10 Ways To Use Comms Channels To Build Frontline Worker Communities

Communication channels play a vital role in building and sustaining communities among frontline workers. They do this by providing places to share stories, facilitate feedback, and develop cross-team relationships. 

Here are 10 quick tips on how you can use channels to create thriving communities that will make your frontline workers more engaged, connected, and productive. 

1. Customizable employee experience (EX) platforms

Deploying an EX platform that allows for personalized information enables your frontline workers to:

• Create groups based on location, job type, level and more. This can help forge ties even if people spend little time together face-to-face.  
• Share stories, information and updates – all of which strengthen trust and build bonds, which are the bedrocks of community.
• Feel included. By having a channel they can tailor, you are showing that you value them and understand their specific needs as an audience. 

2. Instant messaging 

While it’s best practice to implement an EX platform, it’s also good to let frontline workers use an instant messaging service such as WhatsApp. Why? 

• Gives workers freedom and control, so they can decide how they want their community to operate.
• Informal channels are more likely to see employees open up about real problems, which can lead to more collaboration.
• Chances are that frontline workers are already using these tools in their personal lives. The more familiar they are with them, the more likely they are to become part of the work community using them. 

3. On-site meetings

Frontline workers rely on face-to-face communication with their line managers for instruction and inspiration. But in-person events can also create communities.

Examples include:

• Having Town Hall takeovers by certain groups on a rotational basis or allowing a representative cross-section of managers to speak.
• Inviting guest speakers to come and share their experiences.
• Providing a space for frontline workers to either speak up themselves, or have spokespeople do it for them, so they feel their voice is heard.

4. Pictures speak a thousand words

Frontline workers rely on the two Vs: verbal and visual. They are time-pressured, so pictures help communications cut through more effectively. 

You should: 

• Use prominent posters and digital signage to showcase locally relevant initiatives and workers.
• Include a mix of performance-related information, such as safety guidelines, and people-focused updates, like Employee of the Month announcements.
• Allow people to post information on notice boards so they can share personal stories and shape their community.

5. Teams that play together stay together

Frontline work is challenging and stressful, and disengagement is at worrying levels. To counter this, bring in the fun wherever you can. 

This could be: 

• On-site team-building activities. Make these engaging and relevant (not too corporate) and ask workers for ideas.
• Off-site team-building activities. Consider external facilitation so everyone can participate.
• Mix up the teams so workers from different teams get to know each other, collaborate, and share the experience.  

6. Recognition events

Everyone loves receiving recognition for their work, and it’s a huge driver of employee engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity. 

And being publicly recognized by your workmates is a community-building accelerant, so: 

• Host regular recognition events on site, ideally at a time when the maximum number of employees are there.
• Allow frontline workers to vote for each other.
• Communicate pre- and post-event to build excitement and keep the momentum going into the next one.  

7. Listen and learn

As I wrote in this blog, frontline workers can feel that they don’t have a voice and that their views are ignored. Here, you can use feedback channels (online and offline) so you become a listening-and-learning organization. 

This helps build community, because it: 

• Demonstrates that you respect and value the views of frontline workers.
• Gives you the opportunity to show action that has been taken because of feedback.
• Provides a space for your people to come together and recognize common issues and experiences, which builds understanding, trust, and, ultimately, community. 

8. Shared interest groups

One way for your people to find their tribe at work is through shared interest groups. These could form around professional or personal interests. 

Make sure to:

• Let them grow organically; they need to feel run by workers and for workers, so a genuine community can emerge and thrive.
• Visibly encourage and support them, whether that’s giving funding or providing spaces for them to meet.
• Involve them in site-wide decisions and activities, so their sub-community contributes to the broader whole. 

9. Challenges and campaigns

Social media and EX apps are perfect for creating fun and participative challenges and campaigns, which are an effective way to bring together frontline workers – just check out Ryanair and Currys, who regularly go viral with their employee-generated content, for great examples of this. 

You can: 

• Build some fun competition between locations, with prizes for the winners.
• Have sites take over your official social platforms for a set period – they will feel like stars!
• Use it as an opportunity to promote locally-specific deals. 

10. Confidential spaces

Working on the front line can be grueling and, unlike office work, there is nowhere to hide from customers, which can add to the stress. 

The final tip for building a community is to create safe spaces for emotional support, so your employees can: 

• Share experiences, queries and concerns in confidence, whether that be face-to-face, online or over the phone.
• Feel heard, access resources and support, and know you are taking care of them as their employer.
• Discuss their mental health, manage stress and wellbeing, and take positive action.

Frontline worker communities have never been more important

In an age of increasing isolation and disenchantment, building communities among frontline workers has never been harder, yet more important. 

The good news is, we’ve never had so many communication channels at our disposal, and if you choose wisely, they will be the game-changer you need.