Intranets were literally built for office environments, initially arriving as not much more than documentation repositories that all employees in an organization could easily access from their workstations. At the time, they filled a need. But those days are long gone, and those narrow-scoped intranets that favored desk jockeys but failed floor, factory, and in-the-field workers, are simply outdated and ineffective.
To really connect an organization today, you need something that goes beyond an intranet. A platform that comes with powerful perks and focused features that make it more versatile than you’d think. Something much like Jostle's employee success platform, in fact.
So, for this piece, we’re going to look at three types of “deskless” workers and the employee platform features that can keep each of them in the loop with their organization and deskbound colleagues, illustrated by examples from Jostle’s own platform.
Worker type: On-the-go
Platform feature: Mobile app
The on-the-go employee is someone whose role usually sees them start their shift with a check-in at HQ, then heading out in the field for the rest of their day. Real estate agents, delivery drivers, and repair/maintenance crews all fall into this category. For many of these people, their mobile phone is an essential tool that they use throughout the day for everything from updating a delivery status to confirming a client meeting.
So, the obvious way to reach them is to find a platform with a robust mobile app version. With access to your platform via mobile app, on-the-go employees can log on to your platform wherever they are. The key is finding one with an app like Jostle’s: a mobile app that provides a near-seamless user experience from its desktop counterpart. With that, mobile users can connect with others, get the latest news, post updates, join in on chats, or review documentation, just as easily as their deskbound colleagues.
Worker type: Floor
Platform feature: Digital display
Floor workers include people who work on factory assembly lines, machine operators, and warehouse re-stockers. In a large manufacturing company, they’d be anyone who works “on the floor” in the wide, open areas, while their administrative counterparts work the desks and cubicles in a separate part of their shared facility. At first glance, they hardly seem to be the type of employees that would even have the means to access an employee platform, let alone benefit from one.
However, their work environment actually lends itself perfectly to another type of company communication—digital displays. Digital displays have long been used in places like factory floors, lobbies, and break rooms as the modern-day equivalent of bulletin boards.
And it just so happens that Jostle has a feature called JostleTV, which can make digital programs out of content posted to your platform and broadcast them across multiple displays around your organization. And just like that, anyone—from the worker leaving the assembly bay to the re-stocker grabbing a bite in the break room—can look up at a mounted display screen and get caught up on the latest news, upcoming events, recent milestones, and other customized information pulled directly from their company’s platform. No desk needed.
Worker type: Non-office
Platform feature: Notifications
So, we’ve covered those workers who are deskless because their roles take them outside of their workplace, and then those who are deskless because they aren't part of the office-based staff at their workplace. That leaves us with those who are deskless because their workplaces don’t even have offices. Instead, they work in spaces shared with the general public. We’re talking about people like construction workers, bank tellers, and retail salespeople.
These are people who don’t have the convenience of easily checking their phones multiple times a day, don’t work in areas where display screens can be set up, and/or have roles that require them to directly interact with and provide service to customers. But they too can still benefit from an solid employee platform, thanks to that classic staple of information delivery—the notification.
Jostle offers over 60 different types of notifications that can let users know of anything important that appeared on their platform that they should be aware of. Non-office workers can select a delivery method preferable to them and then all they need to do is check their email notifications or browser alerts once or twice a day to get up to speed on the latest happenings (and then easily follow-up on anything important via their Jostle mobile app).
Conclusion
As this article has shown, just because an employee doesn’t have the internet at their fingertips throughout their shift, it doesn’t mean they can’t take advantage of what an employee platform has to offer. It's all about connecting everyone in an organization. And modern platforms, especially an employee success platform like Jostle’s, have proved they can do just that for all employees—desk or no desk—no matter what their role or work environment.
