“Mobile workforce management is defined as the process of organizing and managing employees of a company who work outside of physical office premises.â€
Table of Contents
- What Is Mobile Workforce Management?
- Top 4 Benefits of Mobile Workforce Management
- Top 5 Trends for Mobile Workforce Management in 2020
- Closing Thoughts
What Is Mobile Workforce Management?
A mobile workforce is defined as employees who work outside of office premises, such as from home or on-field company work.
Mobile workforce management is defined as the process of organizing and managing employees of a company who work outside of physical office premises.
The goal of effective workforce management is to ensure the expected level of productivity and work delivery, and application of organizational HR policies.
Broadly speaking, a mobile workforceOpens a new window includes anyone who works outside of the physical office premises. They aren’t chained to the traditional desktop, a classroom, a factory workshop, or any other such physical space. You can classify mobile workforces into three types:
1. Field workforce: This includes are employees whose job requires them to step out of the office, mandatorily. Sales professionals, customer service executives, public sector workers, caregivers, and other job roles would fall under the field workforce category.
2. Work-from-home (WFH) employees: This group does not work out of the office but does spend most of its time in a single physical location – their homes. There are several 100% remote working companies out there, whose employees could fall under this category.
3. Digital nomads: These are employees who choose to travel from one place to another while continuing a permanent/long-term form of employment. Interestingly, digital nomads often have 9-to-5 jobs – but leverage mobile and other remote working technologies to complete their tasks.
Flexibility in how we work is now a vital employee demand. In a survey Opens a new window of 15,000 respondents, it appeared that 80% who choose an offer with flexible working when given two similar offers, one with and one without the option to work outside the office premises.
In other words, flexibility is the key differentiating factor for many candidates looking to join your company.
The same holds for existing employees as well. The study also found that 50% of employees globally, work outside the main office for at least 2.5 days a week; 85% agree that this has pushed up their productivity levels.
With so many candidates and employees eager to step out of the office, how do you manage your workforce effectively? This is where mobile workforce management comes in. Mobile workforce management is focuses on leveraging out of office workers to the fullest, turning their flexibility into a competitive advantage.
Given that the global mobile workforce will grow from 1.4 billion in 2016 to 1.87 billion in 2022 Opens a new window (making up a whopping 42.5% of the total workforce), a robust mobile workforce management strategy is essential for any organization.
The rise of the mobile workforce has a lot to do with rapid advancements in global connectivity. Thanks to widespread Wi-Fi access, 4G/LTE (now 5G) internet, cloud-based collaboration apps, and low-hardware technology, employers can stay in touch with their workforce, regardless of location or time zone difference. This has led to the emergence of mobile workforce management as an important field in HR.
Delving a little deeper into the definition of mobile workforce management, it is possible to delineate the following vital functions:
1. Time-tracking
In a mobile scenario, employees can’t sign an attendance register or clock in via biometrics. That’s why mobile workforce management involves location-based clock-in and clock-out, monitoring of active/idle hours, and linking this data to payroll. However, as far as monitoring remote employees is concerned, work cultureOpens a new window plays a key role, with many companies choosing to work on a delivery-only based model with work hours taking lower priority.
2. SchedulingOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”>
Workforce schedulingOpens a new window is the most crucial part of managing a remote workforce. Some would argue that timely work delivery based on mutually agreed upon schedules is even more critical that hours spent on work. This includes scheduling for workers who are out for a quick job like plumbing, electrical fitting, hardware-based networking, or other on-site jobs, as well as workers who are permanently or temporarily working from home.
3. CommunicatingOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”>
Communicating management for non-stationary mobile workforce includes travel tickets, lodging and other components as per company policies. While for smaller companies, the HR team can manage the co-organization with simple spreadsheets, larger companies need software solutions that can help in real-time communication with employees commuting to and from different geographies.
4. Expense management
Mobile workers – particularly field employees – will incur a variety of costs as part of their daily work schedule. As part of mobile workforce management, HR must regularly track these spends and offset them against payroll, taxation, and other regulations.
5. Optimizing performance
Performance managementOpens a new window is an essential part of managing any type of workforce and is also critical for mobile workers. Field employees might have different key result areas (KRAs) than desked employees. Similarly, work from home employees and digital nomads might need specialized productivity monitoring tools to boost performance. A mobile workforce management strategy should factor in all of these requirements.
Depending on the nature of your business, mobile workforce management might be a core operations area or a way to satisfy a new generation of workers. For example, a large retail chain with tens of outlets across the city will inevitably rely on a mobile workforce. On the other hand, a software development company might choose to operate on a 100% remote basis, to gain from top talent across the world.
Either way, every company needs an effective mobile workforce management strategy in the world of new work. In a global surveyOpens a new window of 3,500 remote workers, Buffer found that 98% were interested in working remotely.
Mobile workforce management strategies and tools can help you make the most of this talent, engaging, utilizing, and retaining every employee effectively. Let us consider these benefits in detail.
Learn More: 5 Steps for Successfully Transitioning to Remote WorkOpens a new window
Top 4 Benefits of Mobile Workforce Management
Both employees and employers gain from a solid mobile workforce management strategy.
Employees know exactly what they are supposed to do, where they have to go, and how to get there. Employees don’t need to incur any business-related spend out of pocket. And despite not being present in the office, employees can enjoy a sustained level of engagement – even a sense of community via real-time communication.
There are several compelling benefits of mobile workforce management for employers as well.
1. Meet customer expectations with prompt service delivery
Whether you’re managing a team of field workforce or employees who are just working from home, effective management is key to ensuring end-customer satisfaction. This is particularly important for customer-facing teams like on-field/remote support, sales, and service.
Imagine a logistics employee working for Amazon. Mobile workforce management helps Amazon track the delivery person, set them the most optimized routes, alert the employee to any traffic bottleneck, and inform customers of possible delays. The employee takes the package to the customer within the expected timelines. With multiple delivery cycles, this builds trust and loyalty, translating into higher customer lifetime value.
This is why mobile workforce management technology has become a staple for sectors that rely on a large field workforce. It makes a genuine difference to your core business value proposition.
2. Prevent disengagement among remote/field workers
Mobile workforces are at high-risk of disengagement. On-field employees rarely interact with senior leadership, and WFH employees might rarely/never physically meet their work colleagues.
A mobile workforce management strategy will include a roadmap for regular communication and engagement, mapping a direct channel of interaction between frontline workers and C/C-minus level leaders. Consider a 100% remote contact center where employees take calls and solve customer queries from their homes. With a remote workforce management system, the company’s CEO might hold a weekly town hall where employees raise their questions via chat and get a quick resolution.
Mobile workforce management is critical for stemming the risk of disengagement, improving transparency and one’s overall comfort levels with their team – no matter their location.
3. Enable business agility for your organization
Mobile workforce management makes it easier to onboard new employees without having to physically introduce them to the rest of the team or office campus. This has a positive impact on productivity, particularly in areas like sales, contact centers, etc.
A mobile workforce management strategy lays down clear outlines for onboarding a new recruit, and the solution lets you add the employee in no time. You can update employee records, guide them through the various communication channels, and get the employee started with full-productivity work levels without cumbersome paperwork or protracted formalities.
Over time, this makes your organization more scalable as well. For instance, if you are expanding to a new geographical location – your mobile workforce management program will already have the necessary experience to manage new remote employees, just at a different location.
4. Maintain compliance for out-of-office workers
Companies have to adhere to a plethora of laws and regulations when it comes to workforce management. This ranges from overtime laws, compensation and leaves, to laws against discrimination and sexual harassment. Maintaining compliance becomes difficult in a mobile scenario.
Imagine a physical office where an employee regularly leaves after everybody else has gone home. It immediately comes to someone’s notice, and the company can put in control mechanisms so that overtime rules aren’t breached. Now, how would the same situation play out for a mobile workforce?
A mobile workforce management strategy has checks and balances to prevent any compliance oversight. It logs the requisite data, approvals, and consent to keep the organization going as per the regulations.
Learn More: Top 10 Employee Productivity Tracking Software in 2020Opens a new window
Top 5 Trends for Mobile Workforce Management in 2020
As workforces rapidly evolve, workforce management strategies must transform in tandem. Here are seven trends to look out for when formulating your policies for 2020.
1. Hybrid workforces will be the new normal
In a hybrid environment, employees can switch seamlessly between remote and in-office working. This trend is already a reality in several companies, and more will join the ranks in 2020, especially with the rise of work from home during and post-COVID environment. More companies now find the need to adopt remote working ready systems across the entire spectrum of HR technology, from time and attendance and employee self-service to payroll and L&D.
2. Reduced employee relocation, increased hiring flexibility
Mobile workforce management will slowly eliminate the need for employees to relocate due to work. This would open up the available work pool of candidates, enabling you to hire better talent while also reducing travel and remote-site work requirements for existing employees. This further frees up company resources that can now be invested elsewhere. Mobile workforce management thereby expands the ambit of talent sourcing and acquisitionOpens a new window like never before.
3. AI will be a mobile workforce management staple
Workforce management platforms are eager to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) – consider Humanity Opens a new window and LegionOpens a new window , to begin with. AI can automatically assess mobile workforce availability, tweak schedules, recommend the best routes for field workers, and more. Futuristic contact centers will also be able to leverage AI to auto-route calls based on agent bandwidth, track employee performance, alert employees and managers where necessary, etc.
4. Augmented reality will be a vital tool for field workers
Thanks to augmented reality (AR), field workers will no longer be disconnected from their in-office managers/team leaders. AR-based mobile workforce management will include tools for field service assistance, where experts guide new employees through multiple complex processes. FieldbitOpens a new window is among the early adopters of this technology.
5. Mobile workforce payments could switch to blockchain
Blockchain creates an uninterrupted, secure, and unchangeable flow of transaction data across stakeholders. Potentially, employers could pay their mobile workers located in the opposite corner of the world, without any security concerns. Blockchain also streamlines micro-payments, which means that field workers would be able to receive on-time, accurate hourly wages.
Learn More: Future of Work – 10 Key Opens a new window Trends Opens a new window for the Next 10 YearsOpens a new window
Closing Thoughts
Today, the number of connected devices is proliferating. As per GartnerOpens a new window , a massive 5.8 billion connected endpoints will be in use by the end of 2020. This opens up incredible opportunities in the field of mobile workforce management.
Data could flow in from an employee’s 5G smartphone, informing employers about their real-time location. Embedded telematics could ensure the safety of transportation and logistics employees. Health information from smartwatches could even detect stress, making sure an employee’s mental health isn’t negatively impacted. The possibilities are endless.
To take advantage of this connected universe, organizations must establish clear policies and platforms for mobile workforce management, addressing the needs of both field and WFH workers. This will translate into a strong foundation for futuristic innovation, steering workforce management to newer and more efficient heights.
Do you have a mobile workforce management strategy in place? Tell us about it on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We are eager to learn from your experience!