Konica Minolta Study Shows Many Companies Expect a Greater Than 10% Increase in Productivity through Automation Technologies

Ramsey, NJ and Philadelphia, PA – November 29, 2016  – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leader in smart office solutions, in partnership with Future Workplace, a research firm preparing leaders for disruptions in recruiting, development, and employee experience, today announced the results of a new study titled “The Workplace of the Future.” The survey of 619 U.S. Human Resource decision makers found that automation technologies will have a major impact on the workplace to enable employees to become more productive.

The key findings include:
Seventy-six percent of respondents of the study agreed that work is not where you are. Work is what you get done.
Generational changes are driving an evolution of the workplace experience both in the physical space and in the tools and technologies. Key technology areas include visitor management systems, robotic video conferencing and conference room booking systems, IoT applications and virtual desktops.
Automation will have a major impact on the workplace. 42 percent of HR professionals said that utilizing automated technologies will result in more than a 10 percent increase in productivity.
IT security challenges such as data breaches remain a major concern among companies as they face significant costs due to data hackers. 12 percent of HR professionals surveyed said that they have paid ransom fees to free up computer data from a hacker and 40 percent of companies don’t have an HR policy to deal with the demands for ransom ware.
Some companies are laggards when it comes to BYOD policies. When asked if their company allows employees to bring their own device to work, 22 percent said they don’t. A third of those surveyed said that their primary reason for having a BYOD policy is to improve employee productivity.

Konica Minolta introduced its comprehensive Workplace of the Future™ portfolio to solve customers’ needs based on these trends to enable a modernized, sustainable workplace. The solutions include:

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) via Workspaces
File Sharing via FileAssist™
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) via Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Alice, a virtual receptionist to streamline the flow of visitors and deliveries
Event Board/TEEM, a conference room scheduler
Double 2™ Telepresence Robot, to give users a physical presence via a two-wheeled balancing robot with an attached iPad®.
“New Workplace of the Future technologies will increase employees’ productivity and will create new jobs that we can’t even predict yet,” said Rick Taylor, president and chief executive officer, Konica Minolta. “We know that Millennials and Generation Z want to work in a state-of-the-art office with the modern technologies that they are used to using in their personal lives. Companies that employ a Workplace of the Future strategy will be able to attract the best talent and gain the most productivity.”

“In addition to technology having a disruptive impact on the workplace, we also see technology creating new jobs and helping us all work smarter,” saids Jeanne Meister, Founding Partner, Future Workplace. “HR needs to take a leadership role in understanding the full impact on technology as an enabler, enhancer, advisor and disruptor in the workplace.”

Research findings are based on a survey conducted by Morar Consulting fielded across the US between September 14-18, 2016. For this survey, 619 HR professionals were asked about their views on some of the smart office/ connected office technologies that are entering the workplace with potential implications for HR. The study targeted HR professionals working at medium to large global enterprises (minimum 100 employees) across different industry sectors (excluding education). Respondents are recruited through a number of different mechanisms, via different sources to join the panels and participate in market research surveys. All panelists have passed a double opt-in process and complete on average 900 profiling data points prior to taking part in surveys. Respondents are invited to take part via email and are provided with a small monetary incentive for doing so. All sample surveys may be subject to multiple sources of error (i.e. sampling error, coverage error, measurement error, etc.).