Improving Collaboration for Frontline Workers

When we talk about communication and collaboration needs and the broad category of “information workers,” we often think about white-collar workers, and a sea of cubicles and meeting rooms. But the rapid expansion of SaaS solutions, the availability of smartphones, the rise of the internet-of-things (IoT) and other intelligent edge devices, and the global access to 4G and 5G networks has also made it possible for companies to become more collaborative with people in the field. Frontline Workers are a massive employee category — and many companies are only now trying to understand the business implications, and opportunities, of closer collaborative connections with the field.

In the next #CollabTalk TweetJam taking place on Monday, February 28th at 9am PST (UTC -8), the community will once again join forces and have a focused discussion on the topic of “Empowering Your Frontline Workers”  to discuss current and future plans for this increasingly important employee segment, and to share experiences and best practices for extending existing tools, solutions, and collaboration strategies about this Frontline Worker growth. In this 1-hour Twitter-based panel discussion, we’ll bring together MVPs and Regional Directors, community experts, partners, consultants, and practitioners to share their perspectives on this important topic.

Anyone can join this community discussion using Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag or your favorite Twitter platform. You don’t even need to be an “expert” to participate in the online conversation. Anyone can ask questions, comment on the questions posed, or just “lurk” in the background. These online discussions are open to anyone — you do not have to be on the panel to participate.

As always, this month’s tweetjam is being sponsored by tyGraph and AvePoint. Thanks for your support!

If you have never participated in one of these tweetjams, it’s pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or just lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. You can follow the live session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, whatever). How it works is that I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, re-tweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during the session include:

1. What is the #FrontlineWorkers #EmployeeExperience & how has it evolved within your organization?
2. Is there a divide between #InformationWorkers & #FrontlineWorkers when looking at employee health & #wellbeing, and if so, why?
3. What are the primary #FrontlineWorkers collaboration & communication gaps, and what is your organization doing to close those gaps?
4. What are the most pressing #FrontlineWorkers security & compliance gaps, and how is your organization addressing them?
5. Has the pandemic and hybrid work changed your corporate culture around #FrontlineWorkers? If yes, how? If not, why not?
6. What are your best practices for not only retaining #FrontlineWorkers, but for keeping them engaged?
7. What 3 things can organizations do today/this week/this month to improve the #FrontlineWorkers #EmployeeExperience?

As always, there will be side questions, side conversations, and wise-cracking throughout. This is open to the public, so please join in the discussion! The dialog is always thought-provoking and fun.

Participating on this panel (so far):

• Jill Hanneman (@ImJillHanneman), advisory for north american modern workplace at Avanade
• Raphael Koellner (@ra_koellner), Office Servers & Services MVP, consultant at Bechtle IT-Systemhouse Cologne
• Marc Anderson (@sympmarc), SharePoint MVP, co-founder and president of Sympraxis Consulting
• Martina Grom (@magrom), co-founder of atwork.at, Office 365 MVP and Microsoft Regional Director
• Suzanne George (@spgenie), Microsoft Regional Director, MCTS, and partner – modern workplace & experience leader at PwC
• John White (@diverdown1964), dual SharePoint and Data Platform MVP, cto at UnlimitedViz and tyGraph
• Shari Oswald (@shortcutshari), co-founder and productivity evangelist at PowerUP! Learning
• Fátima Blancas Velázquez (@JaydithBV), Office Apps & Services MVP and ceo of iTProve Corporation
• Adam Ball (@AdamCBall), co-founder of COUCUG, Teams and Skype for Business MVP
• Norm Young (@stormin_30), Office Apps & Services MVP, director of collaborative analytics at UnlimitedViz
• Sascha Fredrich (@saschaF80), IT consultant of Microsoft solutions at bei Bechtle AG
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle
• Matt Varney (@thevarnish), intranet manager at KCTCS
• Nati Papirovitch (@NatiPapirovitch), SharePoint and Office 365 MVP, productivity specialist at U-BTech Solutions LTD
• Nicki Borell (@NickiBorell), Microsoft MVP & RD, evangelist & consultant for SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure
• Sharon Weaver (@sharoneweaver), Microsoft Regional Director, consultant, trainer and ceo of Smarter Consulting
• David Patrick (@DavidEPatrick),  Office Apps & Services MVP, user group organizer, subject matter expert with DSA, Inc.
• Toni Pohl (@atwork), founder & cto of atwork, cloud consultant, Microsoft MVP
• Noah Sparks (@noahsparks), community igniter and strategy manager
• Kevin McDonnell (@kevmcdonk), senior technical architect at Ballard Chalmers
• Ryan Schouten (@ShrPntKnight) Office Apps & Services MVP, MCT, and senior technical consultant at Xilio
• Robert Bogue (@RobBogue), author, speaker, strategist and consultant at Thor Projects
• Galen Keene (@sdkeene), consultant and collaboration architect, managing partner at Butterfly Technologies
• Paul Dredge (@MrPaulDredge), Office Apps & Services MVP and head of technical at Hable
• Jay Leask (@jayleask), Office Apps & Services MVP and US federal director, strategic accounts & solutions for AvePoint Public Sector
• Kurt Kragh Sørensen (@KurtKragh),  intranet consultant and owner of IntraTeam.com
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), SharePoint MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Mike Maadarani (@mikemaadarani), Office Apps & Services MVP, cloud solution architect at MCM Consulting
• Russ Basiura (@SharePointPhily), Microsoft Teams evangelist, organizer of Modern Workplace Summit, architect and modern workplace expert at Accel365
• Hal Hostetler (@TVWizard), Microsoft MVP and senior field engineer and social media coordinator for Roland, Schorr & Tower
• Ed Senez (@edsenez), president at UnlimitedViz and tyGraph
• Hans Brender (@HansBrender), Office Apps & Services MVP, cloud productivity evangelist with HBsoft
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Microsoft MVP & RD, #CollabTalk founder, brand alliance director at AvePoint

If you would like to be included on one of these panels, please drop me a line via email, LinkedIn, or Twitter. And thank you again to tyGraph for your support of these CollabTalk tweetjams! And finally, if you are interested in being a sponsor of a future tweetjam, please contact me.

We’ll be back on March 22nd with another CollabTalk TweetJam focusing on “Insights and Analytics Around Employee Wellbeing,” so be sure to follow me (@buckleyplanet) for news and updates.