A growing number of companies are allowing people to work from home, according to a recent study from Imation Corp.

The global data storage and information security company employed Vanson Bourne to conduct the research for them and a total of 500 IT decision makers in UK and Germany were questioned as part of the study.

It was revealed that 96 per cent of the surveyed organisations allow remote or mobile working. Furthermore, 98 per cent said that they believe remote working is advantageous to their organisation.

Among the benefits seen by businesses was the fact that employee motivation is perceived to increase with the greater flexibility brought about by remote working. This was cited by 62 per cent of respondents.

Home working was the most common means of remote working, cited 62 per cent. Other methods deployed were bring your own device (51 per cent); virtual desktop infrastructure (46 per cent) and working from client sites (32 per cent).

Nick Banks, vice president of EMEA and APAC at Imation Corp's IronKey division, commented: “Whilst making remote working available to a larger number of employees has its benefits, the cost and risks associated still make it a difficult route for many organisations to tread.

“Businesses are unaware of the amount, and type, of data leaving the office, yet they are well aware that employees are regularly breaking the rules in order to take work home. Inadequate security, combined with the naivety surrounding the protection of corporate data, is putting organisations at risk of a data breach.”