People working from home with poor broadband have cost the economy billions, new research has found.
Digital disruption costs the UK £60 billion per year, the equivalent to three per cent of GDP and a figure higher than the annual defence budget.
Time wasted through technical failures, video call dropouts and long technological delays have cost the average worker around £1,000 per year, according to data from software company Actual Experience.
‘Chaos’ for City traders
A poll of 1,006 people who work from home, carried out by Savanta ComRes, found that nearly nine in 10 homeworkers – 89 per cent – experienced IT problems while working remotely.
More than a quarter – 27 per cent – of those who experienced technical difficulties described these difficulties as occurring “very” or “fairly” often.
Forty-six per cent of those encountering IT problems said it had a “very” or “fairly” stressful effect on their work.
Data delays while homeworking led to “chaos” for City traders and caused pricing errors in fast-moving assets at a potential cost of millions of pounds, the researchers found.
Other examples of wasted time included delays to online training, lags while downloading vital documents and video call dropouts, which mean staff cannot hear others properly.
Companies and customers also found themselves affected, with slow systems for call centres operated remotely leading to mounting delays, as well as logistics firms being hit by outages that created long queues of customers.
The company warned that the amount of digital time wasted would only grow as a result of more employees working from home, either permanently or as part of a hybrid working pattern.
It is calling on the Government to offer tax breaks to firms that install industry-standard broadband in their workers’ homes, as the equipment is currently treated by the Exchequer as a taxable benefit.
‘Digital friction’ costs firms dear
Homeworking in the UK more than doubled between the final quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022, rising from 4.7 million to 9.9 million.
Dave Page, chief executive of Actual Experience, said: “The pandemic has changed the way that the country works. Hybrid working and flexibility around working away from the office has become routine.
“Many people suffer from flawed access to the digital world. This digital friction is costing UK businesses and the economy vast sums of money every year.
“Often these problems are easily resolved, but it requires companies and employees to know precisely what is causing the friction.
Earlier this year, Sir James Dyson warned that the homeworking revolution had proven a disaster for productivity and caused British businesses to fall behind global competitors.
