UK directors mobilise their workforce

NEWS The majority of the UK's top directors rate mobile working as an important business issue - but only 24 per cent have discussed it at board level, according to the latest Mori poll. The annual 'Captains of Industry Attitudes Survey' questioned senior directors in 250 of the UK's largest companies and financial institutions about their attitudes to mobile technology. The results show directors are becoming increasingly acclimatised to technology in their working lives - but for some it is still a slow process. Mobile phones have become the most prolific form of mobile technology with 91 per cent of respondents using them to stay in contact with work. Email is also popular with 47 per cent of directors using it outside the office and 68 per cent expecting to have email at home before the end of the year. But the take-up of electronic organisers is disappointing, with only 17 per cent abandoning their paper-based address book and 41 per cent of directors choosing to travel with an alarm clock rather than using a digital watch or hotel alarm call. UK mobile company, Cellnet devised Mori's questions.