Employee morale is known to have a huge effect on productivity and company loyalty, both of which are key factors for a successful business.

Embracing flexible mobile working is a great way of boosting both of these things, but it’s important to ensure they feel like a valued member of the team despite the lack of desk. Keep your employees happy and, more importantly, motivated by getting them involved in the company culture.

Without regular communication, it can be almost too easy to forget about staff outside of the office. Unfortunately, those staff members are sure to pick up on this and end up feeling undervalued. Why is this a big deal?

According to HR Review, replacing a staff member could cost you over £30,000. Having a high level of employee turnover is clearly very costly, but if you don’t appreciate your staff, someone else will. Retaining staff saves a considerable amount of money, plus you don’t have to worry about covering work while the newbie is still in training.

Arguably, the most vital step of all is changing up the way you manage your mobile workers. This can have a huge effect on their productivity and morale. For example, using a field service management app improves communication, offering both you and your employee a more detailed insight into the job at hand.

Not only are these apps easily accessible at the touch of a button, they also allow messaging for instant updates, an insight into what is going on back in the office as well as any fun work events they can attend. By offering a system that allows personal updates in a matter of seconds, your employees will be kept in the loop no matter where they are in the world.

While it may be tempting to cut down on costs by leaving mobile staff out of company events, this will do nothing for their morale. Whether it’s a Christmas party or a company anniversary, being excluded is certain to create a ‘them vs us’ attitude amongst the mobile and office workers which can cause resentment to build.

This is far from the sort of company culture you want to nurture, so remember to include deskless staff in any big events. If your mobile employees are too far away to attend a big annual event, spend some of the budget by sending them a gift like flowers or chocolate.

As well as making sure they are involved in general company events, showing your employees appreciation for a job well done is a great way of making them feel valued.

From celebrating their birthdays with a token of gratitude to sending around company emails to recognise their good work, showing them how important they are to the company is a great way of making them feel more involved. Big or small, tokens of appreciation are always gratefully received, especially when backed up by the rest of the team.

Make sure you include your mobile staff in any relevant team meetings to ensure they know their opinion is just important as anyone else’s. While regular email communication is great, scheduling weekly or fortnightly online conferences is the best way of discussing bigger decisions.

Video conferencing offers better communication thanks to the multitude of tools available. How often you have them is up to you, but schedule them regularly to make sure the worker feels included in big team decisions.