Deskless and disengaged - how can you stop me from leaving?

Author: Sue Willcock

Knowledge workers - who typically sit at a desk and work on a computer - have a high level of access to flexible and hybrid working arrangements. What can organisations do to provide their deskless or frontline peers with similar benefits that will lead to a higher level of engagement? Sue Willcock has some suggestions for re-engaging this crucial but increasingly disaffected part of the workforce.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 44% of UK workers are now using some form of "hybrid" pattern as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, splitting home working with time in the office. And we've become used to the benefits too.

It seems a long time since these things were in the "logistically difficult" category for those workers who have the benefit of working at home, with flexibility now baked into their role.

But what of the workers whose roles are described as "deskless" or "frontline"? Retail assistants, nurses, doctors, teachers, factory workers, construction workers, warehouse operatives - in fact, any worker whose job does not involve them being in front of a computer most of the time.

The 2024 Global Culture Report by O.C. Tanner tells us that these are now the most disengaged workers we have. It goes on to say that they "feel invisible" and two in five say they feel they "are viewed as inferior" by desk workers. That's a high number, indeed.

So, what can organisations do about it?

Imagine a "day in the life"

If you have never worked in a deskless role it's worth taking a moment and considering a "day in the life" of someone who does, and how their role might differ from yours.

Choose a job in your organisation that does not involve working at a desk and briefly consider how this role might compare to yours. What time do you get up? What does your day look and feel like? How much control do you have over what you do and the way you do it?

As you make the comparison, it may become clear why our frontline workers might feel disgruntled when they look at their desk-based colleagues. It certainly feels as though the "lifestyle gap" between the two ways of working has grown, and this disparity is compounded for some by fear-inducing headlines threatening that technology, the economy and patterns of consumer behaviour will remove jobs altogether. We only need to look at the reduction in high street banks and the increasing use of self-service checkouts. And this is not just a retail trend - a combination of sector recruitment challenges and customer preference has driven online table ordering as well as kiosks in the hospitality industry that promote self-service.

Add into the mix that Gen Z (born 1997-2012) are putting work-life balance and wellbeing high on their wish lists for jobs and you have a potent cocktail of disengagement. The figure given by the O.C. Tanner report is that 52% of deskless workers want to leave their role.

So what are the things we can do to "shift the engagement dial" for frontline workers?

Walk a mile...

Engagement survey and exit interview statistics are a good place to start if you want empirical data. But, as the saying goes, to understand someone's point of view you need to "walk a mile in their shoes".

As HR professionals we can speak to managers to obtain insight (although recent research has found that 40% of managers consider their relationship with HR "weak"), but it's also important to get close to frontline workers directly. You may well see things differently from their managers or be able to "join the dots" operationally and spot opportunities for change.

Visit your frontline workers in their workplace. Hold face-to-face focus groups. Speak to individuals one to one. Look at their surroundings and try to understand the challenges that each group faces. 

Josh Bersin cites the example of nurses who said that a change in the location of the wardrobes in patients' rooms would make it much easier for them to manoeuvre medical equipment - an easy fix to a problem that had caused a lot of frustration, but that might not have come to light via survey results.

Communicate and deliver

Unless we get closer to day-to-day operations, well-intentioned activities can easily miss the mark, leaving frontline workers feeling that they are not understood, especially by senior leaders. For example, a campaign on work-life balance and wellbeing sent to personal email addresses would likely be read by frontline workers "out of hours" - this would create a scenario in which actions and words do not match.

It's important, therefore, when we are thinking about the outcome we want for a particular audience - in this case, optimised wellbeing and work-life balance - that we carefully consider the "how" of the delivery. 

A leading construction company had great success with engagement of site-based staff by putting their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content online in the form of regular podcasts. These allowed the audience flexibility as to when they listened. There was also an "online Q&A chat" that people could post to at any time, to suit their own habits. This was in contrast to a more restrictive email-centred communication controlled by head office.

Crucially, as Steven Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, make sure senior leaders and HR teams "listen to understand". Build in strong feedback loops that make it easy for all employees to inform and be part of the culture.

Support and empower managers

As we get closer to the workforce operationally, we should view managers as the eyes and ears of the organisation and, critically, empower them to make local changes that make life better for their teams.

A multi-store retailer, for example, may have well-defined standards and working patterns that provide governance and consistency around their brand and customer experience across all sites. Local store managers, however, should be trained and then empowered to manage the delivery of these with the authority to make local changes while still being compliant with health and safety, employment law, etc. They may alter shift patterns, change stock delivery days and manage the stock room differently to another store to empower their team to do their best.

Define "frontline flexibility"

One of the widening gaps is the perceived unfairness between the flexibility that can be offered to desk-based compared to deskless employees. While the law around the right to request flexible working has changed recently, offering flexible working to frontline workers remains challenging and can require operational transitions.

But it can be done. Examples drawn from workplaces that are moving towards greater flexibility include:

• giving more notice of rotas to allow individuals to plan ahead;
• having systems and processes in place to allow rota swaps between colleagues;
• having a flexible "bank" of staff who work when they can, and book shifts based on availability (eg "bank" nurses);
• blocking shifts where a certain number of hours are needed over the week from a team of a specific size, but one person in the team can choose a half day to come in late or leave early during the week; and
• offering split shifts so people can start work later or earlier across the week.

Create connections

Finally, consider how you might create connections in frontline worker communities. Since COVID-19, employee assistance providers (EAPs) and organisations such as the Retail Trust have offered added resources to support the development and wellbeing of individuals. Don't overlook the value of recreational courses, clubs and networks to create connections. Post-pandemic statistics show that people want social connections - how can you support this?

Action points

The post-COVID era frontline workers are seeing big differences between their working lives and those of their desk-based colleagues. With over half looking to leave their roles, we can prioritise and increase their engagement by:

1. Seeking to understand their operational experience in the workplace, not as a group, but in terms of the details of their individual roles (eg store assistant, chef, nurse, doctor) and adding this knowledge to any data insights we have.
2. Ensuring we communicate through appropriate channels that go to them in their areas of work. Don't try to bring them into the desk-worker world - just saying "It's on the intranet" is not a suitable option!
3. Engaging managers to empower them to make local changes that work.
4. Understanding what flexibility could mean in our organisations.
5. Providing opportunities for connection.