New research released recently shows that mobile device reliability is having an enormous impact on the health and well-being of mobile workers, with over 40% experiencing stress or anxiety due to device issues that prevent them from completing their job effectively.

The strain of dealing with device issues in the field, such as battery failure or crashing apps, led to 16% of mobile workers taking at least one day off work in the last year due to the resulting stress or anxiety, including 7% who took six or more days sick leave as a result. As well as being unable to complete tasks, respondents also said mobile device failure sparked customer anger and rudeness, further increasing stress and anxiety levels.

When the findings are applied to the entire UK mobile workforce, estimated at 12,596,000 people, the cost of sick leave taken as a result of stress or anxiety caused by device reliability issues to the UK economy would be at least £1.18bn per year. Added to the US research results, the economic impact on both economies would be at least £7.9bn.

[quote float="left"]29% said they suffered stress or anxiety as a result of mobile issues but hadn’t taken time off as they could not afford to[/quote]A further 29% said they suffered stress or anxiety as a result of mobile issues but hadn’t taken time off as they could not afford to. Additionally, 24% said they haven’t raised their device issues to management as they felt their employer will not do anything about it.

The figures are the result of a survey of mobile workers in the UK and US by B2M Solutions, a global software company that dramatically improves how enterprise mobility is operated and managed.

The ‘Mobile Impact Survey’ took the opinions of 200 mobile workers across the UK and US who stated that the mobile device they used at work was a critical tool for them to complete their tasks, and that device reliability was paramount.

The impact to businesses for the time that staff take away from work increases the Total Cost of Ownership of mobile devices, the typical metric for measuring return on investment, by up to 14% per year. B2M states this is a key component in deriving the True Cost of Ownership™.

Gary Lee, B2M Chief Revenue Officer, commented: “Businesses are placing more responsibility onto their mobile workers but aren’t investing in tools to ensure the critical mobile devices they need to perform these new tasks are operating correctly and can be depended on.

“And it’s in their own interest. Our estimates on the cost of device failure are conservative, as even our True Cost of Ownership figures do not include further potential impacts such as having to pay overtime to remaining workers to pick up their sick colleagues’ excess work, financial penalties for missing customer SLAs, brand reputation damage, insurance claims or in extreme cases the cost of out of court settlements for workers who are unable to return to work.”

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