Location information can be valuable in workforce management, particularly for companies whose employees do not work from a fixed office.
Construction teams, installers, maintenance workers, mobile service teams and employees working at customer locations all operate in environments where the physical location of work can matter.
At the same time, location tracking is a sensitive subject. There is an important difference between collecting relevant location information for a work event and continuously following an employee’s movements.
Use location as context
The useful business question is not “Where is this person every second of the day?” A more useful question is “Do we need location information when this work is registered?”
For some organisations, recording coordinates around a work event can provide additional context and verification. The important part is that GPS functionality should be driven by a clear company policy and a legitimate operational need.
Technology should support the work process. It should not create surveillance simply because surveillance is technically possible.