Managing your Workforce Remotely with No-Code

Distributed work affects not only the individual remote worker but the entire company. For employees who work outside the office, it’s important to have a communication platform that allows everyone to see what others are doing, share data, and collaborate on projects.

The days when everyone gathered in an office are long gone. Today, employees work from home, in coffee shops, and in the field. With employees scattered across the country and around the world, how can a company effectively communicate with its employees and keep information and data that is shared between employees up to date?

Mobile technology, remote working, and cloud computing have greatly reduced the need for technology in the office. This has several implications for businesses, such as changes in IT spending patterns and changes in business processes. In addition, low-code and no-code development tools allow non-technical people to create sophisticated applications. The Citizen developer is becoming more popular than ever!

So how do you manage your mobile workforce? Perhaps you use spreadsheets, simple forms, and email for communication. While these tools can be very useful, they can also lead to inefficiency and miscommunication. Fortunately, today, there is a better way! Using no-code apps, companies can have more control over their data and internal communication with their employees without them having to be in the office.

So what exactly is a distributed workforce?

Distributed workforces consist of remote workers who work from multiple locations without being part of a traditional, centralized workplace. In other words, the composition of a distributed team varies widely. This can include workers who telecommute, employees who work remotely, and employees who work on the road or travel from location to location.

In addition, some employees work at a different location all the time, while others do so only occasionally. In some cases, employees live close to their headquarters and still attend company meetings, while in other cases there may be great distances and different time zones between them. In any case, distributed employees need to be connected in real-time to each other and to all of the company’s resources and tools that are also available to on-site employees.

Originally referred to as telecommuting, today’s distributed workforce has quickly evolved into a collaborative environment. Regardless of how the worker is distributed, distributed workforces typically use a group of technologies to create and manage projects, hold virtual meetings, schedule conference calls, share documents, spreadsheets, and data, all of which are necessary for their tasks.

How do you manage a distributed workforce with no code?

What role does no-code play in helping to manage distributed and remote workforces? A distributed work environment requires different tools. In the distributed work paradigm, location should not be a factor in your performance or participation. While time zone differences still remain in some cases, the lack of co-location itself places a greater emphasis on asynchronous ways of communicating and collaborating.

With no-code tools, you can quickly and cost-effectively create productivity and collaboration tools without having to write a single line of code. This is often seen as a competitive advantage. No-code applications can include tools to help teams communicate, manage knowledge, share data, and track business processes.

Advantages of using no-code tools to manage a distributed workforce

Lower Costs

In the past, creating a custom application for your business meant either hiring a developer to code it from the ground up or partnering with a company that specialized in custom-built software development. With no-code tools, citizen developers can create productivity and collaboration solutions without writing a single line of code and using drag and drop functionality to build their business apps. This not only reduces the time and cost of delivering tools to distributed employees but also increases employee satisfaction by empowering and enabling them to rapidly iterate.

Rapid Development

No-code applications are great for quickly developing custom interfaces that you can access via the web or your mobile device’s browser. Best of all, no code means you do not have to know complicated computer languages! This makes creating new dashboards and updating old ones extremely easy. Your company will spend less time and money developing these tools and more time using them because they are always available! Plus, no matter where they are located, your employees can stay up to date in real-time by easily accessing the information they need on their own time.

Users & Access

No code web-based platforms can give people access and control over their data from anywhere, at any time. This means you can create user groups and control which pages, records, and workflows they can access. This allows you to create different workflows for specific departments, people, projects, etc. For example: if your finance department needs more access or a different level of access than the marketing team – no problem! You can customize exactly what each person or group can see and do within their dashboards so that everyone is on the same page at all times while keeping department-specific or sensitive information separate and secure

Real-Time Updates

Mobile workers can update data at any time and from any location to ensure that the most current information is always available. For example, an employee out in the field can update inventory levels and changes to work orders. This information is then just a click away through your web browser. With real-time updates, companies no longer have to worry about their employees missing critical data or wasting valuable time searching for the latest inventory totals.

Integrations

Companies can use no-code platforms like Zapier or Integromat to connect to thousands of other online platforms. This makes sharing information between business apps quick and easy. This is especially useful for businesses that use other popular web-based programs like Knack, Quickbooks Online, Dropbox, Google Sheets, or Salesforce to store their important data. You can connect to many platforms to keep all your data up to date across all platforms.

No-code apps certainly seem like a solid choice, but can you trust them to replace your current system? Let’s look at Knack’s track record as an example.

Customer Success Story

Knack customer, RC Recycling, a cement waste removal company, turned to Knack when using distributed spreadsheets to manage projects and jobs became increasingly inefficient. Managing last-minute changes and requests was laborious, and it also meant no insight into completed jobs, availability, and how to distribute new requests while workers were in the field.

Thankfully, with Knack, the solution to this problem didn’t involve having the employee work out of the company’s offices all day or returning throughout the day to share and receive updates. It also allowed them to create a single source of truth. You can read more about this success story here.

Having a single source of truth will make it easier to keep the company’s data consistent and accurate

Mobile Workforce Management is the Future

The future of managing a remote or distributed workforce is moving quickly toward no-code solutions. The shift to a mobile workforce has created a need for better tools and platforms that help organizations communicate and engage effectively, even when working remotely.

We’ve explored how no-code apps, like Knack, can be used to manage your mobile workforce. We hope you are excited about the possibilities no-code tools could bring to your business. If you are ready to start developing an app or evaluating options, sign up for a free trial with Knack today!