With the convergent use of broadband and wireless technologies, the number of mobile workers will continue to increase. According to an analysis from Gartner, mobile workers already account for 35 percent of the workforce. Forward thinking organizations will embrace the changing workforce and find ways to maximize the benefits and limit the shortcomings.

The benefits of mobility solutions for traditionally dispersed workforces such as outside sales, truck drivers, insurance adjusters, and home healthcare workers are readily apparent. Here at Bit-Wizards, we have been involved in developing many types of mobility systems to maximize efficiencies for companies like Covenant Hospice and Pilot Catastrophe.

Workers in these types of industries are inherently dispersed, so enterprise mobility can only add value. However, for employees that have traditionally worked as an inside workforce, tradeoffs have to be weighed and the value may not be as readily apparent. The benefits to an organization can be significant if they can be identified and maximized.

According to a survey conducted by CIO Magazine, benefits of mobility solutions with a dispersed workforce included quicker customer response time, improved collaboration within an organization, and the ability to work with multiple partners and suppliers.

Moreover, other benefits may include:

• Communication on the move
• Increased productivity
• Enhanced ability to compete
• Pervasive digital information
• Easy access to content
• Complete tasks in less time

Additionally, organizations are finding new and creative ways to measure productivity to ensure accountability. A direct approach to measuring activity of employees rather than the number of hours spent inside the organization is a factor to increased productivity. What used to be considered a negative attribute of a dispersed workforce — accountability — is now becoming an added benefit.

Even today, many organizations may fear expanding mobility solutions as it may be perceived to increase IT overhead costs. The expense of outfitting a mobile workforce and then supporting them as well as securing the information they consume is a very real expense. However, industry trends and technologies are slowly making the hardware costs less relevant.

While attending Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles last month, it was clear that Microsoft has a vision for new platforms that cut across screen sizes from smartphones to large home theater televisions. Cloud technologies like Azure and Office 365 are making it easier to scale up and down without the infrastructure expense. Hardware is being commoditized even now.

Moreover, people are joining organizations without the expectation that IT has the sole responsibility for their technology, due mainly, to the consumerization of technology. Not only do they not expect to be given every piece of technology, but they shun the idea of carrying multiple smartphones, laptops, and tablets — using one for work and one for their personal use.

They want to use their own devices and just consume the applications that organizations provide. Mobile devices are more sophisticated than ever and enterprise applications are being designed specifically for access on any device and to align with corporate culture, policies and compliance. Employees can access applications anytime and anywhere with identical enterprise solutions on their mobile devices just as if they were in front of a computer.

The Changing Logistics

It would serve many organizations well to rethink their IT practices to embrace the growing mobile workforce. Potential solutions abound that for many can improve productivity while lowering expenses. Such examples include telecommuting part of the week for workers that live outside a specific distance or providing broadband data cards for those who travel often. Some organizations pay workers to use their personal laptops and smartphones to reduce not only the hardware costs, but the maintenance as well. And some workers can be “virtual” employees where they never go to an office, but are provided with company credentials and reimbursed for business expenses. Many of these arrangements can result in win-win situations for both worker and organization.

Not every job can be performed outside of an organization. Determining when and how often someone can be offsite might take some tweaking over time. In order to make it work, a new type of employer and employee relationship must emerge where both are looking to maximize the advantages of each other. It starts with a mutual commitment that fosters a shared trust and loyalty. Clearly, these types of arrangements can have their downside.

Some considerations before engaging in a mobile employee-employer arrangement might be:

• Isolationism
• Loyalty
• Work & home balance
• Company focus and culture
• Defining and controlling success factors
• Communicating, tracking, and accountability of success factors
• Security
• Employee review
• Monitoring
• Policy and procedures updates

Successful organizations that implement a mobile workforce and maximize its benefits generally follow these steps:

• Build an infrastructure that supports a mobile workforce incorporating technologies that are mobile friendly. Cloud based applications both commercial and custom, VPN access, mobile applications are a few examples. Many companies including Microsoft and Bit-Wizards can assist with information to help organizations.
• Define the success factors for any job and put systems in place for all aspects of those success factors including communicating to employees, training employees, tracking the employee’s success, and reviewing the employee regularly based on those factors.
• Trust your staff and do not micromanage their activities. Use a results-oriented management style based on success factors. Spending time worrying about where everyone is and what they are doing at any moment is counterproductive. Measuring results and holding people accountable to what they produce is what yields dividends.
• Use corporate culture, regular checks on productivity, and technology to ensure employees do not feel isolated. Additionally, it will build loyalty.

The mobile workforce is here and it’s growing. Organizations that embrace new technologies and empower workers with the right tools will be able to more effectively take advantage of this shift in the way business gets done.