How can a leader boost their employees' wellbeing during this challenging time when they're self-quarantining?
You can start by understanding that there are two aspects creating concern for employees: managing the transition to working from home and dealing with uncertainty.
As a leader, you can help with these concerns to a large degree by providing solid mobile experiences to your employees. Mobile phones are ubiquitous, and people rely on them to get their daily tasks done.
Studies show that 75% of people feel that their smartphones help them be more productive, and 60% of people feel more confident and prepared because of the convenience and tools a mobile phone offers them.
In this article, we'll explore mobile tools and experiences that you can create to support your employees. After all, with over 3.7 billion mobile internet users today, it's often more practical to carry out certain tasks on mobile. This will boost productivity, especially if you build the right mobile experiences.
You can offer convenience and allow employees to clear work on the go. They'll also feel connected to work and their peers. In my opinion, improving employees' workflows will support their wellbeing and, in turn, the business.
Let's look at the kind of mobile experiences that will make your employees productive and comfortable.
Seamless communication
While employees work from home, a mobile communication channel will help them in many ways. They'll be able to communicate on projects, engage with their peers and stay up to date on changes.
While business email does help, it's just not as effective as instant messaging. Email platforms are also not very mobile-friendly when it comes to getting updates and communication in real time. A study on mobile email engagement shows that mobile users engage with emails the least when compared with tablet and PC users.
A platform like Slack will enable your team to send instant messages within an official communication environment. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of people in your business. Communication is clearer than on email, since you can create threads. You can also create channels for different teams and projects so that discussions are on topic and relevant.
Another way to effectively use a messaging platform is to create a family channel for off-work topics. At my company, we use an app called Standuply – a bot that poses questions to our team every working day at a specific time. It helps us to learn how they're doing, any obstacles they're facing and if they're on track. Consider using Slack along with standup tools to create a shared space for employees to check in.
What's also helpful is the mobile apps these services offer, allowing your employees to get in touch immediately with you and their peers. It offers connectedness and ensures everyone's on the same page.
Project management to streamline workflows
Coordinating workflows, assigning tasks and tracking project progress become harder when you aren't in the same room to discuss issues. It's essential to have a robust project management platform that keeps everyone on the same page. A tool like Asana will allow your team to create and manage their own tasks and projects. It's also a great tool for sharing comments and feedback. Every person will know what they're supposed to do and by when. They'll also know which project they're working on, and the right people will be able to view their progress.
Most importantly, they'll get real-time notifications and updates as new tasks are assigned to them or if any other changes are made. A project management tool should also allow your employees to create to-do lists and share files.
This type of tool fosters organization and accountability. When working from home, it's easy to feel anxious and unsure of what to do and when. You will also want to ensure that there are no task overlaps. A mobile project management app takes care of these issues and helps everyone stay informed.
Tools for managing human resources
Information about hours worked, benefits available, and payments made helps your business and employees stay on the same page. This is especially crucial when employees cannot directly contact the right people at work for the information they need.
Today, there are HR management systems that allow you to manage your payroll and other activities on mobile. You can also create dashboards that are customized for different roles. This creates flexibility while ensuring that all the important human resources activities are being carried out as usual.
A mobile app will allow your employees to ask for PTO, add documentation and note their colleagues' calendars. Employees can also use it to track work they do on the move, leaving accurate records of all work done.
You can also track how much time a project takes and whether productivity could improve. Having a time-tracking app and an HR app will help your employees stay informed and organized. They'll also be able to track their own tasks and learn if they are spending too much time on any particular jobs. The ease such a tool provides will help your team feel like work is happening as usual, even though they're doing it from home.
Mobile learning opportunities
Training your employees and keeping them updated on best practices, tools, and skills are essential for your business to grow. Training and development opportunities are also a powerful way to boost employee wellbeing.
You can use mobile learning apps to provide timely learning opportunities. In this way, your employees can get important training in compliance and other key topics without disruption. Several online learning platforms already have mobile versions of their content. These platforms are fast and easy to set up, and you can launch your training materials immediately.
Another approach is to build your own learning platform with a learning management system (LMS). You can use a membership site plugin with an LMS feature to protect your content while giving access to your employees. This method is especially useful if you have a small business and want an easy way to create a learning platform using WordPress. Make sure that you use a mobile-responsive theme along with the right plugins to let your employees access training materials on their mobile devices.
When people eventually return to the office, they'll be able to resume their tasks with ease, because they've stayed up to date with the latest information. Your employees will also use their time productively, which will help them feel confident.
Boost wellbeing with mobile experiences
The rise and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting businesses and people the world over. As people work from home, one of the issues occupying their minds is uncertainty about their work carrying on. You can reduce this uncertainty and enable your employees to perform work as usual by offering them helpful tools.
Creating great mobile experiences for your employees is essential, as their smartphones are a primary device in their lives. By adding the right tools for communication, project management and more, you'll create positive experiences. Your team will stay in touch with each other. You'll also give them accountability and get reports on productivity across the board.
We've looked at how you can create mobile experiences with the right tools. Use these suggestions to support your employees' wellbeing during this crucial time.
For more information on managing remote employees, working from home and navigating other challenges of the pandemic, visit business.com's roundup of COVID-19 business resources.