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Digital Transformation

38% say job ‘impossible’ without mobile access to email

Brits putting in an average of three weeks worth of overtime a year by answering calls and emails at home

The rapid growth of smartphone and tablet technology means that everyone is now connected via the web to a far greater extent than they ever have been before, and a recent study has found the average Brit is now putting in more than three weeks of overtime a year by answering calls and emails at home.

According to the report – sponsored by Good Technology – 93 per cent of people carry on working once they’ve left the office for a total of three hours and 31 minutes a week. Accumulatively, that works out to 23 extra days over the course of a year.

Andy Jacques, general manager of EMEA for Good Technology, said: "There was a time when it was difficult to continue working outside of the office without carrying a laptop.

"But with today’s ‘always on’ society, people are pretty much working from the moment they wake up until the moment they fall asleep."

And given the widespread use of smartphone and tablet devices in the consumer as well as the business sphere, the study also found that 42 per cent of respondents use their own gadgets for personal and work-related purposes.

"Forty-two per cent of the people we surveyed are using the same phone for work and personal activity, which means that they are now carrying around not only sensitive corporate information, but irreplaceable personal data on the same device," Mr Jacques added.

Considering the rising number of Brits now using mobile devices for working purposes, the security of such platforms is becoming an increasingly important consideration for businesses, so data protection strategies are vital for firms who allow their employees to adopt the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.

Indeed, with 38 per cent revealing that their job would be "impossible" without mobile access to their email, it seems that ensuring workers’ devices are properly protected from the threat of cyber attacks is imperative when implementing BYOD practices.