With all of the news focusing on layoffs and potential economic challenges, it might surprise you to hear that employers hiring frontline staff are still struggling to find enough people to fill all of their open positions. In 2023, these challenges will continue, but employers that understand what the frontline workforce needs will be able to attract and retain them more easily.

The full report on our research across 3,000 global frontline workers will be published in January, but below we have pulled in some key statistics worth noting. For instance:

  • More than 2 billion global workers (and 82% of those within the US) are in frontline roles
  • While frontline staff can’t work from home, they prefer other types of flexibility around schedule, autonomy, and training opportunities
  • While 2 out of 3 of these workers say they are paid fairly, 80% of them also say they have faced financial challenges from rising costs
  • Frontline managers hold a special power to facilitate or destroy an employee’s satisfaction and engagement at work, and we have discovered some of the outcomes of having a great frontline manager (see below)

If you want to go deeper into the insights, here’s the on demand replay where Rebekah Raudebaugh from Workday and I talk through some key findings.

Here’s the printable/downloadable version of this graphic