managing a mobile workforce
TRANSCRIPT
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Managing a Mobile Workforce
Stefan Midford
President & CEO
October 25th 2011
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In this session we will cover:
1. The Changing Mobile Ecosystem
Staff device or company owned
Potential company liability
2. Focus on improved results not being “Big Brother”
The message is staff empowerment
3. Trust but Verify
Leverage empowerment with exception management
4. Improve Results with “Power to the Edge”
Leverage a military strategy in your organization
Today’s Discussion
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First - Who is Natural Insight?
Provider of a hosted workforce management platform
Natural Insight users included…
Tens of thousands of workers
Doing millions of tasks
Across over 120,000 locations a month
Collecting millions of points of data
Technology and Operations focused management
Founding member of the Institute for Global Work at
Boston University
The Natural, easy to use platform providing Insight to
your operations
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How Mobility is changing the game…
Staff now carry the access point
Continued explosion of smart phone use
Staff and customers expect real time access
Customers are smarter
Red Laser
Web research, in-store research
Enterprise mobile users will make up 73% of the
workforce in 2012 (Forrester Research)
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Mobility History
Slow / Expensive / Restrictive:
Many solutions were single-purpose applications
built for specific devices.
Built to leverage a specific device, e.g. Motorola MC70
Custom interfaces to device specific scanner and camera
Custom communication gateway & software load
Allow use of stored databases and complex logic
All devices company owned
Distribution and management of devices a significant
effort
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Underlying Changes
The Mobile Ecosystem:
Consumer devices are changing the marketplace in
three ways:
1. Increased capabilities and ease of use of new devices
resulting in exponential growth of Smartphones
2. On-line markets provide rapid access to software and
automated update management
3. Faster and cheaper communication results in a blurred
line between on-device apps and web mobility access
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Mobility Today
Faster / Cheaper / Accessible:
The resulting ecosystem provides both opportunities and
challenges:
Devices are both company and consumer owned
New devices introduced daily
Growing set of competitors:
Apple – iPhone, iPad / Apple App Store
Google – many Android phones / Android Market
HP – new tablets and reconstructed Palm OS
Microsoft – losing ground with Windows mobile
Blackberry – loosing ground but will run Android
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Mobility Today
Source - ZoomSafer Inc.
User vs. Company Owned:
Users are already migrating to use of their own
device!
Yet Only ….
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Mobility Today
Source - ZoomSafer Inc.
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Mobility Today
Source - ZoomSafer Inc.
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What you need to do:
Have a policy
Know what’s going on in the field
Mobile access stats – i.e. Google analytics
We found thousands of interactions to our platform from
employee owned devices
Actively enforce if appropriate
i.e. - ZoomSafer
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Focus on Improved Results – Not
being “Big Brother”
The message is Self Empowerment
Provide a reason to want to use the new
capabilities
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Example One
SMS Task Scheduler Send work requests via SMS alerts instead of calls
Staff immediately accept with SMS response
Faster / more convenient / better
event data
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Example Two
Arrival Verification Mobile GPS Verification
More accurate / focus on
exceptions
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Example Three
Automatic mileage reimbursement Simple / time saving / accurate
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What you need to do:
Keep it simple
Provide real value to the end users
Communicate the right message
Manage the exceptions and focus on abuse
- not the diligent workers
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Trust but Verify
Leverage empowerment with Exception
Management
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Photo Validation
Example
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GPS Validation
Example
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What we found:
Reviewed thousands of records over several
months
Best group was still 18% over reporting
Worst group was over reporting by up to 32%
Gas price changes resulted in user behavior
changes in as little as two weeks.
Results also identified staff that under reported
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Power to The Edge
How to leverage a military strategy
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The old methods no longer worked.
Strict chain of command too time consuming
Younger generate thinks and works differently
Allow the “team” to effect improvements
Build pride and ownership of responsibility
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Push the “Power to the Edge”
Provide self management tools
Ensure you build in feedback loops
MAKE SURE YOU RESPOND TO FEEDBACK!
The middle management will be a challenge
Allow workers to see the results
This builds pride of ownership
Watch the growing social platforms and how your team
might leverage
Can be good, but watch for bad as well
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The Results
Self selected better workforce
Reduced administration expense
Improved quality
Higher staff retention
Improved customer service
Increased revenue
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How to get started…
Start with a small step
Don’t try to do everything at once
Adjust quickly based on experience
Ensure it’s a collaboration
Do not use a “Big Brother” approach
Change and increased accountability will result in some
consternation
Feedback loop is critical!
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Follow our Blog
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Execution Intelligence
with Natural Insight
Stefan Midford
President & CEO
703-286-2415