78% of UAE Employees See Rise in Productivity When Offered Flexible Work Options

Growing need for businesses to adopt mobility solutions to capitalise on benefits of anytime, anywhere working

Citrix, the cloud computing company that enables mobile workstyles, today revealed findings of its research into the adoption and attitude towards mobile workstyles in the UAE. The survey, conducted by YouGov ahead of this year's GITEX Technology Week, highlighted that 78 per cent of UAE employees would feel less stressed and more productive if they were given freedom and trust from organizations to work flexibly from outside the office.

In contrast, only 23 percent of companies surveyed in the UAE encourage and enable employees to work from anywhere, using any device of choice. Moreover, 36 percent of organizations believe that employees may become less productive when outside an office environment, whilst 33 per cent believe that a lack of security controls for devices prevents them adopting mobility solutions.

The survey also revealed that:

• 17 percent of organizations do not currently enable employees to work outside of the office or use any personal devices; a further 9 percent only allow it in special circumstances

• Only 26 percent of UAE businesses are examining the impact of mobility on productivity, whilst 32 percent do not have any way of understanding the potential impact of mobility on their business

The findings reflect the increasing need for businesses in the UAE to adopt mobility solutions to transform the way people and organizations do business. As organizations seek to recruit and empower skilled workers, flexible work strategies provide a more attractive experience in which people can choose the ideal time and place for their work. By enabling full productivity beyond the constraints of physical desks, offices and traditional work hours, organizations can increase productivity by empowering employees to work smarter, wherever they may be - and most importantly, attract and retain the best talent.

"Companies are waking up to the realisation that it's less about a nine-to-five mentality, and more about working smarter, while also balancing out the pressures of a home life. However, as this research shows, there is still progress to be made," said Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Citrix. "Quite simply, by embracing mobility solutions, organizations can improve productivity, talent recruitment and employee retention."

"This year, in the UAE specifically, employees can see the benefits of working from anywhere, and are keen to be able to build a work/life balance that suits them - as these results show. In some ways this is further emphasised by the emergence of "Generation Y" into the workforce, which has the desire and expectation for greater flexibility on where, when and how work gets done." added Karam
Citrix enterprise mobility solutions empower employees to work, meet and collaborate anywhere inside or outside the organization, on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office--simply and securely.

The survey was conducted by YouGov in September 2013 using the YouGov Online Panel. It collected responses from 755 individuals in full or part time employed, and based in the UAE.

About Citrix
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the cloud company that enables mobile workstyles--empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere, securely accessing apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office. Citrix solutions help IT and service providers build clouds, leveraging virtualization and networking technologies to deliver high-performance, elastic and cost-effective cloud services. With market-leading solutions for mobility, desktop virtualization, cloud networking, cloud platforms, collaboration and data sharing, Citrix helps organizations of all sizes achieve the speed and agility necessary to succeed in a mobile and dynamic world. Citrix products are in use at more than 260,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Annual revenue in 2012 was $2.59 billion. Learn more at www.citrix.com