The health pandemic has caused major disruption to many businesses over the last few months, causing businesses and employees to change the way they work. Digital solutions have provided the masses with various options to maintain communication, team collaboration and productivity, whether working within the work environment or from home.
According to a recent survey conducted by IT services provider, Transputec , over half of UK businesses (56%) are planning to increase their digital skills training budgets for next year, to ensure staff are well-equipped to work remotely if necessary.
This also suggests that businesses are looking to stick with the forced changes as a result of the pandemic. The same survey revealed that 53% of businesses plan to grow their IT infrastructure budget in 2021, while over half of UK decision makers (60%), are planning to increase the use of digital collaboration tools, to help staff communicate better and more effectively.
Communication tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, have been a very popular choice during the height of lockdown to keep teams conduct meetings, maintaining strong communication.
As job market sees intense competition due to the loss of jobs, candidates with the best skillset are often those strongly considered. 41% of UK businesses say they will hire candidates with high levels of digital skills.
Working remotely has been convenient for many workers, and 44% of UK businesses would like to implement working from home going forward, in a bid to reduce costs, including occupation of an office space and additional facilities. Sonny Sehgal, CEO of Transputec, said: “COVID-19 has already had a devastating impact on UK business, and we’re not out of the woods yet. Fortunately, cutting edge technology has facilitated a mass shift to remote and digital working, and as a result, many businesses have observed benefits of lower overheads and more streamlined and efficient operations through managed services.
“Therefore, we can expect flexible working to stay with us for the long-term, even after it is deemed safe to return to the office on a permanent basis. Therefore, businesses must continue to bolster digital initiatives and prioritise the use of cloud-enabled digital collaboration tools, for example, if they wish to remain buoyant.”
As UK businesses look set to adapt remote working for the foreseeable future – we’ll see if there’s an increase of digital technologies and invocations to match.