How Does Geofencing Improve Field Force Management? Revealed by Experts

Read how Geofencing improves field force management while reducing risks of buddy punching and time theft.

Do you spend hours manually tracking your remote staff? Constantly second-guessing their location and activity status? Or looking for ways to improve your field force management?

We have the solution – Geofencing.

It increases the visibility of remote force and operation by 2x. It alerts you whenever the employees enter or exit these virtual boundaries. This is beneficial for shift planning, task monitoring, and location tracking.

Sounds interesting, right? Keep reading to learn how geofencing aids in improving field employees’ monitoring.

What is Geofencing?

Geofencing is the practice of applying a virtual perimeter around a specific geolocation. These locations are where employees may clock in or out. It is a location-based technology, which combines GPS, RFID, cellular data, and Wi-Fi to create virtual boundaries. Businesses set these boundaries across task locations. Done to define where and when employees can clock in/out.

For example, field service businesses create geofences of all-important locations. It can be customer locations, construction sites, job sites, forbidden areas, etc.

These circular/hexagon/polygon-shaped geofences verify employees’ site presence. They get an overview of how many employees are at the task location. Therein, they can monitor remote team movement based on the radius of the operations.

That’s not it!

Managers can ensure that the staff is at the right location at the right time. Furthermore, they can set multiple geofences. To track employees’ location, working hours, and even productivity levels.

Untold Facts on Geofencing 92% of smartphones are compatible with geofencing. Allowing your field employees to log in from the marked location simply. Businesses can use geofence-enabled field force software to mitigate their fuel usage by 10%. Sales reps have witnessed 10 times better outcomes by enabling geofencing. The global geofencing market is estimated to reach USD 6.4 billion by 2027, with a remarkable CAGR of 27.0%

How Does Geofencing Improve Field Force Management?

Geofence-enabled field force software helps field service businesses maximize outputs and eliminate service delays. Here are some ways how it does so:

1. Geo-verified Attendance Marking for Accurate Tracking

Geofencing helps your employees punch in from their executive mobile apps when they enter the geofenced area or their first task location. These geofences can be location and time-specific.

This means that the remote staff will not be able to mark them attended if they are late or away from home. This way, the data recorded in the timesheet and location updates are precise and can be relied on.

Besides, managers can analyze time-stamped pictures with real-time geo-coordinates provided by the geofence-enabled field employee monitoring software. Such details let them know exactly where their employees are.

2. Identification of Key Points of Interest

The system highlights multiple points of interest where you receive the most service requests. Thus, you can make the most of the opportunity without feeling burdened by employees not proactively conducting their jobs.

What else?

The field service management software shoots notifications on every in and out. That is vital for accurate time-sheet maintenance. Consequently, you can easily comprehend the total number of hours employees work on the site. This enables you to analyze performance and productivity better for each point of interest.

3. In-depth Analysis of What’s Working and What’s Not!

Geofencing aids in better management of field staff as you can access many location insights. For instance, you can get complete visibility of the workforce working and their activities. This helps you identify discrepancies like time theft, allowing you to create strategies to curb its effects on employees’ productivity.

Moreover, the software provides a graphical representation of data such as task status, i.e., pending, completed, or in progress through target vs. achieved reports. You also gain data on on-road hours vs. on-duty hours, no. of km per client visit, on-duty hours vs. actual working hours, etc.

4. Monitoring Forbidden Areas for Compliance and Safety

Imagine a mining site where it’s unsafe for your staff to operate or there are some high-risk accidental zones where you wouldn’t want your staff to travel. These few work sites need time and location-sensitive geofences to mark grey areas where it will be risky to schedule and dispatch employees.

Upon reaching the unidentified or restricted locations, your frontline workers are immediately alerted. This enables managers to ensure their employees’ safety and security during working hours.

5. Precise Location Tracking to Reduce Discrepancy

Geofencing ensures location-specific tracking, enabling managers to monitor employees’ activities and task status in real-time. This allows them to optimally assign shifts and location-based tasks and reduces the scope for scheduling conflicts and disputes.

Geofencing for field operations also eliminates the need for back-and-forth calls among managers and employees by triggering arrival/departure notifications. This ensures reduced overheads and smooth workflow.

Learn how geofencing helps track and secure your remote employees’ movement and activities through this carousel.

 

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6. Location-based Task Progress Monitoring for Higher Accountability

Your technicians or agents are required to visit assigned task/sales sites to complete a specific job. But as a manager, do you verify such visits with task location and timeline data?

Geofence-enabled field force management software can help you do that. It helps managers automate task allocation and monitor task progress. Besides, it prevents you from assigning tasks to employees outside their designated zone. That means employees must have the necessary authorization or be present in that region to proceed with their tasks.

Moreover, TrackoField’s field employee tracking management software automatically alerts employees when their tasks are updated. This keeps employees informed and reduces the chances of missed deadlines.

4 Steps to Create Geofence Sites with TrackoField

To set up a geofence, you must create a virtual boundary around an area or object. And TrackoField, a field workforce management software makes the process effortless.

Here’s how to do it.

#Step 1:  Select the Geofence Option from the Menu

Access TrackoField’s field service management software, move towards its dashboard, tap “Manage,” and directly jump to “Geofence.”

#Step 2: Click on the ‘Add’ Button

Now you will see the “Add” button on the top left. Just click on the same.

#Step 3: Fill out Details  / Search Location → Draw Geofence

At this moment, you can either search for the place you want to geofence or add it manually by filling in “Geofence Name,” “Geofence Address,” and “Geofence Type.”

#Step 4: Click on ‘Save’

After providing details on the area you want to geofence, hit the “Save” button. Now, move just right on the map to choose the shape from “Circle,” “Rectangle,” “Hexagon,” etc., and expand/shrink the targeted area.

Voila! You have successfully created a geofence. Enjoy hawk-eye visibility.

Killing Multiples Birds With 1 Stone – TrackoField

To experience the geofence-abled employee management software, go with TrackoField. This is because geofence is not limited to setting virtual boundaries for employee tracking.

Geofence is a powerful and multi-facet tool you can do a lot more with it –

• Geo-verified Attendance Marking
• Instant Job Status Alerts
• Geofence-Based Timesheet
• Real-Time Workforce Monitoring
• Unauthorized Movement Alerts
• Verified Client Site Visits

Readers Entered the Client Site!

Geofenced field force management software can be your best go-to tool when it comes to optimising the workflow of your service technicians. It allows you to monitor your workforce with greater visibility without breaking into sweat.

Geofencing improves field force management t by tracking employee locations and identifying hot spots. It also helps monitor restricted areas.

FAQs

• What are the benefits of geofence field staff management?

  It boosts efficiency by automating check-ins, tracking client sites visited, and more. All in all, it ensures compliance, improves task allocation. Plus, it provides real-time location tracking for better workforce accountability and productivity.

• How Does Geofence Work?

  It uses GPS or RFID technology to create virtual boundaries around specific locations. When a field agent enters or exits these predefined zones, the system triggers automated actions like check-ins, task updates, or alerts. This enhances location tracking, task management, and overall operational efficiency.