Deskless not Voiceless; Leveraging Collaboration Platforms for Bottom-Up Communications

by Dave Nixon
Published on November 5, 2019

The biggest asset to your business is right under your nose. Or rather, on shop floors, behind counters and on the road. It’s your people on the frontline.

For most B2C businesses, frontline workers represent a majority of the workforce. In the US, the total number of frontline workers outweighs the number of people who work in office jobs. Yet traditionally, these deskless workers have been separated from the rest of the organization, mainly because they had no way of communicating with other employees.

Luckily for them, mobile-friendly work tools like Workplace are on a mission to transform the silent majority into cheerleaders for innovation, culture, and change.

Deskless workers are the people who know customers best. They hear honest feedback on products and services, spot trends as they’re trending, and gather first-hand insight. And as long as the desktop is the main lifeline into a business, those valuable insights stay confined to small scale teams.

Workplace allows frontline workers to share information and new ideas from the shop floor right up to the boardroom. Rather than relying on email, Workplace’s mobile-friendly interface allows employees to communicate in real-time via Workplace Chat, shared groups or in the Newsfeed. For instance, store staff can share creative merchandising ideas with other stores to boost sales. Remote staff can feel included in team meetings by joining in via Live Video. Hourly workers can contribute to discussions with C-suite staff via company-wide posts.

Not only does bottom-up communication foster inclusion and innovation, but it’s also highly motivating for employees. Research shows that people who feel their voice is heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to deliver their best work.

By giving every frontline worker a voice within their organization, Workplace breaks down silos and builds better avenues for communication from the bottom-up.

For some companies, that means creating a two-way dialogue between stores to solve shared problems. For others, it means increasing employee retention and filling internal vacancies faster. And for some companies, it means sharing more delightful moments at work that boost employee engagement and morale. What will it mean for your company?

Want to see how Workplace can transform your organization? Book a free demo and we’ll answer any questions you may have.

Meet the Author
Dave Nixon
One of our three Co-founders, Dave is Enablo’s Chief Experience Officer. An enterprise collaboration engineer and problem solver at heart, he has experience across the tech industry working for the likes of Google, PwC and Cloud Sherpas.

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