Using Mobile to Meet the Flexibility Demands of Today’s Modern Workforce

When it comes to driving employee satisfaction, flexibility and convenience top the charts. According to Verint's 2018 Global Research Study, 67% of employees expect workplaces to be more flexible to suit employee preferences as technology improves. One very effective way to use technology to promote flexibility is a mobile app for scheduling.

With a mobile app, your employees can quickly check their schedule, request time off, swap shifts, see the status of existing requests, and more. Since the average smartphone user checks their device 47 times per day,¹ this seems like an easy solution to make your employees' lives easier. A mobile app for employee scheduling means your staff can manage their work/life balance on the go, no longer needing to go to their computer, join the company network, and manually log in to your WFM application.

Sounds simple, right?

Like any new technology, there may be some hurdles to clear before implementing a mobile app for employee scheduling. It's important to understand these challenges so you'll be ready to streamline the implementation process at your organization. Some questions that are likely to come up:

• Will employees be required to install the app?
• Will time spent in the app while at home count as working time?
• How can we be sure our company information is safe?

Having answers to these questions will help smooth the process of getting approvals from your company's Legal and HR departments.

Here's an example:

At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, contact center leaders were eager to offer more flexibility for their agents, and started the process of introducing Verint Mobile Work View, a scheduling app for employees. In order to obtain sign off from their Legal and HR teams, they took the following steps:

1. Install the mobile application on a separate, secure server to minimize risk. Work with Verint to set up the server to your business requirements. 
2. Require employees to use their standard company login, not a separate login for the app. The company used two levels of authentication, instead of just a standard company login or separate login.
3. Set up monitoring of logins and traffic to the server to protect from any outside risks.
4. Define the app as optional for employees. There is no need to install it or use it if the employee does not want to. Note: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota had a 68% adoption rate within six months of deployment.  Employee feedback showed that the app made scheduling much easier for their employees.
5. Work with your Legal team to be sure that, because the app is not required for employees to do their jobs, time spent in the mobile app is not considered part of their workday -- and thus will not be reimbursed.
6. Be sure that employees have the option to turn off any push notifications that may be intrusive during non-work hours.

With these steps in place, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota was able to deploy the mobile app to their agents and see immediate benefits. With today's changing workforce, a mobile app is an important step to providing your employees with the convenience and flexibility they seek in the workplace. Click here for more information about Verint Mobile Work View.

¹ Smartphone Addiction Facts and Phone Usage Statistics