Frontline workers are an essential cog in many organizations, as their contributions in the field directly affect patient and customer satisfaction. But because these employees complete services outside of the office, it’s crucial to keep frontline workers engaged through motivation and support. This means providing the proper tools for success in the field.
What are frontline workers?
Frontline workers, also referred to as deskless workers, are employees or contractors who spend the majority of their days working in the field rather than in an office setting. For example, this includes healthcare clinicians, support workers, occupational therapists, nurses, and any other workers who directly provide services to patients, wherever they may be needed. They’re truly the bedrock of organizations that rely on customer service and delivery for success.
Frontline management, then, should be considered mission-critical, especially as organizations look to both support employees and continue to provide excellent service during critical times, such as a global pandemic. Frontline management includes utilizing a strategy for motivating and empowering frontline workers.
The need for such a strategy has certainly been magnified by the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting the heroic, tireless efforts of frontline workers. Supporting frontline workers should be at the forefront of management priorities moving forward, as well.
Best practices for supporting frontline workers
Supporting your frontline workers doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark. Whether you’re just now developing a strategy for motivating deskless workers or are taking your strategy back to the drawing board as a result of the ‘new normal’ from the Coronavirus, there are some tried-and-true best practices you can follow for success.
Enable communication
Because frontline workers aren’t consistently part of the office environment, they’re not able to access information in the same way as fixed-location employees. They rely on receiving information about mobile work, customers, company news, and more digitally. If they aren’t able to easily send and receive communications between team members, managers, or patients, details will likely fall through the cracks. It’s imperative that organizations enable seamless, accessible communication for frontline workers to keep them motivated and successful.
Improve your scheduling process
A huge part of managing frontline workers is ensuring that you’ve scheduled the right worker at the right time for the right job. Scheduling errors or manual processes could mean dropping the ball on appointments, over-scheduling employees, or sending a worker unprepared to a job. By improving your scheduling process, you’ll ensure that the right worker properly delivers services every time, based on availability and requirements.
Utilize the proper tools
Frontline workers deliver services in a variety of locations, so they require a distinct set of tools. Because they’re often on the go, they need quick, seamless access to those technologies. Assuming that your frontline workers should (or even can) make do with the same technology given to fixed-location employees is a common misstep that should be avoided. Providing intuitive tools for frontline workers that centralize communication, scheduling, and field data can yield better support for workers and alleviate the challenges of day-to-day management.
