UK workers are having to foot the bill for remote working tech

UK workers are being left severely out of pocket after being forced to pay for new hardware and software in order to work from home during the global lockdown, new research has claimed.

A report from Lenovo claims that UK workers have personally spent an average of £271 on upgrading, improving or buying new technology to help work remotely - around £55 more than the global average.

Overall, the study found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of employees purchased new technology to navigate working remotely, with one in four having had to partially or fully fund their own tech upgrades.

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Remote working cost

The findings, which surveyed over 20,000 workers across 10 countries worldwide, show that employees across the globe are having to respond to the “new normal” of remote working, with varying levels of success. 

While the majority (72%) said their daily work dynamic had changed in the last three months, with many now feeling more closely tied to their devices, a similar amount (81%) said they felt more reliant on their work-issued PC, laptops and/or desktop than they did working from the office.

Over three quarter (79%) of participants found that have had to be their own IT person while working from home, leading to a similar majority believing employers should invest in more tech training to power remote working in the future.

However overall, the study found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of the global workforce surveyed felt they were more productive working from home than when they were in the office, with nearly half (48%) of UK respondents saying they will continue to work from home more than they did even after social distancing measures lift.

“This data gave us valuable insights on the complex relationship employees have with technology as work and personal are becoming more intertwined with the increase in working from home,” commented Dilip Bhatia, Vice President of Global User and Customer Experience at Lenovo. 

“Respondents globally feel more reliant on their work computers and more productive but have concerns about data security and want their companies to invest in more tech training.”

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