Back to Results

The Great Employee Engagement Divide – Engaging Frontline Workers – Rachel Miller

This snippet is part of our Ebook The great Employee Engagement Divide – Engaging Frontline Workers. Advice and suggestions from our Top 101 influencers. You can download the full eBook with all the advice here.

Rachel Miller, Founder, All Things IC

How internal communication can bridge the gaps

Organisations are a sum of their parts and siloed working is a common occurrence. Whether you have a head office and frontline workers, or are all in one building, divides occur.

In my experience advising companies around the globe, it’s not linked to a particular sector, location or type of business.

One of the starkest examples I’ve encountered was within the same building. Two identical teams in terms of size, location and surroundings, located a floor apart. Walking through the floors, one was vibrant, loud and full of energy. The second felt studious, quiet and solemn. I felt the need to tiptoe through the latter.

The difference? The local managers. Their style of leadership was the most dramatic I’d ever encountered. The first trusted their team to work in the way that suited them best as they wove through the floor speaking with them. The second was prescriptive, hovering over their shoulders and barking orders. I know which floor I’d prefer to work on!

Divides have always existed inside organisations, with perception of inequality becoming reality if left unaddressed. Frontline workers often feel they are doing the ‘real’ work of the organisation, head office employees fail to experience or understand what people out on the ground are facing in their daily work.

As professional communicators, it’s our business to know our business. My advice to shrink divides is to learn the reality of your organisation. What is keeping your employees awake at night? What is keeping your leaders awake at night? What’s on their minds?

Workers may be highly engaged at a local level; they may love their role, their team and location. The larger picture and organisation may not resonate with them as much.

There are various ways to reduce divides. My advice to any business leader or professional who is looking to engage their people is:

Make sure you are listening constantly to employees’ voices. Use your internal communication channels to share their stories.
Commit to act on feedback you hear.
Use internal communication to join the dots of your organisation. How can you help frontline workers see the impact their work has and how it directly relates to your organisation’s purpose?
Get to know employees at all levels and build fantastic relationships.
Create a culture of trust, where people feel able to be honest about their roles.
Establish networks of champions, so you are hearing what’s top of mind and use this insight to inform your decision making.
Amplify the voices of your people through effective two-way internal communication channels.
Don’t talk at your employees. The mindset you need is communicating for and with them. Don’t assume you know the reality of their roles.

Finally, create action plans to address the situation. If you want to take actionable steps to shift conversations about culture, trust and employee engagement, you need to make it tangible. Bust the jargon, assign ownership and create robust timelines to implement, review and measure your work.

What happens inside an organisation is reflected outside. Invest time examining what the divides are, gather stories and anecdotal evidence to prove your findings and commit the required time, resource and energy.