Psychology of the Frontline Worker: How HCM Tech Accommodates Their Wants and Needs

psychology of frontline worker in hospitality

If there’s any silver lining to COVID-19, it’s the newfound emphasis employers have on the physical and mental well being of their team — especially in hospitality and other service-based industries. Before the pandemic, employees were conditioned to plow through 8+ hour workdays on repeat, all while pushing aside feelings of discomfort or illness. Employee wellness was backburned.

It’s an unsustainable way to work, especially for front-line staff in labor-intensive jobs. Service-based industries like hospitality saw an amplified talent crisis as the pandemic pushed away new and old employees alike in an effort to protect their health.

With a new spotlight on mental wellness, it’s more important now than ever before to check in on ourselves and those around us as we continue to navigate uncertain times.

We’ll see much more pro-labor laws put into place, but what will those look like? Let’s dig in.

Introduce empathy into your workplace

The beginning of the pandemic sparked a huge call to support frontline workers; the individuals who never once paused while operating essential stores, providing us medical care, or preparing and serving us food. It created a highly empathetic connection between consumers and the workforce supporting essential businesses.

But as time goes on and we continue to settle into the new normal, public support for frontline workers isn’t broadcast as loudly as it once was. That’s where you, as an employer, can step in.

Your teams’ exposure to the public comes with more than just a concern for their own health. At any given moment, an essential employee might be spread extremely thin both emotionally and financially as they organize childcare, figure out education for their children, or seek alternative living arrangements to avoid exposing the loved ones they live with.

All of that compounded stress puts them in a very vulnerable spot. Not to mention the unstable political climate affecting us all. This is where empathy comes in.

Some of the top-performing businesses, like In-N-Out Burger, Chipotle, Red Robin, Papa John’s, and many others, actively took employee concerns into consideration from the start of the pandemic, transforming operations to fit their needs and create a safe working environment.

When brands show up for employees, they don’t just stick with the business, they perform better. That commitment to empathy and action creates a great working relationship between managers and employees. And it sets apart the good brands from the great, because employees can sniff out inauthentic or “for show” employee benefits a mile away.

How can you as a hospitality brand replicate successful, active empathy within your own organization? 

HCM tech to improve employee wellness

Hospitality businesses are racing to implement technical solutions that empower them to create a supportive environment for their teams and managers. Integrated HCM tech is an invaluable tool here, offering multiple interconnected solutions to create safe, supportive, and productive working environments.

Effectively communicate with furloughed and employed staff

The way we engage and communicate with our teams to understand their needs is crucial. At Harri, we make putting your team first easier with our communication technology. 

At the start of the pandemic, we created Carri, a highly personalized, AI HR assistant designed to help managers keep in touch with laid-off employees.

It’s difficult for furloughed employees to feel supported and in-the-loop with your business while they’re away from work — especially when the date of their return is unknown. Carri breaks these disconnection barriers by empowering managers to broadcast company-wide messages, answer questions from furloughed employees, and create a tangible path of their return.

Employee-to-employer disconnect can be incredibly stressful during uncertain times, but simply having a tool in place dedicated to addressing these concerns is a huge sigh of relief for both parties. 

When addressing existing team members, Harri Team Hub is an excellent tool to efficiently communicate business-wide news, team-specific announcements, or address one-on-one concerns — all from a  secure mobile platform. By creating an employee social network you invite open two-way communications that fosters a sense of team support much more effectively than top-town communications would. 

Employee health screening to ensure workplace safety

Although most businesses are clear on CDC health guidelines, it’s impossible to completely eliminate the fear of COVID-19 in the workplace when working in a service-driven business. With the right tools, employers can do more than just enforce mask policies in order to reassure their employees who are at the highest risk of virus exposure. 

When COVID-19 first began to spread, Harri had one of the fastest responses to set a standard for returning to work safely. Our Employee Health Check Platform provides managers a way to screen employees for COVID symptoms and proper PPE, and alerts managers when an employee fails a screening.

The Employee Health Check tool includes:

  • Generate printable health check summaries or stickers to be attached to order or displayed in-store
  • Audit health checks across all employees or store locations
  • Capture employee temperatures before they enter the workplace
  • Log symptoms at the touch of a button
  • Receive proactive alerts when an employee fails a screening
  • Image capture tech to ensure proper PPE

We’re aware that introducing new tech to the workplace can create new anxieties surrounding data privacy. Because our Employee Health Check Platform follows CDC health guidelines and is HIPPA, OSHA, EOCC, and ADA-compliant, your team can feel extra secure knowing their privacy is protected in the event they do test positive.

A health check tool is vital in building employee trust and easing their fears of virus exposure. While you can’t control customers (although CDC-recommended safety strategies can help), you can reduce employee-to-employee spread by ensuring only healthy employees come into work.

Mental wellness classes

According to Mental Health America, “service workers in tipped environments [are] more likely to develop mental illnesses than those in non-tipped, salaried industries.” 

Despite these stats, navigating mental wellness in the workplace is entirely new territory for managers. Those managers may be under extreme stress themselves. 

When there’s no standard or go-to resource, teams are more likely to, unintentionally or otherwise, push these problems aside.

It left us wondering, how can we create an “always there” resource to support the wellbeing of hospitality workers during the pandemic?

In response, we partnered with Mind to develop free mental health and wellbeing courses for hospitality employees.  Mental health can sometimes feel like an afterthought as restaurants scramble to keep up with ever-changing pandemic regulations and safety protocols. These classes aim to refocus employees across all levels while also creating transforming the workplace into a safe space. 

Participants have the option to engage in 15-minute sessions focusing on stress management, anxiety, and team-wide support.

Here’s a few examples of courses available to managers and employees:

  • Let’s Talk About Stress from Mind: Understand what stress is, how you can spot it and what the mental health impacts are. 
  • Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders from Mind: Support to spot the symptoms of anxiety, along with information about effective coping strategies.
  • Managing People, Wellbeing from Upskill People: Situational learning for Managers on how to identify and approach team mental health issues, as well as instill confidence to remove stigmas and create a culture of communication and empathy.

Harri users can contact us at hospitalityunite@harri.com to activate our free mental wellness courses.

Moving forward with wellness in the workplace

Hospitality has already weathered a huge storm, but we’re not done yet. And when COVID-19 is finally behind us, that doesn’t give us an excuse to drop employee mental wellness.

We might be adjusting to the new normal, but never forget to instill empathy in your workplace culture. 

Tech might not be the first solution that comes to mind when considering employee wellness, but it’s a powerful tool that can benefit employees of all levels now and into the future. That long-term commitment to the employee experience will set apart the good brands from the great, and will convert into happier employees and better guest service.