New research from Ivanti’s 2025 Technology at Work Report shows that employees care more about how they work than where they work. Flexibility, more than remote work, has emerged as the most valued workplace benefit, especially among IT professionals. Yet, most workers say their current jobs don’t provide it, setting the stage for dissatisfaction, hidden AI use, and mounting challenges for tech teams.
Why it matters: Professionals in the credit and collection industry are facing the same talent retention and efficiency questions as the rest of the world. This report highlights urgent trends that could inform workforce policies, tech investments, and AI strategy in collection operations.
By the numbers:
- 75% of office workers say flexible working is “high value” or “essential”, but only 23% say their jobs are actually flexible.
- 83% of IT professionals rate flexibility as essential — highest among all groups surveyed.
- 48% of office workers have felt pressure to return to the office in the last 12 months.
- 82% say remote or hybrid work is just as, if not more, productive than office work.
- 48% report feeling “resenteeism,” and 37% admit to “presenteeism”, which means being visible at work but not necessarily productive.
- 1 in 3 AI users keep their use of tools like ChatGPT secret from their employers.
Zoom in: Employees want autonomy, meaning options like flexible hours, time for personal needs, and trust from leadership. Yet many don’t have access to it, according to the report. Millennials, in particular, are willing to quit jobs to gain flexibility. And nearly half of all office workers equate inflexible schedules with a lack of employer respect.
Tech under strain: The report also surfaces deeper infrastructure issues that impact employee experience and organizational efficiency:
- 58% of IT workers say wasteful tech spending is a problem.
- 38% cite tech complexity as a major obstacle to efficient operations.
- 48% say their company still uses software past its end-of-life.
- 40% say data silos are hurting IT effectiveness.
- 46% say new software increases help desk ticket volume.
AI is used, hidden, and under-leveraged: While AI use has exploded, many employees use it secretly because they are driven by fear of being replaced, or simply to gain a personal edge. Meanwhile, systematic adoption of AI for mission-critical IT operations remains low. Only a minority of companies use AI for tasks like predictive maintenance or intelligent ticket escalation, despite 86% of IT professionals agreeing on its potential.
