Survey: Your Workers Think Your WLAN Service Sucks

Peter Davison, ANZ Country Manager at Aerohive Networks has the results of a survey done in the UK with around 2000 employees in various industries, and those results are conclusive: employers’ WLAN solutions don’t work well for the employees who need to use it.

Davison says that most organizations’ first installation was for guests, not employees, but then their own workers jumped on the BYOD bandwagon. Now, 40% of employees report that their company’s wireless network is their primary means of accessing the corporate network, with that figure expected to rise to 90% within the next five to ten years.

Just because employees use their work WLAN network, though, doesn’t mean they like it. A full two thirds of respondents said that their home connection was better than their work connection. This wasn’t just a matter of their work connection being good and their home connection better. Many cited their work WLAN connection as “flaky,” which Davison attributed to the high density of users as well as poor placement of access points. The problems cited by respondents were not just simple irritants, either. A full 40% primarily blamed poor WLAN service for missing deadlines (Really?). Poor connectivity was also blamed for lowering productivity, with the blame for that poor connectivity going directly to the source: your corporate network infrastructure. Nor do respondents rate the situation as having improved at all within the last 12 months.

Davison says that the problem may partially be an issue of user expectations:

The ease of use of the growing number of Wi-Fi hotspots within populated areas, and introduction of Wi-Fi on planes have raised expectations around the performance of corporate Wi-Fi networks. Employees expect a Wi-Fi connection that mirrors the performance and ease-of-use they have on their home networks, with the scale and security of a business-class network.

On the other hand, the survey also noted that “One in three respondents said they could not do their job without wireless.” Simple logic here: If you can’t do your job without wireless, and it isn’t working, then you can’t do your job.

Davison sums up the bottom line best:

An unreliable and unstable connection is a great source of frustration for employees, impacting their productivity and efficiency levels in the workplace. It is becoming increasingly important for businesses to re-assess their network and ensure they have the right network solution in place to cater for their employees’ needs and ultimately maximise productivity and efficiency in the workplace.

So, do yourself, your organization and your employees a favor: invest in a proper, well designed wireless network solution when you upgrade to 802.11ac, and end your poor employees’ misery.

For Davison’s article from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, click here.