The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way we work, in ways that were totally unexpected. On a global scale, workers had to adapt to working from home, turning them to mobile workforce, while maintaining efficient communication, productivity and rapport with colleagues and clients.
This led to the rising need for specific and optimized mobile workforce apps that were more reliant on technology than ever before. There were some mobile workforce apps in place that have been aiding the workplace since the coronavirus pandemic and many more to be expected in the future.
How Was The Mobile Worker Affected By The Pandemic?
Workforces around the world faced similar challenges, office-based workers were forced to become mobile or remote workers. Most people continue to work from home and those that don’t can access their office with restrictions. When employees do start to return, companies will most likely implement rotating schedules to reduce the number of people in a given space.
This will make it challenging to maintain the company culture and support employee communities. Workplace apps can be very useful to facilitate the practical side of employees tasks and ensure that their personal needs are met. Communication and productivity apps are also essential to the workforce’s operations.
Here are some ways in which companies managed to operate through the pandemic with mobile workplace apps.
Teleconferencing Mobile Workforce Apps
Teleconferencing became the ultimate solution to connect with remote workers, customers and employees while avoiding contact with people. It became a critical way for workers to host meetings. This led to several opportunities for workplace apps to innovate.
Apps like Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts and GoToMeeting made it possible to have virtual meetings and conferences.
Zoom became extremely popular as a communications tool that was free, easy to use and immediately accessible to new users. Teleconferencing mobile workforce apps made hosting online staff meetings, job training, one-on-one chats and simple brainstorming sessions easy and effective all it needed was up-to-date software and a stable data connection.
The emerging trends in teleconferencing include transcription, video-clipping and file and screen sharing capabilities, integration with other video apps and live video editing. We can also look forward to the use of AI and ML to create programs that can transcribe audio, count video attendees and provide insight into attendee engagement.
Communication Apps For Instant Messaging
Communication apps were needed to enable a platform where colleagues could communicate throughout the day. This was critical to ensure that everyone on the team had quick and easy access to each other and were able to work efficiently and effectively.
A business messaging app also meant that individuals could decide to participate in or at least see relevant conversations while also allowing them to ignore messages that were not relevant to them. Microsoft Teams and Slack were two such popular apps.
Microsoft Teams has pertinent features like workplace chat, file storage, video meetings and app integrations. Slack offers chat rooms that can be managed by topic, private groups and direct messaging between users. These kinds of communication apps have become an integral part of the daily operations for most organizations.
The trends in communication apps include AI, AR and VR and WebRTC to improve communications
Project Management Apps
In 2020 when life has gone virtual for all practical purposes, companies need ways to schedule virtual meetings, coordinate workloads, map tasks and streamline collaborations with project management tools and apps.
Some examples of these kinds of apps include Asana, Basecamp and Trello. These apps help build production plans, coordinate tasks, collaborate on projects and keep the workflow in check. Their features also include message boards, lists, schedules, group chats, and automatic check-ins.
Third-party tools such as time trackers, Slack and Dropbox can also be integrated. Future trends in project management indicate that there will be a significant swing towards project management solutions designed to work from the cloud. Remote-friendliness will be a prime consideration for most companies.
Customized Workforce Apps
Rather than using cookie-cutter solutions which each have their own limitations, consider building an app that suits your workforce.
This will give you the opportunity to add whatever features you need to manage your mobile workforce. Instead of using one all for internal communication and another for HR, a customized workforce app can contain both features in a single solution. Customized workforce management apps can include:
- Employee training and development mobile workforce apps
- Manage employees tasks
- Compliance workforce management apps
- Company news and announcements
- Employee onboarding
- Real-time communication
- Payroll
- HR workforce staffing apps
A customized app will give you the ability to measure success and improve engagement with your workforce, HR challenges can also be addressed at the same time.
The coronavirus pandemic has got us questioning as to whether our office culture is still necessary. It is hard to predict the future in these times, however, as work continues to happen remotely workplace apps will continue to find new ways to optimize workflows and make it easier for people to work remotely.
There will also be a rising demand for apps that improve the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the remote and mobile worker.
For more information on Mobile workforce apps and how you can integrate them into your business management strategies, get in touch with us today. Speak with one of our experts at Kilowott.
