While the concept of a mobile workforce may seem relatively new, it can be traced back to 1972 when Jack Nilles, a former rocket scientist, invented telecommuting by running a complex NASA communication project fully remote. Exactly 50 years later, working offsite has grown into the new normal – about 80% of the workers around the world are referred to as deskless employees.

The individuals making up the deskless workforce are mostly operating in such industries as construction, transportation, retail, healthcare, and other fields. Over the years, the number of remote workers has grown rapidly, therefore, companies must recognize situations that can negatively impact their mobile workforce productivity, as well as learn how to avoid them.

Purpose-built solutions

If you’ve been wondering where productivity and work progress stand with running a remote team, remember that sketching calendars on whiteboards, managing schedules on spreadsheets, and sending mobile workers into the field with piles of paper forms are things of the past.

The rise of new, purpose-built telematics solutions makes it easier to solve different types of problems, communicate with team members, update work schedules, and keep track of work in progress. Hence, we’ve put together a list that will help you to deal with various unwanted situations in the workplace.

1. Lack of visibility

When it comes to achieving your business goals, a determined team is the most valuable asset you can have. However, businesses often deal with employees who aren’t one hundred percent invested in their jobs. Whether it’s an unfortunate habit of taking overly long lunch breaks, arriving late, or simply slacking off, having a half-glass empty approach never really works for anyone. Some people, on the other hand, struggle with being constantly overworked, so eventually they burn out.

To avoid these cases, managers can use a simple work time tracker that replaces paper timesheets and provides an accurate record of each employee’s attendance and hours worked. Companies can use this solution to ease the process of payroll management, too.

Just as importantly, balancing multiple responsibilities on a daily basis is not always easy to handle. While organizing a schedule is practical, there are exceptional situations of appointments being delayed because workers are either stuck in traffic or call in sick. Likewise, clients tend to unexpectedly cancel meetings, requiring you to find replacements on short notice. Mapon solution for an effective workload management will allow you to review tasks and distribute them among employees as fairly and productively as possible.

2. Mountains of paperwork

Undertaking routine tasks, especially paperwork is a tough assignment when on the move. Dealing with the contracts, collecting signatures for each job that is handled, and walking with a pile of files from one site to another can put one on edge. How about we stop using paper in our daily operations?

No paper, no ink, and no printing – going green can help your business drive down operational costs and also provide a better and more organised workflow.

Moving your form processes to a digital form solution means that your team will always be able to access and manage data with ease. Create custom forms or use ready-to-go– templates on the Mapon fleet management platform and store them on the Mapon Driver app for mobile employees. Digital forms solution is a new and improved way of transferring information and document delivery to and from a business.

3. Poor communication

Maintaining open communication with everyone in your company can be challenging, especially when managing a mobile workforce. Nobody likes to be left out of the loop, and, as remote employees don’t get the chance to chat around the office and usually have limited access to computers, it’s vital to keep them informed about everything that is going on.

Today, mobile workforce management is 100% reliant on using technology to communicate and collaborate, so having the right tools can make all the difference.

Field employees can use instant messaging to stay in touch with the back office and avoid errors or loss of information. To ensure a consistent and responsive communication process from all parties involved, the Mapon Driver app can be of great help. The solution provides fast and simple connectivity, as well as improves overall business productivity.

If you want to simplify processes for your mobile workforce and learn more about Mapon solutions, feel free to get in touch with our client project managers or contact us via sales@mapon.com.