Competition is shoring up by leaps and bounds. In this scenario, your success depends entirely on  how quickly you adopt evolving strategies like the  mobile workforce.  A group of workers employed in a company, scattered across different geographical locations, but linked efficiently using  new technologies like high-speed Internet, mobiles, smartphones, laptops and computers promotes workforce optimization.  If you can understand the basic theory that a virtual workforce can work professionally without any physical office space, and can be more productive, you should grab this concept,  operate from your own workspace, and prosper. It matters little if it is a  garden, park, or your house, but here, you must realize that effective tools are a prerequisite for you to efficiently coordinate  the smooth working of the virtual team.  Many of you may be professional Freelancers; you can directly benefit by introducing effective ways to optimize mobile workforce.

In other words, some of you may possess a plethora of different tools for what’s called Mobile Workforce Management, but  you must find  the perfect application of these tools in diverse categories of their application, such as payroll, production handling, collaborative work, video conferencing and more depending on their specific functions and effectiveness.

It is mentioned by iweek an online publication that, ‘The mobile employee goes where the work is, either in the workplace or in the field. It is debatable whether the former are true mobile workers, but they certainly include warehouse staff that needs to be mobile in the store environment while having seamless access to the back office.’

You will notice that a mobile employee will follow his/her work destination, irrespective of whether it is in the field or the workplace. You can debate on whether they are mobile workers in the true sense, but can you segregate the warehouse staff their mobility in the store, while, at the same time, having unrestrained back office access? Notwithstanding the kind of business your organization does, managing the workforce properly is an undeniable route to prosperity.

Some of the most significant tools to coordinate the workforce are-:

Organization Structure

You will find a physically dispersed mobile workforce difficult to manage, due to the lack of face-to-face interaction and discussions, and this can lead to much uncertainty pertaining to the duties and responsibilities of each specific employee. To achieve the common goal, you must operate your business within a specific structure to avoid overlapping of instructions, leading to waste of time and money. A proper structure in the organization, be it a virtual office or a physical enterprise, helps to allocate tasks, supervise the team work and coordinate the virtual workforce effectively. Take care to structure your organization, and you will see how it determines and operates the performing arm of your business. The allocation of functions and responsibilities can easily be done by forming different entities like department, branch, individual and Workgroup. This structure gives a foundation for the organization upon which the daily routines and standard operation procedures revolve. It will also designate clearly, which employee on your virtual team should participate in specific decision-making processes, as well as, to what extent do their views have importance in your company. Such features of setting up a structure, especially in a Freelancer job, enables to eliminate the need of a physical workspace. This tool is one of the effective ways to optimize mobile workforce.

Delegation 

In your endeavor to optimize the mobile workforce, this is yet another significant tool. If you want to effectively coordinate the scattered virtual workforce, you cannot achieve success without the process of delegation, as you stand a risk of your workforce losing their enthusiasm to work in the absence of a superior’s help, advice and compliments. A manager plays an important role in maintaining the connection between the virtual teams, a fact that benefits the employee as well as the organization. In other words, your organization stands to  benefit from the higher quality of the sub-ordinate’s work and the employees benefit not only from your efforts to answer their queries, but also from the motivation  you provide by helping to surmount any inconsistencies  while executing the job. Providing proper delegation will improve the overall productivity of the organization as well as that of each and every employee. Such simple , yet powerful tools can change the overall performance of geographically dispersed mobile workforce akin to the Freelancers.

Proper Communication

Among the tools you harness for a successful virtual office, or any other organization, your greatest asset will be an effective communication system. Remember, only a perfect communication system can ably link the employees of your virtual office, operating from diverse global locations, in the absence of personal contact or physical meeting places. Your advanced and effective communication system should enable you to communicate with your virtual workforce at any hour of the day. Many new technologies like Skype, Facebook, Gmail and others like live chats, enable you to communicate face-to face with your delegates and virtual team members, thereby preventing any sort of confusion regarding the job and your role in it.  Proper communication helps to give directions to the employees at the proper time, which consequently increases the efficiency and productivity of the mobile workforce and the organization. You can feel the importance of communication in a freelancer job, where, talking to your clients as well as to your teammates are an important part of executing the job. It is one of the most important and effective ways to optimize the workforce.