How to Motivate Frontline Employees: Attract and Keep Top Talent with Strong Communication

Talent retention, in a world where new job postings and career opportunities appear daily, is key for companies. Having engaged employees with knowledge and experience can make a tremendous difference in terms of productivity and profit.

Unfortunately, it’s often on the frontlines, however, where high turnaround is most common. And it’s on the frontlines where experience can matter most. Which leaves companies wondering how to motivate frontline employees, how to incentivize their efforts, and how to attract new talent to fill vacant positions? In this article, we’ll explain why frontline talent retention so often suffers, and provide ways to turn things around.

Problems companies face when hiring and managing frontline workers

A major hurdle companies face is preventing turnaround when it comes to frontline positions. When frontline workers aren’t valued for their full contribution, and kept connected to company life accordingly, it’s not uncommon for their role to be seen as temporary or replaceable, or even as belonging to “hourly workers,” when in fact, many frontline positions demand a unique skill set requiring years to master. Considerable experience is required for these kinds of employees to do their jobs effectively.

These are the problems that can enable this to take place:

Low Employee Lifetime Value for frontline employees

The cost of replacing many frontline workers can be high, especially if the worker has been with the company for a long time and has developed a deep understanding of the company’s operations and culture. Turnover can be a major drain on the budget if employees are constantly leaving and needing to be replaced.

Limited availability of skilled workers for frontline workforce

…in certain industries or geographic locations:

Some industries, such as healthcare and technology, may face shortages of skilled workers in certain regions. Without the right recruitment strategy, filling these roles can become next to impossible, as locating the right talent is exceptionally difficult. 

High turnover rates

Many frontline employees face difficult working conditions, such as long hours, low pay, and high stress, which can lead to high turnover rates. This can be costly for companies in terms of recruitment, training, and lost productivity. 

Lack of meaning

Frontline workers may feel disconnected from the company’s mission and purpose, leading to a lack of motivation and engagement. If workers don’t understand the company’s mission and how they fit into the bigger picture, they’ll have no reason to perform at their best and do their part. 

Lack of support from managers

Frontline workers may feel unsupported by management, leading to burnout and disengagement. This can especially be true if directives are coming from a distant corporate source, without direct knowledge of conditions on the ground or the realities frontline workers face on a daily basis.

So how can a company keep and retain frontline talent? Recognizing their efforts and acting on their feedback is a great start.

How to motivate frontline employees while attracting fresh talent

Employee loyalty is a two-way street. For frontline workers to be committed to their job and their company, they need to know that their work is appreciated, and that when they have ideas or feedback to give, it will be taken into consideration.

Concrete strategies for accomplishing this include:

To attract new talent

• Promote referral programs through your communication platform with meaningful rewards to encourage existing employees to refer their friends and family.
• Highlight the benefits of working for the company, such as opportunities for growth, work-life balance, and employee development programs. Emphasize career advancement. 
• Blend the energy of youth and experience by hiring a mix of both. Enable employees to connect and engage through office events and outings.

To retain loyal and reliable talent

• Create a sense of community and camaraderie by including frontline workers in CSR activities. Sociabble, for example, offers a CSR feature linked to employee engagement called “Sociabble Trees.” Frontline workers can be rewarded for their engagement with trees planted in their name.
• Establish a feedback loop through surveys and polls to gather feedback on job satisfaction, payroll, timing, flexibility, and other relevant topics. This can help senior management address concerns and make improvements. Sociabble makes this easy, with the ability to create polls and surveys in just a few clicks, that can also be set so that answers are kept anonymous.

• Offer peer-to-peer training and sharing for frontline managers, including the sharing of best practices and lessons learned from personal experiences. Encourage interaction between managers and frontline workers, with a two-way flow of communication and feedback, as part of normal professional development. 

• Design and elevate the purpose of the work, highlighting how the frontline team contributes to the success of the company and the greater good. Explain their role in the larger mission of the company, and showcase how critical it is to achieving business objectives, and to improving overall customer satisfaction. 
• Create a “Wall of Fame” to showcase the achievements of frontline workers and recognize their contributions to the company’s success. This can help boost morale and increase loyalty among frontline staff, while motivating employees across the company in the process.

Sociabble: The communication solution that helps you retain frontline talent

When it comes to implementing these kinds of steps, the right communication platform can make a critical difference. For example, Sociabble is the total communication solution that’s specifically designed to keep frontline employees connected, informed, and engaged with company life. It enables a more tailored communication plan with specific features designed to boost frontline employee engagement and motivation, regardless of if your employees consist of healthcare workers, delivery personnel, retail workers, or warehouse managers. 

These include: 

Gamification elements, such as points, badges, and leaderboards, that allow you to reward engagement and offer prizes and badges to employees. This can improve performance while also making daily interactions more fun and engaging. 

Peer-to-peer and employee recognition features like Sociabble’s Praises that give much deserved kudos to frontline talent, from their own co-workers. Many employees respond even better to this than traditional top-down recognition programs.

CSR features like Socabble Trees, that lend a sense of purpose and meaning to work, while also making participation rewarding and fun. 

Sharing user generated content (UGC) with features like Sociabble Enterprise Video, to give employees a voice and let them add to the company discourse, with media that they can create easily on their phones. 

Conclusion: Giving frontline employees a voice and a sense of purpose helps you attract and retain top talent

In conclusion, we’ve discussed the following critical considerations for attracting and keeping talent on frontline teams:

• Why motivation is key to retaining frontline talent
• What discourages frontline retention
• Ways to attract new talent
• Ideas to retain loyal frontline talent

And when it comes to helpful tools to accomplish all of this, Sociabble can help. An all around digital solution, thanks to Sociabble, your frontline staff will receive the updates and notifications they need, regardless of if they’re at a desk at HQ, or on the frontlines, relying on a mobile device. And thanks to Sociabble’s engagement features, they’ll truly feel like they’re part of the company, with opportunities to share their thoughts and feedback, and receive the recognition they deserve. 

Sociabble has already teamed up with industry leaders like Coca-Cola CCEP, Primark, and L’Occitane en Provence to enhance their employee communications, and we’d love to discuss ways we can partner with your company as well, and contribute toward your organization’s future success. 

So get in touch, and explore the ways Sociabble can help you find, keep, and motivate the very best frontline talent. We’d love to chat!