Teams are spread out further than we’re used to as of late, and companies are trying to keep everything connected. For front-line workers, this is a difficult task, with employees typically widely distributed and working with traditional, paper-based processes that run the risk of being lost, damaged or inaccurate. Here’s how digitizing the employee experience for front-line staff can minimize risks, explained by Luke Megarity, president and chief operations officer of iTacit.
When employees are in the office, it’s easy to track that they’re complying with safety protocols and conduct your business has in place. This is essential for both the health of the general population and your company’s social perception, too.
But what if your teams aren’t in the office? The hybrid workplaceOpens a new window is the norm for most now, but we aren’t used to being separated. For our people on the front-lineOpens a new window though – the ones logging double shifts, regularly working away from the HQ, leaders, and immediate support – this is similar to how it’s always been, but with new complexities.
Imagine this:
You’re a utility worker. You work to keep utilities up and running for the general public and are used to being called out for urgent jobs.
You’ve always worked with another technician, sharing a truck, and tasks. Now though, they’ve fallen ill, and your workplace doesn’t have anyone else ready to fall back on.
They forgot to place your manuals back in the truck, too, so you’re without essential information you need while on the job. Now, working alone – remotely – and without a way to access these resources, what do you do? A phone call isn’t reliable where you are, you don’t have an instant messaging service for the team, and your department keeps these handbooks paper-based, minus a few desktops that have the documents.
Thankfully, workforce software can impact much of the day-to-day, packing features that can go a long way towards connecting the dots for all of your front-line employee processes – so you aren’t stuck without a resource because it was misplaced.
Here are some of the unique risks that come with working on the front-line and how an employee app can minimize them.
The Front-Line Gap
Before jumping in, it’s important to highlight the current state for many teams.
The front-line has traditionally been less connected – both amongst its own teams and to the business overall. Facebook’s Workplace report for 2020 on front-line workers, Deskless Not Voiceless 2020Opens a new window , found that over half of polled front-line managers don’t feel a sense of ‘belonging’ with the rest of the company.
On top of this, even though companies are leaning heavily on communication tools, only 29% of front-line supervisors and managers are using email or company messaging apps.
Distributed, remote, and disconnected employees are hard to reach. Deskless teams, whether they’re in patient care, emergency medical services or the food industry, don’t have the luxury of always having a digital tool on hand.
Adopting new technology is a slower process for the front-line, too. There are unique barriers, such as shared devices amongst employees, slower response time from IT, and issues with troubleshooting.
Risks Hit Harder
As we’re no strangers to hearing, the pandemic has turned many standards on their head. The rules have changed, and so leaders have had to rewrite protocols, trickling down to compliance being rewired in turn.
AxonifyOpens a new window ‘s Chief Learning Architect, JD Dillon, hit the nail on the head in this post covering the front-line, stating:
“Now, the pandemic is adding even more complexity to this convoluted process. Organizations are focused on what has to get done in order to keep the doors open (physically or virtually) while keeping customers and employees safe. In many cases, this means existing compliance training has taken a back seat. Plus, pandemic-related health and safety challenges will lead to new and enhanced compliance requirementsâ€
 The health of teams is the main concern, so now health and safety are a consistently updated and reiterated training project for all the employees. This would be less of a change if training was still in person, but in 2021 remote – online – learning is the standard.
For the front-line, we need to consider patient safety, public health, legal repercussions and more. Risks are amplified.
Normally, if an employee misunderstands part of the process or is feeling unmotivated, their supervisor is only a quick message away (or, normally, a short walk). Digital tools are rarely put into the hands of front-line staff, though, so they’re missing out on this key part of the digital workplace, leaving that space for risks to be left unattended. Liabilities can present in the form of ‘people risks’, or social risksOpens a new window , compliance risks, and more.
Connection Is Key
Ensuring that the front-line has the tools to bridge this gap is the most important jump toward lowering risks.
Distributed employees need to tie the work they’re doing back to a place everyone can access. Without a digital solution, that often-misplaced binder housing logs and reports will remain just that: misplaced and time-consuming to manage. Employees who accidentally don’t follow protocols and become a ‘social risk’ for their company? Their next shift, and the one after that, will be as disconnected as the others.
Connecting the front-line to the rest of the company with employee technology mitigates these risks. By leveraging a solution that can digitize communication, resource sharing, operations processes and more, we can put the tools to stay connected into our front-line’s hands.