More than half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the UK have not adequately prepared for potential disruption of work and travel patterns during next year's London Olympic Games, according to a survey.

The poll of 2,000 SMB workers by printing firm Lexmark found 64 per cent of employers do not currently have a flexible or remote working policy in place.

Just one in five (19 per cent) of respondents' organisations have plans to introduce a policy before the start of the Olympics, despite the significant demand from workers (41 per cent) for increased flexibility during the event.

Almost a fifth of firms said they had made no investment in IT devices in order to meet strong demand for flexible working during the Games.

Three quarters of SMEs admitted that they do not have a system in place to aid workflow or collaboration, such as cloud computing or remotely accessible servers.

Gary Bourland, country general manager for Lexmark UK & Ireland, said: "It is quite remarkable that with less than nine months to go until the Olympics, so many organisations have still not finalised a flexible working programme and the required IT infrastructure to support this.

"With the work-life balance constantly under threat, businesses need to reconsider their flexible working policies especially during this peak time and ensure they have adequate technology in place for their employees to be most productive."

Transport for London estimates there will be an extra three million journeys a day on public transport during the games.