The modern workforce is changing, and with it, so is the workplace. Countless startups are run out of kitchens and basements, offices are eschewing cubicles in favour of open layouts, and sometimes, your employees aren’t even in the same city, state, province, or country as your main office. Enterprise mobile solutions make it possible for you to employ remote workers who contribute to your team just as much as any local employee does—you just need to be ready to use the technology at your disposal to make it happen.
Fifty years ago, the world’s most forward-thinking futurists couldn’t imagine all the things we can do with technology today. Modern systems of enterprise asset management mean that no employee, no matter how far, ever has to feel disconnected. With cloud-based storage and information systems, remote workers can have access to constantly up-to-date information. This includes policy and procedure documents, project status, and everything else they need to know to do their work effectively.
Whether it’s by email, Skype, or another means, it’s important to always be able to reach remote employees. Where once there was only the telephone, there are now countless enterprise mobile solutions. These allow employees to stay in touch, no matter where they are. Taking advantage of this technology is a must if you have a remote workforce—make time for “face-to-face” conversation as often as possible!
The reason the open-concept office has been embraced is because it promotes collaboration. That is essential to getting the best results from any team. So how do you reconcile the need for collaboration with the employment of remote workers? Apart from the communication tools mentioned above, there are a number of web-based and cloud-based team collaboration tools that allow people to co-author and co-edit documents, host group video chats, share screens, and do more—all in the name of effective remote collaboration.
When working with remote employees, enterprise asset management is still as important as ever. Ensuring that people stay on-task, are productive, and turn in work on time is key to managing a remote team. It’s not enough to set up a project management system—you have to use it consistently, and ensure that every remote employee does the same. Use this system to schedule tasks, assign deadlines, and track the number of hours spent on a given task or project for external cost assessments.
With the right enterprise mobile solutions, you can effectively manage and coordinate a remote workforce without sacrificing enterprise asset management along the way. With the right tools, your employees are always connected, always in reach, always in sync, and always accountable—wherever they are!