The face of the modern workforce is changing and expanding. By 2020, five different generations—from baby boomers to Generation Z—will populate the workforce. With this change in workforce composition has come a change in workforce needs. The mass adoption of mobile devices across generations has also contributed to the transformation of the workplace in a variety of ways. Increased connectivity has enabled business from every angle: it has made communication instantaneous, made it simple to store and organize data, and made the workforce itself mobile. Today, employees expect to be able to perform myriad jobs, including a significant number of work tasks, at any time, wherever they are.
Most workers nowadays leverage mobile technology in some way or another almost every day. Mobility has, in many ways, become an important factor in employee productivity. Employees who are travelling can now access their files, emails and information from their hotel room, in flight or on a trade show floor. Organizations can hire talented workers who live across the country as remote employees, while office-based employees can work from home on days when inclement weather prevents travel to the office. With widespread network connectivity and the increasing power and efficiency of mobile devices these benefits will only increase along with the number of employees making use of them as time goes on.
The growing mobility of the workforce presents new challenges and opportunities for Human Capital Management departments of any size. Employees on the move expect to have access to, and manage, their information (such as payroll, benefits, insurance, timesheets, and more) when they’re on the move. Self-service, cloud-based portals are making it simpler for HCM departments to manage the needs of their mobile workforces, while improving employee satisfaction, reducing workload, and increasing ease-of-use for all involved.
There are many benefits to implementing self-service HCM solutions. They can help to reduce operational costs by dramatically reducing the number of repetitive, menial tasks required of employees while utilizing automation to streamline these simple tasks. The advanced security measures built into many solutions help to improve accountability and increase device security. And by offering self-service portals as an essential part of your HCM operations, you can present your business to prospective employees as a forward-thinking, employee-conscious workplace.
Self-service HCM solutions can cover a variety of tasks for the mobile workforce. Giving employees the ability to manage their paystub review, receive direct deposit confirmation, and schedule updates for themselves frees busy personnel from repetitive tasks while also providing instantaneous, updated information to employees. Self-service also provides employees with the ability to input important information remotely for tasks including benefits enrollment, expense reporting, time sheet approvals and more.
With the rapid pace at which technology is evolving in the workplace, it’s essential to keep in step with the needs of your employees. As the workforce becomes more mobile, self-service solutions covering multiple HCM operations can help ensure that they are streamlined, organized, and easily accessible to a workforce on the go.
