UK users are failing to reap efficiency and productivity rewards from their IT equipment because cost is often the main consideration for purchasing, according to a new survey by Samsung.

The UseIT Survey polled 2,000 office workers from a range of industries and found that a quarter said printers are the products they spend the most time trying to fix, while half said they spend up to 10 minutes a day fixing jams, costing businesses in terms of lost productivity.

In addition, nearly 60 percent said they print material and fail to collect it, while 57 percent said they have found and read confidential information on a printer, highlighting security risks.

"I'm quite surprised people are admitting how much print material they leave on printers…there are ways to solve issues, such as [devices] that will hold the print job until you go to the machine and input a [PIN] number," explained IT divisional director of Samsung Electronics, Neil Berville . "Technology is very sophisticated today but too often we use it to make things cheaper and faster and don't [consider] making it easier when things don't go to plan; I'm surprised at how much time is wasted in a day fixing these things."

The survey also found that many users suffer from physical problems because of the wrong working conditions or IT kit, again pointing to a potential drop in productivity. Nearly a third of workers said they suffer back pain from sitting at a monitor all day, while half said they suffer from headaches from staring at PCs.

"Too often IT departments are not thinking about usability, they are thinking about the cost drivers [when buying kit]," argued Berville. "The challenge for the IT department is how do you calculate the costs of [health and safety] issues?"