Earlier this week, Twitter announced that all its staff could continue working from home–forever.

And while that may not be the norm at companies outside of Silicon Valley, there’s no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has, at least in the short term, drastically altered the way we live and work.

With more employees than ever working from home right now, there has never been a better time to lean into enterprise mobility. The goal of enterprise mobility has always been to help employees be more productive; it just so happens that it can be helpful outside of the traditional office space, too!

Here are a few of our best tips for making enterprise mobility work in the work-from-home era:

1. Prioritize security. As ComputerWorld shared in a recent article about work-from-home, there is no shortage of security concerns as it relates to having employees working outside the office. Traditional organizational security issues become ten times more complicated in a remote work environment, so it’s essential to make sure all of your employees are on the same page about security. On the EMM front, our newly-launched Group Container feature is a great way to provide a secure app environment with an onboarding experience that’s easier than ever.
2. Consider your priorities. Knowing what you hope to accomplish with enterprise mobility will dictate how best to execute your strategy. Are you transitioning tasks that would typically happen in the office so they can be done from home on a temporary basis? Searching for ways to permanently enable employees to work from wherever they want? Having an end point in mind will help you determine the types of apps (and employee education) you’ll need to use. The good news is that most mobile apps you’ll end up using will continue to be useful long after the coronavirus pandemic is behind us.
3. Beware shadow IT. While this could probably be a sub-bullet under “prioritize security,” it’s widespread enough that we think it’s worth mentioning on its own. As you’re probably aware, “shadow IT” simply refers to employee use of any non-employer-sanctioned app or piece of hardware of software. This is a hard problem to manage in normal times, and even more difficult to manage now. In a work-from-home environment where employees are likely to cross over frequently between work and play, it’s more essential than ever to stay on top of unsanctioned IT usage in your organization.
4. Consider expanding your enterprise mobility program wider than usual. It isn’t unusual for organizations to limit enterprise mobility offerings to targeted groups of employees. While that makes sense in a normal environment, it’s harder to justify when large swaths of the workforce are no longer in the office. Now is a better time than ever to think about new groups of employees that could benefit from mobile apps. We encourage you to be creative in thinking about who might benefit from increased access to your mobility solutions.
5. Use the same tools as your employees. Finally, we often see a disconnect between management and “regular” employees in terms of how mobile apps are utilized, and how often. This is a great time to get on the same page as everyone else with regards to the tools that are available. And who knows–you might find that you like using them more than you expected!

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, there has never been a better time than now to strengthen your enterprise mobility strategy. Whether your organization is like Twitter and planning to downsize your office space for good, or you’re planning to ride out the storm and then start in-person work again, you will see immense benefit from having a robust enterprise mobility strategy.

Love it or hate it, work-from-home is the reality for many of us right now. Employees are leaning on enterprise mobility solutions to help them be more productive outside of the office. A solid mobility strategy will go a long way.

Want to learn more about how to build out your enterprise mobility strategy for work-from-home employees? Contact us today. We’d love to hear from you!

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