New Delhi: Over half of full time employees at India Inc. prefer mobility and employing mobile technology into the workplace to stay connected to their associates, clientele, co-workers, partners et al and are seeking exemption from the regular desk job, according to a recent survey conducted by apex industry body ASSOCHAM.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) interacted with about 350 officers, executives and professionals employed in sectors like automobile, banking and finance, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, real-estate, retail and others.

ASSOCHAM had carried out the survey to ascertain the extent of usage of modern technology amid corporate employees between May-July in seven cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Besides, ASDF representatives also interacted with administration and human resource departments of about 50 organisations across these cities to ascertain their policies vis-à-vis freedom and flexibility of work.

“With more and more employees becoming tech-savy, they prefer seeking and sharing knowledge, information on the move by employing certain collaborative technologies like 3G mobile internet to communicate,” said Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the survey.

“The growing demand to work from their devices of choice amid young employees is also likely to spurt demand for IT support including software applications, networking technologies for multiple devices and even the 3G mobile internet services in the long run,” said Mr Rawat.

About 190 of all the respondents said they do not require being in office to be productive as they carry their portable electronic devices like smart-phones, Ipads, tablets and other such devices to remain accessible to colleagues and clients. Most of these respondents also said they carry these devices in meeting rooms and find it comfortable to use their smart devices to take notes.

Ability to work on the go, being available 24x7 in event of any contingency and increased productivity were certain significant reasons cited by the respondents as to why they prefer using smart devices at work. Besides, many respondents even said this way they can save several hours spent on commuting.

Of the total, about 300 respondents said they use at least one mobile device at work. About 170 of theses said they use laptop while over 95 said they use smart-phones and nearly 35 said they use their ipads, tablets to carry out work-related tasks.

HR managers and officials in general administration departments of about 30 organisations said they had banned access to social networks and use of personal smart devices in their office premises fearing loss of productivity.

But most of these respondents said they are revisiting their policies in this behalf more so as they can benefit from networking and marketing potential of social media. With more and more young employees being well-adapted with this medium of communication and can cater to customers outside normal office hours.

Besides, majority of the remaining respondents said they are gradually adapting to this new model of business productivity and have allowed access to social media within limits to create greater employee motivation and empowerment at the workplace.

Many of them also said they are taking steps to implement mobile-data security measures and designing new software models to prevent loss of crucial data and maintain corporate security.