Managing collaboration in a hybrid workspace with the power of AI
Published on 03 May 2022
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of employees working from the comfort of their homes was a preserve of a select few sectors and working from defined office spaces was considered the normal. However, the past two years compelled businesses to opt for a work from home (WFH) setting to combat the spread of the coronavirus and has helped organizations in embracing the new normal of a hybrid workplace. In this new setting, WFH is balanced with an equal quota of working in an office environment, in an attempt to extract new efficiencies in an increasingly connected world. Defined as Workplace 2.0, this new transitioning has posed an equal challenge for organisations in managing attendance, facilitating collaboration, and providing employees with the flexibility to check-in physically or remotely as per requirements. Traditional HRMS suites and biometric authorizations are proving powerless in catering to these requisites and need to be supported with technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Facial Recognition and Machine learning (ML), enabled through employee mobile devices.
Key aspects of Workplace 2.0 include fostering a collaborative environment amongst a connected employee base using these latest technologies and bring the future of work to reality in a more seamless fashion.
Employing a mobile attendance tracking software for a distributed workforce
With a dynamic mix of employees working in a physical and online workspace, managing attendance has added a degree of stress on both employees and supervisors alike. Biometric attendance systems are no longer viable due to social distancing concerns and employees working remotely are finding existing VPN-enabled attendance modules counter-intuitive to log activity on a daily basis. Moreover, organisations are not able to curb the practice of an employee marking attendance for a colleague using their login ID and password. Smart check-ins based business rules need to be increasingly adopted by businesses and this is where a mobile attendance tracking software with AI & Facial recognition integration is needed. It can help remote employees to log attendance almost instantaneously and minimize attendance fraud as facial recognition helps identify employees more accurately. Combining these functionalities with other features like auto checkouts at the end of the working day, managing leave or overtime hours and sharing real-time work or expense reports, make these App-based attendance systems far more superior to legacy systems in place today at most organisations.
Facilitating real-time collaboration using mobile devices as a medium
The workplace 2.0comprises a diverse set of employees working in both online and offline modes. This necessitates organisations to dynamically adopt different strategies to communicate with them and foster collaboration between those present on any given working day. However, with some employees in an office environment and some working remotely, ensuring that all members of a department or division can collaborate with each other is a key challenge that needs addressing. Mobile devices when combined with an AI-based module can empower employees to understand the current status of their team members and collaborate with each other even when operating remotely. They can share information like documents, audio and video files with peers or their supervisors on the go, without having to access any other computing device. This not only improve employee productivity, but also boost their morale as they can focus on executing tasks without undue pressure of logging into multiple devices.
Integrating HRMS into a mobile application for intuitive access and faster information sharing
The permanence of hybrid work models has necessitated organisations to re-evaluate their technology stack and employ more modern technologies as we progress ahead. IT and HRM systems in existence today are largely designed for a physical working model and it is important that any new technology or application can be integrated into them. Having a mobile attendance and collaboration module integrated with existing systems is the need of the hour for a vast majority of organisations today. This will enable companies to phase out redundant systems gradually and simultaneously increase reliance on AI-based tools in order to be future ready. Using these tools, organisations can broadcast their messages or update team members from various departments separately through their mobile devices. With most of us being familiar with smartphones and increasingly preferring to use them over other computing devices, it is easier for them to improve end-user adoption amongst a wide employee base.
According to global statistics, 60% of times tracking systems in use today are outdated or non-mobile and about 83% of employees their organisation’s attendance module doesn’t promote transparency or engagement. This is indicative of the inherent inefficiencies in current systems and makes the case stronger for companies to switch over to more advanced mobile-based tracking applications to stay relevant. Not only will this shift bring about a boost in employee morale, but also lead to greater efficiencies in rewarding employees for the time dedicated to the organisation. With an estimated 54% of all companies having implemented mobile capabilities or planning to implement in the next three years, mobile AI will play a crucial role in building Workplace 2.0.
