Own A Business With A Mobile Team? These Tips Can Help

Running a mobile team has become pretty common in the wake of coronavirus. There are so many businesses working from home. It presents many opportunities for a business, with most realizing that having people working from home is better for them, and for their employees. However, it does throw up certain issues which need to be dealt with. This is especially the case if your employees are having to visit clients from time to time. Each business goes about dealing with things differently, but these tips can give you something to think about and help you get the best out of your mobile team. It might take some trial and error, but once you’ve landed on the perfect procedures it’ll be worth it for sure.

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Make Their Time On The Road Easy

If they’re driving long distances you don’t want them worrying about anything other than your clients, and the road. Make things as easy as possible. First off, make sure they’ve got access to good satellite navigation, especially if you deal with clients off the beaten track. Most people have decent sat nav on their phones these days, but check beforehand. You also want to make the payment for gas or food, as well as vehicle wear and tear etc. You can use a corporate credit card for these, but if you don’t make sure you use a fairly robust claim-back system. If they don’t drive, you might even consider a pool car or company car system. Ensure you get cars which are comfortable to drive long distances and which are also good for petrol consumption. Sometimes public transport might be the better bet. In these situations you’re always better off leaving the decision up to the individual. People have different preferences when it comes to travel. Some would rather take it easy on a train, while others would prefer to drive.

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Ensure They Have A Good Internet Connection

This starts at their home. You need to ensure that you and your mobile team have a good quality Wi-Fi connection so that they can work to a good standard. Some employees will have good internet in any case, while others might be lacking. Support them in getting a better connection to the internet so that they can work to a high standard. If they’re using high quality video to call people, you might need more bandwidth than you’d imagine. Ensure they’re upskilled around proper Wi-Fi placement. Ethernet cables are better, and if they’re not suitable try to promote the usage of a booster instead. Good connection facilitates the option of good work and high productivity.

Allow Them To Converse As They Would In An Office

It sounds strange, but when working from home or when away from the office people lose out on the key bonding they get from being together. Ensure you set up a meeting once a week where people can just chat. There doesn’t have to be an agenda. Not doing so can prove a costly business mistake because key ideas won’t be bounced around. It’s a good way of lifting the morale too. Once a week might be too much in some cases so you’d go to a fortnightly meeting if so. It’s nice to have an informal setting whereby people can catch up. For some, it might be the only socialization they get and when they’re working mobile it’s even more important to focus on their wellbeing in this regard. Let them speak to each other using Microsoft Teams or whatever other software you use on an off the cuff basis, meaning they can just IM each other or call. Try to be as flexible as you can as a work boss and you’ll garner far more respect. 

Promote Good Communication

Communication online just isn’t the same as doing it in person. You lose some of the nuance regarding the conversation. They can’t read your face. What sounds fine to you in your head may seem a little disrespectful in person. Spending time on training your team in communication can be pretty impactful. You can always assign them to listen to an audiobook on the topic and then quiz them and offer prizes for correct answers. A great prize would be eGift cards. This could be done in a bi-weekly virtual meeting on a Friday, for example.

Work on the good and the bad, make sure you canvass for feedback so you can be sure to build on shortcomings in future trainings. They’ll be able to speak to one another in a better way, but they’ll also be able to speak to customers in a more appropriate way too. This really pays dividends especially if your business thrives off of sales.

This is a contributed post.

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