If you’re reading this from your desktop at work, you might be among the shrinking proportion of the workforce chained to a desk from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. Today, advances in technology are making the workplace increasingly mobile, as employees who previously may have only been able to communicate at a mutual location during set time intervals are now constantly interconnected via smartphones, laptops, and tablets anywhere in the world.

One in five employees now works primarily remotely, and according to one study, the mobile global workforce is expected to increase 33 percent over the next four years, from 1.26 billion to 1.67 billion. Reports suggest that a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy can cut costs, increase productivity, and boost morale. Companies can also spend fewer resources on space, as employees can work from home or on shared desks while one is out of the office. Meanwhile, most firms maintain concerns that a private device accessing sensitive company data could pose security risks. So, what implications does this have for employees of the future?

As workers become more fluid, numbers of contract and freelance employees are expected to grow. These employees currently comprise a third of the workforce, and some experts expect this proportion to grow to half the workforce in the next five years. In fact, one company, SquadRun, is curating a global army of thousands of mobile contract workers, to which firms can outsource tasks.

Additionally, many experts believe mobile workforces are flattening hierarchies, as the cloud allows information to spread beyond a select few high-ranking executives to the entire connected workforce. Bryan Acker, the Culture Change Ambassador for TELUS, recently said that such information access has helped communication and spurred team members to challenge and question high-ranking leadership on critical business questions. Matthew Reischer, CEO of  LegalAdvice.com, agreed. “That’s just a trend that’s endemic to the age we’re living in,” he said. “It’s a much flatter organization with much more individual empowerment …They’re able to self-manage...”

The mobile workforce might also bring about more communication between firms. “Companies are collaborating in new ways that they haven't been able to do before. They were doing it offline or on paper or on the phone, and it was just plain inefficient,” said Tim Minahan, the Chief Marketing Officer of SAP Cloud and Line of Business, in a recent interview. “After spending all this time to improve their internal operations, they're not setting their sights on what's outside the enterprise."

Healthcare, marketing services, legal, pharmaceutical, travel/hospitality, technology, and service-related businesses can benefit the most from a mobile workforce, and a recent poll from software provider Sage North America shows that business leaders predominantly cite customer service areas of business as those that benefit most from mobile workforces.

The biggest hurdle to mobility might not be the technology, but the people using it. In a recent interview, Ed Cone, the Managing Editor of Thought Leadership at Oxford Economics, said, “…we like to say that technology is easy, and culture is hard. The technology works, and you implement it and you figure that out, but getting people to change is really difficult.” David Bakke, a financial columnist for MoneyCrashers.com, agrees. “One of the biggest challenges in implementing a mobile workforce is getting the buy-in of your staff members. This is especially true if you have older workers,” he said. “Your project and goals should be clearly communicated well before deployment so your employees have time to adjust and ask appropriate questions.”

Sravish Sridhar, the CEO and founder of Kinvey, a mobile and web app platform, says it’s critical for new technology to work right out of the gate to enable widespread adoption. “If an app is a pain to use, no one will. Employees will either abandon the process altogether or use their own apps, which in turn impacts the entire company as it puts sensitive business data at risk,” he said. Such hiccups can be prevented by drawing up a unified plan across departments.

In creating mobile workforces, companies must decide if they intend to issue devices or have employees use their own technology (BYOD). In the Sage poll, business leaders at small- and medium-sized businesses report that 54 percent of their firms supply mobile devices to employees, which is actually a steep drop from the pervious year’s 69 percent, though the study notes that much of this decline is due to the fact that more employees are providing their own equipment (41 percent in 2014 versus 33 percent in 2013). Only 25 percent of employees who own a mobile device say they do not regularly use it for work. 

Workers also reported that computers (73 percent), laptops (68 percent), and smartphones (68 percent) had a much higher productivity approval rating than tablets (47 percent). Meanwhile, Windows made huge gains over the previous year, leaping ahead of Apple iOS to be the most widespread compatible operating system.

It’s not just managers and executives that appreciate a mobile workforce, though. Employees are supportive of the mobile shift too, as they can dictate the time and location of their daily duties and have more flexibility for their personal lives. Millennials especially, who have grown up with technology, appreciate the flexibility mobile technology provides.

A mobile workforce can also better weather crises and storms—quite literally. When Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast in October 2012, many firms used mobile technology to get them out of harm’s way early and continue working through the storm. Mobile workforces benefit the environment, too. Mobility can also be environmentally friendly, as firms no longer need as much energy to power offices. Deutsche Bank reported slashing its power consumption and carbon footprint by 55 percent and 89 percent respectively at their Frankfurt headquarters by implementing virtualized infrastructure.

There are of course downsides. “I think we would all agree anecdotally by reviewing our own behaviors – does anyone still go on vacation without glancing at emails anymore?” said Dennis Collins, Director of Marketing at InterCall. “Of course, like much in technology it becomes a double-edged sword by liberating us from a schedule while making us always available.”

But overall, Collins is optimistic. “Mobile and BYOD aren’t silver bullets–but they can be worth their weight in gold,” he said.