O2’s IT helpdesk copes easily with home working pilot

An experiment to judge the effectiveness of home-working recently led mobile provider O2 to close head office as it studied the impact of more than 2,500 employees working remotely. The results of the experiment are encouraging, with 88 per cent of staff claiming to have been as productive from home as they would be in the office.

Foreseeing potential problems with staff getting to the office during this summer’s Olympic games, the pilot began with O2 upgrading its virtual private network (VPN) to prepare the network for issues. However, the expected influx of support queries didn’t materialise, with O2’s IT helpdesk reporting a ‘normal day’, with average call volumes.

“Thanks to this rigorous planning, the experiment was an astonishing success – not just in terms of the productivity of the workforce, but as a demonstration of the power of flexible working to forge lasting operational, cultural and environmental change within modern organisations,” said O2 director Ben Dowd.