Engaging frontline staff: employers urged to communicate better

A third of frontline workers feel disconnected from their colleagues working in headquarters, according to research by SafetyCulture.

The operations platform company commissioned YouGov to poll workers in the UK, US and Australia on whether they feel they receive adequate communications and are recognised by head office colleagues.

Four in 10 frontline workers said they felt management were “out of touch” with their role based on the communications they received from head office, and 32% said they did not have time to read or act upon HQ messages.

Forty-two per cent thought the communications they receive from head office were “often irrelevant”, while a similar proportion felt they were not engaging.

Furthermore, almost half of British frontline workers (48%) said they couldn’t “put a face to the name” of most HQ team members they communicate with.

Bob Butler, global general manager of SafetyCulture, said the statistics were worrying in the current context of recruitment difficulties in many frontline professions.

“Given most businesses are dealing with the effects of supply chain issues and labour shortages, communicating with teams on the frontline is more critical than ever,” he said.

“However, frontline workers can be challenging to reach given they aren’t always at a desk and often don’t have a company email address.”

He added that organisations had a “real opportunity to improve” access to communications for frontline workers through better, mobile-first apps and tools.

“Many businesses have continued to invest in providing their white-collar workers with high-quality tools and technology for remote communication but enabling the frontline is a blindspot for some organisations,” he said.

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SafetyCulture’s findings echo those from a survey conducted earlier this year by Workplace by Meta. It found that 49% of workers in frontline roles were planning to move jobs this year, and 47% would be keen to move if a role offered “better perks and growth”.

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