How Do You Choose the Right Communication Channel for Frontline Workers?

Making up 80% of the global workforce, frontline employees are the backbone of most businesses, yet companies can find communicating with them an ongoing challenge.

There are many reasons for this, including dispersed locations, diverse shift patterns, and the time pressures they’re often under.  

As a result, it’s essential you choose the right communication channels when reaching and engaging your deskless workers. Not only will this significantly increase your chances of your messages being received and understood, it will also help to forge stronger feelings of connection, community, and being part of ‘one company’ among your people. 

To get you started, I’ve put together a list of my top 10 things to consider when deciding on which channels to use for frontline workers.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully inspire your channel strategy. 

1. Easy access for everyone

Any channel you use must be easily accessible to everyone. Frontline workers are under mounting pressures, whether that’s delivering packages or serving customers. They don’t have time to search for company information or updates. Therefore, you need to consider: 

• What channels would all your workers have access to – for example, an app for a mobile phone?
• How can you make your channels as easy as possible to use – Single Sign-On, face identification, etc
• How inclusive is the channel – does it have multi-language capability? 

The more accessible you make your channels, the far more likely your people are to engage with them. 

2. Available in real-time

A familiar complaint among frontline workers is that they hear company messages after desk-based staff, creating a sense of ‘us and them’ and reinforcing notions of a two-tier workforce. To combat this, your channels should:

• Deliver messages in real-time – no lag between head office and the field
• Be monitored live – so if workers have questions, they’re answered as soon as possible
• Signpost to further information – whether that’s in the same channel or another  

If you want your people to feel they are working for one company pulling in the same direction, it’s vital they get the information they need at the same time as others.

3. Line managers as a channel 

Line managers are the glue that holds companies together. They play a vital role in distilling information from senior leaders and translating it into actions for their teams.
Frontline workers rely heavily, sometimes exclusively, on their managers for internal comms. This is a face-to-face, verbal culture, as opposed to a remote, written one. In such a people-first environment, think about line managers as a critical channel and ask yourself:

• What information do they need, and when?
• How can we get this to them on time, every time?
• How do your other channels complement (not replace or duplicate) the information frontline workers will get from their managers? 

4. Immediately relevant 

Faced with the pressures of customers, orders, and quotas, it’s a challenge to get (and keep) frontline workers’ attention. Your channel choice must:   

• Respect relevancy – it should be crystal clear what you need frontline workers to read, and why
• Be action-based – frontline workers are action-based, so how is your channel helping them do their job quicker?
• Be visual-led – this is a verbal and visual culture, so long-winded emails from your CEO won’t serve anyone. How can your channel accommodate attention-grabbing visuals that are immediately relevant and memorable? 

Always keep in mind that often, your frontline workers’ primary job is to serve your customers. Helping them do this more effectively should be at the heart of every channel decision.

5. Engaging content

Okay, this is a broad term. But there are ways you can make your content more engaging, for example… 

• Survey your frontline workers before making any channel decisions. What do they like or dislike about your current communications?
• Spend time doing frontline work – getting firsthand experience is a great way to better understand your audience, the nature of their work, and what they need from you
• Keep it short and simple – frontline workers are busy and often on the move. Snackable content such as short videos and reels or podcasts are more likely to suit their schedule and cut through 

To engage frontline workers with your content, choose a channel that gives you the most options in terms of short, visual, impactful content.  

6. Two-way

One way to create more engagement with your content and channel is to ensure it’s two-way. Frontline workers can sometimes feel ignored and that they don’t have a voice. So, think about channels that:  

• Enable anyone to engage with content – whether that’s liking, commenting, sharing, etc
• Let people ask questions and get responses from head office
• Provide real-time Q&A facilities, for example on live events (town halls) or AMAs

Facilitating dialogue via your channel will increase engagement, provide invaluable feedback on frontline worker sentiment, and help bridge the divide that can exist with office-based colleagues. 

7. On-demand

By nature, frontline workers operate outside ‘normal’ working hours. They need to be able to access information on demand, at a time that suits them. When assessing channels for this audience, this means taking into account: 

• How can they get the latest information easily – such as through push notifications and alerts?
• Is it possible to tailor the content so it only shows information relevant to their role and location?
• How easily could they catch up on other news if they want to?  

When choosing a channel for frontline workers, you have to understand this is not as captive an audience as you’d find in a traditional office setting. They have to make time to access your content, which is why being on-demand is essential. 

8. Creates community 

It can be lonely on the frontline (I’ve been there myself, many, many years ago!). You may be working alone, or see others for only a short period of time, like on shift switchovers.

There isn’t always the sense of teamwork there can be in offices. When making channel choices for this group, remember that this is a great opportunity to:

• Build a community among frontline workers, regardless of location. Let them share stories, pictures, videos, and more as a great way to demonstrate local creativity
• Showcase the critical role the frontline plays in your company’s success
• Forge closer ties with desk-based employees 

While work is becoming increasingly transactional, as human beings we’re wired to seek belonging and meaning. We want to feel part of something bigger, and your channels can help to do that. 

9. Works offline

This may sound strange, but not everyone is permanently connected to the internet. Frontline workers are spending the majority of their time delivering for customers, whether in front of them or not. They may also be in places without internet access – for example, as a pilot or member of cabin crew on an airplane. 

As a minimum, your channel needs to:

• Work offline – even in some capacity
• Have content that is accessible when in airplane mode
• Not rely solely on people having an internet connection 

We may live in the digital age, but you should not assume that an internet connection is a given, especially on the frontline. Having a channel that has offline content is not a nice-to-have, but a must. 

10. Measurable 

Any channel you use should be measurable. Otherwise, how do you know what’s working and what isn’t? You can’t improve the experience for your audience if you don’t track the performance of your content. With attrition rates for frontline workers at 40% to 50%, and poor communication cited as a leading cause, you need to choose a channel that can: 

• Measure engagement across a range of metrics
• Provide custom reports on demand
• Offer insights into channel performance vs. competitors and peers

Frontline workers are notoriously hard to reach and engage. So, choose a channel that gives you real-time data with which you can adapt your content strategy as needed.

Disengagement among frontline workers is costing a projected $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. While there are no doubt challenges in communicating with this audience, if your channel shows that it respects their needs, is directly relevant to their role, and responds to their feedback, it can, and will, make a difference to your company’s top and bottom lines.