For many business leaders, preconceived notions about the value of mobile devices as work tools can be hard to overcome. These leaders still think of tablets and smartphones as devices that inhibit productivity, due to popular time-wasting apps like Angry Birds and Facebook.
While this may have been true at one point, recent evidence is suggesting that outlawing tablets as business tools, just because a few employees might abuse them during work hours, may be very short-sighted.
In this post, we’ll discuss how tablets can support greater productivity.
How do tablets increase employee productivity?
One reason employees work better on tablets is because they enjoy using them. Keep in mind, your employees are also consumers outside of work hours. They live in a world where tablets loaded with efficient, convenient and powerful mobile apps are the norm. For these employees, coming to work in an office that doesn’t allow them to take full advantage of mobile devices can be disappointing, especially since they’ve grown so accustomed to using those same devices in their personal lives.
Another thing to consider is the fact that modern workplaces are growing more flexible all the time. For employees with job roles that require them to move from place to place, tablets are a no-brainer. They allow these field employees to stay connected to their no matter where they are in the world. However, evidence suggests traditional office-based employees can also experience a productivity bump when they’re allowed to use tablets. For these employees, tablets can serve as a supplement to their traditional in-office work stations, ensuring they don’t have to be physically at their workstation to get their work done.
The benefits of a business mobility strategy sound good on paper, but they’re also backed up with real performance results. According to a 2014 International Tablet Study, conducted by Dell, the majority of IT decision makers, who have tried out tablets in the workplace agree, the results are positive.
IT leaders in the US and UK reported an average increase in productivity of 20% after allowing employees to work on tablets. Brazil and India noted an increase of 25%.
The benefits of tablets in the workplace don’t seem to be a secret, either. The report also found that, in each country where IT decision makers were surveyed, a high percentage of respondents (83% or more) said they either currently allowed their employees to work on tablets, or were planning to allow them to do so in the future.
What job roles can benefit the most from using tablets?
As we mentioned earlier in the post, employees whose job responsibilities require them to move from place to place can benefit most from using tablets. For example, salespeople can use their tablets to access their CRM in the field, instantly finding product information, marketing materials, and presentations to show customers. In order to accomplish this same task without a tablet, sellers would need to carry bulky publications and references into sales meetings with them. Obviously, this slows them down and puts them in a position where they might not have the one thing they need to close a sale.
Other employees who perform a lot of field work can benefit greatly. Construction and engineering project managers who spend a lot of time on job sites would benefit. Tablets give them the ability to pull up important planning documents, and communicate better with their colleagues in the main office. This level of connectivity decreases the chance project managers would need to shut down work on a job because they don’t have the information they need to proceed.
While mobile employees are particularly well suited to benefit from using mobile devices, it’s important to remember that the traditional stationary employee is becoming a thing of the past. More and more employees are becoming, at least partially, mobile.
This means that more and more employees will benefit from using tablets in the future.