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At Citrix, we focus on how technology is changing the future of work by helping our customers enable their employees to be more agile, productive, and efficient. We know that a productive and creative workforce is vital to staying competitive in today’s dynamic global markets. So, how can companies get the most out of their most valuable resource: their people? A lot of organizations provide increased flexibility in the work environment in terms of where and when the work gets done.

Does this added flexibility actually make a difference? To gain more insight, Citrix partnered with Wakefield Research to survey nearly 1,300 office professionals in the U.S. Half of those respondents (50 percent) said that a flexible work environment increased employee productivity.

Why aren’t more businesses embracing flexibility? We discovered that half (50 percent) of office professionals who do not have a flexible work environment believe their companies would introduce flexibility if they had the technological capabilities to accommodate it. How can those companies gain the necessary technology capabilities? By embracing cloud-based apps and services delivered as a unified, secure digital workspace that provides employees the work resources they need, when and where they need them.

The survey results emphasize this point. In fact, 57 percent of the office professionals at companies with a flexible work environment currently use cloud-based apps, compared to only 38 percent of companies without a flexible work environment.

Respondents also see the cloud as critical to business success; 75 percent say companies without cloud-based apps will not be competitive. But it’s important to note that a random collection of cloud-based apps that require logging into multiple services — what we call Cloud Sprawl — can actually make work harder, so it’s important to provide these apps and services in a unified secure digital workspace.

When organizations provide flexibility, research shows a correlation with better outcomes. In fact, the vast majority (87 percent) of office professionals whose companies have flexible work environments report that their companies have experienced positive outcomes from the model:

• Increased employee morale (51%)
• Reduced employee turnover (35%)
• Attracting more talented job candidates (34%)

lexibility is also critical for attracting the best and the brightest. The Wakefield survey revealed that 2 in 5 (40%) of office professionals would turn down a job opportunity if the company did not have a flexible work environment. When it comes to a competitive workforce, flexibility is the future.

That’s why a lot of technology vendors — including Citrix — offer products and services to provide greater workforce flexibility. Here are three suggestions to help you along in your flexibility journey.