We are no doubt living through the beginning of the mobile technology era. The ability to communicate, collaborate, and accomplish across continents will be the defining factor of countless human endeavors throughout the 21st century. This means good things for job seekers: men and women otherwise limited by geography or dreading the dullness of an office are able to better find work. Additionally, potential hires worried about experiencing the ill-effects of office fatigue are more likely to find positions they can handle the demands from.
This is due to an increasing prevalence for companies to use new mobile technologies to hire, train, and coordinate a physically scattered but still united workforce. Although many managers believe working unsupervised leads to “shirking from home”, studies suggest this is an unfounded sentiment. In fact the evidence suggests employees work better when they have a chance to escape the cubicle or avoid the office altogether.
Mobile workers are more productive and less costly: Visual and audible distractions from co-workers, an increased desire for breaks, and increased sick days add up to lost time when compared to workers performing their duties at-home or elsewhere who are less likely to experience these gaps in focus and work. Over time mobile workers are less likely to quit than their office-bound counterparts due to reduced levels of burnout. This finding encourages job seekers to prefer employment with work-from-home opportunities for the sake of preventing reduced levels of stress later on in their careers.
Mobile employees can easily communicate with team and management: One of the reasons why so many businesses have been quick to adopt mobile workforce solutions is because of their ability to easily maintain communication with employees despite their constantly changing work environments. Employees working for mobile-tolerant companies can depend on the unified communications functions and call forwarding of hosted VoIP solutions to stay in quick contact with dozens of fellow staff across states, countries, and even continents. Relatively new technologies like these make the office irrelevant as a place for team members to join forces and managers to lead the way.
One offsets the other: If you work from home you’ll cost the company less. You won’t commute and they won’t have to pay you for it. Any upfront costs companies have to bear to maintain a mobile workforce are easily recouped thanks to the aforementioned increase in productivity and slashing of overhead. Businesses resistant to the idea of changing their tried-and-true office-based operations model are slowly starting to see the benefits of workforce mobility; either through the data or through the success of telecommuting competitors.
Job seekers who prefer face-to-face communication should note this doesn’t mark the end of real interaction among team members. Depending on the actual geographical hurdles and logistics involved, it may not always be feasible for mobile workforce members to meet up on a regular basis. However for companies centered in a specific city or region there’s no reason why the team can’t get together in person on occasion while continuing to function in a predominantly mobile work environment. It can be at a coffee shop or a conference hall depending on the number of staff employed. These occasional and relaxed get-togethers will strengthen bonds otherwise thinly tethered through technology.
Decades from now it will be almost unheard of to “go” to work. Employees will be capable of contributing to an enterprise or public works via mobile means. It’ll allow for more responsive services, efficient operations, and above all, a content and productive workforce. For job seekers hungry to help companies build their success but hesitant to be unhappy in an office, what more could you ask?
