Frontline Hiring: The Ultimate Guide

Frontline workers are indispensable to the global economy, with 76.1 million hourly workers in the U.S. alone in industries like logistics, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, and food and beverage.

This subset of workers has vastly different expectations and preferences when it comes to their jobs, compared to corporate or salaried workers. In the face of a fickle economy, fluctuating seasonal demand, and high turnover rates, companies have to hire and train new workers almost constantly to keep their businesses afloat.

What is frontline hiring?

Frontline hiring is the act of sourcing, screening, and hiring workers for hourly employment. Because these workers may not have the same skills and work experience as corporate employees, hiring them requires a completely different process and system. 

However, 71% of HR professionals use the same system to hire both frontline workers and salaried workers. Using one process to manage two groups of applicants with different goals, hiring timelines, and job preferences can impede recruiters’ ability to staff the right people in the right positions.

Corporate hiring vs. frontline hiring

These variables require recruiters to rethink the way they hire frontline workers because the status quo just won’t cut it.

To capture the attention and interest of frontline workers, your recruiting process needs to be faster, smoother, and more engaging than a typical corporate hiring workflow. So how can you get there? Let us be your guide.

Who are frontline workers?

Frontline workers are the backbone of the global economy. From mom-and-pop shops to major warehouses, hourly workers keep engines moving so you can make it through your day with ease.

Frontline jobs span industries like logistics and manufacturing, transportation, grocery, retail, delivery, professional services and even healthcare. Job titles might include cashiers, home health aides, warehouse associates, and long-haul truck drivers. 

These workers affect how the general public eats, shops, travels, and is taken care of when sick. Without them, our daily lives would stop, which makes them not only essential but also critical to a functioning society. 

The resume is an outdated tradition

It’s a tale as old as (modern-day) time—if you want a job, you need to submit a resume, a document that has long been required to apply for corporate roles. These docs reveal a candidate’s experience and accomplishments but they don’t always convey someone’s actual ability to perform a job. 

To break the “paper ceiling,” companies that hire frontline workers would benefit from removing the resume requirement altogether and focusing instead on an applicant’s soft skills, like organization, cooperation, and time management.

In order to attract, hire, and retain frontline workers, hiring teams need to have systems in place that cater to the lifestyles and preferences of this subset of the population. These workers are often on the go, use their mobile devices for everything, and typically apply for multiple jobs at the same time. With this in mind, recruitment needs to be structured to keep them engaged and moving swiftly through the process.

Adapt your hiring process for the frontline worker

As mentioned above, frontline workers have unique needs and expectations when it comes to applying for jobs. Therefore, the frontline hiring funnel needs to match these needs with different recruitment approaches than those employed by corporate HR departments.

Did you know?

Most recruiters use the same ATS to hire all workers, regardless of the type of job. But not all hiring platforms are designed to cater to the frontline workforce.

You wouldn’t use a toothbrush to mop your floor, so why use a corporate ATS to hire hourly workers? Let’s explore the benefits of a frontline-specific ATS.