Why it matters, what you can do

Firstline employeeengagement:

Firstline employee engagement: Why it matters, what you can do

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Table of contents

Introduction: Why employee engagement matters.

Scheduling & Task Management.

Why you should care.

Communication & Community.

What you can do—and is it worth it?

Training & Onboarding.

Firstline problems need firstline solutions.

Identity & Access Management.

Ready to engage?

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Employee engagement isn’t just about feeling happy at work or job satisfaction. It goes right to the heart of what makes your business unique, as well as successful.

It’s about developing a workforce that is passionate about what they do and that can help drive innovation and improvement.

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Why you should care

Multiple studies show that the impact of disengagement can be severe.

When it’s affecting your firstline workforce—whether they’re customer-facing workers or manufacturing your products—you’re risking direct hits to your customer experience, product quality, and your brand.

Examples of disengagement are varied. Maybe it’s a retail worker who is tired of having to check the shift schedule in person, or the hassle of swapping shifts. Maybe it’s that worker’s manager, who spends hours each week creating shift schedules and wonders if there’s a better way. Maybe it’s a floor worker in a plant who spots a problem but can’t get in touch with a supervisor to approve a fix.

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Glassdoor cites a Gallup estimate that places losses to US companies at between $450 billion and $550 billion.1

In other words, the potential impact is fundamental toyour business.

Just as there are different causes, those causes affect employees to different degrees. Employees who are “disengaged” still show up and get their work done, but their productivity often suffers and they don’t bring any intangibles to the table.

“Actively disengaged” employees are not only unhappy in their work, but also act out in ways that undermine the morale and productivity of coworkers.

Over time, frustration builds, and as the situation continues, disengagement sets in. And if disengagement is affecting your firstline workers, you need to do something about it.

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The cost of disengagement

Just one disengaged employee can

cost a company $2,246 per year.201

Disengagement contributes to

millennial turnover that costs the

US economy $30.5 billion annually.302

$450 to $550 billion in total losses

per year for US companies.103

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What you can do—and is it worth it?

The costs are real, but what about the benefits of improving engagement? The good news is that, yes, there is good news: Improvements to employee engagement can have just as big of an impact as costs on your bottom line, or even bigger.

Engaged workers are more productive—and have lower absenteeism rates, lower turnover, and fewer safety incidents.3

By focusing on four main areas—scheduling and task management, communication and community, training and onboarding, and identity and access management—you can unlock the potential of firstline workers by creating a more engaged workforce.

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The benefits of an engaged workforce

32%

41%

59%*

20%

More committment4

Less absenteeism3

Lower turnover3

70%Fewer safety incidents3

More sales3

*Actual range is 24% to 59%, depending on industry.

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Firstline problems need firstlinesolutions

With new applications like Microsoft StaffHub, Office 365 F1 focuses on building engagement in 4 critical areas

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Scheduling & Task Management

Communication & Community

Training & Onboarding

Identity & Access Management

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Scheduling & Task Management

Employee engagement survival guide: Why it matters, what you can do

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New to Office 365 F1, Microsoft StaffHub gives firstline workers simple, smart tools for scheduling shifts, assigning tasks, and sharing information.

New features: Microsoft StaffHub• Create and update shift schedules• Access tools and information from any mobile device• Share new policies, documents, or videos

These tools free managers from the time-consuming task of making sure each shift is covered for the week. Now they can focus on connecting with teams and customers and looking for opportunities to improve operations.

Employees can engage with convenient mobile and web tools to view their schedule, swap shifts, request time off, and connect with their team.

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With Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Flow, Office 365 F1 lets users access new apps for firstline workers that capture their insights and expertise, simplify frontline processes, and automate workflows.

New features: Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Flow• Secure, built-in data platform• Access new apps that capture firstline worker

insights and expertise• Automate repetitive tasks

Research shows that empowering team members—for example, with technology advances like StaffHub—helps leaders, managers, and employees alike become more engaged and improve their performance.

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In fact, business units that report high engagement also report 10% higher customer relationship metrics, 20% higher sales, and 21% higher profitability.3

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Communication & Community

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Being at the forefront usually means distance from decision makers and communication hubs within a company, as well as regular interaction with a limited circle of coworkers.

This often makes firstline workers more vulnerable to feeling out of the loop.

Managers can use Yammer to keep firstline workers informed about developments on their team. With Skype for Business workers can message with a manager in real time to resolve customer issues face to face, and tune in to company-wide “town hall” events to share the experience virtually with coworkers.

New features: Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business and Yammer• Share best practices across the organization• Collaborate in real-time with persistent chat, IM,

and presence• Keep firstline workers updated with company

announcements

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By integrating new ways to communicate seamlessly into their work, you can help improve connection to colleagues and engagement with the company.

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Training & Onboarding

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In so many ways, firstline workers are where your business happens. No matter their role, if they’re not onboarded effectively and current on their training, it’s just about impossible for them to do their best work.

Every quality person you hire wants to get off on the right foot, and stay there. Deficient onboarding experiences and training resources can be sources of frustration that lead to disengagement.

This helps them stay current on new policies and procedures in a way that fits into their workday and work/life balance.

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Employees want access to the latest training information, preferably from any device, whether they’re at work or not.

Office 365 F1 empowers employees with targeted features to store, use, and share the latest training and onboarding resources via SharePoint Online, Office Online, and OneDrive for Business.

By combining various features of these applications, you can simplify training programs, centralize and scale learning content with team sites, solicit feedback, and appeal to multiple learning styles. And when you make career development easy, you make it easy for employees to stay engaged.

New features: OneDrive for Business, Office 365 Video• Manage and share work files• Collaborate from any device• Complete portal to upload, share, and play back

company video content

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Identity & Access Management

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As anyone who has experienced it knows, managing accounts and identities for a firstline workforce can be time-consuming, if not exasperating, as well as a source of security risks.

Not only are firstline workers often cut off from their company’s IT services, but they present a dynamic and constantly changing user base that can be very demanding for anyone trying to keep credentials and accounts up to date.

For admins, that includes enterprise-grade security and IT benefits, combined with the familiar, easy-to-use tools of the Office 365 IT admin center, to maintain control over identities and access and manage firstline user accounts. For employees, that means gaining fast, convenient access to the systems, features, and services they need to stay engaged.

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Office 365 F1 delivers security and data protection specifically for firstline workers, while reducing overall business risk.

Ready to engage?

Learn more about Office 365 F1.

Sources:

1.Glassdoor for Employers, “The Cost of a Disengaged Employee,” Alyssa Retallick, blog post, May 25, 2015.

2.American Express Open Forum, “How Much Disengaged Employees Really Cost You,” James O’Brien, PhD, Oct. 22, 2013.

3.Gallup, “State of the American Workplace 2017,” Gallup.com.

4.McKinsey Quarterly, “Why frontline workers are disengaged,” Michael Bazigos and Emily Caruso, March 2016.

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