Work From Anywhere and the Mobile Workforce

As part of our unique HR & payroll digital platform called Quikchex, the PSS Group offers a broad array of administrative and analytics features like attendance management, geolocation tracking and timesheet reports which enable HR departments at our client organizations to track employees’ time while at the office.

What we have been seeing from customers lately is that they prefer to substitute time tracking with activity tracking of their teams. This means managers are more interested in what an employee is doing and the results achieved in a day of work than on the actual time spent in an office premises. Employees can work from home or work from a Starbucks. They can choose the days of the week to come to the office for important meetings while the rest of the time they stay away from the work space. This paradigm shift is progressive and forward thinking for Indian companies. It is not limited to young startups but established organizations who are willing to offer greater freedom with greater accountability to their employee teams.

As a result, we have been offering WorkPro’s customers the opportunity to use modules like timesheets and sales activity tracking as they move away from attendance management and location tracking features. These activities can be tied to revenue and profitability metrics likes leads generated, sales orders closed and returns. It has challenged us to reinvent our solution. By doing so, we are providing more strategic information to customers to help them manage their businesses.

I hear that large companies like Unilever have pioneered this practice of work from anywhere. A WorkPro customer in the pharmaceutical industry with a large sales force that is mobile and spread across the country has been using this method of working for several years. We recently introduced this work from anywhere policy with one of our sister companies as well. The verdict is still pending but by all accounts individuals and teams have embraced the concept. With the advent of cloud software, mobile phone apps and better internet connectivity from Indian internet providers, the trend toward mobile work is likely here to stay.