Enterprise mobility, otherwise known as the “deskless worker” movement, is having a profound effect on business. It is making companies more efficient and profitable by boosting employee productivity, efficiency, and contributions. Yet it is also demanding new attitudes and skill sets that human resources must account for in the hiring process. Thanks to cloud-connected smartphones, tablets, and laptops, employees now:

• Work from anywhere at any time
• Align with co-workers around shared goals online
• Multi-task as they collaborate digitally through applications
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and other business partners online
• View, manage, and share documents, and edit files co-workers are working on
• Spend less time on tasks that can be automated and spend more time innovating

How We Got Here  

In 2007, the first iPhone was introduced, purely as a consumer product. With email limited to IMAP and POP protocols, it was not suitable to the business environment. Yet its popularity and the universal adoption of smartphones that soon followed, ultimately led to businesses adopting the enterprise mobility concept. Consumers became familiar with the efficiency of portable computing, touchscreens, cloud-based applications, and anytime, anywhere access to information. They gradually became more comfortable with being available (and being able to reach others) by email and text, wherever and whenever the need arose. The iPhone gave birth to a new mentality that is now the driving force behind the fastest growing segment of business computing—enterprise mobility.

Where We Are Now

• 98% of workers need to work remotely or collaboratively, according to a survey conducted by Nexsan.
  • 76% need to access work documents away from the office.
  • 73% work remotely.
  • 61% need to access company data on their own devices.

• 86% of the workforce feels frontline access to the digital workplace is key to empowerment and engagement, according to a Digital Workplace Group survey.

• 80% of the global workforce (approximately 3 billion) is performing physical or deskless work daily, according to Google research.

• The global mobile workforce is set to increase from 1.45 billion in 2016, accounting for 39% of the workforce, to 1.87 billion by  2022, accounting for 43% of the workforce, according to Strategy Analytics research.

• The U.S. mobile worker population will hit the 105.4 million mark by 2020, according to IDC research.

• 75% of employee-facing apps are expected to be built with a mobile-first mindset by the end of 2017, according to IDC research.

Where We Are Heading

If your company has stopped rolling out desktops and laptops to new employees, and instead outfits them with their choice of devices, it may be time to start rolling in a new breed of employee.

Today’s new hires (including an increasing percentage of Millennials) should have the technological prowess to work effectively in mobile environments and the willingness to retrain at the frenetic pace technological progress demands. They must value the flexibility of mobility and see it as a tool to increase their productivity and engagement. They must feel comfortable communicating on an increasing array of digital channels as they open up through enterprise mobility. They must communicate well in writing. Our new hires should enjoy collaborating on digital platforms, where they may not get to know their teammates personally, and they should be able to multitask as they communicate. They should enjoy engaging business partners, vendors, and customers through online chat applications and social media, without feeling that digital availability is an imposition on their time or privacy. Our newest employees should love technology and be inspired by the possibilities it offers to innovate our business processes, services, and models.

In short, today’s new hires should prefer a mobilized environment. Tomorrow’s new hires will insist on it.