What Do Your Frontline Workers Actually Want?
Welcome to the 11th edition of the MangoScoop LinkedIn Newsletter!
MangoScoop?is the fastest-growing newsletter focused on improving employee experience in the digital workplace.
In this newsletter, we're going to give some tips & tricks on how you can better connect and engage your frontline employees.
Let's dive into this week's agenda:
What Do Your Frontline Workers Actually Want?
It’s easy to justify equipping your desk employees with the proper tools to do their daily job as they generally work from one location.
But what about your frontline and deskless employees??
Your frontline workers face a whole other set of communication barriers that can make it difficult for them to be properly engaged. As they are primarily mobile and not always reachable, work can quickly become very isolating and disengaging.
A few questions you should ask internally:
If the answer is no to any of these three questions, then it might be time to reassess what your frontline workers?actually?want.
From our experience, we have found that frontline workers want:
When you start to take those factors into account, you will naturally see employee engagement levels rise among your frontline workforce.
This can lead to increased efficiency, improved employee satisfaction, and more.
Higher engaged employees can operate much more productively than their counterparts.
Why You Should Engage Your Deskless Workers
In most industries, deskless workers are the vast majority of employees. They are also often the ones making the product and/or interacting with customers. Despite this, they are neglected or ignored—especially when it comes to decisions about workplace tools.?
Most companies give their corporate teams modern devices and software for communication and collaboration. However, decision-makers don’t have enough insight into the needs of their deskless employees.
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As a result, those workers don’t get access to the tools they need, leaving them feeling undervalued. With poor access to communication, they also don’t see the bigger picture to which their work contributes.
On the most fundamental level, the reason deskless workers get less company communication is that they’re harder to reach. Furthermore, there isn’t always a clear line between investing in deeper outreach to deskless teams and better performance. It can be hard to justify making the investment.
People that sit at desks do most of their work from one location and one or two devices. It’s not hard to justify providing your desk employees with a computer, and possibly a mobile device. These devices are crucial for their jobs as information workers.
Deskless workers, on the other hand, face barriers to communication that vary by sector and job role. When your job requires mobility in an ever-changing environment, it’s not always possible for you to be reachable at any moment, especially by the old-fashioned channels that most companies rely on.
For example, even something as simple as a store manager creating and distributing the store schedule each month can become a logistical nightmare, and a headache for everyone involved.
If you want the best out of your deskless employees, it is crucial to enable them with better technology. Once that’s done, consistent outreach and two-way communication are the key to your success.
Build A Workplace Community To Boost Frontline Engagement
Including frontline employees in your workplace community is vital. They’re the eyes and ears of your company. They physically interact with customers and vendors, giving a human touch to your organization.
Without frontline employees, your operation would lack a life force. Just imagine what it’s like for customers to converse with detached, unenthused frontline workers. They’re taking their business elsewhere or leaving a poor review, which means suffering sales for your company.
So why are frontline employees, while in such a vital role, faced with an abundance of burnout, apathy, and turnover?
The answer is simple: frontline workers feel isolated and disconnected from their companies.
Because they are not stationary behind desks, frontline workers are often left out of company communications, creating a feeling of detachment.
Fostering a workplace community that includes your frontline workers is the key to boosting their engagement. According to?IDC research, 69% of people use communities to do their job, but only 27% of companies utilize these communities.
In order to better succeed, frontline workers need to be included and informed – to feel they are a part of your company’s community.?
This is possible by creating a digital workplace community for frontline and deskbound workers alike. By implementing a digital work hub, frontline workers can easily access company-wide information via mobile devices.
Within this hub, frontline workers have equal access to the same news, information, and resources as their office counterparts. They can conveniently join conversations, ask questions, and share their unique knowledge with colleagues in different departments and locations.
Upon giving frontline workers a means of wide-reach communication, the feeling of community will rise, as will their level of engagement.
Thank you for reading this edition of the MangoScoop newsletter!
If you haven't seen it, check out our latest?whitepaper?on the topic -?How An Employee SuperApp Can Transform Your Workplace.