Compression - Speed up jobs?

Good afternoon,

I am looking at a couple of ways to speed up the back-ups we do with Symantec Back-up Exec 2012 and im wondering whether or not somebody can confirm if compressing back-up jobs will speed up the time taken to complete?

Also, is hardware compression the best route?

We use an Ultrium HH5 Tape machine.

I know I could test this out myself one night, but im cautious about making changes without doing a little research first.

If someone could advise I would greatly appreciate it.

Kind regards,

Bob