According to Deloitte’s Global mobile consumer survey, 97% of adults aged 18-24 check their mobile phones within three hours of waking up and check their mobile devices an average of 74 times per day.

A quick poll of Reward Gateway colleagues revealed similar results: We use our phones for our alarms, to check our email, get in touch with our bosses and even to brew coffee!

In higher age demographics, we see similar trends: Pew Research shows that 83% of U.S. adults aged 30-49 own a smartphone, and tablet owners are on the rise as well, with nearly 50% of all of those surveyed owning one.

We’ve explored how technology will change HR’s relationship with their employees, but what about how mobile affects the day-to-day?

Mobile is not just for checking Facebook. Consider the recent Mobile Productivity Report from Wrike, which shows that 44% of more than 850 professionals surveyed said they check their phone for work more than 20 times every day. And 90% pointed to their use of mobile technology as critical to getting their work done.

So it should come as no surprise that all professionals, including those in HR, are looking to technology to make their lives easier, starting with accessibility at their fingertips for all their data. With apps that analyze data, giving snapshot dashboards to gauge engagement, HR can use technology to predict trends among their employees, including:

• Pinpointing teams that are being recognised on a continual basis and those that aren’t, pointing to a need for more ways to showcase team wins and encourage peer-to-peer recognition
• Understanding how different demographics in the workforce interact with benefits and employee portals to provide more focused, targeted messaging to drive benefits take up
• Seeing how many employees understand and engage with internal communications in order to shape strategy in this area

In a recent focus group we held at Reward Gateway, our clients echoed that the need for being more connected to data and being provided with more data points for better analysis was critical to their success at their job.