Taking Care of Your Deskless Workforce: Why You Need to Implement Continuous Employee Feedback

When it comes to employee engagement, corporate culture often comes to mind – the 9-5 grind. However, the truth is that 80% of the global workforce is deskless and mobile. Most employees work on the frontline, directly interacting with customers, products, or infrastructure. As a leader, you might not have regular contact with these mobile workers, but their roles are critical in shaping the customer experience.

Despite the importance of deskless employees, many companies struggle to engage them effectively. A happy employee is more productive and more likely to go the extra mile for their organization. With an estimated 2.4 billion employees worldwide, their engagement is essential. The global pandemic highlighted the importance of frontline workers such as nurses, restaurant employees, grocery store staff, janitors, and manufacturing workers. These roles should be a top priority for organizations.

A study by APPrise Mobile surveyed over 1,000 deskless employees and found that 44% felt disengaged and overlooked by their employers. Furthermore, 84% of these workers believed management did not communicate with them effectively. So why are deskless employees often left out of employee engagement initiatives?

The Importance of Engaging Deskless Workers

Engaged employees are more productive, have better attendance, and yield better results for their organizations. To improve performance, businesses must actively engage their teams. In today's competitive economy, employee engagement is crucial to gaining an edge. The pandemic spotlighted the need for effective engagement strategies for deskless, essential workers. With reduced team sizes across industries, companies must focus on retaining talent and maximizing productivity while maintaining employee satisfaction.

Strategies for Engaging the Deskless Workforce

Research indicates that businesses are not effectively engaging their deskless employees. While technology has long catered to office workers, it has only recently begun to address the needs of the deskless workforce. In 2020, Millennials constituted the majority of the workforce, and their demand for new workplace technology has grown. Fortunately, technological advancements now offer tools to enhance employee engagement for deskless workers.

Real-time feedback tools allow organizations to gather feedback from deskless workers. Gathering feedback this way helps with engagement because workers need to feel heard and valued. If no one bothers to ask them how things are going, how can they feel heard? By collecting feedback in a way that meets them where they are, it sends a strong message that the organization cares and is willing to improve the worker experience.

Many organizations have implemented technology-enhanced continuous worker feedback systems to improve engagement for their deskless workforce. This technology goes far beyond sending out an e-mail survey and hoping workers respond. After all, we are not working with employees that are sitting at their computers. They are active, on the floor and on the move, which means the feedback collection mechanism needs to work with them and be convenient for them.

Enhancing Employee Engagement with Innovative Solutions

Press'nXPress is built for exactly this. Leveraging advanced AI software, it lets business leaders install physical Smiley feedback terminals right where deskless teams already are — in the plant, on the floor, at the entrance. Place the smiley-face terminal next to the clock, and employees answer a quick question and share how their shift went as they clock in or out. No app to download, no email to open, no laptop required.

Because that feedback is captured in the moment, the results are more accurate and more effective at gauging real engagement than a survey remembered days later. And when a pattern emerges — a shift, a location, or a team trending negative — PXP AI reads the open-text comments to surface why, so HR and operations can respond to a real issue instead of guessing at a number. Innovative solutions like this help businesses understand their people and make the improvements that actually matter.

Deskless employees play a vital role, and it's time to offer valuable tools that enhance their job satisfaction. Frontline workers are often overlooked when it comes to employee engagement initiatives, which can lead to reduced revenue, poor customer experiences, and high turnover rates. Companies that practice continuous employee feedback in the workplace report 14.9% lower turnover. The cost savings in hiring and training alone make investing in feedback technology worthwhile. When employees can conveniently provide continuous feedback, it boosts motivation, productivity, and overall job satisfaction — and because engaged teams create better customer experiences, the payoff extends to your customers too, a connection we unpack in Employee Experience Is the Other Half of CX.

Ready to give your deskless workforce a voice? Book a demo to see how real-time Smiley terminals capture frontline feedback the moment it matters. You can also follow our LinkedIn page for more on improving employee and customer experience.