Managing mobile communications

Is the mobile phone use of your executives good business practice, a compulsion or a complete obsession?

Anytime, anywhere technology has obvious benefits, enabling home and remote working and ensuring staff are constantly available. But its use needs to be controlled.

In an era of 24/7 communication, the fear of being out of touch now outweighs the importance of focusing on the task at hand – and far too many meetings are interrupted or compromised by mobile devices which enable individuals to receive and reply to texts and/or emails, often triggering the receiver into making calls to the sender. What has happened to respect and privacy?

However, by making use of the latest message management technology, individuals can prioritise which calls, emails and IM are received and which are diverted to colleagues or receive a recorded message. Critically, I'd suggest that using 'tele-presence', the process can be automated, ensuring the required instant response and continuous availability without compromising productivity and performance.

Obsessive Communication

The mobile device has transformed employee accessibility, providing 24/7 access to email, phone, text and instant messages (IM) irrespective of location – or activity. Unfortunately, there is a down side: from individuals responding to texts when in meetings to staff constantly interrupted with irrelevant messages whilst driving or even holidaying, the solution can become a problem. There's a growing awareness that attempts at multi-tasking are undermining productivity, challenging concentration (particularly relevant to new road safety issues) and fundamentally compromising the investment in this key technology.

Yet the obvious response of simply turning the devices off during meetings is not the answer – it is too draconian and undermines all the great benefits provided by ubiquitous availability. Individuals often forget to turn the device back on, resulting in an extended period out of communication which is simply untenable in the current working environment where clients, colleagues and suppliers expect rapid response.

So where do you draw the line? Organisations need to regain control over today's almost compulsive use of the mobile device. There is a fundamental need to improve the management of the mobile office, to enable individuals to maximise the value of continuous availability without compromising performance of the task at hand.

Automating Response

Despite the widespread obsession with continually checking for new messages and voicemail, there is no need to be hidebound by the immediacy of the Blackberry or iPhone. Individuals can opt to filter inbound calls, emails and IM and even pre-define an appropriate response. If an individual is in a meeting, the messaging management technology can automatically deliver a message promising immediate response within a specific timeframe – or divert the call to a colleague.

Alternatively, for the holidaying employee, only the most essential calls – from the boss or key customer – should be forwarded to the mobile device. The rest can be prioritised, based on caller, time of day or message content and either referred to a colleague or receive an automated response promising to respond on return.

Obviously, users cannot be expected to spend hours updating and amending messages each time they move from meeting to desk, or office to car to home. Instead, presence information is combined with preset filters to determine which messages are delivered, which are diverted and what response is delivered to the rest. Using this approach, an individual can minimise interruptions, and ensure that concentration during meetings is not impaired by irrelevant communications.

Mobile Opportunity

Furthermore, the technology also provides a platform for far more effective mobile working. This is an area increasing numbers of organisations are adopting in order to increase productivity, improve working conditions, boost staff retention and deliver an improved organisational ability to respond flexibly to change. However, if organisations want to ensure these benefits are achieved and maximised there must be a greater focus on control.

Using this technology to enable calls and emails to be re-routed seamlessly to any point, organisations can impose far greater control over the flexible workforce to enable employees to achieve a better work/life balance whilst also meeting the needs of customers at all times. In addition to enabling effective mobile working, this technology also provides a platform for far more measured communication with clients, suppliers and colleagues.

Individuals can prioritise communications and determine just how much information is shared with external customers and suppliers.

Cultural Change

To impose control over the use of the mobile device, organisations will also need to address the required cultural shift. Individuals have become too used to this almost fanatical approach to work; they feel compelled to constantly monitor the mobile device and respond immediately to incoming messages – irrespective of the effect on the task in hand.

This is understandable: faced with massive pressure to improve productivity and flexibility in response to the challenging economy there is no doubt that individuals need to be accessible to colleagues and clients alike. However, the explosion in mobile device usage is in danger of damaging business relationships: organisations need to impose clear working practices that ensure interruptions are minimised without compromising the required levels of accessibility.

The tide is turning. It is only by making use of flexible message management technology that organisations will wrest control back from obsessive employees and enable individuals to prioritise, take meetings without feeling compelled to check for new emails and, critically, improve both productivity and accessibility.

Simon Paton is the Managing Director of CommuniGate Systems UK, specialists in unified communications.