Introduction
1.1. The divide between frontline and desk-based workers
Frontline and deskless workers make up most of the global workforce - approximately 2.8 billion people worldwide. These employees are the engine of enterprises and the backbone of many industries. From factory floors to retail stores, driving trucks to delivering customer or patient care – they are the people often tasked with executing company strategy.
However, frontline workers have traditionally been underserved by workplace technology. While office staff have email, intranets, collaboration suites, and various productivity apps, frontline teams often lack access to even basic digital tools. This digital divide leaves frontline employees disconnected and unable to easily access information or company updates.
Enterprises have certainly increased their focus on frontline worker engagement in recent years - particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic - but the fact remains that deskless workers are still largely being eft behind, leading to a multitude of issues that drain productivity and constantly frustrate. Unily’s recent study of enterprise frontline workers revealed the extent of some of these issues:
- It takes frontline workers 5 days to find out important company updates.
- 71% of frontline workers are reduced to using their own unauthorized tools or apps for things such as accessing and sharing company information
- 27% of frontline workers say they receive conflicting communications from HQ and on-site teams.
Disconnected and disengaged:
The economic cost of frontline friction
A separate study by Deloitte found that only 23% of frontline workers feel they have access to the technology they need to be productive, and 80% say their company provides “few opportunities” to connect with coworkers or leadership.
This gap in connectivity and tools has created an inequity of experience across the workforcewhere frontline staff often feel like second-class corporate citizens.
1.2 The need for frontline investment
Several forces have heightened the focus on engaging frontline workers. The COVID-19 pandemic shone a spotlight on frontline roles and their essential contribution, while also exposing how isolated and under-informed these employees could feel during crises.
At the same time, labor shortages in industries like retail, hospitality and manufacturing have pushed companies to find new ways of attracting and retaining frontline talent. As a result, internal communications and HR leaders are prioritizing initiatives to bridge the gap for frontline employees and give them digital tools akin to those of office workers.
Investment in the frontline digital experience, like a frontline app, is now seen as a high-impact lever for improving engagement, customer satisfaction, and profitability. In short, companies can no longer afford for their frontline workforce to be an afterthought of digital workplace strategy.
The rise of the Employee Communications App (ECA) is a direct response to the urgent need to better reach and engage these employees. However, not all solutions are equal. A basic communications app by itself won’t fully close the gap – in fact, it may risk widening the divide between desk-based and frontline employees.
2. ECAs in the context of frontline worker experience
2.1 The convergence of EXPs and ECAs
For a couple of years now, analyst firms like Gartner have pointed out that we are witnessing a convergence of Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs), and Employee Communications Apps (ECAs) into more unified solutions. In the past, companies often had a classic intranet for HR policies and news (mostly serving desk-based workers), and perhaps an ECA to reach frontline teams with mobile news updates.
Today, these once-distinct tools are coming together as part of an integrated employee experience strategy. Yet, it is important to balance this integration with the need to provide content, experiences and tools that are tailored to the unique (and often very different to knowledge workers) needs of frontline employees.
From intranets to EXPs
Modern intranet platforms - often now known as Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs) - have radically evolved from the static, document-heavy portals of old. They are no longer just about posting company news or HR documents – they have become dynamic hubs for communication, knowledge, services and community, and even AI-powered experiences. A modern intranet platform is expected to essentially serve as the digital home for the entire workforce.
Employee Communications Applications (ECAs) – initially conceived as discrete mobile tools for internal communicators – are currently also attempting to expand their scope. ECAs are now expected to include newsfeeds, social capabilities, and personalization and analytics - features that have been, up until recently, associated more with intranets than mobile-first products.
At a time when organizations are becoming increasingly aware of so-called 'app proliferation' and IT leaders are seeking to consolidate IT estates, many buyers prefer to work with just one solution that can reach the entire workforce. This means ECA vendors are under pressure to expand their capabilities, going beyond 'just communications' to address broader employee experience goals, and rapidly add capabilities traditionally associated with intranets or HR systems.
2.2 Good news for enterprise buyers - or not?
The result of these shifts is a blurring of lines between an intranet and a communications app. In fact, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions in 2024 includes several vendors that originated as employee communication apps, but later added a ‘front door intranet’. ECAs are therefore adding intranet-like content repositories, while intranet platforms are adding mobile apps and real-time comms.
Unily ranks first in all Use Cases in the 2024 Gartner® Critical Capabilities™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions.
For enterprise buyers, this convergence is essentially good news. It promises a more “joined-up” digital workplace, where employees – whether at a desk or on a factory floor – can rely on a single, cohesive platform for everything including top-down announcements, knowledge bases, collaboration spaces, and self-service tools.
Communicators and IT leaders no longer have to juggle separate systems for their intranet and their frontline comms. This convergence also reduces the number of "swivel-chair moments" an employee has during a working day - proven to be a growing productivity drain.
While it’s positive news that ECA/ intranet vendors are heading in this direction, this approach does make it more difficult for enterprises to find an EXP that truly serves both frontline and desk-based employees equally well. It can often be difficult to see beyond vendor claims, versus practical realities.
3. ECA features: successes and limitations
3.1 High hopes and quick wins
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of Employee Communications Apps entering the market. Dozens of vendors, from startups to established enterprise software companies, have launched mobile-first platforms promising to revolutionize internal communications. The picture painted was one of breaking down silos and ensuring even the most dispersed worker feels connected to the company’s mission.
Early adopters of ECAs often saw quick wins and success stories circulated: plants or stores where a majority of employees downloaded the app, or cases where urgent alerts reached frontline staff in minutes. During the pandemic in particular, organizations invested in ECAs to rapidly communicate safety protocols or schedule changes to employees who weren’t sitting at desks.
Backed by such promise, the ECA vendor landscape grew crowded. Each solution attempted to showcase a point of difference. Some emphasized their user-friendly news feed, others their content management ease for communicators.
Analyst firms like Gartner responded by publishing Market Guides for Employee Communications Applications (first issued around 2021). All vendors promised to boost engagement, give every employee a voice, and modernize the corporate intranet experience for the mobile age.
3.2. The limitations of standalone apps
As the dust settles however, it's become clear that many organizations have found the reality of ECAs more challenging than the initial promise suggested. While an ECA can indeed improve communication reach, deploying one doesn’t automatically solve deeper engagement and information access issues. Some common realities include:
- Siloed implementation: Often, ECAs are rolled out as standalone tools by the internal communications team, without deep integration into the company’s broader digital workplace. In such cases, frontline employees get a new “comms app” on their phone, but remain disconnected from other systems. The initial promise of one-stop-shop is not being realized.
- Narrow focus on top-down news: A number of ECAs essentially function as a one-way news feed – think of them as a modern newsletter channel. They excel at pushing announcements but offer little else in terms of functionality. It’s common for usage to drop off if the app isn’t deeply ingrained in employees’ daily workflows. In short, engagement with the app itself can stagnate if it’s not providing value beyond company announcements.
- Content and maintenance challenges: Launching an ECA is one thing; keeping it populated with fresh, relevant, targeted content is another. ECAs must be integrated with existing content channels, otherwise it means extra work to copy or create content specifically for the app. Some organizations may end up with duplicated efforts, maintaining a legacy intranet and a separate ECA, or even multiple ECAs for different regions. This leads to inconsistency and higher workloads for comms teams.
- Overlapping tools causing confusion: In some cases, companies have deployed an ECA while still having other communication channels (email newsletters, team collaboration apps, digital signage, etc.), resulting in fragmentation. When not orchestrated properly, employees don’t know where to look. Paradoxically, a tool intended to unify communications has added another layer for employees to check. This undermines the promise of a seamless experience.
- Variable adoption and ROI: Crucially, not all ECAs will deliver a strong Return On Investment. Metrics like monthly active users or content read rates may end up below expectations if the app isn’t truly indispensable for frontline employees. Gartner has advised organizations to carefully validate ECA vendors’ claims and their product roadmap – a nod to the fact that some solutions might not be enterprise-ready or sufficiently comprehensive.
In essence, the promise of ECAs can fall short if the tool is deployed in isolation or viewed as a cure-all for engagement woes. Indeed, many businesses have had to rethink their approach. Rather than abandon ECAs (which do serve an important purpose), the lesson learned is to situate them within a broader employee experience strategy. The leading solutions in the market are already adapting, by expanding feature sets and emphasizing integrations, effectively offering a more "joined up" approach across the enterprise.
3.3. ECA features: hallmarks of a market leader
Not all employee communications apps are created equal. Offering mobile-accessible news feeds are now table stakes - the difference between a rudimentary app and a market-leading platform lies in the breadth and depth of features designed to support the full internal communications lifecycle and beyond.
Here are some of the key features you should expect in an ECA, and the hallmarks of a top-tier solution in today’s market.
- Unified experience: It provides a seamless, mobile-optimized experience where employees can get news, info, and tools in one place (often as part of a larger EXP that also serves desktop users).
- Frontline-friendly design: It is purpose-built for frontline usability – simple, intuitive, and works on any smartphone. .
- Depth of features: It’s not just a newsfeed – it covers the full spectrum: top-down communications, bottom-up employee feedback, social interactions, knowledge management, search, and integrations for workflow.
- Personalized and smart: It delivers personalized content and uses data/AI to continuously improve relevance and timing. The best ones may also proactively surface content an employee needs (e.g. an update for their location) and hide what they don’t.
- Analytics-Driven: It offers deep analytics and insight, enabling communicators to prove ROI and refine their approach with data.
- Enterprise level security and scalability: It can scale to hundreds of thousands of users reliably, with enterprise-grade security, compliance, and admin delegation features.
By contrast, an ECA that lacks many of these features is considered basic, and certainly not fit for enterprises with global workforces. It may improve on old methods of comms, but it won’t drive the level of engagement and alignment that a more complete platform would.
4. The digital divide in action
4.1. Beware the simple news feed
One of the paradoxical outcomes seen by organizations is that deploying a simplistic communications app without broader functionality can actually exacerbate the divide between frontline employees and knowledge workers.
Low adoption: As already noted, the disparity of access to digital and tools between frontline and knowledge workers is stark. In Unily’s recent study, almost a third of employees who found it difficult to access information or resources complained about things still being stored manually. If an ECA doesn’t enable frontline staff to do the practical things (like replacing paper forms with a digital workflow), it can lead to low adoption. As an example, stories of glitchy shift management capabilities, leading employees to revert back to paper shift swapping and not adopt the frontline app at all, are surprisingly common.
Excluded from an organization's knowledge flow: A simple newsfeed app that pushes occasional updates does little to truly integrate frontline teams into the organization’s knowledge flow. Key information that office workers can easily search on the intranet might still be out of reach for a frontline associate if the app lacks those capabilities. No wonder Unily’s research found that nearly three-quarters of frontline workers (72%) do not have a strong grasp of company strategy. It's critical then that an ECA does not create a two-tier knowledge hierarchy.
No access to productivity tools: Perhaps the biggest gripe from frontline teams is when the provided app does not help them do their jobs. An app that only shows company news but doesn’t facilitate access to key tools, all in one place, is a prime example of this. If a frontline employee has to chase down a manager for information that could have been on a central hub, or if they are unaware of a policy update that affects how they do a task, many things can suffer: productivity, service quality, or even compliance or health and safety.
Inequity and employee turnover: All these factors contribute to what Deloitte described as the “inequity of experience across the workforce,” which can erode morale. Frontline workers may feel less valued, which is a huge driver of disengagement. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 51% of frontline workers in on-management roles do not feel valued by their company. Employee turnover in frontline roles is also notoriously high – Unily's study shows only 39% are happy in their jobs and 21% are looking to leave in the next 12 months. Multiple factors contribute to this, but a lack of inclusive communication is certainly one.
4.2. Quantifying the gap
The impact of an under-supported or disengaged frontline is quantifiable. Unily’s new research reveals that a single frontline employee is spending:
- 124 hours per year searching for information or resources
- 120 hours per year unable to work due to poor access to information or resources
- 132 hours per year having to redo work due to an initial lack of information or resources
The research also reveals that the economic cost of this is running into the billions of dollars – find out more by reading the report:
Download the exclusive research here
Meanwhile, disengagement that leads to high turnover in frontline roles can be costly (often 2-3x higher than in office roles), in terms of repeated recruiting and training expenses. For instance, frontline-heavy sectors like retail see annual turnover rates up to 60%. This figure is simply unsustainable and shows that the root causes – some of which we’ve touched on – must be addressed.
5. Recommendations and conclusion
5.1. Look for a joined-up solution with a frontline pedigree
The stats cannot be ignored. For organizations looking to arm frontline employees with a strong app that genuinely enhances engagement and productivity, a joined-up solution is the best approach to take. Here are some key recommendations:
- Choose an employee app that links to the same content and community that desk-based workers see, but with an interface optimized for mobile.
- Check for disparities between the desktop and mobile experience. For example, certain targeting or personalization features may be available on one and not the other (or only available for an additional fee). Alternatively, multilingual capabilities may not be comparable between the two. Such disparities are an indication that the vendor isn’t thinking about their product and platform in a joined-up way.
- Look for solutions that have been independently verified by analyst firms such as Gartner, Forrester or IDC as having strong frontline capabilities. These experts pore over the fine details of solutions, gather customer references, and rate apps on their ability to deliver on their promises.
In summary, a joined-up approach fulfils the original promise of ECAs in a sustainable way. It drives engagement and productivity, connects every worker to the organization’s strategy, and ultimately creates a more agile and aligned enterprise. It’s not about communications for communications’ sake; it’s about enabling your people to do their best work no matter where or how they work.
5.2. Conclusion
The surge of employee communications apps in recent years signalled a positive intent: companies recognized the need to better connect with all employees, regardless of where they work. However, as we’ve explored, a simple ECA is not enough to support the full employee experience.
A basic newsfeed app may provide a short-term boost in communication reach, but it can fall short in delivering sustained engagement, knowledge access, and a sense of inclusion for frontline workers. In some cases, it even risks reinforcing the very gaps organizations are seeking to close – the frontline can remain digitally disconnected and under-served if we stop at just pushing news.
The evidence is compelling that organizations achieve far greater results when they adopt a holistic, joined-up approach. By converging internal communications with intranet capabilities and broader employee experience tools, they create a one-stop platform that empowers every employee.
This leads to more engaged workers (translating into higher productivity and innovation), lower turnover and absenteeism, and ultimately better business outcomes – from culture, to customer satisfaction to profitability.
Ready to learn more?
We at Unily have spent two decades building and refining the technology that powers some of the world’s largest and most complex digital workplaces. Our Employee Experience Platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with critical ITSM solutions - providing the best of both worlds. If you’re ready to explore how an EXP can help your organization overcome digital friction and drive tangible business outcomes, contact us today to discuss your next intranet project.
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