More than half of UK marketeers believe their organisation could be compromised by the need to work remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
An survey of 887 UK brand marketers conducted by Marketing Week found that remote working has been somewhat rare or rare until recently among 38 percent of marketeers. However, 83 percent believe it will become more common over the near to medium term.
Amid the shift, marketeers have genuine concerns about how their teams will manage working remotely during the Covid-19 outbreak and the impact it could have on business.
Only 12 percent of marketers believe their organisation would definitely be compromised if there is a significant increase in remote working.
However, half believe it could be compromised depending on the scale and duration. Just 38 percent believe there would not be an impact on their organisation.
Around 59 percent of respondents say that running productive meetings remotely will be somewhat or very challenging, while 54 percent believe that attending such meetings will prove difficult.
Likewise, 32 percent worry about the challenges of accessing data and databases, 29 per cent are concerned about campaign coordination, and 25 percent are worried that vendor or contractor management will be compromised in the context of remote working.
While 81 percent of senior UK marketeers – director level and above – say that remote working is excellent for concentration, 92 percent also admit that it is not suited to everyone. Some 68 percent of senior marketers believe creative collaboration will suffer if workers cannot share the same space and 75 percent think collaborating in person will always be superior to virtual meetings.
A further 37 percent of these senior marketeers are concerned that remote working is not well suited to junior staff, while 63 percent admit that training in best practice is needed to make remote working most effective.
