Despite the global pandemic (or maybe even in spite of it), the deskless workforce is only growing, to the tune of around 2.7 billion people (or about 80% of the global workforce).
These deskless workers (that is, workers who work outside of the traditional office structure) can be a tricky bunch to manage for employers. It’s a bit of a catch 22: deskless employees are neither seen, nor heard, resulting in lack of motivation and…swathes of them leaving.
The reasons for this? They vary, but most of the time, these deskless workers leave their jobs due to a lack of communication from their managers, leaving them feeling unwanted, unseen and unmotivated.
The Disconnect Effect
Both sides of the story leaves little to be surprised about, for a few reasons:
- There’s the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ principle. Once a worker is deskless, they are out of sight, and out of their manager’s minds…for better or worse.
- Deskless workers don’t sit with a computer, or if they do, it’s for a limited amount of time. This means they are both literally and figuratively disconnected.
- Deskless workers typically don’t have a dedicated work email address, and don’t receive proper training, making it hard to communicate with them, and speak to them about other than the most basic of tasks.
- Deskless workers tend to keep to themselves, and don’t communicate with the management or their colleagues.
All of this is a storm in a teacup, waiting to brew and spill over. Once your deskless workers leave, there’s very little you can do to get them back. Instead you need to start the hiring process all over again, and begin the retention battle right from the beginning. And then, when those deskless workers leave, you need to repeat the cycle yet again.
What if there was a way to engage your deskless employees, and save yourself from high turnover, low motivation, and an all-around lack of productivity?
The solution, as it turns out, is much more simple than you think. Here are three of the best ways to keep your deskless employees engaged, connected, and most importantly, productive and effective.
Connecteam
This all-in-one app is everything you need to manage your deskless workforce. From in-app communication, to synchronized and easily deployed schedules, this employee time tracking app will both keep you fully compliant with all applicable labor laws, as well as being an app that your employees will love to use.
It requires no registered work email, no extra training and most importantly, it can be ready to go in under 2 minutes…and that’s including the installation time.
Starting at just $39 per month for up to 50 users, there’s also a Forever Free plan and a 14-day free trial.
Google Forms and Sheets
An oldie but a goodie, this semi-automated solution (Google’s suite of tools update in real-time) means there’s very little friction with workers who might not be the most technologically-minded.
Google Forms can help you gather responses quickly, while Google Sheets can help you do every function you need, with all of the Excel spreadsheet formulas you might want to use.
Choose from existing templates and watch in wonder as your team edits one document all at the same time, in real-time!
Trello
The task management app (available on mobile, but also a very similar-looking desktop app, and web app if you’re so minded), is a simple, drag and drop and visual overview of what your team is doing.
You can easily mention people, add notes, checklists and prioritize cards (tasks) across boards (workspaces).
Trello is free to use, but you’ll find that some of the features are limited on the free plan. If you’re so interested, there are plans starting from $9.99 per user per month, going up to $20.83 per user per month.
Stay Connected with Your Deskless Workers
You don’t want your deskless workers leaving, so you need to keep them in the loop, connected and happy. The way to do this is by using any (and even all) of the three tools above, which will also save you time, money and effort. These productivity tools will lead to even more engagement…and therefore more motivation, and fewer workers leaving!
