Mobile Worker in Kansas City – GSA found unexpected benefits

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 John Gallagher, Sr. Public Relations Manager

As iPass is in the business of keeping people connected, I always follow the debate on mobile working. A recent article in VentureBeat got me thinking. The author, James Reinhart, argues that working from home is a bad idea…for start-ups. I tend to agree. With start-ups, an intense collaboration is needed and being in close proximity to each other helps foster the creativity and ideas needed to move the venture beyond being a perpetual start-up.

However, with established enterprises, the opposite is true – sometimes you have to escape the office to get work accomplished. Traveling for work can be brutal too, with long days that can stretch from 6 am flights to midnight conference calls –not to mention the terrible diet – so being seamlessly connected with no hassle is crucial to mobile workers who want to make the most use of their time.

I’ve never visited Kansas City – and for those of you outside of the US, it’s strangely in the state of Missouri, not Kansas – but the US General Services Administration (GSA), the “federal government’s workplace solutions provider,” is piloting a program at their offices there, which enables all 300 employees of the Kansas City office to be mobile workers one day a week and 45 employees to work from home five days a week.

Michael Brinks, GSA Regional Commissioner of Federal Acquisition Service told Federal News Radio that employees in the pilot program are sleeping more, exercising more, seeing their families more and feeling less stressed.

While some were skeptical of the move to mobile worker, Ellen Upchurch, GSA’s supervisory contract specialist, told the Federal News Radio show DorobekINSIDER that she was won over. “It bothered me to know I would not longer be able to see (my employees) on a day-to-day kind of scenario…I was very wrong,” said Upchurch. “Before, we took 80 days on an [contract] offer; now it’s as low as 50 days and no more than 68, 69,” she added. Sick leave (what’s that?) is also declining.

Another benefit, which I really didn’t think about, was carbon emissions reduction. 37.5 metric tons is the estimated reduction at the Kansas office because of the increase in mobile working.

The benefits to an organization of regular mobile working far outweigh any negative perceptions but organizations need to arm mobile workers with the right software and hardware tools to be productive outside of the office. Connected and hassle-free is a good start, which is why the iPass Open Mobile software is a good fit for the mobile worker wherever they may roam.

Part of our Mobile Worker Wednesday series

Tags: enterprise mobility, mobile employee