Mobile Workforce - Books

Mobile Workforce: The Rise of the Mobilocracy iPass, Inc., Kate Blatt, and John Gallagher

Mobile and the Work–Life Balance Mobilocracy—mo•bil•oc•ra•cy (moh-buhl’kresI)—n. pl. mobilocracies 1) a powerful class of worker who relies on mobile devices for greater productivity; 2) the common worker, esp. as a mobile workforce—within corporations, as mobile employees’ behaviours and preferences increasingly play a larger role in IT decisions and directions. e

Over the past several years, we have seen the rapid increase in the number of mobile workers, causing a shift in power across the enterprise. We are now witnessing the rise of the mobilocracy, and the workplace is being shaped by the demands of the mobile workforce and not the dictates and controls of the information technology (IT) department. This movement is occurring across multiple industries and in nearly every company—large and small—around the globe. Mobile employees are clearly gaining visibility as a workforce and are now setting the rules and becoming the driving force behind mobile technology innovation. Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC)1 puts the total number of mobile workers at more than 1 billion and predicts that the world’s mobile worker population will grow to nearly 1.3 billion people—more than a third of the world’s workforce—by 2015. The lesson for companies competing today and in the future is that the mobile workforce is a factor to be reckoned with, 275

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and that in ignoring its demands, companies risk losing their competitive edge. Trained in the consumer world, today’s workforce is more technologysavvy than just a generation ago, and today’s workers are choosing the devices they find most productive. Bring your own device (BYOD)2 is the mantra of leading companies that have recognised that arming their employees with devices of choice is both cost-effective and productive, as employees expect to play an increasing role in technology decisions within their companies. This expectation is evident in the cloud computing market, where most buying decisions today are happening at the department level—shifting IT’s role toward service and away from being a command control center. As summed up by Gartner fellow Ken McGee, “Technology is no longer the preserve of the [chief information officer]. … It has become everyone’s property and everyone’s issue.”3 The typical mobile worker uses technology to blend work and life. They are multitaskers, doing meaningful work across borders, time zones, and locations. For this group, work is not conducted just at a desk, and the workday is no longer 9-to-5 in the office, as work–life boundaries are permeable. This work shifting—the ability to work when and where we want to—is forever changing the way we work, when we work, and where we work. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an April 2012 interview with Makers, “There’s work, there’s life and there’s no balance!”4 Highly useful mobile devices in the form of smartphones and tablets that can connect to the cloud are convenient productivity tools that most mobile employees use for both work and personal business. A significant portion of the growth of smartphones and tablets is among mobile workers. It makes sense as they have the need and the discretionary income to buy this technology that supports their willingness to work anytime and anywhere. In fact, we found in our research at the Wi-Fi services firm iPass that the majority of mobile workers had a blended approach to mobile technology— they moved easily between work and personal activities on a single device.5 These convenient tools with 24-hour access to applications in the cloud have become a tether that helps create an on-demand, hyper-connected workforce—always at the ready to handle work or personal business. Mobile workers today work shifts around the clock. Virtually every employee with a smartphone checks it during downtime.6 When mobile workers wake up in the morning, 35 percent check email before anything else. Not only do we check email in the morning, 38 percent of us are working before our commute, 25 percent work during our commute, and 37 percent are working through lunch, each and every day. And we do not stop when we get home, either. For many mobile employees, work is a neverending cycle, with 37 percent working each evening.7

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Profile of the Mobile Worker Highly Productive An on-demand workforce delivers huge benefits to the enterprise: increased workforce productivity, improved customer service, timelier crisis management, and improved day-to-day operations. It also enables employees to stay continually connected with their personal and professional communities to keep their skills and knowledge base up to date. But what is the impact on the employee? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the average U.S. employee workday at 8.8 hours in 2009,8 yet the average workday for mobile workers was 1 hour longer, closer to 10 hours a day.9 In fact, because of a flexible work schedule, more than half of mobile workers report that they work 10 or more additional hours a week, and 12 percent report that they work 20 or more additional hours a week. On average this adds 240 more hours per year, or 6 more productive weeks for each mobile employee every year. These hours are racked up daily, with 2 to 3 more hours of work at home each night, as well as additional hours on their commute. Those hours represent a tremendous change from just a few years ago. In addition to working more hours, these mobile workers feel more productive when their schedules are flexible, and their efficiency improves.10

Hyper-Connected Some mobile workers can be defined as hyper-connected (on call 24 hours a day, ready to check email or collaborate with a colleague in any time zone), and many are experiencing the downside of an always-on, alwaysconnected lifestyle. Surprisingly, nearly half of all mobile workers sleep with their smartphones within arm’s reach, and many exhibit the behaviours of the hyper-connected worker. Those who kept their smartphone close at hand at night were 60 percent more likely than the average mobile worker to wake up during the night to check their messages.

Married to the Smartphone Working more hours, waking in the middle of the night to check email, and obsessively checking smartphones—does all this impact our mental and physical health? Have mobile workers become addicted to their smartphones, and what are the health implications of being hyper-connected? More than half of mobile employees surveyed gave an emotional response when asked how they would feel if they went without their smartphones for a week, and the majority said they would have a negative emotional response. Moreover, 40 percent would feel disoriented, 34 percent would feel distraught, and 10 percent would feel lonely without their smartphone.

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Although most mobile workers described their health as good or excellent, 9 percent described their health as fair, poor, or unknown. However, most mobile employees saw their mobile work environment as contributing to their overall health. Nearly half saw a mobile work environment as positive to their overall health because of the flexibility of working when and where they chose. Conversely, 13 percent said this work style impacted their health negatively, because they were working all the time. Interestingly, when we looked at some of the pillars of good health—sleep and exercise—even mobile employees who described themselves as healthy were not getting enough of either. Studies show the average adult needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, and many mobile workers average nearly 7 hours.11 However, one in four mobile workers did not sleep enough (less than 6 hours a night). Researchers from the University of Warwick, England, and the Federico II University medical school in Naples, Italy, analysed 16 studies12 that covered 1.3 million people. The studies found that people who got fewer than 6 hours of shut-eye per night were 12 percent more likely to die before the age of 65 years than people who got 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night. And one in three mobile workers claimed to get less sleep because of work. The Mayo Clinic recommends 75 to 150 minutes of exercise a week. Yet many mobile employees are not exercising at all. More than half of mobile workers exercised erratically or not at all. The majority cited work as the No. 1 reason they did not get as much exercise as they should. For those who never exercised, the No. 1 reason was that they did not have the time.

The Work–Life Teeter-Totter We are clearly moving toward an increasingly hyper-connected workforce, but hyper-connected is not always a negative. The always-on, always-connected lifestyle can benefit the work–life balance. Because of work shifting, 64 percent of mobile employees felt they were better able to manage their workload and their personal commitments, and not surprisingly, more than half felt more relaxed as a result of this improved balance. Some people liked the flexibility of being able to work when and where they wanted to, and some people could not handle it. This is not a value judgment, but those that are waking five times a night to check their smartphone might need a little help! Just like the workaholics of old, there is a small group of mobile workers who are taking their mobility too far and finding that it negatively impacts their work–life balance. Late in 2011, iPass commissioned Carolyn Axtell, a leading academic at the Institute of Work Psychology, to investigate the well-being of the mobile workforce.13 In response to the question, “What can individuals and organisations


do to overcome some of these ‘dark side’ challenges and maximise the ‘bright side’?” she offered a series of recommendations: Individuals: • Detach from work: Not thinking about work during off-job time is important as it helps to maintain employee well-being and work engagement. Engaging in hobbies or activities that require one’s full attention (e.g., playing a tennis match, learning to play a musical instrument, volunteer work) during off-job time can help people to detach and stop thinking about work and also help them develop a sense of achievement. Though thinking about the positive aspects of work during off-job time can be good for employee well-being, there is a need to block negative work-related thoughts. • Develop a strong work–home boundary: Creating a strong boundary between home and work can help to enhance detachment. It can also help to enhance an individual’s sense of control over off-job time, which can help to promote well-being. Tactics can be used such as blocking off family time and letting colleagues know your expectations for work-related communications outside work. Given that communications technologies (especially mobile ones) make it more difficult to mentally distance oneself from work, it would be beneficial to create a technological barrier between home and work by using tactics such as call filtering, separate email accounts for work and personal use, or not switching the computer on in the evening. • Relax: Take the time to relax and wind down before bed (e.g., through meditation, listening to music, muscle relaxation). When workers don’t relax after work, activation levels remain high, which makes it difficult for them to fall asleep. So introducing strategies to ensure relaxation and detachment from work can help to improve sleep quality and reduce levels of stress. Organisations: • Enhance employee control: Give employees more control over their work and allow them to have greater control over their off-job time. Providing a flexible work arrangement can in itself increase employees’ sense of control over when, where, and how they work, which in turn is likely to enhance their well-being. • Provide support to employees: Ensure that employees have the right resources to do their job and have the necessary support to overcome obstacles within their work, as this can help to protect them from the

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negative effects of work demands. Support might be instrumental (e.g., the right training and information to do their job) or emotional in nature (e.g., opportunities for catching up with colleagues and letting off steam). Allowing employees to receive both of these elements of support is important for employee well-being and performance. • Reduce expectations for long hours: People are less likely to detach from work if their colleagues and managers are working long hours and are expecting others to do the same. If an employee is trying to enjoy some family time, then receiving a phone call from the boss during such occasions is likely to reduce the employee’s feeling of control and lead to greater work–home conflict. Organisations should encourage employees to maintain a boundary between home and work and not work excessive hours.

Mobile in Organisations: Security and Risk Management Whom Do You Provision With Mobile Devices? All companies must grapple with the fact that not every employee gets a smartphone. It is not cost-effective, and corporate-liable devices are expensive. On average, companies are spending more than $120 per month for each mobile employee, yet the majority of mobile employees are unaware of how much their mobile connectivity is costing their employers. Our studies show that 43 percent of mobile enterprise workers have received a data roaming charge they felt was too high in the course of a year, experiencing bill shock of $1,089 on average.14 Most companies cannot provision all their employees with smartphones, so there is always going to be a population of technology have-nots. Today, 58 percent of companies provide smartphones to their employees, down from nearly two-thirds a year ago. Forty-two percent of employees have individually liable smartphones (i.e., they purchase and pay for their own devices). When a company does not provide a smartphone for an employee, the way the mobile worker uses a device is impacted directly. Employees who are not provided with a smartphone by their workplace are not likely to use their personal smartphone for work. Some companies allow personally owned devices to tap into the corporate network, and some do not. The real challenges arise when companies have an ambiguous smartphone policy. They lose productivity when their unprovisioned employees assume they cannot use their personal smartphone for


work, and the companies risk security when the unprovisioned employees assume they can use their personal smartphone for work.

Obey the Rules and Take a Productivity Hit When companies forbid the use of personally owned smartphones for work, they lose out on hours of potential productivity—to the tune of 6 more weeks of work each year for each employee. An on-demand workforce offers huge advantages, even within the lowest levels of the organisation. To see the real impact of an immobile workforce, you need to look only as far as inclement weather or, worse, a disaster. The January 1996 blizzard in the U.S. produced the most weather-related absences ever recorded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “with 10.1 percent of workers (or about 12.5 million) affected.”15 Considering that mobile workers work more hours than other workers on average, denying access to basic mobility services can have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

Employees Do Not Always Obey the Rules Nearly 90 percent of mobile employees who were not provisioned a smartphone by their companies used their private smartphones for work. When employees use personal devices for work, they often unknowingly open their companies’ confidential business data to certain risks. Considering that an estimated 70 percent of corporate data now lies on mobile devices (which the IT department may not be aware of), enterprises are exposed to a significant amount of risk. At companies with a stricter smartphone policy (i.e., those that had standardised on only one smartphone operating system), one in five mobile employees used a smartphone for work outside the corporate policy—even though those companies were much more likely to pay for their employees’ smartphones.

Incidents of a Security Issue For companies with no stated smartphone policy, the use of private smartphones for work could become a major problem. Consider that 21 percent of mobile employees we recently surveyed had already experienced a relevant security issue, and younger workers were nearly three times more likely than mobile workers 55 to 64 years old to have had a smartphone with business data on it lost or stolen. Security experts point to lost or stolen smartphones as the enterprise’s biggest security risk, especially if employees do not report the loss to their companies so that corporate data can be remotely wiped. Because employees 22 to 34 years old are more likely than others to use a

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non-company smartphone, its loss or theft is a significant security problem for many companies.

Bring Your Own Device The BYOD practice carries less risk in companies that have created policies regarding smartphone use (for example, remote wipe if a pass code is entered incorrectly five times). IDC predicts that by 2013, more than 56 percent of corporate mobile devices will be individual-liable devices.16 When creating a mobility strategy, you may need to consider balancing risk and reward, friction and productivity, security, and costs. When a company like IBM, with 440,000 employees, declares that the rollout of a BYOD initiative is one of its most pressing priorities, a precedent is set that BYOD can bring more benefits to a company than headaches for its IT department. IBM chief information officer Jeanette Horan said in a 2012 interview, “If we didn’t support [employees], we figured they would figure out how to support [the devices] themselves. … They will find the most appropriate tool to get their job done. I want to make sure I can enable them to do that, but in a way that safeguards the integrity of our business.”17

Liability in the Mobile Workspace Today’s enterprises have already learned how to deal with the complexities of their mobile employees and the information carried in their laptop computers. After all, the information in those laptops is confidential and owned by the corporation. Those same complexities—and many more—now arise from the employees’ use of smartphones. Often, the data in a smartphone is just as sensitive and critical to the company as the data in its computers. Issues of security, compliance, legality, trust, and of course cost all need to be addressed within the enterprise mobility strategy. All of these issues give rise to the biggest question of all—who should own the enterprise smartphone—the employee or the corporation? Smartphone use among U.S.-based information workers is expected to triple by 2013, according to Forrester Research.18 It seems that the decisions and strategies surrounding the control and ownership of these devices should be made sooner rather than later. The cost of ownership is perhaps the easiest aspect to calculate. It might seem that just reimbursing employees a flat percentage of the bill from their own phone would be a quick and easy way to go. But there are hidden costs to consider, including the support costs of accounting, billing, and asset management and of controlling things such as overseas data roaming charges.


Many of us have heard the data roaming horror stories of bills that soar into the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, euros, or pounds. It happens more often than companies like to admit. Using Wi-Fi as an alternative or complement to cellular networks can help corporations bring down the cost of network access, which will be a significant expense as more employees go globally mobile.19 Today, half the smartphones in use in U.S. and Canadian businesses are not company-issued equipment.20 Most companies are still grappling with the question of who should be liable for devices. There are still many unanswered questions and hidden trapdoors, including, What is meant by liability? What are the legal aspects that must be considered? How can I start to build a strategy that is meaningful and balances the needs of both the company and the employee?

What Is Meant by Liability? Many types of liability are associated with owning and using a smartphone, including financial, regulatory, compliance, privacy, and legal liability. Financial liability is perhaps the easiest to understand. It would seem obvious that paying for individual-liable carrier plans would be the responsibility of the employee. But what if the employee racks up a $5,000 data roaming bill on a business trip abroad? And what if that employee uses a corporate-liable phone to conduct an illegal activity with large financial consequences? Financial services and medical companies have very stringent regulations that must be followed to protect private data because its misuse could have severe financial and legal ramifications. Many of these companies require all corporate data to go through company-issued computers (and not smartphones) that have elaborate encryption and data protection mechanisms. But privacy can have another definition. How about protection of employeeowned information that resides on a corporate-liable smartphone? Does the employer have the right to look at all the data on the phone they own?

Legal Aspects of Data Ownership and Control When it comes to smartphones, legal clarity about what a company can and cannot control is distinctly lacking. With case law lagging behind technology, how do companies factor legal issues into the equation when they consider who should own the smartphone? Some generally accepted practices are starting to emerge. Corporate email messages and company data are owned by the company, regardless of where these files reside. The company has unrestricted access to the information and can set usage policies that must be adhered to by the employee. The problem is multiplied, however, if your company is an international firm,

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because in some places, such as Japan, Canada, and the members of the European Union, all email is regarded as private to employees if it was authored by them.

Start With a Well-Thought-Out Strategy There are too many variables in the equation to go about randomly managing your policy for smartphones. At the core, you need to define your strategy up front. What are the business goals you want to accomplish? How do you balance the needs of both the employee and the company? Because every function and level of a company—not just your sales and marketing road warriors—is affected by this plan, the strategy must be well thought out. Segmentation of user types is generally the first step of the strategy. Dividing information workers into several groups based on how their mobile enablement benefits the company is a useful first step in formulating a strategy: • Those who use the most sensitive data get company-paid, companymanaged smartphones. • Those who work extensively away from their desks receive subsidies for most or all of their personal smartphone charges. • Those who work away from their desks occasionally receive a partial subsidy for their personal smartphone use. • Those who rarely work away from their desks receive no subsidy, and you may consider locking their smartphones out of your systems altogether. According to Forrester, companies should stop treating smartphone management as an IT policing issue and instead treat it as a business riskmanagement question.21 More and more companies are already starting to make this shift in their thinking. A balance needs to be found between issuing smartphones as a management tool controlled by the IT department and letting a certain subset of employees own the responsibility for their own devices. That balance point will vary for every company. By 2015, more workers will have smartphones than cell phones. Terms such as mobile worker, telecommuter, work–life balance, cloud, software as a service, and social media will seem antiquated. That is because virtually all employees will be mobile workers, working anytime, anywhere. Their work–life ratio will be more an issue of integration than of balance. The majority of applications will be available in the cloud (both public and private), SaaS (software as a service) will be common, and social media will become an integral part of the fabric of our being.


At iPass, we believe the mobile stack is the new unit of computing: the trinity of smartphone, tablet, and laptop. Corporate and personal data will be stored in both private and public clouds. This is now a very challenging area that needs to evolve, along with management of authentication and authorisation. This new framework of computing is being established as the standard by virtue of the increasing availability of affordably priced devices. A majority of IT professionals today feel they are losing control of the mobile landscape. Our survey found that 41 percent of IT managers believed they had less control over their employees’ choice of devices than a year ago, and 37 percent felt their degree of control was about the same. Just one in five (21 percent) stated that they had increased control over their employees’ mobile choices.22 But IT departments are becoming more responsive to mobile employee demands, with 47 percent of enterprises recently changing corporate guidelines regarding non–IT-managed devices. This trend has helped accommodate the introduction of the iPad, Android tablets, and smartphones. By company size, 42 percent of small to medium-sized enterprises and 51 percent of large enterprises had changed their policies regarding non–IT-managed devices. Overall, 73 percent of enterprises were allowing non–IT-managed devices to access corporate resources, while 26 percent did not allow non–IT-managed devices. Based on company size, 82 percent of small to medium-sized enterprises and 66 percent of large enterprises allowed non–IT-managed devices to access corporate resources.23 IT departments are working to gain control over mobility spending but losing control over device choices. They recognise the importance of updated policies and strategies, yet many do not have the resources or priorities in place to address them. Security and device support (including for executives) are the hot buttons for IT departments. Rising costs and the requirement to manage multiple carriers and many device choices keep getting in the way. Can the IT people ever just take a breath and get their arms around it all?

Recommendations for Mobile Organisations The following recommendations are offered to help mobile organisations move forward in key areas: The Mobile Stack: • The mobile stack (smartphone, tablet, and laptop) is the new unit of computing. Provide every laptop with a monitor, wireless mouse, and keyboard so that the laptop can be easily used as a desktop computer when the worker is in the office.

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• Tablet usage will continue to expand to the point that nearly every mobile worker will ask for one. If your company does not support or provide tablets, you need to spend time understanding how they are used and how they are evolving to meet the needs of your employees. • For IT departments, there is a big difference between “supporting a device” and “provisioning a device.” Devices that are rapidly losing market share (including the BlackBerry) should be expeditiously moved from “provision” to “support already existing.” The mobile device market is reasonably efficient. When sales of a device are falling, there is quite likely a newer device that is more useful and less costly. • Recognising that tablet and smartphone use will always include some personal use is good. Keeping employees in touch with their families with a quick email from the tablet is healthy and will encourage those employees to always carry the device, making them available for quick responses to corporate needs as well. Social media and informal networking are becoming valuable business tools that give employees easy access to more sources of information and resources. Education: • For large-volume, heavily supported devices, consider sending IT employees to “school” at the device manufacturers’ training sessions. Knowledge and relationships with service personnel at the manufacturer will reap continuing rewards. The training can also be replicated internally as IT departments increasingly enter the education business. • Educate employees about mobile security vulnerabilities, while expeditiously moving to correct issues. A good eye-opener for the careless will minimise recurring problems. This education function not only gives the IT department more visibility within a company but also helps it become the champion! Policies: • When you have the right security and management policies in place, it becomes OK to give employees choices in mobility devices. • Proactively show sales and field personnel, who have all the hassles of business travel, how to save time (e.g., new forms, tools, automatic downloads, integrated applications), and they will be your friends forever. These employees may have the reputation of being “difficult,” but a responsive IT team can change the relationship.


• Producing troubleshooting FAQs, fact sheets, manuals, and other tools for typical mobility problems will make employees even more self-reliant, simultaneously avoiding the typical trapdoors that pull the IT department in on easily solvable problems. • Update mobility manuals and policies routinely. Assigning the IT employees to the update project as a good way to get them quickly up to date on company issues and policies. Also get users on the committee to update the manual as a way of promoting inclusion. • Even in organisations that support corporate-liable and employeeliable devices, there should be consistency in the policies. Employees should easily understand the expectations for data security, regardless of the device type and who owns it. It is perfectly acceptable to allow less access on an employee-liable device than on a corporate-liable one; just be aware of the productivity loss if access from employeeliable devices is limited or eliminated altogether. Costs: • Consider allowing “employee-pay” and “company-reimburse” policies for employees who can obtain large discounts for their combinationcarrier plans. These savings can be passed along to the company. However, IT departments should be warned if the cost savings are passed solely to the employee. If the cost of mobility increases, there is a chance that employees will use the device less for work, limiting productivity gains. For that reason alone, consider a stipend or reimbursement policy for employee-liable devices. • Reduce the number of carriers if possible. You have a better chance of cutting a good deal if you tout “consolidation for cost reduction.” Consolidating cuts costs, reduces overhead and the number of bills to manage, and makes employee education easier. Look for carriers that have Wi-Fi offload capabilities and providers with Wi-Fi data roaming solutions.

The Road Ahead: Trends and Scenarios Faster Networks Will Be Provided as Premium Services Today’s news outlets and blogs are filled with stories about the new iPad, iPhone, and Android devices inundating the workplace, brought in initially as personal devices by employees and executives. Although these new mobile devices may be getting the majority of attention from the press these days, they are relatively inexpensive. It is the networks that are expensive and show

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no signs of becoming cheaper. The 3G all-you-can-eat buffet is clearly over. As telecom carriers move to à la carte plans, employees and their companies will become much more cognizant of which type of network they connect their device to and how much it costs, regardless of where liability rests.

BYOD Will Become Standard With the prevalence of network connectivity in the home and the abundance of highly useful mobile devices and mobile applications, the liability debate will reach some resolution for most companies. In the next several years, there will be a shift in mobile device liability. Companies will endorse a BYOD policy because of the huge pool of untapped and cheap technology, willing employees, and the huge productivity gains to be had.

Security Will Get a Makeover With a trend toward BYOD, enterprise security will get a significant makeover. For the IT department, the old security model of building a moat around the data center has broken down. The IT department can no longer enforce a safe perimeter around the company’s employees and digital assets. A shift from securing each individual system to securing the data—much of it already residing in public and private clouds—will take place very quickly. One of the industry’s little secrets is that these new smartphone and tablet devices are much more secure than the laptops of yesterday. Many mobile devices are better at security by design. Some already come with a “kill and wipe” function right out of the box. But all mobile devices—including the iPhone and BlackBerry—will become more secure as they evolve. We are going to have to rethink security, and the old model of having to put hundreds of dollars or euros of software on a PC will not work in the mobilocracy. Considering that an estimated 70 percent of corporate data now sits on mobile devices,24 IT will need to adopt mobile strategies that bring the unprovisioned—regardless of generation—into the fold. IT staff will find that employees are less of a security risk but more likely to use their own smartphones to get their jobs done—a win-win for everyone.

The Trivialisation of Place Another key trend in mobility is referred to as the trivialisation of place. Where someone works is becoming unimportant. What matters now is that these workers are connected and get their work done, no matter where they are physically located. Work is something people do, not somewhere they go. We believe that where people work will matter less and less as time goes on. For numerous reasons—from improved productivity to decreased carbon


footprint and reduced office expenditure—a workforce that works anywhere and anytime is a boon to business. With multiple devices and networks available, physical place is no longer important, but “location” is. You see people working out of communal locations that combine the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and a collaborative workspace (productive, functional) to give workers their own affordable space. And there certainly are enough chain store coffee shops around the world to serve as a viable work destination for the rest of us!

Social Boundaries Are Being Redefined Today’s mobile users are redefining the traditional social boundaries. When do you disconnect … or do you? This is very evident in our personal lives. For example, one mobile employee we know switched from a Kindle as a book reader to an iPad because the iPad has a backlit screen. Now he can read it at night in bed while his wife is sleeping. The downside is that his email comes in while he is reading, and he checks it more frequently. So he is now available for work anytime, even when he is trying to escape into a good book or magazine. That can happen with all of our devices. We have seen the headlines “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” and “Always-On Technology: Are We Adapting or Losing?” The death of technology-free time is indeed the case. The majority of mobile employees never completely disconnect from technology, even during vacation. Mobile employees will need to develop coping strategies to deal with hyperconnectivity and the increasing demands for their attention. Most will find a way to redefine their own social boundaries between work and personal time. For some, this lesson will not be without personal costs to families, health, and sanity. But mobile workers will adapt on their own—or perhaps with the help of a professional program. Now that we have peered into the future, we need a modus operandi to navigate the present. First and foremost, you should foster a culture of mobility within your company. This culture can help you drive competitive advantage for your business, engage with your customers in unprecedented new ways, and make your company a more attractive place. The leading-edge faction of the workforce is about to become the rule. As we see powerful new devices and mobile apps proliferate and connectivity improve, the design criteria for enterprises and service providers will need to evolve. This requires that you engage your mobile employees in the decisionmaking process and instill well thought-out policies that meet your business requirements as well as your employees’ needs.

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Conclusion: Three New Rules for Creating a Culture of Mobility Rule 1: Use mobility to drive competitive advantage. At every company, there is a population of workers with a personal smartphone that the employee pays for. Whether these workers use it for work or solely for personal reasons is up to their employer. The policies that you have in place will make the difference. While you cannot provide every employee with a smartphone, you can take advantage of the technology that is already deployed across your workforce. Look for ways to educate your employees about how to use their personal devices with company systems in ways that align with best practices for security and privacy. Help your employees be more productive by providing applications and other resources, encouraging use that meets your policies. Rule 2: Engage your customers in novel ways. With mobility comes the concept of on demand. Most mobile workers routinely check their email before they do anything else in the morning. The external customer orientation that comes from being always available to your customers is extremely powerful. The more tools that are accessible in the cloud, making your workforce more mobile, the better your workforce can serve customers quickly and on the go. If customers feel that they are listened to and responded to in a timely manner, they will become more patient and often stronger promoters of your brand. Rule 3: Make your company an attractive place for the mobilocracy to work. A huge enterprise advantage is created by an interested and technology-savvy workforce. The rise of the mobilocracy means that mobile employees will expect to be involved with company mobility decisions that affect their lives, and device selection will become highly personal. They will also provide ideas and insights into better applications for the enterprise and will appreciate a company that gives them that opportunity. In a more open environment, mobile workers will be more open to policies, information, and training that help make their devices and their mobility more secure and cost effective, and thus the mobile workforce becomes an even greater company asset. The mobile worker is now in charge. These individuals will define the next wave of mobile and cloud innovation and recast the work environment to better meet their needs. If you serve the mobilocracy well, mobile workers will redefine your business productivity and processes; work when, where, and how they want; and use the best tools to get the job done.

Endnotes 1. “Mobile Worker Population to Reach 1.3 Billion by 2015, According to IDC,” IDC, January 5, 2012, accessed August 9, 2012, www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23251912.


2. “Bring Your Own Device,” Wikipedia, August 9, 2012, accessed August 9, 2012, en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Bring_your_own_device. 3. “Gartner Identifies Seven Major Projects CIOs Should Consider During the Next Three Years,” Gartner, November 9, 2010, accessed August 9, 2012, www.gartner.com/it/page. jsp?id=1465614. 4. Sheryl Sandberg, “Leaving Work at 5:30 PM,” video, Makers, 2012, accessed August 9, 2012, www.makers.com/sheryl-sandberg/moments/leaving-work-530pm. 5. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Understanding Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage Among Users,” iPass, 2012 (Q2), accessed August 9, 2012, mobile-workforceproject.ipass.com. 6. As of 2011, 91 percent of mobile workers checked their smartphone during downtime. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2011 (Q2), accessed August 9, 2012, www3.ipass.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/iPass_MWR_Q2_2011.pdf. 7. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Q3 2012: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2011 (Q2), accessed January 16, 2013, www.ipass.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/05/iPass_MWR_Q2_2011.pdf. 8. “American Time Use Survey,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 22, 2010, accessed August 9, 2012, www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm. 9. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2011 (Q4), accessed August 9, 2012, mobile-workforce-project.ipass. com/reports/q4-report-2011. 10. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Q3 2012: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2010 (Q2), accessed January 16, 2013, www.ipass.com/wp-content/ uploads/2010/05/Mobile-Workforce-Report-052010.pdf. 11. “How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?,” National Sleep Foundation, accessed December 13, 2012, www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-reallyneed. 12. Francesco P. Cappuccio, Lanfranco D’Elia, Pasquale Strazzullo, and Michelle A. Miller, “Sleep Duration and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies,” Sleep 33, no. 5 (May 2010). 13. Carolyn Axtell, “The Well-Being of the Mobile Workforce,” iPass, December 8, 2011, accessed August 9, 2012, mobile-workforce-project.ipass.com/reports/well-being-report. 14. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Q3 2012: Understanding Global Mobility Trends and Mobile Device Usage Among Business Users,” iPass, 2012 (Q3), accessed January 16, 2013, mobile-workforce-project.ipass.com/reports/q3-report-2012. 15. “Issues in Labor Statistics,” U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Summary 12-1/February 2012, http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils90.pdf. 16. IDC, “Worldwide Business Use Converged Mobile Device 2009–2013 Forecast and Analysis,” June 2009, accessed January 16, 2013, www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/mobile_markets/ worldwide_business_use_converged_mobile_device_2009n2013_forecast_analysis. html. 17. Chris Kanaracus, “IBM CIO Discusses Big Blue’s BYOD Strategy,” March 27, 2012, accessed January 16, 2013, www.networksasia.net. 18. Galen Gruman, “Who Should Own Your Smartphones?,” March 24, 2010, accessed January 16, 2013, www.cio.com.au/article/340739/who_should_own_your_smartphones. 19. Kevin J. O’Brien, “Proposal for EU Roaming Fees Includes Global Cap,” NYTimes.com, February 12, 2012, accessed August 9, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/technology/ proposal-for-eu-roaming-fees-includes-global-cap.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all.

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20. Cody Barbierri, “Smartphone Usage Continues to Grow in U.S., According to Forrester Research,” VentureBeat, January 15, 2010, accessed August 9, 2012, venturebeat.com/2010/ 01/05/smartphone-usage-continues-to-grows-in-us-according-to-forrester-research. 21. Ibid. 22. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Q3 2012: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2011 (Q4), accessed January 16, 2013, mobile-workforce-project. ipass.com/cpwp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/iPass_Mobile_Enterprise_Report_2011.pdf. 23. “iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report: Q3 2012: Understanding Enterprise Mobility Trends and Mobile Usage,” iPass, 2011 (Q4), accessed January 16, 2013, mobile-workforce-project. ipass.com/cpwp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/iPass_Mobile_Enterprise_Report_2011.pdf. 24. Sean Ryan, “Worldwide Mobile Security 2009–2013 Forecast and Analysis,” IDC, April 2009, accessed January 16, 2013, books.boatdesign.net/bookstore/books.cgi?Operation=Item Lookup&ItemId=B002N8B4RK&locale=us.

About the Authors Kate Blatt is director of public relations at FICO, a company specialising in decision management tools and technologies. Based in San Francisco, she was previously director of public relations at iPass and group PR manager at Adobe Systems. Blatt’s prior PR experience also includes stints at Blue Martini, Abilizer, Netscape, and InSoft. She has a degree in public relations and political science from Syracuse University. John Gallagher is director at the Brunswick Group in San Francisco and previously was director for analyst relations at iPass. He is the author of the iPass Mobile Workforce Report and was previously investor relations officer at Global IP Solutions (acquired by Google). Gallagher has worked in the technology media sector in the U.S. and Europe. His prior media experience includes managing editor at the American Irish Media network (AIM) and marketing specialist at Rovi Corporation for clients such as Macrovision.

This article originally appeared as a chapter in Global Mobile: Applications and Innovations for the Worldwide Mobile Ecosystem, edited by Peter A. Bruck and Madanmohan Rao. For more information visit http://books.infotoday.com/books/Global-Mobile.shtml.