The Quarterly iPass Mobile Workforce Report found that mobile workers are increasingly reliant on their smartphones, with most workers checking their smartphones frequently, and an emerging group admitting that they check their phones obsessively. iPass predicts that with the introduction of useful and engaging mobile devices like the iPad, the number of employees that check obsessively will only increase.
The iPass research also found that in contrast to declarations by pundits such as John Dvorak, email is not dead. Consistently across all segments of mobile workers (85 percent), email is considered a contributor to productivity and not a detractor. And finally, social media is a drain on mobile workers productivity across all user segments: despite the hype, most workers (78 percent) see it as a drain on their productivity.
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Enterprises need to accept the fact that every enterprise employee is now a potential mobile user. But excess fragmentation in the number and types of devices is making it impossible for the enterprise to manage and support them all.
Every week, new consumer mobility products and services are announced, with technology and features changing overnight. Inevitably, many of these new products will creep into the office – if they are not there already. And if corporate management prohibits their use, employees will find ways to work around the enterprise’s device and connectivity restrictions.
Instead, organizations now have the opportunity to embrace mobility. Mobile workers are quite often the enterprise’s best and most productive employees – the technical support engineer that works with a customer late into the night, the sales representative who brings in the big numbers at the very last minute of the quarter, the consultant that collaborates with colleagues after a full day with a client, and the financial whiz who always gets the numbers right – even while on the road.
Enterprises must also understand that there are different segments of mobile workers. Policy and mobile technology cannot be offered in a one-size-fits-all approach. The mobile masters have different needs and styles of working than the mobile minority. It is essential to understand the importance of segmenting users by different needs, behaviors, expectations, and productivity drivers.
It is also important to note that embracing mobility does not mean settling for a weakened security posture for the organization. Enterprises need to take a close look at their overall security policies and evaluate how they can adapt them based on the five segments of mobile users. IT should consider providing different levels of mobile access based on who the user is, the type of device they use for access, and the sensitivity of the information they have access to. And finally the enterprise needs to ensure its security and mobility policies are not only in place, but well communicated to all employees.
The world is now moving into an age where all enterprises will need to embrace their mobile workforce. The technologies for enabling and securing the mobile workforce are here. Enterprises need to give their workers the tools they want and need to succeed, accepting and addressing the challenges presented by the increasingly mobile workforce. Devices and access methods leveraged matter less; the solutions in place to control the chaos, are of infinite more value and necessity.
