Twenty years ago, a mobile workforce barely existed. Some employees might have carried cell phones, but those devices were limited to mostly making and receiving calls. A laptop computer might have been standard for mobile workers, but good luck finding an Internet connection during these early days of the Web (dial-up, anyone?). And if an employee was onsite but moving around the facility, his or her likely communication device was a walkie talkie.
Times certainly have changed. Not only is a mobile workforce likely to utilize a smartphone, but employees (almost a third globally, according to a recent survey) are increasingly relying on more than one device during their workdays. And their second technology of choice often is a tablet such as an iPad or Surface.
With so many options available to the mobile workforce, consistency is an obvious concern for execs, managers, and trainers tasked with ensuring quality skills and processes are maintained throughout the company. Fortunately, the tablet technology creating this mobile boom also can maintain and improve consistency among far-flung employees at scattered locations. Here are some ways how this is being achieved:
Same Content Sent to Everyone
Training materials are a prime example of how inconsistency can plague a company with multiple locations. When content is mailed, emailed, or downloaded, the chance the appropriate employees receive it decreases. For instance, if a new process is sent in six attachments, just one corrupt file can produce a knowledge gap that will affect quality. And getting any content office-based content to mobile employees will always be a challenge. With a tablet-based solution, the same content is delivered to every iPad that should be receiving it. The consistency that emerges will carry over into consistency across stores—customers won’t be surprised to discover a salad at one restaurant doesn’t taste as good as the same salad at a different location.
Video Leaves Little Room for Misinterpretation
The video capabilities of tablet technology offer powerful training possibilities for a mobile workforce. One clear advantage is that video leaves little wiggle room on how something should be learned and eventually achieved. Watch the video, emulate the steps, and, voila, an employee is trained. Compare that written content, which sometimes can be open to interpretation—and can lead to inconsistencies companies are trying so hard to avoid. Mobile employees often don’t have hours to pore over pages upon pages of training content; video teaches them the skills they need more effectively and in much less time.
Collaboration Across the Miles
A limitation of a mobile workforce is that a group of employees at multiple locations but with the same responsibilities can’t sit in a room and discuss the best ways to achieve the same goal at so many stores. Fortunately, tablets can ease communication challenges and allow for robust collaboration. If an employee has a question with a process or procedure being learned on an iPad, he or she can offer that feedback via the tablet. The manager or exec most qualified to answer will be notified immediately and send feedback back to iPad. But the collaboration is just getting started: Any feedback can attach with the content and sync to the tablet of every employee with access to it across the entire company. These workers can chime in with their own comments and suggestions. In this way, the mobile workforce is creating its own best practices, ultimately resulting in better communication, fewer headaches, and increased productivity.
What are the biggest issues your company faces with its mobile workforce?
