Tips for Motivating the Mobile Workforce

Yesterday, Counselor Magazine published “Tips for Motivating the Mobile Workforce” by Betsy Cummings, and Fierce President & CEO, Halley Bock, weighed in. Below is a small portion of the article, to read the whole article, click here.

Of course, what’s missing from companies that rely on mobile workforces is the so-called water-cooler chatter that can result in brainstorming and strategy-sharing. That eliminates a lot of opportunity for rich communication, whether it’s orchestrated or organic, which is often the foundation of an office culture – and something that can disappear in a mobile workforce.

Building that communication among a staff that’s spread out in different parts of the country starts with clearly defining it, says Halley Bock, president and CEO of Fierce Inc., a leadership development and training company based in Seattle. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Let’s communicate all the time,’ ” says Bock, “but I may interpret that very differently than you.”

Bock suggests that managers detail how often workers should communicate and how. “Is it once a day? Twice a week? And what information needs to be communicated on a regular basis? Are we going to use e-mail daily or Skype once a week?”

These are all questions that should be answered between distributors and their mobile workers, she says. What’s more, Bock adds, managers and employees should agree upon acceptable response times – e-mail within one hour and a phone call within two, for example. “Otherwise people will fill in the blanks, and there’s going to be frustration and suspicion from the get-go. Where we go isn’t, ‘They’ve been working so hard they haven’t had time to get back to me,’ ” Bock says. “The story we tell ourselves is: ‘They’re on a boat on a lake and taking advantage of me.’ ”

In that sense, say Bock and other experts, communication is obviously a two-way street. It’s as important for managers to be accountable for communicating as it is for staff. “Ask your team, ‘What information would be most useful from me on a regular basis?’ ” Bock says. “And keep checking on that.”

To read the full article, click here.