Your Frontline Workers Don't Feel Valued - Here Are 5 Tips to Boost Their Morale

Many employers now recognise that recognition and engagement can't be built on a one-size-fits-all approach. Most recognition programmes are still designed for someone who'll see a shoutout in a celebrations channel on Slack or Teams, which works reasonably well for office-based teams, but far less well for the warehouse, retail, care and logistics staff who make up a large share of the UK workforce. Only 4/10 deskless workers in the UK say they feel valued and appreciated by their employer, compared to more than 6/10 of their office-based colleagues (OC Tanner Global Culture Report). 

At KareHero, we work with employers to support carers across the workforce - and it's the deskless roles that tend to be hardest to reach. Here are 5 tips to make your frontline workers feel more valued:

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Meet people where they already are 

If recognition and benefits information only lives on an intranet or in an email, deskless workers will consistently miss it. Break rooms, noticeboards, staff room takeovers, QR codes and shift-based apps all reach people who don't sit at a screen all day, and where union reps are present, they're a valuable ally to engage with early. For adult carers in particular, shift patterns leave little room for hospital appointments, and there's rarely a private moment at work to disclose what's going on at home. Support needs to travel to where they are, not wait for them to go looking for it.

Build recognition into shift handovers and team briefings 

Recognition at the office often happens informally, in passing conversation or on Slack/ Teams messages. Deskless teams need that built in deliberately, through supervisors and shift leads trained to notice and acknowledge pressure in the moment, not just performance against targets.

Recognise the whole person behind the rota 

Real recognition means seeing someone as more than their role, and recognising that even strong performers are carrying things you can't see on a shift plan. People will need different support depending on where they are on their life journey - whether that's young people struggling with fertility issues, new parents juggling work with childcare demands, women experiencing the menopause, or adult carers looking after an unwell partner or parent. At KareHero, we see how easily adult care slips through the cracks: 1 in 5 UK employees are juggling paid work with caring for an adult loved one.

Train supervisors the way you'd train any other manager 

Frontline supervisors are often promoted for operational skill, not for spotting when someone's stretched thin outside of work. Simple, low-pressure questions like, "Is everything OK outside of work?", work well here - supervisors just need the training on how to handle these situations.

Show up when it counts, not just when things go well 

Telling someone they've done a great job matters, but it's not the only moment that counts as recognition. How you show up as an employer when someone's struggling matters just as much. Caring often misses out on this privilege, as many carers will never tell their employer - they're either worried it would affect their job security, or they simply don't identify as a carer. Just 34% of employers have a formal written or informal verbal policy in place to support working carers, and in the private sector only 18% have a formal, written policy aimed at supporting working carers (CIPD).

Through KareHero, that support looks like a dedicated Care Advocate working through the practical side of caring: sourcing the right care, applying for funding and benefits, arranging hospital discharge, or sorting legal matters like power of attorney. 

As Stephanie Leung, founder and CEO of KareHero, puts it: "In 2023, the UK workforce reached a tipping point. It was the first time in history that the UK workforce would look after more adult dependents than child dependents." Recognition that only shows up for a job well done misses this entirely: real recognition means being there in the moments people don't announce, not just the ones they celebrate.

KareHero is a free, confidential service supporting employees at every stage of the adult care journey, from early planning through to full-time caring. Through personalised, one-to-one expert support, we help colleagues navigate everything from funding and financial planning, to managing hospital discharges and legal help. We’ve unlocked over £12.3 million in funding for our families so far, putting real money back in people's pockets.

This article was originally written by KareHero for REBA.