Blog | 09 September 2021
What frontline workers need from an intranet
We call them frontline workers. The employees who work in stores, production or perhaps out in a vehicle. They are the ones who meet your customers first of all and they are the ones who are visible and carry the brand out in society. They are incredibly important and you need to communicate with them, even though they don't sit in front of a computer all day.
Build for the user experience
Frontline workers generally do not spend much time on the intranet. Therefore, put a lot of care into the UX work and make it easy for the target group to find the information they need quickly. This could be things like reporting issues or searching a product register. Think about how your employees' environment affects them – maybe they work outside with gloves? Then the interface needs to be adapted accordingly.
Interflora's stores have intranets in Sitevision with one login per store. The intranet is always available at the checkouts and contains the entire article database, current campaigns and other news. Interflora is now also testing having screens in stores where customers can see a view of the stock balance, while staff can log in and access more information.
Clear onboarding
Many in the industry have to deal with the challenges of high staff turnover and seasonal employees. An onboarding guide on the intranet helps new employees know what knowledge they should be exposed to, what is expected of them in their roles and how to use the intranet.
The real estate company Rikshem sharpened its onboarding process with a six-part intro guide. It includes checklists on procedures, premises and other important knowledge that new caretakers need to have. When a manager hires new staff, they also go through a process that includes communicating internally.
The two most common questions
When Johan Nilsson, digital workplace strategist at Sitevision, meets customers with many frontline workers, he often gets two questions:
– Should we offer personal accounts or functional accounts (as in the example of one login per store at Interflora)? And this is of course linked to license costs. If you have Microsoft 365, for example, it quickly becomes expensive. Then it is good to consider whether all the features that come with such a license are actually needed for the target group or whether it can be solved in another way. With Sitevision, it is possible to create more comprehensive logins with licenses and the like for officials and combine it with, for example, an HR system or permissions in Sitevision to avoid the problem of extra costs.
Skistar is present in seven locations and abroad and goes from 280 to 2,500 employees when the seasonal employees start. They offer seasonal employees their own login to the intranet using the Sitevision user directory, allowing them to view personalised content such as schedules and what's going on with the lift that particular person works at.
– The second question is about cell phones. Should we offer staff mobile phones to access the intranet? says Johan and continues:
– That is of course the most optimal. If you weigh the benefits against the costs, I'm sure the former will matter most in the long run. You get a direct line to all employees and can connect other systems to the mobile too. The transport company Green Cargo replaced the binders and papers of the train drivers with a mobile and now they have all important info updated and quickly available. They also receive push notifications with operational messages. Statistics show that this is one of the most appreciated features.
