Intro
The concept of frontline workers (or essential workers) isn’t anything new – however it is more important than ever to ensure your frontline are engaged and prioritized. While many portrayals of frontline staff have them at the bottom of the operational hierarchy, power has shifted in recent years. The pandemic and quiet quitting have forced organizations to realize that not having enough frontline workers is an operational issue that can affect business outcomes.
What are frontline workers
Frontline staff, and as you’ll sometimes read essential workers, are employees who deals directly with customers, or who is directly involved in making a product. Even though essential and frontline workers are used as synonyms, they’re not. The distinction is usually based on how much interaction they have with your customer base or how they support the day to day operations of your business. For example, a customer service agent dealing with customers face to face is definitely a frontline worker but so is a person working on the floor of a manufacturing plant that might not talk to customers at all.
Types of Frontline Workers
Nearly every organization has frontline workers. Whether you’re in finance, healthcare, government or tech. Whether you’re in the office 5 days a week, a hybrid workplace or fully remote.
Let’s break them down further into three groups using a clothing brand for example.
- Staff on the Floor: This section are employees that need to be physically present to do their roles. In our example, these would be the staff working at physical stores welcoming people in and helping with their transactions.
- Field Team: These are your staff that are still helping customers but aren’t confined to a desk. In our example, this could be a contact center that deals with customer support inquiries.
- Outsourced Support: This can be a tricky group that can be missed. This is any staff that are technically employed by a different organization. In our clothing brand example, this could be janitorial or building maintenance staff.
How to engage frontline workers effectively
Frontline staff are the lifeblood of your business and they play a vital role in keeping your business functioning through providing essential services.
To ensure that everything runs smoothly and operating as a team, it is necessary to prioritize clarity in communications, provide support wherever it’s necessary and, of course, recognize and appreciate their efforts.
Here are some non-negotiables
- Keep them informed. It is widely recognized that 80% of the world’s workforce can be considered frontline workers. They are often your clients first experience with your organization, but they can be the last to get updates or necessary information. When creating employee communications, don’t forget to take into account your team on the frontline.
- Understand what a day on the front looks like. Oftentimes, internal communicators are more familiar with the day to day activity of knowledge workers than frontline workers. Don’t panic, we are all more familiar with what we know. However, creating better communication for frontline workers starts with understanding their needs. Take this opportunity to set up call with some frontline workers, learn about their day and even set up a branch visit.
- Accessible communication channels. Now that you understand the information your frontline team needs, make sure it’s available to them in a way that is accessible. With shorter break allowances or limited time between customer interactions, the communication flow needs to be fast and it should happen in a single place. This is where an intranet can help because it provides a secure place for communication.
- Providing participation in decision-making. It’s essential that frontline staff participate (meaningfully) in the decision-making process, especially since they’re the ones who are gonna be implementing those decisions (policies and procedures). Listen to their feedback and make sure that it’s included when creating procedures.
Conclusion
Frontline workers can make or break your business. If you want to ensure that they are fully engaged, make sure to check out our worksheet on “Delivering Successful Frontline Communications” here.
