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Airports, coffee shops, hotels and trains have become extensions of the office. We are quickly morphing into a mobile workforce but can we manage mobility?

In today's business environment, staying connected is essential. As mobilization becomes more mainstreame, the impact on organizations and the work life of employees continues to evolve. For example, implementing a mobility strategy among field and sales personnel can change the entire dynamics of this segment of the workforce. With instant information suddenly available at their fingertips while on the go, they no longer need to return to the office to look for information or log an item.

However, it is not just the "road warriors" and field employees who benefit from mobility. In fact, it is important for senior managers to recognize and address the growing hidden mobile workforce-employees who aren't in the field but spend considerable time away from their desks, and use mobile phones to do their jobs. A global survey by Simpson Carpenter showed that business decision makers estimated that 24% of their employees use mobile phones for work, while more than 50% of their employees actually claimed to be doing so.

New Paradigm
Accounting for user perspectives in early planning stages is an excellent way to garner support, ensure better adoption and increase overall success for any mobility initiative. One of the best methods is to initiate activities that investigate and document workers' daily routines, work styles, typical work environments, information access needs, productivity barriers, and device constraints. Mobility expands what has traditionally been referred to as the workplace because it divorces location from information access. This change is creating a new paradigm where people can work practically, anywhere.

The secret lies in recognizing and supporting emerging work practices, through providing places for collaborative and individual work, in the office and beyond. Combining the choice of place with available technology, mobile work policies, and team dynamics that embrace a "work anywhere" culture, will let you begin to truly support the new mobile work paradigm.

Mobile workers will also find ways to use the tools and technologies for their personal benefit. One can help clarify how these new work practices will benefit the organization by adapting and evolving management styles and performance measurement, developing a sense of trust between the boss and subordinate in a virtual situation and identifying the best candidates for mobile positions.

One also need to consider the change in team dynamics as traditional teams move to mobile work patterns. What are the options for maintaining the communication that typically happen in hallways and around the coffee machine? How do you avoid de-motivating people who feel they could work in a mobile way but do not have that option?

Striking a Work-life Balance
As mobile workers begin to work where and when it is convenient, it becomes important to set expectations for what is an acceptable work day and the parameters to avoid intruding on your workers' personal lives. How do you get the balance right?

• Be smart about email: Increasingly, US organizations are adopting "No Email Fridays", where no one, in the company is allowed to send Internal emails. Instead, they pick up the phone or walk around in their office to talk. Managers find that meeting and talking to each other face-to-face helps solve problems and boosts morale

• Use downtime to speed up: For example, a working mother may have to pick up her child several times a week, so conference calls can be scheduled at those timings

• Take your family along: For frequent travelers, they may spend more time on planes than at home. With a camera phone, they can have dozens of pictures of their family and children everywhere they go and enjoy richer communication through pictures sent through the phone

• Don't be afraid to pull the plug: Use technology to help you and your team. Block off fixed regular periods for uninterrupted work when the phones will be off and use a helpful voice mail to redirect callers

Embedding mobility into the fabric of an organization involves changes in the definitions of and relationships between work, worker, and workplace. The more one understand mobility, the better one will be able to anticipate and plan for its effects.

Chakrapani GK, country GM, Nokia Enterprise Solutions
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in