How to Keep Your Frontline Employees Happy

Deskless workers make up 80% of the global workforce, however, a majority of business software being used within companies are made for office employees. In most cases, frontline workers are the first point of contact for your clients and customers. Their performance has a direct impact on your business and its brand image. 

This means that there is no question when it comes to needing to keep your frontline staff happy and satisfied with their work. Not only are happier employees more engaged and productive, but they also offer your customers better service and help improve customer loyalty. 

Frontline workers typically do not have access to a company email address or are unable to access email while they work. They also tend to not have any access to important documentation and company updates while they work. On the other hand, the opposite is true for desk-bound workers. 

The good news is, there are many different ways you can help keep your frontline managers and workers informed, engaged, connected, and happy in the workplace. Here are the top ways that organizations can successfully improve team-wide engagement and satisfaction. 

Invest in Your Employees’ Health and Wellbeing

Workplace health and wellbeing are some of the most important drivers of workplace productivity. The American Psychological Association considers the top components of workplace wellbeing to be work-life balance, health and safety, and employee growth and development. Employers who understand these components and view their employees as people rather than simply laborers will make their workplace a more productive and better place. These employers view their employees as part of a wider community, culture, and system which affects their overall health and wellbeing. 

Workplace well-being thinks about the physical and mental states of workers. Physical wellbeing can include temperature, ergonomics, and safety. Mental wellbeing has to do with things like stress, negativity, and anxiety. The worse an employee’s physical and mental well-being is, the worse their output. This is why many employers are actively promoting workplace wellbeing programs that help them build community and improve their environmental conditions. 

Prioritize Recognition

Getting recognition for a job well done is an important factor for employee satisfaction and engagement. Studies show that employees who believed they were recognized were 2.7x more likely to be highly engaged. It can be more of a challenge for employers to recognize deskless workers compared to their desk-bound counterparts. 

Using a mobile platform can help solve this challenge. Just think about your deskless workers’ preferred communication channels, such as where they receive information. Through the use of a mobile platform, managers are able to give out public shout-outs to top performers, recognize when an employee has gone above and beyond, and celebrate individuals or teams. 

Give Employees More Responsibilities

All employees aspire to some level of power and responsibility where they work. It’s a good idea to let them have some autonomy, which helps make them feel more empowered, and organizations benefit from this boost of productivity and morale. One way to give your deskless workers increased feelings of autonomy is to give them access to the people, resources, and information that they need in order to get their job done well. 

Invest in Supportive Leadership

Another way to help keep your frontline workers happy is to invest in leadership that is supportive and responsive to their team’s needs. Supportive leadership styles within an organization are valuable in many ways. It helps foster positive relationships between employees, while also empowering team members to develop their professional skills and work well on their own or with little management and guidance. 

This insight is causing a shift in leadership roles across industries, as different companies find that taking a people-focused approach gets better results compared to a profit-focused leader. For many deskless workers, feeling appreciated, compensated, and support can go a very long way in their overall satisfaction with their jobs. People-focused leadership helps encourage, inspire and teach others around them. They also play a huge role as champions of promotions or advancement. When managers consider opportunities for promoting those on their team they can help to foster growth and encourage internal advancement. 

Invite Feedback

How can you know how engaged or satisfied your employees are with their work if you don’t ask them? Utilize surveys that ask questions like:

• Do you feel engaged at work?
• Are there any tools or resources you are missing to do your job well?
• Would any processes be improved using a different approach?

The answer to these questions could surprise you, and they will help paint the big picture of employee satisfaction within your organization. However, the most important part of conducting employee surveys is actually acting on the results. When your employees can see that their input is valued and can make a difference, they will be more likely to give feedback in the future. 

Invest in Employee Training and Development

Providing your frontline workers with opportunities to learn and other educational benefits can be quite an investment, however, the results will typically outweigh any of these costs. Research suggests that providing learning benefits helps to reduce turnover, boost engagement and employees’ satisfaction. 

As levels of automation rise in the workplace, and remote work starts to become the norm, higher demand for lifelong education and upskilling has never been more pressing than it is now. These educational opportunities also tie into worker wellbeing, since having a more prepared workforce leads to less stress and better-positioned workers able to pivot quickly and adapt to technological changes. 

Frontline workers are aware of changing job market pressures and desire the training needed to help them advance their careers. By giving educational opportunities to frontline workers, employers will see more engagement, better productivity, improved customer satisfaction and they will also be able to stay competitive in their market. 

As employers across all industries look for different ways to keep their workers happy, they will see that investing in employee health and wellbeing will have the best return on their investment. Plus, supportive leadership and training and education programs will help their teams keep a positive, productive, and future-proof workforce.

At 1Huddle, we offer cloud-based employee gamification software. This gamified training platform can easily adapt to any employee training or gamification strategy you want to implement at your workplace. You can customize your content for a seamless experience and all of your employees will be able to access their training anywhere, anytime, and at the push of a button. You can use our gamification platform to measure their performance and make key decisions on where you should take your gamification strategy next. 

Do you want to learn more about how 1Huddle can help you level up your own workforce? Request a demo today.