Don’t let your mobile workers spend precious time organizing schedules and completing compliance checks manually. Use the latest mobile workforce management software to gain from automation and cloud-based collaboration. Scroll down for our top ten picks in this category, with pricing, features, and why they make a difference.
Mobile employees now make up a massive portion of the global workforce. Whether the workforce is a part of your permanent payroll, or it works with your company on a contingent basis, it is vital to maximize its contributions fully. A 2018 report by EmergenceOpens a new window found that approximately 2.7 billion people in the world are part of a deskless – or mobile – workforce! You can use the latest mobile workforce management software to organize these employees’ activities, keep them engaged, and help them to work at their full potential.
Why Is Mobile Workforce Management Software Necessary?
Despite the massive numbers, research also suggests that deskless/mobile workers don’t always receive the same benefits as on-premise employees. QuinyxOpens a new window , a leading provider of workforce management solutions, unraveled this issue in a survey of 4,000 U.S. employees. Here’s what emerged:
- 41% of respondents spend up to 5 hours a week on refining their own and their team member’s schedules. Nearly a quarter spends 5–10+ hours a week. This indicates that there is no digitized mobile workforce management that could reduce these manual efforts.
- 32% of respondents said that coordinating with co-workers is their #1 frustration point at work. This is unexpected, given the ease of communication and collaboration we expect in the digital age.
- Over half said that they spend 5 hours every week trying to coordinate with colleagues or waiting for a colleague to get back to them. This lack of responsiveness negatively impacts the employee experienceOpens a new window for deskless/mobile workers.
To address these gaps, organizations can adopt mobile workforce managementOpens a new window software that is designed specifically for employees who are always on the move.
Several industries traditionally rely on large deskless workforces, such as retail, healthcare, trade services, event management, etc. Add to that the impact of the gig economy. Today, virtually any employee could choose to work from home or a location of their choice, making the definition of a mobile workerOpens a new window even more multidimensional.
Indeed, Quinyx found that 85% of employees believe flexible work schedules are directly linked to their productivity; 59% even consider this an employee right.
So, how do you deliver flexibility and ease of communication to employees, while keeping an eye on work schedules? That’s where mobile workforce management software comes in.
Learn More: Top 10 Employee Productivity Tracking Software in 2020Opens a new window
10 Mobile Workforce Management Software Platforms You Need in 2020
The cloud has revolutionized the mobile workforce management discipline. You can now access any application from any device, without a complex download, installation, and compatibility check process. This has given the mobile workforce market the thrust it needs. Between 2017 and 2022, experts anticipate that software in this field will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate of 13%Opens a new window .
We surveyed the marketplace as it stands today (and innovations are always around the corner) – here are our top ten recommendations in alphabetical order.
1. Beekeeper Opens a new window
Beekeeper is an end-to-end platform for mobile workforce communication and management.
Feature highlights: It has several useful features, including access to shift schedules, training documents, and contracts from the company’s smartly designed mobile interface. On the admin side, Beekeeper gives you a powerful analytics dashboard to monitor employee engagement with the app.
Every time an employee reads a message or performs a task, you will get a notification on Beekeeper. We also liked the platform’s excellent automation capabilities that let you automate common workflows like training, onboarding, and employee surveys. Beekeeper integrates with your existing HR toolkit, with compatibility for Workday, ADP, and more.
But Beekeeper’s USP is its extension marketplace – CheckProof for to-do lists, Coursepath for learning management systems, YouTube for company videos, and Instagram for social media advocacy, Beekeeper has something for all your mobile workforce management needs.
It is available in an Essential, Business, Business Pro, or Enterprise version, but you have to contact them for bespoke pricing.
2. Cognito iQOpens a new window
Cognito iQ is billed as a mobile workforce management software that connects your field workers with the back office. Cognito iQ is also device agnostic, meaning that it can run on custom, ruggedized hardware that’s regularly used on the field.
Feature highlights: Cognito iQ’s domain-specific capabilities set it apart. It comes with robust risk management and compliance features so that you are sure of employee safety at all times. Further, it has a built-in customer survey module, if your employees need to quickly check on customer satisfaction while on the field.
This is an excellent mobile workforce management software for companies working with physical assets (logistics, supply chains, etc.) as well as field customer service (utilities, food delivery, etc.). Further, its standard API lets you integrate Cognito iQ with virtually any platform.
Cognito iQ doesn’t disclose its pricing information, so you would have to contact the company for a demo. At the time of writing this article, Cognito iQ isn’t listed on Capterra, but the platform does support 40,000+ mobile employees every day, making it a strong contender in any list of top mobile workforce management platforms.
3. HubstaffOpens a new window
Hubstaff is a popular mobile workforce management software geared for on-the-go employees.
Feature highlights: It comes with built-in GPS location tracking so that you can explore route history and the time employees spend in transit. This could prove critical when reconciling your expense management records. Apart from this, you can monitor employees via randomized screenshots, manage projects of any size, and even complete payroll.
Hubstaff is truly an end-to-end workforce management solution for remote and mobile workers. We were impressed by two things: its advanced geofencing capabilities and the project budgeting module. Geofencing lets you generate reports with time and location data, feeding into the attendance app. Hubstaff also makes it easy to calculate project costs and budgets, sending you timely alerts when you approach a budget threshold.
All in all, Hubstaff is a good choice for companies with a distributed team and working on a project basis. Pricing starts from free forever if you are an independent freelancer, going up to $20 per user per month for the Enterprise edition.
Customers on Capterra give Hubstaff a solid 4.6 out of 5Opens a new window .
4. LegionOpens a new window
Legion leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI)Opens a new window to simplify mobile workforce management.
Feature highlights: The AI capabilities kick in when you use Legion to forecast labor demand, particularly useful for companies with a sizable hourly workforce who work on the field. Legion gives you the optimal labor hours based on forecasted demand, matches your business needs with employee preferences to generate schedules, and even has an employee engagement module.
If engaging your remote employees is a priority, Legion claims to match your schedules to 96% of employee preferences.
Of course, there is the must-have time and attendance feature. Here too, Legion’s AI auto-computes the cost of compliance penalty and automatically flags/reports any violations. Legion boasts of 99.95% uptime, so that your workforce has constant, reliable access. Legion has partnered with Workday, Looker, Oracle, ADP, Gusto, and many others to bring you an extensive library of integrations. Legion doesn’t list the product price, so you can visit their website to schedule a demo.
Founded in 2016 and funded in 2017, Legion is yet to be listed on Capterra, but it has a 3.8 out of 5 ratingOpens a new window on Google Play.
Learn More: 5 Remote Work Statistics to Guide Your Mobile Workforce StrategyOpens a new window
5. MyMobileWorkersOpens a new window
As the name suggests, MyMobileWorkers is a pure-play mobile workforce management software.
Feature highlights: MyMobileWorkers calls this its “force processes†approach, which can come in handy if you have an extensive distributed workforce. Like every mobile workforce management software on this list, you can schedule jobs, assign workers, communicate with employees, and track attendance. It ensures that your mobile workers complete critical approval and compliance processes, such as uploading on-site photos, getting a gig off from customers, attaching the requisite documents, and checking vehicles for safety. Interestingly, it also has a working CRM Opens a new window to create a single source of truth for your employee and customer data.
MyMobileWorkers starts at £29 per user per month, but this includes its entire feature list. There is also a one-time fee of £495 for the initial setup.
The platform is yet to be reviewed on Capterra, but it claims to reduce HR admin time by 80% and help save £5 per job. These numbers make it a deserving player in our selection of mobile workforce management software.
6. Salesforce Field Service Lightning Opens a new window
Salesforce has a powerful tool for mobile workforce management under its ServiceCloud brand.
Feature highlights: Salesforce Field Service Lightning is both a productivity enabler for mobile employees, as well as a tool for workforce management. You can automate appointment scheduling for field service providers, with real-time visibility into operations.
Every update can be shared with customers so that your CXOpens a new window remains above average.
Field Service Lightning’s core features include work order friction, schedule optimization, remote job management, advanced analytics. But it’s biggest USP is the power of Einstein, Salesforce’s proprietary AI algorithm. On this mobile workforce management software, Einstein Vision lets employees auto-identify assets via image recognition.
Salesforce Field Service Lightning starts at £20 per user per month.
Capterra gives it a 4.4 on 5Opens a new window . Further, Gartner recognized the platform as a Challenger in the 2019 Gartner magic Quadrant for field service management.
7. SkeduloOpens a new window
Skedulo zeroes in on the workforce scheduling, routing, and allocation side of mobile workforce management.
Feature highlights: It creates a centralized hub where you can monitor all your people assets – whether they are payrolled employees or external workers. Skedulo helps you to analyze demand so that you can better plan for the future. You can match jobs to employee preferences, optimizing these schedules as per your key performance indicators (KPIs)Opens a new window .
We liked that employees can be dispatched via push notifications or SMS, ready for offline use as well.
Skedulo has a proprietary technology called Mastermind, which is a recommendation and optimization engine for mobile worker schedules. It balances customer needs, travel time, and employee availability to give you the best-fit task flow.
This mobile workforce management software has an endless list of integrations, from Workday, Salesforce, and QuickBooks, to Skedulo Lens, which is a technical API framework that can connect to any app. Skedulo starts at 479 per month per user for “schedulers†(or HR) and $59 per month per user for mobile workers.
On Capterra, Skedulo has a 5 out of 5 ratingOpens a new window .
8. TASKEROpens a new window
TASKER is a simple task and workflow management software for mobile employees. It aims to transform field services, by digitizing your most common tasks, such as route planning, document submission, inventory management, and more. Tasker combines employee management, asset management, and customer satisfaction management in a unified platform.
Feature highlights: TASKER’s standout feature is its ability to help your mobile workers to collaborate. They can digitize and share documents, attach the relevant files to a task, and even draw on a captured image to tell colleagues about any issues. The platform’s NFC and QR code scanning integrations let you keep an eye on employee movements at all times.
All of this data feeds into the TASKER web portal. You can convert raw data into visual statistical reports to make smarter business decisions. Linking TASKER with CRM, warehouse management and other enterprise systems further expand its capabilities.
The platform starts at $25 per user per month. TASKER has a 5 out 5 rating on CapterraOpens a new window .
Learn More: 5 Features of a Good Mobile Workforce Management SoftwareOpens a new window
9. Workforce.FMOpens a new window
Workforce FM helps you build a singular workforce for your field and office employees. It is an end-to-end solution, making your organization agile enough to take on any type of employment model.
Feature highlights: Field workers can gain from its advanced work scheduling capabilities, such as new job notifications, job completion at a click, mobile form filling, and expense management. Schedules are synced with Outlook, iCloud, and Google Calendar so that there is 360-degree visibility.
Like several other software platforms on this list, Workforce.FM has GPS tracking and a built-in customer management module.
But what sets it apart is its persona-specific features. If you are in the field services sector, Workforce.FM addresses your customer, office staff, field worker and management requirements equally effectively. There is a long list of integrations, including your accounting and invoicing systems. All of this is available at $21 per user per month (starting).
Workforce.FM has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 on CapterraOpens a new window .
10. WorkpathOpens a new window
Workpath made it to our list of mobile workforce management software for its industry-facing features.
The platform targets healthcare providers, a sector that relies heavily on on-the-go professionals. Workforce management in healthcare must also adhere to specific compliance standards, which is why a dedicated platform is so necessary. Workpath assesses your care providers to match them with the right patients. You can select providers based on availability, proximity, certifications, licenses, and a variety of other filters.
Feature highlights: With a focus on healthcare professionals, Workpath lets you communicate with mobile professionals right from within the app, eliminating the need for complex emails, or third-party chat applications.
Importantly, Workpath is HIPAA-compliant and records an audit trail for every appointment. Workpath doesn’t disclose its pricing details, so you will have to get in touch for a demo and a bespoke quotation.
Users give the platform a 4.4 out of 5 on CapterraOpens a new window .
Do you have a favorite mobile workforce management software that you’d recommend to others? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear your insights!