Your Frontline Workforce Can Deliver Better Results. Learn How.

Frontline workers are crucial to company operations and their performance directly impacts the industry and in turn the economy. Right now, frontline workers are also bearing the brunt of the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though there are many factors that can impact frontline worker productivity, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the impact technology has on frontline worker performance. 

Executives will often assume that the technology that works for back-office and C-suite employees also works for frontline workers and then express confusion as to why frontline workers are not as productive as they were hoping for. 

Carefully assessing frontline worker technology needs, and then implementing solutions that fill those needs, can benefit all the stakeholders. Let’s take a few common complaints that executives voice and see why frontline workers need solutions that are unique to them. 

“My workers don’t know what they’re doing.”

Frontline workers have to deal with all sorts of situations, and sometimes, they won’t know what to do. Blaming this on individual employees is misguided, as the issue is widespread across industries. A recent study by Forrester found that more than 45 percent of frontline workers reported not having the knowledge they needed on hand at least once per week. 

Solution: Ongoing Training In Response to Changing Needs

Of course, frontline workers need training- but that training needs to be an ongoing process. No matter the industry, combinations of factors can throw employees off-guard if they have only been trained on each individual factor. If someone knows how to move fragile items, and how to keep non-fragile items dry from the rain, they may not know how to move fragile items in the rain.

Workers want ongoing access to training materials, too. In the same Forrester report I mentioned earlier, 59% of workers said having self-service access to training materials was either very or extremely important to them. 

To offer ongoing training, start with collecting the data on what workers actually need. Make note of times when frontline workers did not have answers on hand. Add every major situation to your training materials, and let employees access those materials at any time. 

“My workers break rules all the time.”

Do you hold employees accountable every time they break a rule? Are your rules written, or informally understood among workers? If you apply rules inconsistently or do not solidify what the rules are, frontline workers won’t apply those rules consistently either. 

A Gallup study from 2017 found that 85% of frontline workers worldwide are not engaged or satisfied with their jobs. This poll used a questionnaire to determine engagement, starting from the most basic needs to the most abstract and personal. The very first question is “I know what is expected of me at work.”

Solution: Implement Clear Policies and Enforce Them Consistently

It should come as no surprise that setting very clear expectations is important. Few things alienate employees more than being penalized for breaking rules that were either unclear or not enforced in the past. If employees disregard rules and engage in reckless behavior, they can endanger themselves and their coworkers - yet, if this only results in punishment when someone gets hurt, sneaky rule-breaking will persist. Many hours per employee per week are lost in this way. 

To establish a consistent system of rules, the minimum you need is an employee handbook, either physical or digital. You can also implement technologies that enforce policy compliance at all times; for example, by locking down computers and mobile devices so they are not misused for personal entertainment during working hours. 

“Why aren’t my workers efficient at their jobs?”

As obvious as it may seem, workers need good, efficient tools to do good, efficient work. Without the right tools, workers cannot do their best work. The first question in the Gallup study I mentioned above was about guidelines, but the second was “I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.” 

For executives who aren’t familiar with frontline worker technologies, the device choices available to them may seem virtually identical. If a device accomplishes a certain purpose, then that is all that matters, right? By this logic an industrial saw machine, a small hand saw, and a children’s toy saw would all accomplish the same purpose. The toy saw is least expensive, but no matter how hard they try, workers with toy saws can’t be as efficient as those with industrial saw machines. (Okay! Not a great example! But you get the point :) )

Solution: Give Them the Right Tools

Spending money for the best hardware and safety equipment is important. Rather than thinking about this from a danger-mitigation perspective (i.e. outdated computers with older operating systems are vulnerable to hackers stealing data), it’s worth thinking about this from the employee perspective (i.e. poor equipment makes it hard for workers to show their skills and be productive).

This goes beyond physical tools- slow and outdated software hinders efficiency as much as outdated hardware. After all, the hardware represents the device’s capabilities- but workers can only tap into that using the software. 

It’s good to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies available for frontline workers. If you are planning to upgrade your devices, do your research and prioritize quality over up-front savings- paying more up-front can result in a much bigger pay-off in terms of efficiency. 

“I gave my employees great tools to work with, but they don’t use them well.”

Simply putting great tools in the hands of workers isn’t enough- if users have a hard time using tools, their potential is squandered. If someone doesn’t know what a new tool can do, or using the tool is unintuitive, they can’t use it effectively. 

Solution: Make the User Experience Intuitive and Straightforward

You can boost the effectiveness of any technology you adopt by ensuring the user experience is well-thought-out. Through a combination of training and a well-designed interface, workers can learn about everything available to them, and start using tools to their fullest. 

As an example of a better user experience making a difference, Gmail took over from Yahoo and Hotmail as the email service provider of choice for most users. All three could accomplish similar things, but Gmail provided a better user experience than the others. 

Many tools exist to modify the interfaces of devices you hand your employees, and I suggest that you think critically about how the interface supports your employees’ work. Employees who know how to get the most of their devices are happier and more motivated employees because they are not held down by factors (such as poorly-designed interfaces) that have nothing to do with their skill level. 

“When things break, my workers’ productivity drops.”

If my experiences with frontline workers taught me anything, it’s that things will break regardless of how skilled or efficiently an employee is working. If workers get blamed for breaking something, and then get labeled as unproductive while waiting for fixes, it is a back-to-back insult to an individual who may well have done nothing wrong. 

Solution: Provide tech support infrastructure to minimize downtime

Providing access to support is a key way to show frontline workers that you care about them; as with good customer service, interaction in difficult circumstances tends to be more memorable. If there is a good support system in place, workers can get back to full productivity quickly. 

More fundamentally, frontline workers must believe that their well-being is important to their superiors. This means quickly addressing concerns and maintenance requests they raise. If something malfunctions and takes a long time to repair, it sends the message that frontline workers are an afterthought, or worse, that their services are taken for granted. Either way, this deals a major blow to the motivation of frontline workers. 

Troubleshooting issues related to computers and mobile devices is typically time-consuming, but recent advances have substantially cut the time required for repairs. Unified endpoint management services, like 42Gears’ SureMDM, feature Remote Control technology which lets IT teams troubleshoot any device from anywhere, seeing the screen and even controlling the device remotely. 

Conclusion

We at 42Gears try to do our best to keep the needs of frontline workers in mind when designing products. Our products can accomplish many of the steps I’ve recommended, such as enforcing app restrictions, remotely troubleshooting issues on devices, and delivering a seamless user-experience on employee devices.

Frontline workers are an important part of any organization. Frontline workers reflect your values and principles on the front lines, but you can’t afford to view them as a carbon copy of “behind the scenes” employees. Taking care of frontline workers will positively influence your overall corporate culture and will also take care of your bottom line.