Tele2 Sweden publishes guide to business survival

Thursday 25 January 2018 | 12:16 CET | News

Tele2 said it has published a report with the English title 'Power 2 Stay Ahead', aimed at helping Swedish businesses to endure. It is based on a survey by management consultancy United Minds, part of Weber Shandwick’s Prime group. Tele2  said there are approximately 1 million registered businesses, but nine out of ten do not survive for long, and others fail to expand.

The report looks at everything from physical office lay-out to digital services. It covers sustainability, personnel issues, ITC, innovation and marketing. Among other things, it said only 20 percent of companies select staff according to formal competence rather than gut feeling, even though there are data-based systems that could support recruitment.

It also found that 70 percent of staff aged 18 to 29 would be more satisfied with their job if they had teleworking options, yet only 40 percent of Swedish enterprises freely allow workers to do so.

Tele2 said 71 percent of people would like a quiet area in their workplace, as open plan offices lead to an interruption on average every 11 minutes, and then it takes about 23 minutes to regain one’s concentration.

Companies with a diverse workforce perform better than their rivals. In businesses with an even split between male and female staff, there is a 15 percent greater probability that employees will work harder than their rivals. In organisations with ethnic plurality, the likelihood is 35 percent greater. Tele2 said only one third of Swedish enterpries have a staff gender balance, and less than a staff from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Taking care of lighting, environment and temperature can improve staff productivity and satisfaction. For example, Tele2 said 80 percent of workers are unhappy with how warm it is at work. The opimal temperature is approximately 22 degrees centigrade, it recommended. Staff with a window to allow in natural daylight sleep on average for 46 more minutes per night than workers without.

One quarter of workers are willing to commute for an extra 30 minutes to work in the perfect office, Tele2 added.