Brother USA conducted a survey of 500 small to mid-sized US business owners and technology/business decision-makers.
According to the survey, business owners felt that the areas that required most improvement included “Increasing the efficiency of business processes”, “staying organised”, coming up with more effective budgets and managing individual teams and projects more effectively.
When asked how many days (if any) they felt they could leave their office employees to their own devices before something would come up requiring their attention, 58 percent of business owners responded with “2 days or less”.
The survey also revealed a difference in the settings that business owners felt they, and their employees, would be most productive in, with 59 percent of business owners feeling more productive in a private office but with 61 percent feeling their employees would work most efficiently in an open or shared office space.
Asked how often a decision to “cut corners” on office equipment backfires, 71 percent of those surveyed responded “Frequently”, with a measly 4 percent replying saying it never backfired.
Amusingly or worryingly, depending on perception, the survey demonstrated that 53 percent of business owners/decision makers have pretended to know more about operating a piece of office technology than they actually did.
It also revealed that business owners felt that writing utensils (62 percent), sticky notes (46 percent) and printer paper (42 percent) were the company supplies most often taken home, with an alarming 90 percent of employees revealed as taking supplies. Meanwhile arriving late or leaving early from work was deemed to be the most inconsiderate office crime, at 69 percent, with talking loudly on the phone coming second at 57 percent and not refilling a printer when it is out of paper ranked third, at 57 percent.
Questioned about their printing practices, the majority of business owners (36 percent) revealed that they personally avoid printing in colour due to worries about cost for just 0-24 percent of the time, while 56 percent felt that printing in colour looked more professional compared to using black and white. However 46 percent associated colour printing with the word ‘Expensive’.