COVID-19 has forced all essential businesses to look for new solutions that protect the health and safety of their frontline teams. As more employees return to work under restricted operations, staying connected and well-informed at work is more important than ever.
Digital enablement for frontline workforces is key to maintaining a well-informed, healthy workforce during COVID-19.
Here’s how digital tools are being used by enterprises all over the world to help essential employees work safely and efficiently:
- Keep frontline teams up-to-date on the latest policy and procedure changes
- Deliver information instantly to their employees’ mobile devices
- Allow leadership to closely monitor morale
- Digitize paper-based processes with mobile forms and checklists
Technology has been instrumental in helping essential businesses and frontline workers adjust to the new normal.
Here’s how to use a digital workplace to keep your essential employees connected and informed at work.
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Send Policy Updates in Real Time
Safety is one of the most pressing concerns for employers these days. For essential businesses, making sure that all employees receive updates about policy changes in real time is critical during the pandemic.
Frontline workers need to know how their employer is responding to the latest health guidelines in order to secure their safety. By not maintaining a safe work environment, companies aren’t just putting their employees at risk. They’re risking their bottom line, too. If they aren’t able to deliver the output they need, then they might be forced to shut their doors completely.
Rapidly updating frontline teams has been key for many essential businesses to remain operational during the pandemic.
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Cut Through the Noise
Companies that employ frontline workers have complex communication needs. They have to relay important updates about the pandemic in addition to the usual communications about daily operations.
To make sure that COVID-specific updates don’t get overlooked, companies should make these updates as accessible as possible.
Mobile-first platforms have quickly become a popular way to satisfy the communication needs of essential businesses. Companies can create dedicated streams for specific topics, including pandemic-related information.
For many essential businesses, providing essential workers with real-time updates can significantly improve worker safety, productivity, and, ultimately, company revenue. Companies can also use their mobile-friendly digital workplaces to stagger shifts and ensure that their workers can maintain physical distancing requirements.
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Keep Leadership Connected
Without a mobile-first communication system, it’s easy for frontline workers to feel detached and disengaged from management and leadership. During the current crisis, companies are taking the initiative to establish a more direct line of dialogue with their essential employees.
Receiving more frequent feedback from frontline employees gives company leaders a better sense of team morale and needs. Many digital workplaces come with a survey feature which allows managers to create targeted polls and surveys to measure exactly how employees feel about a certain topic.
As companies have had to make some difficult hiring decisions during COVID-19, keeping leadership and employees connected helps to retain workers as much as possible.
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Implement Cost-Effective Communication
Despite having to continue operations to some capacity, many companies that employ a frontline workforce are also being forced to operate on tighter budgets. Leaders within those companies have had to streamline their communication systems without adding additional costs.
With a digital workplace, essential businesses can create a robust communication system all on one platform. For example, one electronic components manufacturer in Germany has reduced operations, but the company is using a digital workplace to improve communication while working on essential projects. There is a health communication stream accessible to all employees, along with communication channels between on-site workers and managers.
Considering that the average frontline worker wastes three hours per week looking for information, investing in the right communication tools can significantly improve productivity, while also keeping essential employees safe and informed. In a time where we rely so heavily on the hard work of these essential employees, it’s time for businesses to take the necessary actions to ensure that they are safe and informed while on the job.