Is Big Brother Watching ?
Guest Post by Timothy C B Cox with some great advice on an issue that trips up many first time enterprise mobile deployments. Is Big Brother Watching ?
If you have decided to get into enterprise mobility and deploy a system into your company you might be surprised to realise that during a project most companies complelty ignore their users! And users can make or break a solution that you are trying implement to fix a business process problem. Including them in the process can eliminate many issues in the future and is an often neglected area of consideration.
Role of Power Users
Users can be naturally resistant to a mobility system as it often sparks rumors about the motivations of the boss having the ability to track their activities and whereabouts. Privacy as an issue is being fueled by the prospect of an expansion of systems based on BYOD – Bring Your Own Device.
A smart move is to make sure you include some of your power users in the decision process you are going through. They know all about the in field processes often in a more intimate way that the project team that has been put together to come up with a mobility system.
When you have a unionised workforce its even more important to correctly communicate what an enterprise mobility project will mean to members.
A Great Reason for Employees Not to Fret About Tracking
‘tracking protects users from all false accusations from customers and their employer. It protects the company from those wanting to defraud the the company of either their time or goods’
and…
A Reality About Social Media
‘are you using a social mobile app on your smart phone? You are being tracked and data about your location (and more) is being uploaded into a cloud somewhere and used by 3rd parties for profit.’
In social media the information being collected from consumers is astounding. The user gives up this information when they download an app and agree to the EULA (End User License Agreement). How many times have we all just tapped the ‘Accept’ button without reading the details.
Tracking company employees can protect both the employee & employer. The only people who need to worry are those who have reasons not to be audited. A company wants to go mobile to win more business drive growth and reduce costs. Employees should see benefits also: better earnings potential elimination of paperwork and the delivery of better customer experience leading to improved feedback.
If any company wants to prosper in these globally hard times they must protect themselves and their honest & hardworking employees. Mobile or not!!
So What do You do With The Data ?
Does it just lie in a database somewhere consuming resources. Are you ignoring a wealth of information being collected? If you are then its a wasted opportunity of improving your organisation and provide additional ROI for a mobility system.
Does HR know they can use this information for your mobile workforce annual review? There are KPIs that can be measured to reward employees that over perform. Of course ensure you include this as a provision in your HR policy. It is import to delete user identifiable data when an employee leaves the company.
So is big brother watching ? Just as call centres are measured on a number variables such as time it takes to pickup a call, problem resolution on the first call to avoid repeat calls from the same customer etc It makes perfect sense to extend these sort of KPI’s to the performance of your mobile workforce.
Timothy C B Cox Mobile Workforce Strategy Consultant based in Dubai. Get in touch with Tim through Linkedin
Call us to discuss how we can help keep all your staff involved and ensure your enterprise mobility project addresses the key business issues.
