When called to consider the biggest challenges facing their frontline organizations, leaders often point to financial strains or outdated technologies. While these are certainly disruptors, a more subtle issue plagues many companies: misalignment between leaders and frontline workers.
In any organization, each party has their own objectives for their work. Leaders want to collect accurate data to find efficiencies and strengthen service delivery. Frontline workers aim to serve customers effectively without being weighed down by administrative tasks.
When motivations collide and misalignment grows, processes fragment, frontline workers get more burnt out, and customers inevitably feel the tension. In an episode of our Frontline Innovators podcast, we talked with Carl Hefele, Director of Field Services East at Idemia, to get his insights on how leaders can realign with their teams. Here’s what he had to say about building a culture grounded in productivity, collaboration, and high-quality service.
Signs There Might Be a Disconnect
If things aren’t going smoothly in your organization and, even worse, your customers are noticing, there might be misalignment between your leadership team and frontline workers. Look for these signs.
Leaders Don’t Know What Frontline Workers Need or Experience
According to HR Dive, only 23% of frontline workers think their senior leaders understand their day-to-day work. Another study found that just 21% of frontline professionals are happy with their company’s communication and collaboration. These are major red flags that signal misalignment — and they can quickly lead to processes and workflows that hinder rather than help frontline workers do their jobs.
Frontline Workers Don’t Understand Company Goals
“Lack of line of sight to goals” is one of the top frontline productivity killers, according to Pathstream. When teams can’t see the bigger picture, they can’t see how their role and work fit into it. The frontline worker ends up focusing on different objectives from the company’s leadership.
Frontline Technology Slows Things Down
Frontline technology is meant to streamline processes so frontline workers can do their best work. If the tech is making tasks take longer than before, take it as a sign that the technology you’ve implemented isn’t suiting the needs of your frontline workers.
Gathering the Right Data Is Difficult
Data is crucial to organizational improvement, but if your frontline workers are struggling to collect the right data — or collect it promptly — the data-gathering systems you’ve put in place might be too complex or burdensome.
4 Strategies for Collaboration for Frontline Workers and Leaders
For leaders of transportation, field services, and call center organizations, getting back on track starts with better understanding frontline workers and their needs. From there, it's about creating processes that facilitate better collaboration and, ultimately, better customer service. Hefele says these four steps can help.
1. Work a Day in Their Shoes
It’s easy to forget what frontline workers experience every day, so schedule regular reminders. Go on ridealongs to see the conditions in which frontline professionals are working. What does it take to make things happen in the field? What’s holding workers back?
Engaging field-level techs — or even picking up the screwdriver yourself — can help build trust, morale, and transparency with frontline workers. It also provides hands-on moments for mentoring, which can help both parties align their work objectives.
2. Revisit Processes Together — and Start Small
Wanting to move fast is natural for any organizational leader — time is money, after all. But moving too fast or doing too much at once creates productivity roadblocks.
To better align with frontline workers and ensure processes truly meet their needs, take a fresh look at day-to-day workflows. Start small by implementing a single process, technology, or goal, then build layer by layer, ensuring each step supports how frontline employees actually work.
Ask your frontline workers one simple question: How do you get from the beginning of your work to the end? Map out the process together and eliminate any steps that slow teams down or pull them off track.
Also, avoid constantly creating and layering new processes. Instead, replicate what already works. Use your ridealongs to identify effective processes, standardize them where possible, and stay open to new ideas as you go.
3. Train the Trainers With the Right Tech
Connection, alignment, and collaboration must happen at every level of the organization to be effective. That’s why it’s critical to hold training sessions for managers and team leaders that emphasize active listening and breaking down silos.
Even better, rely on a digital readiness platform like Skyllful’s to bring training directly to managers and their teams. These systems support frontline digital adoption without requiring significant time and resources from leaders. With the right platform, leaders can build a culture of improvement, digital readiness, and collaboration at every level.
4. Listen to the Experts
Good leaders know a lot about their industry and work. Great leaders also know what they don’t know. When misalignment occurs or processes aren’t working, turn to the people who know the work best. A frontline worker may know exactly how to reduce downtime. A manager might know which frontline technology will strengthen mobile training. A team member may have deep experience with performance tracking. Collaboration for frontline workers and leaders begins and ends with this kind of understanding, trust, and connection.
Busting Siloes and Building Connections
It might be tempting to layer on another technology to fix a broken workflow or get teams talking more. But true improvement comes from building human capacity and connection. Technology should support that work, not serve as a stopgap.
Skyllful’s Digital Readiness Platform equips teams with what they need to excel on the frontlines and gives leaders deeper insight into their experiences. With real-world, mobile training, teams gain more accurate data, improved employee satisfaction, and better internal alignment.
Reach out today for a demo of the platform to see Skyllful’s tech in action.
Want to learn more collaboration strategies from Carl Hefele? Listen to Skyllful’s Frontline Innovators podcast episode.
Frequently Asked Questions: Takeaways From the Frontline Innovators Podcast With Carl Hefele
Why does misalignment between leaders and frontline workers happen?
Misalignment often arises when processes or technologies are implemented without a full understanding of how frontline workers actually perform their jobs. Leaders tend to focus on efficiency and data collection, while frontline workers prioritize serving customers without added administrative strain.
How can leaders quickly identify that a workflow or technology isn’t working?
A reliable signal is how it feels to use. If a process overwhelms leaders, frontline workers are likely experiencing even greater friction. Slowdowns, workarounds, and backlogged tasks are all red flags that realignment is needed.
What’s the best way to redesign processes with frontline teams?
Start by asking workers to walk through their day from beginning to end. Map the steps together, identify unnecessary or repetitive tasks, and pilot small changes before scaling them. Replicating what already works is often more effective than creating new processes.
How does a digital readiness platform like Skyllful’s support frontline organizations?
It equips teams with real-world, mobile training that mirrors actual work scenarios. This leads to more accurate data capture, reduced downtime, higher employee satisfaction, and better alignment between frontline workers and leadership.
Leader/frontline employee alignment is essential: Misalignment between leaders and frontline workers creates bottlenecks, burnout, and inconsistent customer experiences — but it’s fixable with intentional collaboration.
