A Better Frontline Employee Experience Begins with Greater Flexibility

The frontline workforce is essential. Comprising an estimated 80% of the world’s working population, these resilient individuals serve as crucial contributors to organizations, communities, and economies everywhere. Too often, though, workplace research overlooks this critical cohort.

But frontline employees’ needs, preferences, and motivators can vary from their frequently studied corporate counterparts. That’s why we focused on the frontline workforce for the latest UKG global study, uncovering perspectives from nearly 13,000 frontline employees and managers in 11 countries and across industries.
 

Work-life balance can be challenging for the frontline workforce

By definition, frontline roles typically require employees to be physically present in a specific place and/or time outside the home to complete their work. This reality can make balancing work and life more difficult for the frontline workforce, compared with more mobile, laptop-toting employees. It also makes frontline employees more susceptible to debilitating factors such as workplace burnout.

That’s especially true for frontline employees who are also caregivers for their family. This group represents nearly two-thirds (63%) or about 7,000 of the frontline employees in our study — who, in addition to working, have caregiving responsibilities for children or adults at home. And don’t forget about frontline employees in the “sandwich generation” caring for their children and aging parents.

Indeed, 87% of frontline caregivers say it’s challenging to manage both their workloads and their caregiving responsibilities at home — and that number jumps to 91% for the sandwich generation. Over three-quarters of frontline caregivers (78%) also report feeling burned out by work (81% in the sandwich generation), and just 42% of frontline caregivers are satisfied with their overall employee experiences. This UKG Infographic illustrates several key differences between how frontline caregivers and non-caregivers feel about work.

Through pandemics, economic uncertainties, and other unforeseen circumstances, the frontline workforce continues to show up to work, though. Our research finds 1 in 5 frontline employees have remained at the same employer for more than 10 years.

Millions of frontline employees view their work not just as short-term jobs but as long-term careers, and they expect the same perks, programs, and personalized support that organizations typically provide to their desk-based employees. Organizations have some work to do here, as about half of all frontline employees globally (49%) believe there are two separate cultures in their workplaces: one for frontline employees and one for everyone else.

To help fix this workplace-culture chasm, it’s time to focus on improving the frontline-employee experience—and that starts with providing greater flexibility to the frontline workforce.

Greater flexibility can fuel a better frontline employee experience

Just how vital is workplace flexibility to the frontline workforce? As UKG data reveals, flexibility and work schedules are two of the most important factors frontline employees consider when choosing employers, only behind pay. But flexibility isn’t just desired by frontline job seekers. More than a quarter of frontline employees (27%) say they’d resign from their current organizations due to a lack of workplace flexibility.

The promising news is that over half of the frontline managers (54%) in our study say their organizations currently offer flexible hours and/or self-scheduling for frontline employees. Organizations are implementing additional flexible-scheduling practices, too, such as shift trading with co-workers (says 41% of frontline managers), part-time work with no loss of benefits (28%), compressed workweeks (27%), and job sharing (18%). However, 14% of frontline managers say their organizations don’t offer any of these flexible work arrangements, uncovering opportunities for improvement.

Workplace flexibility is a core component of better work-life balance, an ever-elusive luxury for a lot of the frontline workforce. About two-thirds of frontline employees (64%) say they’re not able to take as much time off from work as they’d like to, nearly half (48%) say it’s difficult to change their shifts for personal reasons, and 59% say they don’t have enough time in the day to enjoy their lives.

And while most frontline employees can’t work from home, they don’t always leave their work at the workplace. According to the study, about 6 in 10 frontline employees (59%) say they spend time outside of work thinking about or worrying about their jobs — even though several countries across Europe, Latin America, South America, and Oceania have enacted “Right to Disconnect” laws over the years, from France in 2017 to Australia in 2024.

It’s clear the frontline workforce craves a restful break from the workplace. So much so that, despite 64% of frontline employees reporting they live paycheck to paycheck, 53% would rather enjoy extra vacation time than receive a pay increase, 27% say they’d trade a promotion for more paid time off (PTO), and about 1 in 5 (19%) would even give up a portion of their salary/wages for an additional week of PTO each year, our study reveals.

Providing the front line with greater flexibility, more PTO, and increased autonomy over their work schedules can all serve to enhance the employee experience. Remember, though, that flexibility looks different for different people, from self-scheduling shifts to taking time off to picking up overtime hours that best serve employees’ personal preferences while aligning with organizations’ business needs. Surveying your employees to identify which flexible arrangements they prefer can help ensure your organization offers the most effective options for your people.

Workplace technology can help facilitate flexibility for the frontline workforce

Whether you’re running a small business, a nonprofit, or an enterprise organization, leveraging intelligent workforce management technology and AI in the workplace can help facilitate greater flexibility and prevent burnout among the frontline workforce.

Those organizations already taking advantage of this technology report feeling the positive effects on their workplace cultures. Frontline employees who use technology at work overwhelmingly cite beneficial impacts, as 83% in our study say technology plays a role in enhancing their workplace experiences, and among frontline employees who use AI tools at work, 94% say AI has helped improve their employee experiences.

Furthermore, frontline employees consistently report that workplace tools improve their experience. For example, 90% say scheduling tools make work better, while 89% say the same about communication and learning tools, and 87% about time and attendance tools.

And whether they’re currently using these advancements on the job, 80% of frontline employees want their employers to invest more in workplace technology. Plus, our study shows 3 in 4 frontline employees (76%) say they’d be willing to use their own devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet) for the technology, which is a significant sentiment because frontline employees don’t always have access to computers while at work.

Increased flexibility for the front line can yield positive business results

Across the front line, every person deserves a great place to work. Although some leaders focus solely on the needs of the organizations while otherwise overlooking the needs of their employees, decades of data from Great Place To Work®, a UKG company since 2021, shows that investing in your people—even in the most challenging and uncertain times, such as a recession — often yields positive results and can even lead to better organizational outcomes.

In fact, research just released by Great Place To Work shows companies ranked on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list have consistently outperformed the market by 3.5 times over a 27-year period, according to global index and data provider FTSE Russell. Said another way: Being a great workplace isn’t just great for your people, it’s also great for your business.

From the UKG global study, 66% of frontline employees say their organizations are great places to work. That means workplaces worldwide are already doing great work. That also means there’s plenty of opportunity to be even greater.

Focusing on providing a better experience for the frontline workforce through factors such as greater flexibility and work-life balance can put all organizations on the path to greatness, where the positive impacts on both your employees and your business are plentiful.

To learn more about how the frontline workforce feels about work and how to best support frontline employees, download the full UKG global report, Perspectives from the Frontline Workforce.