In many aspects of life, first impressions are vital, and providing onboarding for new employees in your organization is no exception. That’s why onboarding must be a smooth, engaging, informative experience developed to help retain talent.
But when we talk about frontline onboarding, we refer to onboarding in a fast-paced environment where workers must also deal with customers from the very beginning besides understanding their new role. That’s the importance of successful frontline onboarding, and in this article, we will tell you how to achieve it.
Why is frontline onboarding necessary for your frontline staff?
According to a Gallup report, only 12% of workers believe their company does an excellent job with its onboarding process. And even if this figure is relatively low, it’s not surprising since most companies carry out onboarding better suited to office employees. Meanwhile, frontline workers face challenges such as working in different locations, high turnover rates, and inexperienced managers.
If frontline workers don’t feel ready to perform their duties, they won’t have the confidence needed to do the job right, which can affect the service they provide and may lead to unsatisfied customers. Effective onboarding helps new hires feel like they are part of the company, understand their roles, and be better equipped to achieve their goals.
Also, 25% of all new hires who resign do so in the first 45 days, which is why good frontline onboarding will help prevent employee turnover in the company.
Challenges faced by deskless workforce in their onboarding
Frontline workers already are 80% of the global workforce. Even though frontliners are responsible for shaping the customer experience and representing the business face when dealing with clients, 50% of them will resign if they don’t have an excellent first impression of the company. You must engage them in your company’s culture and retain them quickly, and a good onboarding will be a significant first step.
But to give them a proper frontline onboarding, you need to truly understand this workforce and be aware of the many challenges they face:
Time
Time is a luxury that frontline workers don’t have when they start a new job. An office worker usually receives a smooth onboarding, with the time needed to adapt to the position and understand their duties. In contrast, a frontline worker is often brought on board as quickly as possible.
Also, turnover rates are typically high within businesses with frontline workers. When these teams constantly change, the chances of new hires starting simultaneously are higher, and the person in charge of onboarding might need more experience to train them.
Scattered workforce
Frontline workers might work in small shopping stores, in different businesses of large corporations, in hotels, or on the street. But they are usually scattered, which means they often work outside the office, so conducting training can be a big challenge.
A dispersed workforce means more significant difficulties in communication and training, which is essential to ensure that all teams work uniformly to achieve business goals.
Communication
Office workers have a corporate email or intranet to find out about the latest organizational changes or updates, even those who work remotely. However, most frontline workers often rely on their managers or supervisors to answer questions or resolve doubts, or perhaps a simple bulletin board or poster with instructions.
The problem is when it comes to asking questions because this lack of communication can become an issue if the manager or supervisor is off duty or performing other functions out of reach. Leaving the customer to find the necessary information (because many of these employees often work alone) can make them look unprofessional or ill-prepared.
Frequently, frontline workers don’t have technological tools that would allow them to communicate effectively with their colleagues and managers. Not only is this overwhelming and demoralizing for a worker just starting their new job, but it could also affect company productivity or customer loyalty.
#3 Keys to an effective frontline onboarding
A well-planned onboarding process means that all frontline workers undergo a formal introduction process and training that prepares them and answers any doubts they may have. But with a high turnover rate and the investment that represents training each new employee, many companies skip this step.
The solution is to give your staff everything they need to do their job perfectly. You must engage and prepare your employees to develop effective collaboration with excellent frontline onboarding. Check out these #3 keys to achieve it:
1. Onboarding begins before their first day
Before your new employee’s first day on the job, you must give him everything he needs to be prepared. The communication must be constant, you need to develop a roadmap for the first day on the job, and corporate knowledge must be available for the employee to understand their role, the company’s value, and his diary workflow.
And since we know that from the time an employee applies for a position, it may be a while before they start working, stress or uncertainty can play a negative role in the employee’s experience.
Onboarding strategies that start before the new hire officially begin are more successful than those carried out on the first day because they prepare the employee for their new role, clarify doubts, and provide support.
2. Provide the right technology
Technology plays a crucial role in successful frontline onboarding. A training app designed for this workforce is perfect for giving your new employee corporate knowledge, security policies, and other official documents necessary for his new role in the same place. The most advanced frontline workers’ technology even offers integrated communication and task management.
Using the right app for frontline onboarding streamlines processes and provides effective communication. Look for chat, video conference, task planning, and management features. Be sure your employees will feel included and prepared for their first day on the job. Are you looking for one?
Discover isEazy Engage, a training, communication, and task management app for frontline and deskless workers. With this state-of-the-art app, your employees will access all the content they need and have perfect onboarding and continuous training.
3. Provide digital training in different formats
Onboarding for frontliners differs from onboarding for office workers in many ways, especially regarding training. Gathering a dispersed workforce with varying work schedules to complete a training course can take time and effort.
Luckily, you can use many e-learning strategies to train your new employees. Mobile learning is one of them since it offers training accessible as checking your smartphone, is efficient and is easy to consume because it comes in small doses. Mobile learning facilitates different forms of education, including informal knowledge.
With a training app, you can design a training experience with micro-content using multimedia and interactives, such as videos, quizzes, audio, simulations, and more. You can also include gamification and microlearning to engage employees and enhance the training process.
Using technology as a primary resource when developing frontline onboarding is essential, especially during training. With an app, employees can access information needed, and having the material available anytime makes a big difference.
Create the best frontline onboarding with isEazy Engage
Now you have everything you need to create an effective frontline onboarding; the next step is to try isEazy Engage for free. Start using a technology developed for your frontline workers day-to-day, and give them training, corporate knowledge, and task management in one place.
With isEazy Engage is easy to create high-impact micro-content, perfect for mobile learning strategies, and it offers collaboration features to ensure your workforce is aligned and feels part of the business since their first day.
