Samsung slips up on teleworking survey

Samsung's efforts to buttress sales of its IP telephony systems misfired last week when it published a survey suggesting the British are the laggards of Europe when it comes to teleworking.

But other, more exhaustive, reports have revealed that the UK has more teleworkers than many other European countries.

Samsung claimed: "The UK is lagging behind its European neighbours, with the longest commuter times, and it is least likely to offer home-working facilities."

But the vendor asked the opinions of firms only in the UK, Spain, Holland and Sweden, which are teleworking hotbeds. If its survey had included other European countries the results would have been different.

The Netherlands and Scandinavia have the most teleworkers, according to research funded by the European Commission, and conducted by Statistical Indicators Benchmarking the Information Society (SIBIS). But only Denmark, Finland, Holland and Sweden have more teleworkers than the UK.

The SIBIS report shows the UK has about 50 per cent more teleworkers from the employed population than most of the rest of Europe. On average, seven per cent of European workers are teleworkers, while the UK has about 12 per cent.

Andrew Saunders, head of product marketing at Samsung Business Communications, said the survey was limited to the UK, Holland, Spain and Sweden because these are the only countries under the jurisdiction of his business unit. France, Germany and Italy are managed under separate units.

"It's not our intention to skew this survey," he said.

But the Samsung survey did reveal valid results in individual countries. For example, sixty per cent of UK bosses will not allow teleworking because they are worried about staff productivity.

Alan Denbeigh, executive director of the UK's Telework Association, said the late roll-out of broadband in the UK means the country has been "late to take to home-working", which suggests it will become "more prevalent".

crn@vnu.co.uk