity has improved since the
outbreak of Covid-19. However, this
drops to 29% of UK workers, with almost
a quarter (24%) saying productivity has
decreased since the outbreak.
HOME WORKERS SUFFER IT PROBLEMS
What makes workers unproductive at home? A
quarter of the UK (25%) and almost a quarter of the
USA (22%) insist that poor performing or broken
IT equipment caused a loss of productivity.
51%
IT’S NOT ALL BAD THOUGH
MOTIVATION IS AN ISSUE
Almost half of the UK (49%) cited a lack
of personal motivation, with 43% in the
USA feeling this way too.
UK 40%
USA 42%
RETURN TO THE OFFICE FEAR FACTOR
Return to the office fear factor! 40% of the
UK and 42% of the USA workforces are
worried that they’ll catch Covid-19 from
51% of UK workers enjoy the reduced
colleagues in their department.
travel time to work and 50% have
fewer distractions.

IT RESOLUTIONS ARE TAKING TOO LONG
57% of USA respondents had a technology
problem that necessitated replacement
hardware during the pandemic. However,
46% of USA workers had to wait at least
three hours or more to resolve an IT issue.
TIME TO GET SMART!
86% of the UK and 91% of USA workforces
would have welcomed the option to pick up
replacement equipment using a self-service
system while the original was being repaired.
IT DEPARTMENTS GETTING A BAD RAP!
IT departments getting a bad rap! Over
two thirds of UK employees (69%)
have a negative experience with the IT
department – either dreading it, feeling
patronised, intimated or frustrated at the
length of the wait . The service in the USA
is marginally better, with 60% reporting a
negative experience with the IT department.

INTRODUCTION
Flexible and remote working is not a new phenomenon, it has been commonplace over
the past decade. The availability of robust broadband connections and cloud-based software
has extended the opportunities for non-traditional working models. No business, however,
would have voluntarily embarked upon the mass shift to home working that occurred in March
2020 as business continuity plans were rolled out almost overnight.
According to independent research undertaken
for Velocity in the UK and USA by Omnisis, over
half of the population (53% UK, 54% USA) has
worked from home most of the time during the
pandemic – compared to just 21% in the UK
BEFORE PANDEMIC
DURING PANDEMIC
beforehand and 29% in the USA. UK 21% USA 29% UK 53% USA 54%
Companies and individuals scrambled to make remote
working happen as they fought for survival. There was no time
for health and safety assessments. No training and limited
support on offer. Parents battled with their children for a slice
of the broadband to conduct essential video calls before
switching back to home schooling. Headphones became a
necessity as flatmates shared kitchen tables; while freezing box
rooms were brought back into action just to get a little peace. It
has worked, but the emergency response is not sustainable.
Indeed, the chief executive of BT, Philip Jansen, has
warned of employee fatigue and stress. He said: “They’re
tired and they are bored of the mode of operating,
which is very one-dimensional and lacks the interaction
of humans in the way that we are used to.”

PRODUCTIVITY BOOM
Yet according to our research, most people confirm
MORE PRODUCTIVE AT HOME
they have been more productive at home: 44%
of respondents in the USA and 29% in the UK
confirmed that productivity had improved since
the outbreak of the pandemic. In contrast, just 21% of
the USA and 24% of UK respondents agree with Jansen’s
sentiment and said productivity had decreased.
USA 44%
UK 29%
In fact, UK individuals are enjoying reduced travel time
to work (51%), fewer distractions (50%) and the ability
to work when it suits them (40%) In the USA, while fewer
distractions and less travel are important, the top reason
for better productivity was access to flexible IT support
that meets their flexible working schedule (43%).
In the UK, flexible IT support was sixth on the list, cited by
just 27%. Given the higher levels of productivity achieved
by USA vs UK home workers, this quality and timeliness
of IT support cannot be overlooked.
UK individuals
are enjoying
REDUCED TRAVEL TIME
51%
FEWER DISTRACTIONS
50%
WORK WHEN IT SUITS THEM
40%

MIXED EXPERIENCE
Working from home is not a solution for everyone. Motivation can be an issue. For those struggling with
personal productivity, 49% of the UK cited a lack of personal motivation, with this figure being
43% in the USA. Distractions at home (UK 41%, USA 42%) and the inability to effectively communicate
and collaborate with colleagues (UK 31%, USA 36%) are also affecting productivity.
As are IT issues: 25% of UK and 22% of USA respondents insist that poor performing or broken IT
equipment caused a loss of productivity. The cost of IT downtime on employee productivity is well
researched – employees lose an average of 30 minutes of productivity every week, solely because they
must attempt to fix their PC problems. Additionally, the average amount of time spent solving an issue
relating to downtime is 200 minutes.
LACK OF MOTIVATION
DISTRACTIONS AT HOME
STRUGGLE COMMUNICATING
WITH COLLEAGUES
When companies were losing 545 hours of employee productivity because of IT downtime before the
pandemic, with onsite IT support, what happened when enforced home working was introduced?
UK
49%
USA
43%
UK
41%
USA
42%
UK
31%
USA
36%
Our survey confirms that people experienced more problems with technology working from
home than in the office, especially in the USA (39%) and problems have taken longer to resolve. In
general, over half of people (UK 54%, USA 56%) had to wait up to three hours extra to resolve a problem –
something that is incredibly frustrating at home when there is typically no fallback option.
So what now? How do businesses provide the necessary support
to a largely disparate workforce for an unknown period?

New variants of Covid-19 are being discovered in the UK, South America and elsewhere, meaning that a
return to the working practices of old are at least 12 months away, if not longer.
To help provide answers to these business-critical questions, this research was conducted across both
the UK and USA to understand the views of the workforce in medium to enterprise-scale businesses. The
research targeted a minimum of 1,000 respondents based in the UK and a minimum of 2,000 respondents
based in North America, all working in organisations employing more than 200 people.
The results demonstrate how employee safety measures are front and centre in the minds of employees and
that whilst there is a preference to get back to normal, it is not to the detriment of personal health. Therefore,
both UK and USA businesses need to have processes and systems in place that support long term remote
performance, productivity and give employees the additional flexibility they are coming to enjoy.

RECONFIGURING
IT SUPPORT
When supporting any large dispersed workforce, replacing faulty or broken equipment is a significant issue
for workers. While many of the IT software support issues can be handled remotely, especially with so many
cloud-based applications, the logistics of replacing defunct hardware, keyboards, headsets etc. is a new
challenge with a dispersed workforce. Our survey confirms that 57% of USA respondents had a technology
problem that necessitated replacement hardware during the pandemic.
TECHNOLOGY PROBLEM
THAT NEEDED REPLACEMENT HARDWARE
57%
Companies hastily put in place some ad hoc
arrangements during the initial explosion of the
pandemic to provide individuals with new equipment –
such as hiding keys under plinths to allow employees to
access the office out of hours and pick up a new laptop
from the IT support cupboard! It worked – just – but
clearly a more robust, secure and effective model is
required for sustained remote working and safe & secure
IT support.
One option that employees favour is the increased use
of Smart Lockers – 86% (UK) and 91% (USA) would
have welcomed the option to pick up replacement
equipment using a self-service system while the
original was being repaired.
With the number of remote workers globally set to double in
2021, the way companies provide IT support is going to have to
change if these individuals are to stay productive.

IT SUPPORT EFFICIENCY
The benefits of this self-service approach are felt by both employees and IT support teams which spend, on
average, 17% of their time collecting and delivering IT equipment – hardly a great use of time, experience
or expensive resource. Smart lockers provide an on-demand, highly secure alternative for businesses to
distribute hardware to employees.
Located in the lobbies of buildings, which are not only manned by security guards but also typically open at
weekends, staff can have 24x7 access to equipment stored in lockers that can only be opened by scanning a
unique, secure, barcode.
Employees that are now based at home might not live within an easy distance of the main office,
or for those employees in the field or at local office hubs — how can they be supported?
Well, one option is to set up shared lockers at local business hubs. Another model being trialled is to
provide a courier with the Smart Locker code – they can pick up the kit and deliver it to the employee
wherever they are located. Whatever the eventual solution, security is always guaranteed through
traceability and a full audit trail.
Not only can the locker provide for the needs of hundreds of users, but multiple hardware suppliers and
support teams can also deliver to and collect from the locker at any time, in a fully auditable and secure
manner. With this approach, the smart locker can be used for anything from a brand-new laptop to data
room access cards, or non-IT equipment like safety equipment. Also, by integrating lockers with existing IT
Service Management applications, ‘click & collect via locker’ is simply added to the existing request options.
Undeniably, the use of Smart Lockers offers employees 24x7
access to replacement equipment, but how do they work for
companies looking at a far more dispersed workforce?

NEW OPERATING
MODEL
Remote working has become firmly established and it will have significant ramifications on the way we
work and where we choose to live. UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak believes workers will return to offices after
the lockdown because they are “social animals” who crave interaction and he does not think people would
shift to working from home permanently.
An optimistic view perhaps. The reality is that the chances of people going back to working in a prepandemic
fashion are slim to none. The value of flexible working hours has become very clear
over the past year — over four-fifths (83%) of survey respondents in both the UK and USA insist
flexible working is here to stay.
83%
UK and USA insist flexible
working is here to stay.
But there will be no one size fits all approach. For
every individual loving the commute-free day and
the ability to work the hours that fit around family life,
there will be another hating the endless video calls
and lack of face-to-face office interactions.
This mix of employee preference is why companies
need to act now and invest in supporting the
changing expectations of employees. Business
leaders should be looking into viable solutions that
encourage new working practices and give employees
more options to change how they work, without
impacting productivity.

FLEXIBLE SUPPORT
Arguably, offices are set to get smaller – with companies potentially opting for multiple small locations to
provide individuals with more choice. Such a shift would simply accelerate a trend already in place for large
enterprises such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple which started splitting their headquarters into
multiple locations during the past decade to provide better access to talent.
Far more businesses now have the confidence and opportunity to follow suit. It will take a while, but
the expectation is a change in office and residential space – with some city centre office locations being
repurposed as residential and housing in residential areas becoming workspaces, including shared local
hubs that provide isolated home workers with the physical contact they crave. This change will require
some creative IT support models.
Our survey confirms that individuals on both sides of the pond
want flexible IT support that matches the way they want to work.
The vast majority would welcome the chance to have 24x7
self-service access to IT equipment whether they were
working at home or in the office – and would welcome
the availability of smart lockers at or close to the office to
provide 24x7 IT support in the event of equipment failure
(UK 77%, USA 86%).
% OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD WELCOME
SMART LOCKERS
UK 77% USA 86%

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
OFFICE WORKERS
Coaxing individuals back into the office – even for a day or two a week – will require some serious thought.
Firstly, people are worried about their safety in the office – both about catching Covid-19 from colleagues
in their department (UK 40%, USA 42%) and catching the virus from office equipment (UK 37%, USA 39%).
Almost a third of US respondents (31%) are also concerned about contracting the virus in other
departments, including technical support.
EMPLOYEES CONCERNED ABOUT CATCHING COVID-19 FROM
COLLEAGUES
OFFICE EQUIPMENT
OTHER DEPARTMENTS
UK 40% USA 42%
UK 37%
USA 39% UK __% USA 31%

But when individuals are working flexibly with perhaps one trip a week to the office, will they want to
spend time with IT support to resolve any issues they are dealing with? For the vast majority of satisfied
home workers, the primary objective of a day in the office will be to collaborate with colleagues and
enjoy the creative spark that is hard to achieve alone or via Zoom – not to undertake IT housekeeping, no
matter how necessary.
Indeed, when over two-thirds of UK employees (69%) have a negative experience with the IT
department – either dreading it, feeling patronised, intimidated or frustrated at the length of
the wait – few would want to spend any of their precious ‘office day’ dealing with IT issues. The service in
the USA is marginally better, with 60% reporting a negative experience with the IT department.
For the IT managers who are working in busy departments, clearing a backlog of tickets can also be a
thankless task. So it becomes clear that having a ‘self-service’ system in place that allows users to report
issues whilst working remotely — and then swap out their faulty item for a fully functional piece of kit
from a smart locker — becomes a much more enjoyable experience for everyone.
% of employees that have had a negative
experience with the IT department
USA 60%
UK 69%

WHAT BUSINESSES NEED TO DO TO GET
EMPLOYEES BACK TO THE OFFICE SAFELY
As vaccinations become more mainstream and people start to return to the office, some short-term
fixes will be required to boost worker confidence. Such as reducing the number of staff in the office
at any one time and longer-term design upgrades and modifications that put hygiene at the heart of
workplace planning.
Business leaders should be looking into how IT equipment can be provided while still meeting public
health guidelines — such as social distancing. Have they considered the procedures that need to
be in place to check that any equipment provided has been sufficiently disinfected? Are quarantine
periods being enforced on items to ensure any equipment is collected or delivered safely?
This is an area that Smart Lockers can support by ensuring all items stocked
in the Smart Lockers have been disinfected according to the latest health
and safety policy, and that devices are subject to a required quarantine
timeline to be deemed ‘Covid-19 free’.

CONCLUSION
Nine months into the global pandemic, what have we learnt about remote working and sustainable remote
IT support? Well, the introduction of mass home working has, for most, been a success. This new era of
more remote, more flexible working models is one that will enable individuals to think again; not only
about where they live when there is no need to commute, but also who to work for when distance is no
longer a barrier.
As Covid-19 cases decline, Governments are loathed to suddenly ease restrictions for fear
of a relapse, therefore companies that embrace fresh thinking to facilitate better remote
collaboration and communication. 2021 brings opportunities for new IT support ecosystems
and companies that utilise these will be best placed not only to support the existing norm, but to
grow and succeed in the future.

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Velocity Smart Technology
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