Mike Capone – CIO at ADP

Mike Capone is Corporate Vice President of Product Development and Chief Information Officer, ADP. Combining a unique blend of client-facing operational experience and strong technical knowledge, Mike guides both product development and information technology as Corporate Vice President of Product Development & Chief Information Officer for ADP (Nasdaq: ADP), a leading provider of human capital management services and one of the world’s largest providers of business process outsourcing solutions.

————-Guest Blog———————

Creating and Empowering a Mobile Workforce

If you’re confused by the vast complexity of the mobile industry – and more specifically, how to capitalize on rapid advancements to increase the mobility of your workforce – you’re not alone.

While it’s not feasible to make every function mobile all the time, the advent of new mobile technologies makes every one of us a mobile worker, and every team a mobile workforce. That might sound easier said than done to some organizations. So, where is the best place to start?

Most companies either already have – or are in the process of creating – mobile applications and platforms to better reach and serve their customers. Knowing this is where your company is going with its distribution strategy, why not take a similar approach to your employees? After all, they’re all customers, too.

And today’s employees, particularly Gen Y millennials, want to access information and collaborate on mobile devices more than ever before. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 47 percent of U.S. employees were born after 1977.

Still, trusting the idea that mobile applications will be the catalyst for empowering this younger workforce is only part of the equation. It’s also about changing the culture of the organization.

For example, if you were to survey senior managers across departments, would you find that they encourage flexible work environments for employees? Are company intranets being used to the fullest extent for interoffice communications, project and document sharing, anywhere, anytime? These are just a few of the many questions you should ask and the areas you should evaluate in order to drive effective change and promote a culture around mobility.

Keep in mind that changing the culture won’t likely happen overnight, and companies would be best served to identify which parts of the organization are well-positioned to initiate and help drive the change across the organization. Likely change agent candidates might include departments that consume and act on data rather than aggregate and manage it, and those that can collaborate on projects in virtual settings.

After identifying possible change agents, you can begin assessing those functions across an enterprise most receptive to driving change and supporting a mobile workforce. Although deployment levels are still relatively low, more mid-size and large organizations are considering deploying mobile human resource solutions that allow employees to take advantage of payroll, time and attendance functions, according to a study conducted by VDC Research and the ADP Research Institute (www.adp.com/research).

By making these functions readily accessible on a mobile device, as well as intuitive and easy to use, organizations can help foster and promote a culture of self-service and flexibility. The research also pointed to employee engagement benefits, showing that 81% of large and 76% of mid-size organizations that had made mobile investments reported improved workforce satisfaction.

These are just some of the elements and best practices that can help your organization leverage the benefits of mobility. Above all, the most important step is ensuring that the environment you’re creating helps increase flexibility, productivity and job satisfaction – all in the name of helping your organization meet its business objectives.