What Is Frontline Training?

Frontline training is a type of workforce-development program designed for employees in production, manufacturing, and operations, as well as those who interact directly with customers or clients. These individuals, often referred to as frontline staff, are crucial to an organization’s success; they represent the brand and directly influence customer satisfaction as well as the product or services provided by the organization.

What Are Examples of Frontline Roles?

Examples of frontline roles include jobs like the following:

• Healthcare professionals who provide direct patient service or care
• Customer-service representatives who handle customer inquiries and resolve issues
• Manufacturing professionals who physically produce, assemble, or handle the products that the company sells and whose work directly contributes to the creation of products or services customers receive
• Bank tellers who assist customers with their financial transactions

What Are the Unique Challenges of Frontline Professionals?

Frontline professionals often encounter challenges that can impact performance and morale:

• Mental stress: When customers or clients report complaints, frontline team members are the first to hear about and manage these issues. Facing difficult customers or situations can create a stressful and challenging work environment.
• Physical stress: Frontline roles often demand physical resilience. The physical demands of frontline workers may include heavy lifting, long hours, and hazardous environments—can compound the already significant mental strain these professionals experience on the job.
• Limited career opportunities: The business environment is constantly evolving, yet frontline team members often express they are not given opportunities to advance or develop their careers. This is one of the factors that lead to attrition.
• Lack of flexibility and work-life balance: Other factors that leads to attrition among frontline workforce members include a lack of flexibility and work-life balance. Long and restrictive hours often contribute to this.
• High turnover: The stressors and job anxiety frontline workers face is a contributing factor to turnover.

Why Is Frontline Training Important?

Frontline training gives team members a safe space to voice the challenges discussed above. This provides frontline leaders with the necessary tools and skills to build a customized training program. After all, successful customized training must align with the needs and objectives of your frontline team.

Here are some examples of focus areas for frontline training:

• Empathy and support: Leaders take the time to understand the needs and motivations of frontline team members. They use this to offer compassion and support, laying the groundwork for trust, respect, and teamwork.
• Skill gaps: Training can help frontline employees work more efficiently and effectively by addressing skill gaps around processes, procedures, and their ability to be a step-up leader, when needed. This can help them feel more confident and capable in their roles.
• Compliance: Many industries have specific regulations and standards that frontline employees must adhere to. Training can help ensure employees know these requirements and how to comply with them.
• Career advancement: Training provides frontline team members with an opportunity to develop new skills, in addition to their current skills, to better prepare them for future growth or advancement opportunities within the company.

What Are the Benefits of Frontline Training?

There are a number of benefits to providing frontline training:

1. Improved workforce morale and engagement: When employees feel supported, prepared, and confident in their roles, they are more likely to be engaged and satisfied. This can lead to higher morale, reduced turnover, and increased productivity.

2. Increased customer satisfaction: Confidence and positive outcomes do not simply stay with team members; they trickle down to customers as well. Happy customers are more likely to engage in repeat business and recommend the organization and its solutions to others.

3. Boost in sales and revenue: Frontline staff members and customer facing employees who have the motivation to succeed and the support to do so possess the tenacity to stay engaged in their roles, which can translate to higher sales and revenue.

What Are Best Practices for Frontline Leaders to Lean on?

Frontline leaders play a pivotal role in the success of frontline team members. Here are some best practices they can lean on when initiating frontline training with their teams:

1. Model Empathic Behavior

Empathy creates an inclusive environment where everyone feels like they belong and are comfortable voicing their ideas, thoughts, and concerns. This is pivotal to addressing roadblocks your team members face and making a true impact on their development. Providing compassion and support is key, especially when team members deal directly with clients and customers.

Leveraging empathy requires three things from you:

• An open-door policy: Encourage open communication and create a safe space for employees to share their thoughts and concerns.
• Active listening: Practice active listening to understand people’s perspectives and address their needs. Ask follow-up questions to ensure you’re understanding the other side.
• Clear expectations: Communicate clear expectations and provide regular feedback to ensure team members are working towards the right goals.

2. Focus on Workforce Development

Taking on a learning and growth mindset helps leaders meet team members where they are rather than projecting expectations on them. Because every individual is unique, addressing their specific strengths and skill areas to develop.

You can develop your workforce using a few different methods:

• Mentorship and coaching: Offer mentorship and coaching opportunities to help individuals develop their skills and advance their careers.
• Training and development: Invest in training and development programs to keep team members updated on industry trends and best practices.
• Career-path planning: Engage in career development discussions with your team members and help outline steps to achieve career objectives based on their goals, interest and desires and provide guidance to team members on achieving their goals.

3. Adaptability and Change Management

Members of the frontline workforce must deal with the varying personalities and needs of clients, customers, and colleagues. Industries such as healthcare and manufacturing are susceptible to frequent changes. Team members must keep up with these evolving demands to consistently produce quality work.

Leaders can support frontline staff by placing emphasis on adaptability and change management during training. This may include themes such as

• Communicating effectively: Communicate openly and honestly about changes to help frontline professionals understand the reasons and benefits.
• Providing support: Provide support and resources to help employees navigate and adapt to changes.
• Embracing change: Encourage individuals to embrace change as an opportunity for growth.

CMOE’s Training for Frontline Health Professionals

For healthcare leaders seeking to further develop their skills and empower their frontline team members, CMOE offers a wealth of resources. The Industry Insights page How to Be an Effective Leader in Healthcare provides additional insights on effective leadership practices specifically tailored to the healthcare industry.

For those in other industries, contact CMOE for additional targeted training tips and resources.