New research from workspace provider Regus shows that 64 per cent of professionals in SMEs now work on the move.
As an increasing number of firms now employ workers from outside their own region, a higher degree of mobile working is required. Workers, too, are becoming more demanding in how easy employers make it for them to work on the go.
“Business has undoubtedly become so much more international over the last couple of years,” says Tim Waterhouse, VP and international HR director at healthcare firm Cepheid, which works out of Regus’s High Wycombe centre.
“It doesn’t always make sense to take permanent office space in every market where we do business, but it’s very important to have on-demand access to a professional working environment. It’s about keeping yourself productive between meetings.”
Across the world, it is estimated that more than one billion people work on the move.
“Our new research shows just how mainstream mobile working has become, not only in the country’s largest firms but across the smaller, entrepreneurial sectors too,” says Celia Donne, regional director at Regus.
“For many firms, working on the move is part of everyday life and travellers are becoming more demanding. They want to work smarter and more productively.”
Mobility isn’t restricted to foreign travel, however. The movement is driven by the increasing number of growing firms that trade with partners and customers overseas, which often requires travel abroad. And with one in five British SMEs intending to expand overseas in the next two years, this trend is likely to keep growing.
It’s easy to see why Britain’s entrepreneurial firms are expanding abroad. Previous research from Regus showed that internationally-trading firms perform better than domestic-only businesses, reporting both higher revenue and profit. UK companies trading in overseas markets also showed a far-higher business confidence index score compared to those focused on the UK market alone.
