A mobile workforce is a key part of many industries, such as sales, healthcare, HVAC, and logistics. In fact, 80% of global employees operate from outside the office.
That staggering statistic should be enough for any business with deskless employees to implement dedicated field workforce management software.
But you cannot just start using any software. You need the right workforce management software that meets your business requirements. It should also improve workflow efficiency, boost employee productivity, and be able to adapt to your growing business scale.
On that note, let’s take a look at what factors you should consider while choosing a field workforce management software for your company.
How to Choose the Best Field Workforce Management Software?
Real-time employee monitoring
The most important component of any field workforce management software is its ability to monitor employees in real-time.
Monitoring desk workers in the office isn’t too big of a challenge. You have cameras, guards, and co-workers to verify their presence in case of a dispute. However, tracking field employees can be a hassle.
They never step foot in the office, work remotely and often in low-network areas, and are constantly traveling. How do you track them without affecting your and their performance?
An employee tracking system can come to your rescue here. It allows you to check the exact location of your employees even when they are offline.
For example, TrackoField uses GPS technology to display the minute-by-minute location of field employees. It can even track employees in case of phone malfunction, low battery, or network issues. And it can generate distance-travelled reports and unreachable reports.
Efficient task scheduling
There isn’t much face-to-face communication between field employees and their managers. As a manager, it can be challenging to manually assign, explain, or approve tasks for all employees.
But what if you could plan tasks in advance, upload tasks in bulk, and maintain a flexible schedule? Sounds interesting, right?
Field workforce management software can accomplish this feat with ease. Using the software, you can simplify your field operations and ensure timely completion of tasks. Employees are also flexible to reschedule tasks if they’re busy or modify their schedule to add urgent tasks.
The communication between managers and employees is also streamlined with instant chats and voice notes features. Plus, any edit in tasks immediately notifies the employees.
The software also has features of automatic reminders for pending tasks and auto-report generation. Managers can track their staff’s performance, task completion rate, FTFR, etc. with insightful reports.
Accurate attendance logging and leave management
Time theft is already a big headache for businesses and can be even harder to address in the case of field employees. Who knows where your field agents are, if they’re completing their working hours, or if they’re arriving on task sites on time?
Well, field workforce management software knows! That’s who.
Using GPS technology, you can set up a geofence around a location, preferably a task site. The shift of the employee will only commence once he enters the geofence and marks himself present. Managers can also demand visual verification to prevent any proxy attendance.
The software can also manage employee leaves and shift timings. Field staff require flexible timings and often work overtime. A field workforce tracking software comes with the option to assign and modify shift timings. It can also generate the actual vs. assigned working hours to calculate work productivity.
As for leaves, employees can check the holiday calendar and yearly leave quota on the mobile app. To avail of leave, they just have to apply on their phone, and it’s sent to the manager for approval.
Payroll and expense management
Imagine being able to compute salary automatically, easily reimburse employee expenses, and generate pay slips in a single click. Field employee tracking software can deal with your business’ payroll operations.
You can customise allowances, fix salaries, create salary bands, and also pay out on-duty expenses. You can also link the leave and attendance data to calculate accurate salaries. Managers can also add data on overtime wages, variable bonuses, visually verified expense reports, or any penalties to the payroll.
Security features
Tracking employees in real-time requires proper security features. An employee’s location history, performance reports, and payroll are confidential and should remain so. A workforce management software application that guarantees data security should be your priority.
Also, it’s not just the data that needs security. Field employees work in remote, low-network, often risky areas. Their safety is also important. TrackoField has security features like an SOS button for emergencies, instant chats, and offline tracking of employees. It’s also equipped with encrypted data storage.
Flexibility and Compatibility
Technology is advancing rapidly in the 21st century. Every other day, a new trend takes the world by storm. Some of these new technologies can be useful for your business.
However, you have to consider the capabilities of your field workforce management software. It should be easy to integrate with other software like CRM and ERP. You should also check whether the software can be customized and branded per your business requirements.
Easy incorporation of generative AI and Internet of Things (IoT) technology is another factor you should keep in mind while choosing a field workforce management software.
Your FSM software should also be able to sustain your growing business, and if not, it should allow easy migration of data to another software.
Wrapping up
We have covered the main factors you should consider while choosing field workforce management software for your business. The rest is up to you. But remember, there are dozens of amazing software programs on the market, and not all are viable for your business requirements.
Real-time monitoring, task scheduling, and attendance management are the key attributes of good FSM software. However, it’s better if you go for a system with added security, scalability, payroll, and order management features.
