Building Technology for Frontline Workers: Best Practices and Where Tech is Headed

January 15, 2025

Frontline workers represent your company and value proposition to customers. Technicians, delivery drivers, therapists, home health workers—in every industry, the right technology empowers workers to deliver the highest-quality service.

But what makes technology “right” for frontline workers? Read on to learn more about what workers need from their tools and where technology is headed.

Key Principles for Frontline Tech

01 Accessibility
When it comes to frontline tech, one of the first barriers to overcome is accessibility. If the system is hard to get to, workers won’t engage with it. And when there are hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of workers, these problems become very hard to manage with most mobile applications.

02 Engagement
Mobile apps need to engage frontline workers. This goes well beyond the basics of where you’re going, what specifically you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, and how to get there. It’s about asking questions like:

  • How do workers interact with data that’s really important to their job?
  • How do staff interact with coworkers who are assigned to the same job, region, or service line?
  • What workflows are most important for executing work in the field?

03 Mobile-centricity
In the past, companies looked to adapt desktop-native platforms for workers in the field. But now—and going forward—it’s about creating mobile-first platforms that fit the entire lifecycle of frontline work. This requires mobile-friendly forms, customer signatures, one-click access to other data sources, and easy communication tools. 

Making the experience mobile-worker-friendly starts with core business processes. But it also includes staff communication, support, and workforce development. For example, training for frontline workers must be easy to deliver and consume via mobile devices, and it must be engaging enough to drive completion.

Building a technology strategy for the frontline

For companies with a large mobile workforce, technology strategies typically fall into two categories. Some companies have no technology strategy: workers are still using spreadsheets, paper, whiteboards, or massive Excel spreadsheets for scheduling. But more commonly, companies have a disjointed technology strategy: there are devices and applications in use, but the experience is poor. 

In a disjointed technology environment, frontline workers have to switch between unstructured data in email, SMS, WhatsApp, and multiple disconnected systems of record. They navigate multiple apps that serve distinct functions in the workflow, which creates a disconnected and frustrating experience. 

To build an effective tech stack for the mobile workforce, consider these components: 

Physical devices

First, it’s important to be clear about the constraints and commitment of physical devices for your mobile workforce. For example, in some unique cases, frontline workers may not be able to use a mobile device—perhaps they need to interact with physical hardware or a point of sale system, or maybe they’re switching between a large, fixed screen and a mobile device. 

Take stock of the needs of your specific workforce and the service(s) being provided, and keep those needs in mind when building your strategy. From there, consider key inputs like:

01 Governance, compliance, and security: This is critical when considering bring-your-own-device (BYOD) or company-provided technology. Any mobile workforce technology needs a strong foundation of compliance, security, and role-based access.

02 Primary functions and systems of record: Determine the most important applications for your company’s workflow. Specifics may vary, but all frontline workers need easy access to schedules, job details, customer info, safety tools, and communication features.

03 Integrate and incorporate adjacent systems: Complement primary systems by pulling in data from other sources: staff training systems, equipment manuals, best practices, and so on.

Software, apps, and systems

Be pragmatic about the technology your workers need to interact with, and consider the practical realities of using these tools. What are the primary systems of function and record for mobile workers? What about for schedulers and dispatchers? How about finance, customer service, and other departments whose work depends on frontline workers’ customer interactions?

To start, make sure frontline workers can easily answer the most important questions:

  • Where am I going?
  • What am I doing?
  • Who am I doing it for?
  • What do I need to know to execute my work?

From there, you can focus on simplifying the handoff points. Workers need to find and use info from various sources, e.g. CRM, equipment database, safety reference, best practices, and more. When a job is complete, next steps depend on easy access to customer forms, invoices, and follow-up communications. The more seamless these transitions can be, the more likely workers are to engage with the technology and get true value from it. 

Ease of use

More and more frontline workers want to, expect to, and need to interact with systems from the palm of their hand. Skedulo research found that frontline workers with sufficient technology are more likely to say their jobs are very autonomous (42%) and very flexible (42%). They’re also more likely to be very satisfied with their job (44%) and plan to stay for the next five years (35%). 

But mobile work is complex, and no single system can do everything. Scheduling, dispatching, optimizing routes, referencing equipment specs and manuals, training staff, reviewing customer histories, collecting payments—effective mobile workforce tech needs to support a variety of functions. More and more, companies are looking for connected, interoperable, customizable technology they can connect and adapt for their needs. This allows companies to benefit from best-in-class mobile technology, while still customizing the workflow for their own service(s), workforce, and market. 

Invisibility

In today’s mobile work landscape, it’s important to make technology feel “invisible”—seamlessly integrated into the workflow, reducing friction, and supporting frontline workers in doing their jobs more effectively. As the customer-facing representatives of your company and your value proposition, mobile workers need tools that give them more time, capacity, and enablement to do the work they were trained to do. 

The key to achieving “invisibility” in technology is how these different systems hand off to each other. When frontline workers have to manage several different applications on a mobile device, it creates a major cerebral load. By integrating various applications into one mobile-friendly workflow, companies create a much better experience for their workforce.

The future of technology for frontline workers

In the future, look for increased adoption of AI-enhanced tools for frontline workers. AI can meaningfully improve field service operations when used to:

  • Optimize field operations – automate common tasks and reminders, deliver the ideal route between job sites, and use smart scheduling and job matching
  • Analyze service data at scale – monitor productivity and other KPIs, flag outlier data points, and analyze profitability and efficiency of specific work types
  • Develop staff skills – deliver personalized training plans, identify coaching opportunities, and help newer workers learn from experienced and highly-skilled teammates

Moving into the future, AI will be more commonplace—but perhaps less visible than before, as the hype fades and AI becomes another tool in the advanced software toolbox. AI models will improve their quality, consistency, and reliability, and companies will pursue customized enterprise AI models where possible.

Also look for new technologies emerging in specific industries and verticals. In healthcare, for example, providers will need to continue to monitor and incorporate emerging technologies like digital therapeutics, remote patient monitoring, extended reality, and more. As these tools get better and more widespread, companies will need to factor in the needs of frontline workers when adopting these tools. 

Lastly, technology will continue to evolve to handle the most complex field service work. Frontline tech must be robust and flexible enough to manage multiple stages of work, job dependencies, and specific expertise and qualifications required for each component.

How Skedulo approaches frontline tech

Ten years ago, Skedulo identified the need for a productivity platform for mobile work. When building the initial product, we heard three clear themes from frontline workers:

01 Frontline workers are often highly skilled, trained, and well-equipped to do the work they need to do. Technology can be an accelerator to productivity, allowing them to optimize their time and productivity and build meaningful customer relationships. 

02 Job satisfaction is crucial. When frontline workers are highly satisfied, they are more engaged and more likely to deliver the excellent service they are capable of. Technology can improve engagement and connection for workers, especially for workers who are often isolated by the nature of their work.

03 Technology is now a key factor in employee retention. The technology stack and how workers are enabled in the field are increasingly important in employment choices. At a time when workforce turnover is a major challenge, the right technology can help attract and retain talented workers.

Today, these themes remain largely the same, but with more nuance. The availability of technology is not enough anymore—the quality of the experience matters. Mobile workers expect a great experience from all of their technology, including their field service tech.

We have continued to build up Skedulo with the frontline workers’ experience at the center. The platform is designed for productivity and engagement through the whole life cycle of the frontline workers’ day, particularly when they’re highly mobile.

Request a Skedulo demo for your mobile workforce

Skedulo is an operating system for the way companies manage and organize people and their time, skills, capabilities, and constraints. With native integrations and API connections, companies can bring intelligent scheduling and workforce management to their existing tech stack. Connect Skedulo to systems like Workday, NetHealth, eduMe, and many more to create a seamless, worker-friendly experience. 

To see what Skedulo can do for your frontline workers, request a demo today!

 

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