Page 182 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

hiring and preparing great mobile talent � 161

company leadership and culture stand for. Third, make sure the per-
son’s values match company values. Last, but not least, you need to hire
the skill set—which is the component among the four that is teachable.
This method works for the CEO down to a frontline person—mobile
worker or not.”
Knowing and identifying the exact behaviors specific to the job
specifications for which the company is interviewing and hiring is criti-
cal. It is important to know that the profile of an at-home worker might
be completely different from that of a road warrior or a corridor mobile
worker. We’ll describe those differences in the sections that follow.

` teChnology enABles the work

To hire and train a mobile workforce, managers who drive the busi-
ness model and business objectives for the company first must be well
organized and in alignment with departments such as sales, customer
support, technical support, and marketing. The effort to achieve
these objectives may place heavy demands and expectations on the
IT department. Establishing clear expectations is an absolute priority
before hiring anyone who will be conducting business outside your
offices and basically on the Net.
Think about it. Everything has to work together. The network,
hardware, and the software all support the customized work of every
individual mobile worker wherever and whenever he or she needs to be
on the job. They interact together. It’s a true technology–human ecosys-
tem. Like the chicken-and-egg analogy: it doesn’t really matter which
one you start with—all are essential to get the work accomplished.
Managers don’t have to be IT experts to hire, train, or lead mobile
workers, but they should know, through experience, the challenges
their new teleworkers will face and the pitfalls for which to watch. All
the issues regarding the planning and deployment of hardware, soft-
ware, and security policies, including both public and secure Internet
connections, need to be addressed so that, for the mobile worker, the