How to bridge the deskless divide: 7 practical strategies

For organisations with people working across offices, shops, warehouses, sites and other frontline environments, creating a consistent employee experience can be difficult.

The problem isn't necessarily what's on offer. You might have valuable employee benefits, a strong recognition programme and regular company communications. But if some employees find them harder to access, hear about or use because of where and how they work, a divide can quickly emerge.

This is the deskless divide: a gap in employee experience between people with ready access to workplace technology and those whose roles don't revolve around a desk, laptop or company email. 

It's a challenge worth addressing. In our “Bridging the Gap” report, our research showed that more than a quarter of employees surveyed felt businesses weren't doing enough to create parity between office-based and deskless workers. More than half also believed office-based employees received more recognition than their deskless colleagues.

Here are seven practical ways HR and People teams can start closing the gap.

1. Aim for equity, rather than making every employee experience identical

Bridging the deskless divide doesn't mean giving every employee exactly the same experience.

Different working environments create different needs and constraints. A benefit that works perfectly for an office-based employee might be difficult for someone working shifts in a shop, warehouse or care setting to use.

The aim should therefore be equity: making sure employees receive comparable value, even when the way you deliver it needs to differ.

For example, if one group of employees can't realistically make use of a particular benefit because of their working pattern, consider whether something of equivalent value could work better for them.

The question isn't simply, “Are we offering everyone the same thing?” It's “Can everyone get meaningful value from what we're offering?”

2. Make benefits easy to find, understand and use

Offering a benefit is only the beginning. Employees need to know that it exists, understand why it's relevant and be confident about how to use it.

That becomes particularly important for deskless employees who may not spend their working day checking emails, browsing an intranet or sitting in front of a computer.

Short videos, screen recordings and in-person demonstrations are great tools to show your teams how benefits work in practice and to break through small barriers that can otherwise have a disproportionately large effect on adoption. 

For example, if an employee tries a benefit once, finds the process confusing and gives up, that experience can shape how they view the whole offering.

Make the value tangible. Instead of only saying “you can save money with your employee benefits”, demonstrate what someone could do, how the process works and what they could get from it.

3. Communicate through the channels your deskless employees actually use

There isn't one perfect channel for communicating with a deskless workforce.

An email-first approach can exclude people who don't regularly use company email. An app-only strategy can have the same problem if employees can't use their phones while working. And relying entirely on managers can create bottlenecks as information moves through an organisation.

The answer is usually a multi-channel approach based on how different groups actually work.

From newsletters, videos and in-person visits to team briefings, manager communications and centralised digital content, adapting your communication channel to the audience is key. 

Think beyond “Where do we publish our communications?” and ask “Where will this group realistically encounter them?”

For employees without regular access to company email, there are also ways to make benefits, recognition and company culture more accessible. 

4. Don't rely on a single announcement

Launching a benefit is just the start. Without regular communication, it can easily disappear from employees’ radars.

People are busy. A message can arrive at the wrong point in a shift, get buried beneath other communications or simply not feel relevant at that moment.

Regular communication keeps your offering visible throughout the year and gives employees repeated opportunities to engage when it is relevant to them. This can be achieved through a mix of benefits brochures, newsletters, videos, leadership communications and regular reminders.

The important word here is consistent, rather than constant.

Too much irrelevant communication creates noise. Instead, consider the moments when a particular benefit, wellbeing resource or recognition initiative is most useful and build communications around them.

5. Turn engaged employees into genuine champions

You don't have to rely entirely on HR or line managers to encourage engagement.

Employees who already understand and value what's available can become some of your strongest advocates, particularly across dispersed locations where the People team can't always be physically present.

There's an important distinction, however, between appointing a champion and finding one. Where you can identify employees who are already using and talking positively about your platform, encourage that existing enthusiasm. These employees can answer everyday questions, demonstrate how something works and share their own experiences with colleagues.

As engagement grows, advocacy can begin to generate itself: one employee discovers something valuable, shares it with colleagues and helps more people understand what's available.

6. Make recognition accessible across locations and shifts

Recognition can become uneven surprisingly easily.

Office-based employees may have more face time with senior leaders. Achievements can be mentioned during meetings. Managers can give informal thanks as they walk through the office.

Those moments are harder to replicate when colleagues work across stores, warehouses, shifts or field locations.

And employees notice. Our report found that more than half of respondents believe office-based workers received more recognition than deskless employees.

A more inclusive recognition programme gives employees a way to recognise great work regardless of location or hierarchy.

That doesn't mean recognition needs to be exclusively manager-led, either. Make recognition visible and accessible across the organisation to help ensure good work isn't overlooked simply because it happened away from head office.

7. Listen to deskless employees and adapt

You won't bridge the deskless divide by deciding from head office what frontline employees need.

Ask them.

Employee surveys, conversations during site visits, manager feedback and usage data can all reveal where the real barriers are. That might uncover a benefit employees want but don't currently have, a communication channel that isn't working, or an existing benefit people simply don't understand.

Just as importantly, be prepared to change course.

Your deskless engagement strategy doesn't have to work first time, so long as you’re ready to switch up your approach and evolve with the needs and behaviours of your people.

The most effective approach to bridging the deskless divide isn't one particular channel, benefit or piece of technology. It's making the employee experience accessible within the realities of how different people work.

That means using the right communication channels, making benefits straightforward to access, giving managers the tools to support their teams and creating opportunities for employees themselves to participate.

Technology can make that much easier, but technology alone won't create engagement.

Speaking to people directly gives your employees an opportunity to see how things work, ask questions and build confidence in what is available to them.

For many organisations, the strongest approach will therefore combine accessible technology with genuine human communication.

When employees are spread across sites, shifts and different working environments, bringing more of the employee experience together can make it easier for everyone to participate.

Perkbox helps organisations connect employees through benefits, recognition, wellbeing and company culture, creating an experience that can extend beyond employees sitting behind a desk.

That can give deskless employees a more accessible way to see what's available to them, recognise colleagues and stay connected with the wider organisation.

Discover how Perkbox helps connect deskless and dispersed employees