In speaking with industry peers over the last few weeks it’s been particularly interesting to hear stories about organisations finding themselves in a position where not being able to go to the office has hamstrung their business operation. I must admit that in 2020 hearing of this circumstance has come as a surprise to me.
A fully enabled mobile workforce is rooted in risk management and business survivability. The CoronaVirus has brought the need to life in a very real way.
Around 12 years ago in a different life I lead the charge of my organization to adopt a mobile workforce model. In fact workforce and customer mobility were deeply embedded in the technology strategy of the company.
The drivers behind this initiative were multiple.
- The realization that mobility in the workforce was an approaching phenomena that we saw as a competitive advantage.
- The advent of enterprise level technology, which by this time we were deeply invested in.
- The recognition that we were operating in an industry based upon a 24/7/365 business environment.
- Understanding that our workforce needed to be in full communication with the company and their business tools whenever the need arises.
A fully enabled mobile workforce is rooted in risk management and business survivability. The CoronaVirus has brought the need to life in a very real way. In an industry that is very much built around in person delivery of product and service this has become even more acute for the hospitality & travel industry.
What does a mobile workforce mean? Best summarized it is the ability of your company or business to continue operations in a situation where extreme circumstances demand that you can not conduct operations under a normal environment.
Translating this scenario into the practical environment, workforce mobility is a practice that is applied to the local business environment as well as a global or external environment. When executed correctly your workforce can pick up their business tools and relocate to a third party non-office environment, and continue to deliver normal business services.
A mobile workforce model will impact your approach to technology platforms comprehensively. For example infrastructure, networking and communications as well as hardware platforms are key to a mobile workforce model. Office Automation platforms enable digital communication among working teams. But to be able to truly deliver business services it is the organizations business applications that must be mobilized.
When executed correctly your workforce can pick up their business tools and relocate to a third party non-office environment, and continue to deliver normal business services.
Ultimately, adoption of a mobile workforce model provides significant advantages under normal industry operating environments. It has direct impacts on productivity and distribution of critical information for your workforce and tangible impacts on customer satisfaction for the guest .
Under extreme conditions where risk management factors are impacting your business, it is the difference between maintaining a level of business continuity and avoiding extreme interruption or potentially the failure of your company.
If you would like to explore migrating your hospitality or travel company to a mobile workforce environment TRAVHOTECH can assist. You can contact us at info@travhotech.com.
The next generation technology consultant for the modern hospitality & travel world.
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