The desk-bound, 9-to-5 office job that Dolly Parton so famously sang about in the 1980s is now pretty much part of a bygone era, as the mobile workforce redefines how and where business is done. Technology-driven hardware and software is tearing down the boardroom walls and making way for borderless business, as people increasingly work from anywhere in the world, at any time.
With this new way of doing things comes a new realm of challenges, particularly related to mobile workforce management. After all, how does a business owner or manager control productivity and effectively manage a team that is scattered all over the world?
Luckily, sustainable and innovative companies like KYOCERA have a suite of mobile workforce management solutions to secure and control tasks like remote document management.
However, document management is just one in a whole suite of options that are available to those who want to find ways to manage and secure a mobile workforce successfully, whilst driving productivity.
Being mobile and accountable
One of the main challenges associated with mobile workforce management is keeping remote staff accountable. There are technologies available on mobile applications that can easily track remote employees when they check-in and out of their shifts.
While this makes managing time much easier for an offsite manager, the use of a KPI-based role structure can complement this further to make borderless management of productivity a little easier, and staff a little more accountable.
That aside, both research and anecdotal evidence suggests that working from home forms an integral part of the sustainable office practice model and is often associated with lifting staff morale and productivity among a string of other benefits.
It can also be highly profitable for the company, who may discover an overall reduction in costs across areas such as;
- Power;
- Lower print costs;
- The need for smaller, more affordable workspaces; and,
- A reduction in emissions through less staff travel.
It can also make companies a lot more appealing to potential staff, therefore widening the employment pool and making way for more highly skilled staff.
Mobile meetings abroad
Video conferencing and collaboration technology such as Google Hangouts and Zoom have certainly helped spearhead the mobile workforce trend, by making borderless staff meetings a successful reality.
In a bid to foster a collaborative team ethos, companies are making use of such technologies to host regular hangouts, meetings and even conduct pitches to potential international clients.
Managing workflow across borders
While the use of smart devices, apps and video technologies are making mobile workforce management easier in terms of KPIs and collaboration, there is a major borderless workflow element that can underpin one company’s success over another.
An increased workload shared amongst various remote staff makes central document management an ongoing challenge for some CEOs. It would be wise to use a cloud-based system like KYOCERA’s that enables employees to stay mobile while sharing and working on central documents such as quotes, proposals and purchase orders. Systems like this are scalable to the needs of the business too, while simultaneously ticking relative sustainability boxes for the company.
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