New study identifies required resources for successful mobile workforce in the Middle East

The report, 'Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce', elaborates on the dominant characteristics of effective mobile workers, tackles common challenges the workers may face and highlights management best practices.

Carried out by occupational psychology specialists at Pearn Kandola, the study emphasizes that companies seeking to maximize the benefits of 'mobile working' need to rapidly manage the transition to a style of management that supports people of all kinds, makes the best of their talent and maintains their identification with the organization and its goals.

Companies that do not recognize the importance of these changes are in danger of missing out on the benefits offered by mobile workers through the recruitment of inappropriate personalities, poor management skills and failure to provide adequate communications resources.

Mismanagement in particular can have serious implications on the success of a mobile worker - with under and over communication both having a negative impact. A lack of regular communication can lead to increased levels of stress and feelings of isolation, whereas micromanagement can undermine trust.

Analyst firm IDC has predicted that mobile workers will represent more than one quarter of the world's population by 2009. According to Sam Alkharrat, managing director of Cisco in the Gulf and Pakistan, this phenomenon is not limited to the traditional well-established countries.

Alkharrat said:

"In the Middle East and Africa, where mobile penetration exceeds fixed line penetration, there is a fertile environment for leapfrogging of legacy technologies and introducing mobile working practices. The evolution of broadband devices, technologies and services, as well as the growing number of mobile technologies supporting personal communication has further urged businesses to embrace mobile working policies,"

The study has further revealed that managers need to give their mobile workers the same access to communication tools as office-based workers to avoid isolation and de-motivation as well as promote the mobile workers' visibility within the organization.

According to the study, instant messages, presence tools, access to intranet and video conferencing technologies, build a mobile workers' sense of inclusion and reduce feelings of separation by giving them visibility and access to the team. Mobile devices with the facilities of desk phones can also simplify the mobile working experience.

Stuart Duff, occupational psychologist at Pearn Kandola commented: "As the mobile working phenomenon continues to grow, organisations must ensure that they have suitable leadership in place to manage teams of mobile workers. Managers must not fall into the trap of treating mobile workers in the same way as office-based employees. They need to be effective communicators and relationship builders with an adaptive management style that they can tailor to the personalities within their team. Organisations must also ensure that the right tools and resources are made available to mobile workers, giving them the same connectivity as office-based workers."

The study further showed that it is vital for managers to explore the forms of communication which best suit their team members. It could be as simple as giving mobile workers access to the corporate contact directory on their mobile phones or enabling them to participate in instant messaging sessions with their office-based colleagues.

According to the Cisco study, 50 per cent of mobile workers have revealed they expect their manager to be in contact with them at least once a week, with the majority expecting face-to-face contact no less than once a quarter. Mobile workers further appreciate frequent email updates, chat and text messages.

"As an example, unified communications, which brings together presence and preference information, with data, voice and video communication can have a significant impact on the effectiveness and success of a mobile workforce. Presence and preference services allow colleagues to see when people are online and what their preferred method of communication is. This enables them to contact each other more quickly, facilitating ad-hoc conversations that improve socialization and increase productivity," Alkharrat concluded.