Frontline workers continue to have complex issues, report says

The COVID-19 pandemic put into sharp focus the value of frontline workers — workers who must be physically present to do their jobs, and who interact directly with customers and the public. A new report on frontline workers finds that such workers, who make up a large part of the workforce overall, have complex needs and issues, including support, training, advancement opportunities, and others.

The report from analytics firm RedThread and workforce solutions company Axonify explored these issues in depth and found that just as frontline workers have a wide range of skills and roles, the challenges they face can vary greatly as well.

The study found that in many ways, frontline workers experience work in the same ways that non-frontline workers do, but there is variation in how they are supported in their work.

“The current narrative about frontline workers goes something like this,” the report said. “’Frontline workers are under-served and under-supported, caught in a cycle of churn and neglect.’ This narrative makes great headlines — and there’s truth in it — but the reality is more nuanced.”

Who are frontline workers?

The report noted that a very wide range of jobs and professions fall under the frontline worker category. These can include restaurant and hospitality workers; construction workers, police and firefighters; physicians, nurses and other health care workers; transportation employees, and others.

Obviously, these different roles have widely different levels of compensation, training required, skill level, work schedules, etc.

Even with the differences, the report said, there are general themes and trends that frontline jobs and workers have in common. And the report noted that many companies have recently made progress in better understanding the needs of these workers and responding to them.

Performance: A better handle on expectations, feedback, and autonomy

The report noted that compared to other workers, frontline employees can have more tangible performance goals and metrics. It advised employers to set clear expectations, align priorities between employees and managers, and work toward fairness and objectivity in performance assessments.

“Leaders emphasized that having clear goals is helpful, but having consistent systems and ways to reinforce expectations is even better,” the report said. “When done well — for learning and growth rather than blame and punishment — these performance data can facilitate performance and learning.”

The report noted that workers are expected to make more decisions on their own, and they need the systems and training to use this autonomy wisely. “Importantly, part of expecting employees to do the right thing is trusting that they will. In organizations where that trust isn’t in place, building it before anything else is imperative,” the report said.

In addition, the “bring your best self to work” approach continues to gain acceptance in fields that use frontline workers. The researchers noted that some frontline work tends be lower-paying — and our current economic realities can trap lower-wage workers in poverty and high levels of stress. While recognizing that every organization must make its own decisions on the level of support it can provide, the researchers said caregiver support, financial wellness benefits, and a consideration of higher wages are among the steps companies can take.

Job advancement and a supportive work environment

Two other areas the report explored are the areas of professional growth and worker engagement. The researchers noted that conventional wisdom often suggests that frontline workers don’t have much opportunity to grow at their jobs or opportunities to move higher in the companies. But they also found that frontline workers viewed their growth opportunities in a similar way compared to non-frontline workers. The findings suggest such issues are complex and that some companies are doing better than others in this area.

“Some things organizations are doing to enable frontline workers to learn, grow, and prepare for future roles are, in fact, ahead of the game for all employees. Hands-on development [such as job shadowing, apprenticeships, and coaching] … particularly embodies the on-the-job, in-the-flow learning that learning and development functions have been talking about for so long,” the report said.

Frontline workers also report feeling engaged at work in similar numbers as other workers, the report noted. But at a time when engagement, recognition, and inclusion are in high demand from workers, the researchers said that companies should continue to research best practices in this area.

“Lack of recognition was a problem before the COVID-19 pandemic but became far more apparent as the public realized how critical frontline workers are to our lives. For a while, public appreciation for frontline workers seemed everywhere — on signs, emails, and social media,” the report said. “However, those expressions of gratitude have faded, and organizations haven’t sufficiently replaced them with more permanent systems and processes for recognizing frontline employees’ hard work.”

The report recommends looking into technology to improve communication, and communicating clearly on how the company is responding to feedback. Showing that leadership is listening is a crucial step to making frontline employees feel engaged.

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“Some organizations collect input from frontline employees through surveys, email and chat, Q&As in town halls, and passing info up through their managers…but one of the most common and powerful ways was simply having leaders walk around, observe, and ask questions,” the report said.