2022. you would think that technology would be everywhere, yet some industries, and some quite large, are lagging and slow to adopt innovation. The deskless workforce which makes up 80% of the global workforce is one of them. It’s made up of agriculture, education, healthcare, retail, hospitality, security, manufacturing, transportation, construction employees and others. Common to all is that they employ an outdated work process. The beauty is that simple technological tools can create both business and employee value to such outdated processes.
According to industry studies, approximately 2.7 billion people do not have access to corporate email or PC. Their routine includes telephone calls, face-to-face meetings, memos on bulletin boards, and many other mechanisms some of us remember from the 1980s… How can their work be effective? It’s time-consuming, expensive, non-engaging, and non-measurable.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, businesses considered technology as a necessity of engaging with customers, but now it became clear that engaging with a remote and distributed workforce also became a necessity, one that could be enabled by technology. In the new reality, behind-the-scenes interactions were as important as customer-facing interactions. They both needed to be frictionless.
The tech industry, already accustomed to a dispersed working environment, had the communication and collaboration infrastructure in place, and adaption to the new reality was simple. But the deskless workforce, which historically suffered from the ability to seamlessly manage, communicate train, and operate its employees took a bigger blow. It was ripe for a digital transformation. Tel Aviv-based Connecteam has long realized that the market was ripe for disruption, the pandemic simply worked in its favor and accelerated adoption.
Connecteam provides SMBs with an “all-in-one” app that features everything deskless employees need; task management, time clock, employee communication, scheduling, forms, training, and more. Fundamental changes in the world are creating the perfect storm scenario for their mobile-first, SMB-focused SaaS solution; first, the massive drop of mobile data pricing in the U.S. created greater willingness by employees to use their own mobile device for work-related tasks; second, digital transformation and B2C habits are funneling to the work environment, creating demand by employees for easy-to-use, tech-driven work tools; third, regulation is changing in many countries, requiring businesses to adopt new technologies for payroll, working hours and more.
Unlike other industries, there is no “people” obstacle here. Employees have no resistance to employing a tool with the user experience they are accustomed to from their personal lives. There is no need for a new mindset, approach, or culture. It is already there. Unlike many technological tools, installation is simple, the product is completely self-service, the app doesn’t require an IT effort or email address, which most deskless employees don’t have.
The high-tech industry has always placed a large emphasis on the “human resource” ensuring that employees are equipped to carry out tasks in the best possible manner and have access to knowledge bases, peers, and management. After years in which the enterprise enjoyed disruption in productivity, communication, and collaboration solutions, it is time that the majority of the workforce, which was left behind, enjoy the same level of tools, for a whole new and engaging employee experience. When high tech meets low tech, good things happen.