At a time when 50% of people work from home regularly, broadband connectivity has never been so important. Yet worryingly, 37% of home-workers are dissatisfied with their Internet service, according to a new web poll from thinkbroadband.com.
The survey of 896 web users reveals that the majority of home-workers (62%) feel that working from home is an important part of their job. But despite Internet providers now promising more coverage and faster speeds than ever, many believe their efficiency is inhibited by connectivity issues.
Reasons for disruption are widespread although buffering, slow download/upload speeds and even temporary service loss all feature on the list of complaints.
These new findings undermine the long-standing theory in many modern day businesses; that working from home is not always more efficient.
Sebastien Lahtinen, co-founder of thinkbroadband.com comments, "Most of us are used to working from a single office and take connectivity for granted. But even very small geographical variances can influence your Internet service. Before giving home-working the green light, businesses must ensure that employees are not going to suffer from severe inefficiency by not being properly equipped with the appropriate broadband service. Arranging business-grade broadband with faster response times can make a significant difference."
To minimise any potential disruption to the home office, thinkbroadband.com offers the following tips:
1. Consider a second line dedicated to home working – perhaps with improved fault repair guarantees
2. Thoroughly test the service before rolling out home working to ensure that the service is suitable; remember speeds can vary at peak times
3. Pay attention to upload speeds for your connection – a faster upload can make home working far more productive, especially for cloud-based services
4. Ensure that other home workers in the company utilise the same cloud-based shared working systems (e.g. Google Drive, etc.) so they can work as efficiently from home as from the office.
5. If you only work from home when weather conditions are poor, ensure you have tested access to company resources from your home connection beforehand as your IT department may be too understaffed to provide much help.
