Supporting A Healthy Mobile Culture

by Greg Fenton / Aug 13

When a worker becomes mobile, they detach themselves from the typical nine-to-five, timecard mentality that is typical for an “office worker”.  To that end, tracking a mobile worker’s performance becomes one of goal setting and measuring results rather than measuring attendance.  This, for many organizations or managers, is a fundamental cultural shift.

For an organization to have successful mobile workforce, they need to support a healthy “mobile culture”.  To start, management must establish clear objectives for their workforce.  Mobile workers must understand that their performance is measured (and rewarded) based on the success of fulfilling those objectives, and mobile workers must be empowered with the tools to meet those objectives.  One such tool is the ability for them to set their own work schedules, including the right and ability to disconnect from work.

In addition to empowering employees, the organization needs to instill in this “mobile culture” the tenants of a healthy work/life balance.  In the same way that the employer often cannot dictate the days/hours to be worked by a mobile employee, they cannot dictate the days/hours to be taken off.  The culture should ensure employees that a healthy life outside of work will lead to a longer, stronger career and lead to better results for both the employer and the employee.

Some organizations take the step of enforcing workers to disconnect by removing access to work tools (email, applications, network, mobile devices).  This approach flies in the face of the mobile culture’s self-empowerment mantra, so should be avoided.

Periodic reviews of objectives and performance with mobile employees allows the employer to determine whether workloads are appropriate to support a healthy work/life balance.  This also offers the opportunity to re-enforce the “mobile culture”.

• Add Comment