Shalt not shirk, will not shirk

WORKSTYLE

Working from home, suggests a sample survey, can actually do marvels for productivity - so long as data safety is assured.

It used to be the shirk option. Now it's the productive option. According to a survey conducted by Insight Express and SonicWALL, a remote networking solutions firm, the current trend of people working for companies from home will come to engender a more productive and liberated international workforce.

If Shubhomoy Biswas, country manager, India, SonicWALL, is one happy man, it is because the survey's findings help him battle the perception that people who work from home are people who want an excuse to goof off.

"The rising number of remote workers worldwide urged us to undertake this survey," Biswas explains, adding though that it helps business.

The survey's sample is small "" 650 responses from 25-45-year-olds in the US, Australia, Canada, Asia Pacific, Japan and Europe "" but indicative of attitudes all the same.

About 76 per cent of the employees surveyed believe that working remotely is an aid to their productivity, and 61per cent are convinced that their managers agree with them. More than half say they access the corporate network from home on a daily basis, with 86 per cent logging in several times a week.

The alarming bit, however, is that the respondents are quite casual about security threats. In fact, data security comes rather low on the list of priorities, with 88 per cent admitting to storing passwords in easily-discovered locations, and only 12 per cent employing encrypted files to store and manage their login data.

Only 56 per cent say that they rely on their memories to keep track of their network passwords. The rest are given to such dodgy practices as using the same passwords for all devices, storing the information on cellphones or sticking notes with login information onto computer screens.

As a provider of integrated network security and productivity solutions, SonicWALL argues that such poor adherence to cybersecurity policies endangers the companies that these people work for. "Companies need effective protective mechanisms," says Biswas.

What the company proposes is SSL-VPN remote access, which connects the remote terminal's network with the organisation's network, for the claimed reason that it is easy to administer and keeps data safe as well.

The easy-going approach is not entirely without its merits, though. It keeps tempers on an even keel, according to the survey. More than 80 per cent of the respondents have never lost their temper with support staff trying to help fix a problem. This translates into better work, Biswas reckons, expecting the trend to make its way to India in a big way soon.

"There is already a US government initiative to encourage more remote and home working," he says, "This enables departments to cut down on travel and office space costs and ease the pressure on physical security at work."

Apart from security, the big enabler would be broadband internet access. "Global broadband usage is growing rapidly," says Biswas, "and we believe that this trend will have an impact in India over the next two to three years."

Still, it may take a parallel survey of bosses' attitudes towards remote work before one's willing to bet on it.