Non-desk employees, also referred to as frontline employees, significantly impact a company’s success. Especially since they are the people that interact with your customers most frequently.
At many companies, however, these employees are often recognized or prioritized less than their office counterparts. Even if not intentional, non-desk employees can feel out of the loop when not at least somewhat integrated with the rest of the company.
Luckily, there are ways to efficiently integrate non-desk employees with the rest of the workforce, and this is how things should be. Not only is this more respectful for everyone involved, but we’ve also found that integration improves employee productivity, due to improvements in communication, employee satisfaction, and overall efficiency.
Improvements in Communication
Communication should encompass more than “email threads” and one-on-one meetings. For one, neither of these forms of communication prove all that useful for non-desk employees. Often out and about or otherwise distanced from other workers, these employees can be more difficult to reach with traditional forms of workplace communication.
This “distance” between employees in the same company can be significantly reduced with peer-to-peer and group messaging with the proper internal communication platform.
Peer-to-Peer Communication
Peer-to-peer communication — which conveniently doesn’t require exchanging details or phone number swapping — gives all of your employees the ability to quickly and easily message anyone in the company. In addition to text-based messages, employees can also share links, documents, images, and videos.
Quicker response times and increased availability directly translate to improved efficiency (and fewer headaches).
Group Messaging
When it comes to group messaging, you have the option to create dedicated channels. This enables you to engage and share information with specific groups of employees in a way that is more specific and personal than other forms of communication.
Say goodbye to the days of annoying email chains which never fail to include either too many or too few relevant employees. Instead, messages and updates can be shared with only those who need them.
You can also engage with the company as a whole and include non-desk employees in the sharing of company updates, news, and events. This isn’t only good for keeping everyone on the same page — it’s also good for morale.
Improvements in Employee Satisfaction
Working at a company that doesn’t communicate with you very often, or that doesn’t communicate on a somewhat personal level, can cause feelings of exclusion. Nothing says “you aren’t a vital member of this team” like receiving zero communication from the rest of the organization.
Include all your employees with the utilization of company-wide notifications regarding policy changes, workplace incidents, and anything else that could benefit all employees.
Plus, giving your non-desk employees access to the same sources of information and avenues of communication as other employees can keep them feeling respected and included. Providing all employees with the same platform works towards creating the team atmosphere that leads to a company’s success.
It goes without saying that most employees also want to have a voice. Instant incident reporting and safety feedback give everyone the ability to voice concerns and ask questions effortlessly and at their own convenience.
Naturally, employees that feel like valuable members of a company will be more productive than employees that feel excluded or inferior.
Improvements in Efficiency
With improvements to communication and employee satisfaction, an improvement in efficiency will naturally result.
Employees will be able to contact anyone they need to instantly, which can, in turn, make all the difference between a satisfied and unsatisfied customer, or between a job done well and a poorly done job.
Improvements to communication and morale reach further than your employees. After all, your employees interact with other employees, as well as customers, in many instances. A satisfied, well-connected employee is better equipped to positively interact with customers and other employees than an unsatisfied, disconnected employee.
Non-desk employees can have a significant impression on others (and especially on customers), so it only makes sense to consider their productivity and well-being as being as important as that of other employees. Doing so gives your company an advantage, compared to competitors content on using outdated, fragmented technology.
