Only 31% of employees worldwide are engaged at work (Gallup). For frontline workers—the majority of the global workforce—that number is often even lower. Think about it: these are the people greeting customers, driving deliveries, stocking shelves, and keeping hospitals running. And yet, their day-to-day experience is left on the backburner.

That’s where employee experience design (EXD) becomes critical. It’s not about perks or one-off engagement campaigns. It’s about shaping how frontline employees actually experience work—every shift, every update, every interaction. And here’s the kicker: internal communication is the foundation. Get communication wrong, and the best-designed experience will fall apart. Get it right, and you unlock alignment, confidence, and culture at scale.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What is employee experience design
• The difference between employee experience design for desk workers and frontline
• Why is EXD important
• Why communication should be the backbone of every employee experience design
• Six design principles you can apply today
• A step-by-step framework to map and improve frontline journeys
• Common pitfalls to avoid
• How integrated employee apps (like Speakap) make it real

What is employee experience design (EXD)?

Employee experience design is the practice of intentionally shaping the journey an employee takes throughout their time with a company — from the moment they apply to the day they leave.

Instead of focusing only on efficiency or processes, EXD centers on how employees think, feel, and act at each stage. Borrowing from marketing and UX, it asks:

• What does this moment feel like for an employee?
• How do we want them to think, feel, and act?
• What tools, communication, and support will drive that outcome?

It’s the difference between treating employees as “recipients of HR processes” and designing for them as people with expectations, motivations, and lived experiences.

Desk workers vs. frontline workers: why EXD looks different

It’s tempting to think employee experience design is one-size-fits-all. The reality: frontline and desk workers live very different work lives — and that means their experiences need to be designed differently.

For desk workers:

• Always connected: laptops, dual monitors, corporate apps.
• Communication mostly through email, intranets, video calls.
• EXD often focuses on career development, hybrid policies, collaboration tools.

For frontline workers:

• Limited tech access: often just a personal phone, and only during breaks.
• Communication still runs through shift supervisors, bulletin boards, or consumer apps like WhatsApp.
• EXD has to solve for clarity, safety, real-time updates, and belonging across dispersed teams.

In short: for desk workers, EXD usually enhances existing workflows. For frontline workers, it often means creating access in the first place. And the stakes are higher: a missed update on the frontline can mean safety incidents, compliance risks, or poor customer service.

Why is employee experience design important especially on the frontline?

Frontline workers are the face of your brand — the people customers, patients, and clients interact with every day. If their experience is broken, the consequences are immediate and visible: turnover, safety issues, disengagement, and inconsistent service.

A strong frontline EXD delivers value on three fronts:

1. Retention and stability: Strong employee experience design creates the conditions for higher engagement—through clarity, communication, and connection—which means a more stable and committed workforce. And in fact, even a 10-point rise in engagement can reduce frontline turnover by 5–14%, depending on the industry and baseline engagement levels.
2. Performance and safety: Clear, consistent communication ensures employees know what’s expected and how to perform tasks safely. This reduces mistakes and keeps both people and operations protected.
3. Customer impact: A positive employee experience directly translates into a better customer experience. In fact, a study conducted by MIT CISR indicated that organizations that invest in the employee experience are 2X more innovative, achieve double the customer satisfaction, and see 25% greater profitability than those that make no investments.

In short, EXD on the frontline is not just an HR initiative. It’s a business necessity. It ensures that employees have clarity, confidence, and connection in their roles—driving better outcomes for the workforce, the customer, and the company as a whole.

Why communication should be the backbone of every employee experience design, especially on the frontline

It doesn’t matter how thoughtful your onboarding journey is if no one sees the materials. Or how much you invest in safety training if updates get buried in WhatsApp groups. Communication is the delivery system for employee experience. 

Internal communication shapes frontline EX by:

• Making moments visible: Ensuring critical updates actually reach every employee, not just shift leads.
• Building trust: Transparent, timely messages help employees feel valued rather than left in the dark.
• Creating feedback loops: Two-way channels allow employees to share concerns, ideas, and insights. Research even finds that organizations regularly seeking employee feedback—an engagement driver—have turnover rates up to 14.9% lower than less-engaged peers.
• Driving consistency: Whether someone works night shifts or weekends, they get the same information.

Without strong communication, EX design is just theory. With it, every “moment that matters” is amplified.

6 principles of employee experience design for frontline teams

1. Purpose-driven culture. Frontline workers want to know how their role connects to the bigger mission. Communication should constantly link daily tasks to purpose.
2. Flexibility and autonomy. Shifts change. Emergencies happen. EX design means giving employees flexibility in schedules and autonomy in how they solve problems.
3. Continuous learning and growth. Micro-learning beats annual training days. Journeys should embed learning into daily workflows, accessible from a phone.
4. Transparent communication. No one likes hearing about new policies from a rumor. Push updates directly and give employees space to ask questions.
5. Recognition and belonging. Shout-outs, peer recognition, and sharing wins across teams build connection. Communication platforms make this visible.
6. Well-being beyond perks. For frontline staff, well-being often means fair scheduling, manageable workloads, and psychological safety. Design for that, not just wellness apps.

A step-by-step framework for creating a great frontline employee experience design

1. Understand the why

Every design process should start with clarity of purpose. Ask yourself: Why does this matter for both the organization and the employee? For frontline experience, this often ties directly to business outcomes:

• Reducing costly turnover
• Driving safer operations
• Improving customer satisfaction

Linking EX design to measurable impact helps secure leadership buy-in and ensures it’s not dismissed as a “nice-to-have” project.

2. Define the who

Not all frontline employees have the same needs—even within the same company. For example, a new warehouse hire will face very different challenges than a seasoned forklift operator or a part-time picker/packer. Building employee personas helps tailor communication, training, and support to these different realities. Consider:

• Demographics: age, role type, tenure
• Work environment: night shifts vs. day shifts, high-risk machinery vs. routine handling
• Motivations and frustrations: career growth, schedule flexibility, safety concerns

Joanne Frankel of Amdocs advises leaders: “Organize comms around the employee experience.” Frontline employees don’t think in departments—they just want to know what matters to them. Comms should connect the dots across HR, IT, and Ops so daily work feels seamless.

3. Map the what

Once you know who you’re designing for, identify the moments that matter in their journey. This can include:

• Onboarding
• Shift changes
• Compliance training
• Recognition and feedback moments

For each touchpoint, apply the Think–Feel–Do framework:

• Think: What do we want employees to understand at this moment?
• Feel: How should they feel—confident, supported, valued?
• Do: What action or behavior should result?

This creates intentionality in how each moment is crafted and communicated.

4. Design the how

This is where ideas become practical. How will these experiences actually come to life? For frontline teams, that usually means:

• Communication tools: Push notifications, mobile updates, and targeted messaging.
• Leadership behaviors: Training managers to deliver consistent, empathetic support.
• Technology integration: Embedding training, updates, and feedback in one app to avoid tool overload.

Prioritize mobile-first delivery so employees can engage wherever they are—in the break room, on the shop floor, or between deliveries.

5. Measure and adapt

Employee experience design isn’t a one-and-done exercise. Use continuous measurement to check if your intentions match reality. Tactics include:

• Pulse surveys to quickly capture sentiment
• Analytics dashboards to track training completion and content engagement
• Feedback loops (like comments or quick polls) to gather employee voice in real time

The key is agility: adapt based on feedback and be willing to iterate. A great frontline experience evolves as employee needs and business priorities change.

Design experiences that connect, not confuse

Frontline employee experience design isn’t about gimmicks. It’s about clarity, connection, and communication that actually reach the people who need them most. Get communication right, and you don’t just improve engagement—you build safer, stronger, and more resilient teams.

Your challenge this week: Pick one frontline moment that matters—onboarding, shift changes, or recognition—and ask: Do our employees get clear, consistent communication here? If the answer is no, start redesigning that experience today. That’s how you build employee experiences that last.

‍