6 ways to use internal communication to drive frontline employee retention
Frontline employee retention remains a top challenge in 2025, but the key to retention isnt just higher wages. Its ensuring frontline employees feel effective and valued in their roles.
Yet, leaders may not realize the urgency. The Deskless Report 2024 revealed that while frontline employees report an average happiness level of 77%, executives assume its much higher at 92%a 15-point perception gap that can lead to inaction. When leadership believes employees are more satisfied than they actually are, they risk overlooking key issues that drive disengagement and high turnover.
One of the biggest gaps is in internal communication. The Deskless Report uncovered that nearly a quarter of frontline employees feel they lack the essential information needed to make informed decisions, close sales, and perform effectively.
Without clear and consistent communication, even the best engagement strategieslike training, DE&I or wellness programswont have the impact they should. But when frontline employees feel informed and connected, theyre more engaged, more productive and more likely to stay.
Here are 6 ways to use internal communication to improve frontline employee retention:
Retention tactic #1: Dive into the magical world of gamification
Who doesnt love a good game? A points system can have a massive impact on employee engagement, motivation and employee retention, even without a rewards program. Gamification is a proven strategy that drives results. Nearly 90% of employees say it makes them , and organizations that use gamification are than those that dont.
The idea is simple: award points for actions that support company goals, like completing onboarding training, engaging with internal communications or providing feedback. And the impact is clearemployees experience a when their work is gamified, and 72% say it motivates them to work harder.
To successfully integrate gamification into workplace communication, focus on key elements: clear goals, transparency, competition and community. And if you choose to add rewards, they dont always need to be monetary. Small perks like a lunch voucher or an extra day off, paired with employee recognition from leadership, can be just as powerful.
駈 Also read: 3 Questions You Should be Asking About Gamification
Retention tactic #2: Meet staff where they already aretheir phones
Have we already touched on mobile learning? Yes. Is it important? Also, yes. When your workforce is deskless its important to send communications where your team members will get them.
Our research has shown that 91% of workers are using their phones at work, whether or not it’s permitted, with 47% checking their phone 1-2 times per hour. And a whopping 60% of frontline employees said theyre using their phones during shifts for work-related communication or finding work-related information.
So the takeaway here: Creating engaging, fun internal communications is important. But when your workforce is deskless its important to distribute these communications where your employees will get them. And thats their mobile devices. Using devices to communicate with your frontline workforce also means you can share information in real-time when its most relevant to them, especially since they dont typically have access to company emails or intranet sites during their shifts.
Bonus: employees using bring your own devices (BYOD) approaches are proven to actually save time at work.
You can also take it a step further and implement a choose-your-own-device (CYOD) strategy. Unlike BYOD approaches, CYOD ensures that frontline workers have access to a variety of devices suited to their roleswhether its a desktop computer, a Zebra handheld device, a tablet or a personal smartphone. Designing training and communication tools with responsiveness in mind ensures that all employees, regardless of the device theyre using, have the same access to important resources.
Check out how Foot Lockers mobile-first training approach drives team member behaviors that keep customers smiling.
Retention tactic #3: Every employee has a story to tellso help them share it!
Deskless workers are often more removed from the corporate settingand removed from each other. Despite having thousands of coworkers, frontline and deskless employees likely only know a handful of team members, and usually only the ones who work at the same location or on the same shifts. In fact, according to our research, 60% of frontline workers would like to have a strong community with employees outside their location.
This is why building an employee experience that fosters community can be an easy win for boosting employee engagement and driving employee retention. A great way tobuild an employee communityis to bringtheir own voices into your communications. This might mean day-in-the-life posts, where employees record their day with video and photos while on the job; it might mean having workers guest-write posts on your communication platform or newsletter; or it might even mean conducting interviews with new employees to help the broader community learn more about each other.
Not only does this kind of internal communication campaign help your staff feel seen and heard, it helps forge relationships between regions, locations and individual workers that will make them feel more connected and loyal to the company as a whole.
Retention tactic #4: Use Ask-Me-Anythings (AMAs) to make senior leadership more approachable
In large organizations with thousands of employees, its easy to forget the type of information that some workers might find valuable. Opening up communication so that everyone can ask questions and address any concerns can mitigate issues before they become bigger. It also provides a chance for the head office to become more visible to the frontline workforce and increase that sense of belonging and community.
Enter the wonderful world of ask-me-anythings. Running a senior leadership AMA at your frontline organization is an effective way to learn what employees want to know about, not just what you think they should know about.
Do I ever end up squirming up there? Sure. There are plenty of times when Ive been caught entirely off-guard,” said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein about starting a regular AMA with his employees.“But thats precisely the point. The element of surprise is the secret ingredient that makes the internal AMA such a valuable tool.
When your company scales beyond a certain size, its easy to lose touch with whats relevant for people at different levels of your organization. In this sense, the AMA is a powerful way to collapse corporate hierarchies and ensure that all perspectivesnot just those from the topare heard.
Retention tactic #5: Go interactive with channels for upward communication and feedback
Gathering upward feedback from your team can go a long way to boosting employee satisfaction and strengthening their employee experience. Plus, surveys and quizzes have the added benefit of adding an interactive element, which is key for effective internal communication.
With pointed questions, multiple choice answers, as well as open-ended options, your deskless workers across the company can feel as though their voice matters and that their feedback and opinions are important to the companys growth. These can identify knowledge gaps that you can fill with future communications, as well as identify opportunities you might not have thought of previously.
Another benefit is that quizzes and surveys allow you to test knowledge rates and identify gaps that need to be addressed either with further communication or more training. Its also a great way to measure readiness and confidence in an open-ended way by conducting a temperature check of sorts with your employees. This can go a long way in improving confidence and boosting employee loyalty and retention.
Retention tactic #6: Focus on task execution and consistency
Think internal communication is just about company updates and HR initiatives? Think again. Forward-thinking frontline organizations use their internal communications to also drive operational consistency and task execution.
Think about it this way: your staff wants to do their job well. And they dont like it when their role and tasks are too ambiguous.
As Dr. Wendi Adair, Professor of Organizational Psychology, puts it this way in our Q&A with her on employee communication:
Information is power. If you have information, it makes you feel capable and able to do what you need to do. It makes you feel able to help other employees. And that gives you a sense of well-being. We talk about it as power, but its really feelings of capability and competence and confidence. And then on the flip side is when you dont have enough information. So maybe theres something about your role thats ambiguous. You dont know exactly how youre supposed to go about doing a certain procedure or task. Or maybe you have role conflictsyou have different supervisors asking you to attend to different things and you havent been given clear instructions on how to prioritize. That lack of information leads to feelings of uncertainty. Which leads to stress, and would decrease employees psychological well-being.
And, of course, no one likes to feel stressed. When a workforce doesnt have a clear sense of roles and tasks, theres a much higher risk for turnover. On the other hand, when organizations leverage an internal communication tool or platform that clearly assigns tasks and reinforces processes, employee productivity, engagement and retention will soar.
The more interactive, accessible and engaging your communications, the greater their impact on your frontline’s sense of connection and community, which helps to boost their desire to stay with your company for the long term. Implementing these proven tactics will help ensure employees feel valued, seen and heard.