GIS applications have emerged as powerful tools for informed decision making in business. Can we leverage its mapping and accurate location intelligence capabilities for Remote working applications? The situation of COVID-19 urges the need to develop end-to-end solutions to support efficient remote working and GIS can provide organizations with the required location intelligence.

Geographic information systems are a commendable technological advancement to capture accurate location data. Its applications in business range from managing networks, to monitoring routes and vehicles, managing properties, and locating customers.

So, how about utilizing GIS to support remote working?

COVID-19 forced the world to switch to remote working. But the concept is not new and was popular among companies before the pandemic for its myriad benefits. While adopting remote working, organizations need solutions to ensure that workflow continues without interruptions. Other challenges of remote working are ensuring Employee engagement and delivering training and development programs. GIS applications provide the required functionalities for organizations to leverage spatial data for effective tracking of the remote workforce.

Potential uses of  GIs in remote working 

The efficient functioning of remote working requires complete visibility of the employee location and a reliable attendance tracking system. Geographic information systems could prove to be an invaluable tool to achieve foolproof location tracking, remote surveillance, and attendance management.

Organizations need geofencing capabilities to track remote employees. A geofence is a virtual boundary that can alert the organization when the employee enters or exits the boundary. The size of the geofence can be set according to the company’s choice. It provides the company data about the exact location of the employees and helps to both track work from home employees and workers who are deployed in onsite locations. This can also include employees who are traveling for client meetings, business events, or market research.

Ensuring the compliance of remote employees to training and skill development programs is a challenging task. Geofencing applications can be useful to deliver the training programs and to track employee attendance for the programs. Companies can use geofencing applications to send videos to the employees and also include push notifications as reminders. These notifications have shown to have higher opt-in rates compared to text messages. Since these notifications are free and easily customizable, it is a cost-effective training solution and guarantees higher engagement rates.

Companies can use geofencing applications to remind employees to clock in and clock out at specified times and ensure attendance. Employees are more ready to comply when they receive geofencing alerts. The manager can define the geofence for each employee. There are techniques to ensure automatic marking of attendance when the employees move into the geofenced area. Another advantage of geofencing is the ability to prevent employees from clocking in at locations other than the agreed workstations. This technique is effective at eliminating non-compliance and time theft.

GIS offers endless possibilities for the human resources department to ensure the performance of the remote workforce. By tracking the work hours and location of the employees, an organization can infuse accountability and achieve project completion within the stipulated deadline and budget. Introducing GIS capabilities into the HRMS solutions can equip the organizations to maintain work continuity during situations like COVID-19.

SBL is involved in continuous research to develop innovative GIS software to meet the evolving industry requirements. We have extensive capabilities to support the implementation of the geographic information system in your remote working applications. Our GIS services have been widely appreciated by our clients for its accuracy and speed.

Contact the GIS team at SBL to know more about how we can help you incorporate geographic information systems successfully in your remote working applications.