The world keeps changing, so businesses must also pivot to maintain their stand in their industries. It’s worthy of note to acknowledge that company owners need to take a new approach and provide a new focus on their employees to redefine business leadership and reaffirm employee engagement. In some companies, frontline teams are often ignored or unanswered and seen as the lowest priority when it comes to employee needs.
Frontline workers are primarily involved in the execution of tasks in a company that doesn’t occur in a traditional office setting. In fact, frontline employees are present in just about all industries. While their roles may differ, their primary duty is to ensure they carry out the work and get it done, often with little-to-no supervision.
As a business owner, you must pay special attention to your frontline team because they are getting a lot of work done. If they are well taken care of, it won’t be hard to achieve your business’s aims and objectives.
Your business will surely thrive if you find ways to support your frontline employees. Here are five proven tips for you to consider when dealing with your frontline workers.
1. Make Them Feel a Part of the Rest of the Team
According to Ryan Burma, CEO of ProjectManager, 26% of leaders believe that deficient cross-team collaboration is the major problem faced in project management. It’s foremostly referenced as the significant barrier ahead of remote environment tussle and archaic operation systems. This means organizations that have their frontline workers disconnected from other employees are definitely going to be faced with a lot of problems. Making your frontline employees feel a part of the rest of the team motivates them to work and cooperate with other staff in your business.
Providing your frontline teams with regular feedback and organizing activities among them is a perfect way of engaging them and ensuring that they are connected with other staff. You can also update them with constant information, and if there’s a change in your company’s goals, you can inform them and other workers. Above all else, include them in department-wide meetings or other communications that affect the company as a whole.
2. Provide Helpful Tech for Specific Roles
Frontline teams with better tech tools at their disposal will always be able to carry out their jobs in a more effective manner. According to McKinsey and Company, 43% of businesses that provided high-tech tools for their frontline teams recorded excellent progress through the impact of helpful tech on their employees. This is why you must offer technology tools that help your frontline teams according to their specific roles.
Most frontline employees require more advanced technology tools to inspire and help them meet deadlines. Since frontline workers are basically field employees, making tech available to them while on a site or elsewhere in the building can add a lot of efficiency to your processes. For instance, construction workers will need apps for construction to make them work so that your clients are satisfied and they can accurately work with budgets and materials.
3. Keep Communication Open
There’s a need to set up open methods of communication to equip your frontline team. When dealing with your frontline staff, you need to keep communication simple so that you can keep everyone on the same page. Good communication is two-way; it leads to great collaboration among team members and makes your business more successful.
It’s good to listen attentively to what your frontline workers say, even if that means setting up Zoom calls or meetings, and doing regular check-ins. Your frontline employees must be able to voice their opinions and concerns on matters relating to whatever they’re working on. Also, you can keep communication open by being accessible, showing them respect, and displaying exemplary behaviors for them to emulate.
4. Easier Way to Keep Track of Time
Businesses that like to do things efficiently and effectively are always conscious of how much time they spend trying to carry out their jobs. Since the technology for almost everything now exists, you need to find ways for your frontline team to easily keep track of time, even when out in the field.
Rather than make use of a timesheet which can be very stressful to maintain, you can utilize technology tools like a clock-in app to help your frontline teams track time while working. This app would make tracking time easy and help frontline teams clock in, clock out, and keep a record of their work details.
5. Offer Growth Opportunities
One of the ways of getting the very best out of an employee is ensuring growth and development opportunities are at their disposal. Most employees love to stay in an organization with plans for their growth, which is mainly prioritized.
The most effective frontline workers are people who have their skill sets polished, regularly adding new skills while working on their jobs. When you provide growth opportunities to your frontline staff, there will be a reduction in turnover rates and an increase in operational efficiency.
Summary
Maintaining a highly motivated and productive frontline team is not always easy. This is why business owners have to devise ways to keep the frontline teams happy and engaged by putting the right strategies and tools in place. Paying attention and giving massive recognition to your frontline staff also goes a long way in keeping their motivation up, along with the desire to continue working for your company.
