It’s estimated that 50% of American workers have the option to work from home on one or more days per week. A Forbes blog post, 10 Remote Work Trends that Will Dominate 2019, predicts that 2019 will bring a reinforcement of the global shift towards even more “remote-friendly” workplaces. In a recent research note, which echoes this point of view, Gartner estimates that giving employees the option to choose how and where they want to work will lead to a 10% increase in employee retention as well as operational savings.
With this week’s celebration of Earth Day in mind, it’s clear that working remotely, at least some of the time, makes sense for the planet and for individual work/life balance. Working from home means less commuting time, less pollution from automobile or public transportation, and energy savings across the board. Remote employees can also re-purpose commuting time to fulfill personal goals like spending more time with friends and family, exploring new hobbies, exercising and cooking health meals.
Mobile applications are not a subset of the Internet anymore. We’ve entered a new age of computing and a new ecosystem. We’ve moved from an era in which the “edges” were defined by the latest phone to one in which the platform is ubiquitous and the “edges” – the winners – are defined by what you can build upon a mobile platform.
Mobile is not just the new standard medium for customer interactions, but also the new standard for user experiences. Amazon, Uber, Apple, Spotify and others have fundamentally changed expectations of how to engage. The modern digital citizen expects a fast, effortless interaction.
Mobile is also the new standard for how employees expect to interact with the organizations for whom they work. For far too many knowledge workers, that activity is substandard compared to what they experience in their everyday lives as consumers. For many, “work” computing is somewhat akin to a visit to a computer museum. Simple and transparent consumer-grade knowledge worker tools designed for mobile workers and devices are a fundamental component of modern document management systems.
How digital business prospers
The agile, digital business thrives with the inherent flexibility of mobile workers, and embraces the anytime, anywhere, any-device model of productivity. “Work” now happens outside the walls and limitations of a traditional office. Consumer-grade technology experiences in the workplace are key to what industry analyst Jacob Morgan calls the “learning worker.”
“A learning worker is far more valuable to an organization because he or she can adapt with a changing workplace environment. While having specific skills about certain industries or technologies may have worked hundreds or even tens of years ago, these days technology is changing at too rapid a pace to be pigeon-holed by only knowing how to use certain programs or systems,” according to Morgan.
Snap a picture of a document and kick off a new process based on automatically indexed data. Route documents for approval, provide additional information or simply perform an ad-hoc search. Approve queries and make informed decisions at the point of need. And do it all on whatever device you want, and wherever and whenever you want.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated for accuracy and new content has been added.
Want to earn more about how to give remote employees easy access to information? Watch this free on-demand demo highlighting 4 paperless, digital processes.
