The pressures of the workplace come from many directions in the recession, yet small businesses in IT ought to consider the way desks are set out in their organisation, following one report.

Stanford University revealed that jobs which are based on a lot of tasks at once take a serious mental toll on people, particularly those who are regularly bombarded with diverse streams of electronically-mediated information.

Justin Cooke, the chairman of the British Interactive Media Association, explained that it is hardly surprising that this is the case, particularly given the rise of technology in the workplace over the last few years.

Giving advice to combat the issue, he continued: "Creating spaces that minimise distractions and the creation of quiet areas where employees can focus on one job at hand are all simple and highly effective measures for ensuring we can get the balance between multi-tasking and getting things done absolutely right."

Having conversations instead of sending emails to one another is another good way to get away from it all, it was added.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.