With more and more of the US workforce working as remote, freelance, or gig workers, it has become more challenging than ever to manage your entire team. Understanding mobile workforce management and how to get the best results from your workers is the key to a more productive, higher-performing business. Workers today want to receive their work schedules right to their phones. By giving them the accessibility, flexibility, and convenience that they crave in their working hours, you can reduce turnover and keep your employees more engaged.
What is a Mobile Workforce?
A “mobile workforce” usually refers to a group of employees who are out in the field providing services to your customers. So, how does a management team sitting in a corporate office manage such a widespread, remote team? The answer is in mobile workforce management software. Today, any workforce management platforms need to be designed with the mobile experience in mind. Without putting mobile-first, managers in charge of scheduling, approving timesheets, and communicating with their remote workforce would need to rely on outdated and manual technology. This doesn’t benefit the managers and it certainly doesn’t benefit your business. On the flip side, for those employees working in the field, without the ability to receive their schedules instantly and being able to communicate with their managers instantly, flexible scheduling would be impossible.
In today’s work environment, mobile workforce management software has become a necessity rather than a “nice to have”. It has become a standard that will benefit your entire team and keep business moving forward.
Mobile workforce management (MWM) software has tools that are designed to help company leaders more effectively manage employees in the field while they interacting with customers. When evaluating mobile workforce management software for your team, make sure that it includes these tools, which will seamlessly connect everyone in your company:
- Ability for managers to create and edit schedules for their mobile talent
- Instant job alerts for the talent
- Seamless communication with employees and their managers
- Real-time metrics collected from the field – such as sales per hour or units sold
- Photos and notes by shift for insight into the field
- GPS check-in and to-the-minute shift recorded
- Digital timesheets for employees to record all time worked
- One system of record to track performance and hours worked