The digital divide is alive and well in the UK workplace, with one in five Britons citing that they do not have the basic IT facilities to carry out their day-to-day job for their employer, according to a study by Samsung Electronics.

The survey, which was undertaken in partnership with YouGov among 1,000 UK respondents, found that the average UK employee believed that their IT skills were average at best, with 5% of the population believing them to be poor. The survey results also highlighted that 38% of UK respondents have no method of feeding back on the IT that they are provided to do their jobs.

The importance of technology in UK workplaces was also highlighted, with one in three Britons feeling they can’t function at work without technology. This feeling most commonly occurred among employees in the financial services industry, where 75% of the workforce believes they wouldn’t be unable to function without their existing technology.

Graham Paterson, IT business director, Samsung IT, says: “In today’s knowledge economy, most of us now use more technology than ever before in our jobs. However, our survey findings indicate that many employees believe their IT skills need to be further bolstered by both training and access to new technologies in order to help us to do our jobs. Furthermore, it seems that one fifth of employees do not currently feel that they are given access to the technology needed for them to complete their work. This would be a prime area for businesses to lose money through either loss of productivity and poor processes.”