When it comes to priorities in the workplace, there may indeed be a disconnect between frontline workers and their employers. But if a new survey is to be believed, the latter are making a sincere effort to repair it.

The term “frontline” is more than metaphorical; it refers to positions that involve physical labor and often direct contact with the end customer. Anthony Abbatiello, U.S. workforce transformation leader with PwC, defines it as anyone “directly in the line of manufacturing, who interacts with any product that’s being created.” The term can also be extended to the warehouse and retail floor, as well as those delivering goods to the loading dock or shopper’s doorstep.

Now comes a new survey from PwC, targeting 108 human resources and operations leaders in the manufacturing sector, identifying “a rising urgency to help improve the frontline experience.” It finds 62% of respondents vowing to “aggressively” ramp up the hiring, training and retention of skilled frontline talent. Forty-eight percent give themselves “average” or “below average” marks in providing those workers with a positive employee experience.

“Overall, our survey findings strongly suggest that many manufacturers can redouble their efforts to help improve frontline worker engagement by making the workplace more satisfying and meaningful in multiple ways that go well beyond attractive pay,” PwC said.

Abbatiello says the push to hire more frontline workers, and improve the lot of existing ones, is in response to increased customer demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. (A key attribute of frontline workers is that they don’t have the option of working from home. The word “remote” isn’t in their experiential vocabulary.) What’s more, new advances in technology are altering the profile of the frontline worker, who is being asked to acquire a whole new set of skills. The trend suggests “a shift toward digitization and the need for adequate training and support,” he says.

Pay, of course, continues to be a priority for the frontline workforce. The new PwC study underscores the need for “competitive benefits and total rewards,” including medical and dental insurance, retirement accounts, reimbursement for childcare, and maternity and paternity leave. Dynamic and flexible work scheduling is also key. But other less tangible concerns are of equal importance, including “helping enhance the sense of belonging at work, cultivating a more inclusive culture and offering a clear-cut path toward career advancement,” PwC said. In the survey, manufacturing leaders cite several “impactful” factors in creating worker satisfaction: “instilling purpose” (86%), “recognition” (78%) and “fostering personal growth” (68%).

For now, much of that effort remains aspirational. A full 71% of survey respondents say they “either struggle with or could improve” mentoring programs for frontline workers.

The labor shortage plaguing frontline workplaces today is understandable, given lingering fears over COVID-19 and its seemingly endless variants, combined with the numbingly repetitive nature of so many associated tasks. That’s why employers are placing particular emphasis on employee retention — hanging on to the workers they already have. (Thirty-six percent of respondents to the PwC survey say they’ve experienced high attrition rates among frontline workers over the prior six months, versus just 10% for non-frontline positions.) That’s where abstract terms such as “meaning,” “purpose,” “recognition,” “personal growth” and “connectiveness” come to the fore.

How to make those concepts concrete? One priority that’s anything but abstract is safety. Eighty-six percent of survey respondents say that’s crucial to creating a positive environment for frontline workers. It starts with obvious policies such as strict safety rules, protocols and injury-avoidance measures. But those need to be augmented by “frequent breaks, mental health resources, on-site fitness centers and flexible work arrangements,” PwC said. All are crucial to ensuring the overall health and well-being of the frontline worker.

Also important are opportunities for advancement, which can be hard to identify in a manufacturing plant or warehouse. Abbatiello suggests that the higher skills required by new technology can make workers more attractive candidates for positions in management. To make that a reality, employers need to commit to reskilling and up-skilling of workers on the floor. Effective policies include tuition reimbursement for continuing education.

At the same time, employers need to assuage workers who fear that the coming of technology will eliminate their jobs altogether. Some replacement of workers with robots, especially for the most mundane, taxing and laborious tasks, is inevitable. But most manufacturing and distribution facilities will continue to require some combination of humans and robots for the foreseeable future — hence the ongoing need for a commitment to worker retention. 

Additional research echoes these concerns and mandates. PwC’s aply named annual Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey, last conducted in June of 2023, found that a significant number of employees of all types were “restless” and likely to change jobs within the next 12 months, even as they suffer increasing financial hardship. For employers, another section of that survey summed it up in three words: “Transform or die.”