The COVID-19 pandemic with the social distancing measure it demands has firmly cast a spotlight on worker mobility. Now that a majority of workers are no longer to be found at their desk, or fixed at the same telephone extension or till, the need to connect workers via enterprise communication services has come to the forefront. This is not a new issue, however, for businesses that even prior to the pandemic had a large number of deskless workers: sprawling manufacturing sites, hospital precincts, large resorts and warehouses, for example, are all environments where supporting worker mobility with a full range of data, services and team communication services has always been a critical requirement.
Computer Weekly research further confirms that, even prior to the pandemic, 35% of IT professionals from various industries planned to implement UC, including team collaboration software and then VoIP (27%), at some point in 2020. These results highlight that a significant drive towards UC was already taking place and as social distancing provides a further driver, we can expect an acceleration in adoption of UC with a proliferation of platforms and tools employed all requiring integration and interoperability.
Key worker mobility
Craig Barrass
Fortunately, there is ample precedent from which to draw upon taking example from the huge proportion of workers that have never worked from a fixed location, even before Covid-19 struck. Take for example nursing staff that need to move between hospital pharmacies and patient bedsides, cleaning staff in large healthcare estates that need to be rapidly alerted if there is spillage of chemical or biological waste, but also engineers in manufacturing and industrial plants that typically found themselves forced to work in remote areas of the site, gathering intelligence and performing maintenance tasks that needed to be recorded and transmitted to central teams as rapidly as possible. All these workers need to be able to connect with their colleagues seamlessly, effectively, and rapidly to perform their jobs well and they rely on the right technology to help them achieve this.
Real-time data
Large factories, but also warehouses, building sites and logistics estates in fact, all have to tackle the issue of maintaining productive and accurate information flows between workers who are mobile by the nature of their work, and desk-based teams elsewhere. Ensuring the information collected and recorded by pickers in a logistics site or by engineers in an industrial site, for example, is made available in real-time rather than when they finally finish their rounds and return to a fixed location to log it in manually, perhaps hours later, helps reduce human error in the transcription process. This also ensures that data is accessible immediately, improving decision making processes throughout the business. Research by Apigee (opens pdf) confirms that 85% of the world’s leading companies feel that APIs that extend business communications for both employees and customers are crucial to business growth.
Real-time provision of information collected on the spot and provided to team members wherever they are, in formats that are ready to be analysed and used such as instant messaging, voice or through shared documents, is a game-changer for businesses wanting to make strategic decisions at every level. Only with accurate insight is it possible to radically improve processes, audit activities and provide the transparency required, for example, to ensure that housekeeping staff are called to deal with spillages with the right equipment and promptly, wherever they are working in a vast in a holiday resort.
Employee engagement
Another key aspect to consider is employee engagement. Even before COVID-19, many mobile key workers needed better tools to keep them connected with everyday conversations and engaged with the rest of their teams. When workers that are never at a specific desk but always in motion, tools like presence statuses, instant messaging and crystal-clear voice quality can help ensure that everyone feels on the same page regardless of their location. This helps provide the best outcomes but also ensures that everyone feels part of the business and that community spirit and morale are maintained.
Finally, unified communications technologies play a critical role in achieving the benefits of better decision making, improved productivity, worker safety and engagement helping businesses achieve their objectives, even as the workforce becomes entirely mobile. To achieve this, it is critical that the enterprise applications selected are interoperable with tools provided by major vendors such as Microsoft and Cisco. Agile, flexible technology available over the cloud, on-premises and in hybrid formats can help respond to these evolving needs, uniting people and improving flows of information across different UC platforms and device types.
Guest blog by Craig Barrass, Region Lead Northern Europe at Spectralink Corporation
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