Page 47 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

26 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

Corridor warriors may be retail workers, manufacturing work-
ers, security teams—anyone who is mobile throughout the day. They
don’t get into cars or planes to move around. They aren’t sitting at a
desk. They are, Brent says, “the forgotten worker,” because most mo-
bile technologies are focused on traditional road warriors.
What if, someday, everyone had a device like this and could be
contacted immediately anywhere in the world? What if it weren’t a
badge anymore but something implanted inside the body? Is it pos-
sible? We think so.
Imagine the possibilities for your organization.

paradigm Buster number 2: working Away from the office
won’t hurt your Career, It will help It
To be competitive globally your company has to attract and retain the
top talent in the world. If you are an enterprise leader, what do you do?
Pay exorbitantly? Lessen the amount of work? Lower expectations?
Stop asking people to travel? For Sharon Allen, chairman of Deloitte,
none of those solutions were good enough. Instead, Deloitte created
2
and instituted “mass career customization.”
Jodi LaBrie is a senior manager at Deloitte, and she told us how
mass career customization (MCC) works for her. Jodi manages nine
3
employees. The day we talked with her, four of those people were in the
office, one was home with a sick child, and the rest were in clients’ of-
fices or elsewhere. Jodi uses e-mail and Deloitte Online—which tracks
and gives the team access to each project—to help keep up with every-
one. The work is accomplished at a high level of quality and on time,
and everyone is happy with the work arrangement. Especially Jodi.
Jodi has chosen to work on a reduced, 60 percent workload level.
Right now that fits her life. In the past, she told us, that wouldn’t
have been possible, because in public accounting there are very clear
levels: staff, senior, manager, senior manager, and partner, and if you
didn’t move right up the chain, that was it—you went up or you were
out. The next step for Jodi should be partner, but that’s not what she
wants—now. “There are definitely sacrifices you have to make to