How Can Modern Intranets Help Engage Frontline Workers
By: Poonam Chug
Tags: Collaboration, Communication, Modern Intranet, Employee Engagement, Sharepoint Intranet

Modern Intranet

With the COVID-19 pandemic acting as a catalyst to massive digital transformations, the business landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace. While the desk-based staff has shifted to remote working, their frontline counterparts continue to operate from the field.

Frontline workers are employees who do not have desk-based jobs. From nurses to construction workers to manufacturing staff, they make up approximately 80% of the global working population.

However, organizations fail to prioritize these workers while designing their digital workplace strategies, which is a sure-shot path to decreased productivity, engagement, and efficiency.

Frontline workers, including factory workers, sales personnel, medical staff, etc., are the backbone of any enterprise. Often, they are in direct contact with the customers, thus becoming the eyes and ears of the business.

A survey by Forbes and Microsoft has concluded that organizations with digitally empowered frontline workers achieve greater than 20% yearly growth, nearly three times the rate of competitors who lag behind on this metric.

Therefore, companies worldwide are deploying modern intranets to provide personalized, omnichannel communication and engagement experiences to their entire workforce, including the frontline staff.

Let’s learn how modern Intranets can help engage frontline workers.

Modern Intranets: Creating end-to-end digital experiences for frontline workers

Modern Intranets help connect frontline staff with the people, apps, and information they need. They act as a centralized digital hub for company-wide knowledge and tools required for daily operations. Following are some more ways of how modern intranets are engaging frontline workers:

Give frontline workers on-the-go access to the apps and information they need with an intranet mobile app or chatbot

Recommend personalized latest content and push real-time alerts based on the employee’s role, geography, interests, duties, etc.

Enable frontline staff to overcome isolation by sharing thoughts or connecting with their colleagues through various social capabilities, like blogs, discussion forums, instant messaging, audio/video conferencing, etc.

Encourage innovation via an idea management module that allows frontline workers to share their insights; and

Provides single-window access to all tools through comprehensive integration with multiple apps, including SAP, Salesforce, Workday, Office 365, and many more.

Allows users to access information from anywhere and anytime through cloud-based storage

Why invest in modern Intranets?

Research has proven that companies, which include frontline workers in their digital transformation initiatives showcase exceptional performance, as follows –

91% of the respondents noticed increased staff productivity and performance;

87% saw enhanced CSAT levels;

88% experienced increased operational efficiency and cost savings, and

84% reported better job satisfaction from their employees.

Modern Intranets can inspire workers to deliver superior performance and can solve the most critical frontline engagement challenges. Let’s take a look at some industry-specific use cases.

1. Manufacturing

The staff working in the manufacturing units is mostly separated from the corporate headquarters. With little or no engagement opportunities with the company’s management, they may often feel their efforts go unnoticed. Moreover, factory workers, whose performance has a profound impact on product quality are likely to work efficiently if they stay engaged and updated with the latest company updates.

By providing easy access to the organization’s intranet, leaders can express appreciation for the frontline staff and create opportunities for them to share feedback and build connections with corporate office colleagues.

2. Telecommunications

Frontline workers in the telecom industry have to deal with a variety of consumer issues daily. From installing phone or broadband lines to making repairs, they must possess a mix of technical product knowledge and customer service skills.

In order to escalate issues and share updates on customer complaints, telecom workers must have access to the company’s Intranet that can help them share the required information and stay connected with their desk-based colleagues.

3. Healthcare

From doctors to nurses, from laboratory technicians and clinicians working in the field, frontline workers are the backbone of the healthcare industry. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated accelerated digitalization throughout the industry more than ever.

By implementing a modern intranet along with a mobile app or chatbot, frontline workers in the healthcare industry can have instant access to information, including patient records, insurance claims, medical resources, policies, regulations etc. They can stay updated on the latest healthcare news and connect with relevant subject matter experts within the organization to deliver the best patient care.

4. Logistics

Frontline staff in the logistics industry plays a significant role by moving products from origin to destination, coordinating deliveries, and providing customers with real-time updates on package delivery status.

An Intranet connects various logistical teams and helps ensure customers and third-party partners stay updated. Connect your intranet with an extranet to send key real-time information and news to customers and collaborators in a self-service manner.

5. Retail

Frontline staff in the retail industry often remain unengaged and disconnected from their peers. This impacts their productivity and satisfaction at work. Moreover, most of their work is not recognized or appreciated by management. A modern intranet with an easy-to-use content management system and social capabilities like blogs, wikis, stories, badges etc. can help these workers voice their opinions and get recognized by top management. Retail frontline workers are more likely to spot important customer issues and identify processes that need improvements. An idea management system in an intranet can enable these workers to share their ideas and solutions to business challenges.

6. Wholesale

The wholesale industry depends on the frontline staff. From truck drivers to the sales personnel and tractor operators, these workers have desk-less jobs and are frequently mobile.

As such, wholesale enterprises must emphasize on deploying a mobile-responsive intranet or an intranet mobile app that will help them access critical information and get push notifications relevant to their job.

Get Started

As organizations adapt to the massive structural changes brought in by the pandemic, they must place particular emphasis on providing frontline workers with tools to communicate, share information, increase efficiency, ensure greater customer satisfaction, enhance innovation, and sustain a competitive edge.

Modern Intranets play a vital role in empowering and engaging the first-line staff by addressing challenges and needs unique to each industry.

If you are looking to deploy an Intranet to support your frontline workers, make sure to explore Acuvate’s Mesh 3.0, our AI-enabled SharePoint Intranet solution.

Mesh is the world’s first autonomous intranet solution, built with the best of Microsoft technologies, including Azure, LUIS, Graph, and MS Natural Language Stack, and features advanced capabilities, including –

If you are looking for more information, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our Intranet experts.