A recent study from Pew Research analyzed the importance adult Internet users put on the various tools used for their full or part-time jobs. The survey revealed that email and the Internet are the most important communication tools overall, with smartphones coming in fourth on the ranking.
24% of survey participants said they considered their smartphones “very important” for doing their jobs. By comparison, 61% said email was very important, and 54% said that about the Internet. Surprisingly, landline phones ranked ahead of smartphones in the study, with 35% of participants labeling them as “very important.”
Another surprising result of the survey was only 7% of workers considered having technology at their disposal to be a distraction in the workplace. A much higher 46% said they actually felt more productive with email, smartphones and the Internet. 51% of participants said these technologies allow them to expand their communication outside of the company, and 39% said it gave them more flexibility with their work hours.
According to the study, employers are learning to adapt to the changing work environment. Only 46% of respondents said their workplace blocked access to certain websites on their network, and the same percentage said their company had rules about what employees can say online.