How to Successfully Survey Your Deskless Workforce
Your deskless workers — the retail associates, manufacturing operators, healthcare providers, and field service technicians — represent the majority of your workforce and often your only direct connection to customers. Yet when it comes to employee surveys, they're frequently the least heard voices in your organization.
The problem isn't that they don't want to share feedback. It's that traditional survey methods weren't designed for employees who don't have company email addresses, work in shifts, share devices, or can't step away from their stations without coverage.
After years of helping organizations reach their frontline workforce, we've identified proven strategies that dramatically improve participation rates among deskless employees. The solutions require rethinking every assumption about how, when, and where employees can safely and conveniently share their experiences.
Why Do Traditional Survey Methods Fail Deskless Workers?
The typical enterprise survey process assumes several things: employees have individual company email addresses, access to computers during work hours, private spaces to complete surveys, sufficient digital literacy to navigate online forms, and autonomous control over their time.
For deskless workers, none of these assumptions hold true. A manufacturing operator can't leave the production line whenever they want. A retail associate sharing a back-office computer with 20 colleagues has no privacy. A field service technician might not check company communications for days at a time.
This represents the reality for the majority of workers, yet many organizations persist in designing listening strategies as if everyone works from a laptop. When participation rates among frontline workers lag, companies often blame engagement rather than access.
The real barrier is much simpler: we're asking people to participate in ways that are practically impossible given their work environment. For example, one manufacturing organization discovered their hourly workers were actually more engaged than office staff once they removed access barriers, but had been effectively silenced by survey methods that didn't account for their reality.
How Can Mixed-Access Methodology Boost Participation?
The most successful organizations abandon the one-size-fits-all approach in favor of mixed-access methodology that meets employees wherever they are, both literally and figuratively.
QR Codes with General Links
QR codes have emerged as a game-changer for deskless worker surveys. Employees can scan a code posted in break rooms, displayed on TV monitors in common areas, or even printed on table tents in cafeterias. The code leads to a general survey link where they input a unique ID, maintaining individual attribution while allowing access from any device.
One retail organization even sent postcards to employees' homes with QR codes, recognizing that some workers felt more comfortable completing surveys outside the workplace. The key is making the QR code visible in multiple locations where workers naturally congregate during breaks.
Smart Use of Existing Digital Touchpoints
Many deskless workers interact with company systems for specific tasks, such as clocking in, checking schedules, or submitting timesheets. Progressive organizations embed survey links directly into these existing workflows. When an employee logs in to check their schedule, they see a prominent link to the survey. It's meeting them where they already are rather than asking them to go somewhere new.
Personal Email Options (With Guardrails)
If handled correctly, sending survey links to personal email addresses can significantly boost participation. This requires explicit consent, careful attention to data protection laws (especially in the EU), and clear communication about privacy protections. Employees receive a unique link that doesn't require entering any personal information, maintaining both convenience and confidentiality.
The mixed-access approach recognizes that different employees have different comfort levels and access points. By providing multiple pathways, organizations signal respect for employee preferences while maximizing participation opportunities.
What Physical Infrastructure Removes Access Barriers?
Technology alone won't solve the deskless worker challenge. Organizations seeing the highest participation rates invest in physical infrastructure that brings the survey to employees rather than expecting employees to find the survey.
Strategic iPad Deployment
iPads stationed in break rooms, near time clocks, or in common areas provide dedicated survey access points. The devices are locked to the survey page, preventing misuse while ensuring availability. One manufacturing customer purchased iPads specifically for their survey period, then donated them to local schools afterward, thus turning a survey expense into a community investment and tax write-off.
The key to iPad success is placement and quantity. Too few devices create bottlenecks, while too many suggest the organization is surveilling responses. The sweet spot is typically one device per 15-20 employees per shift, placed in neutral, comfortable spaces.
Pop-Up Computer Labs
For larger facilities, temporary computer labs provide a private, comfortable environment for survey completion. Organizations convert training rooms or unused offices into survey spaces for the administration period. Each computer is pre-loaded with the survey homepage, requiring only employee authentication to begin.
These labs work particularly well in manufacturing and distribution centers where employees might not have regular computer access. They also signal that the organization values employee feedback enough to create dedicated space and time for it.
Break Room Kiosks
Permanent or semi-permanent kiosks in break areas provide ongoing access without the complexity of computer labs. These can be as simple as a tablet on a stand or as sophisticated as a full kiosk with privacy screens. The key is making them feel like a natural part of the break room environment rather than surveillance equipment.
How Do You Solve the Time Problem for Hourly Workers?
Even with perfect access, deskless workers face a unique challenge: they can't just step away from their responsibilities. A nurse can't leave patients, a factory worker can't stop the line, and a retail associate can't abandon the register. Solving the time problem requires operational creativity.
Float Staff Coverage
Leading organizations schedule additional "float staff" during survey periods. These employees specifically provide coverage so colleagues can take 10-15 minutes to complete the survey. It's a concrete demonstration that the organization values feedback enough to invest in protected time for participation.
One healthcare system calculated that the cost of float coverage was less than 10% of what they spent on the survey itself, which is a small price for dramatically improved frontline participation and the insights it generated.
Professional Development Credits
Several organizations have successfully positioned survey participation as professional development. Employees who complete the survey earn credits toward required professional development hours, similar to attending training or workshops.
For example, one manufacturing organization requires two hours of annual professional development. Survey completion counts as 15 minutes toward this requirement. Employees must consent to having their participation confirmed (maintaining response confidentiality), but the incentive significantly boosts participation without feeling coercive.
This approach has an additional benefit for unionized workforces. Union agreements often require compensation for any work-related activity outside scheduled hours. By counting survey participation as professional development that's already compensated, organizations avoid this complication while respecting union agreements.
Shift-Based Survey Windows
Rather than a single survey window, some organizations run shift-specific survey periods. Night shift gets their own dedicated window with appropriate communication and support. This ensures every shift receives equal attention and opportunity to participate, rather than being an afterthought to day shift operations.
What Really Drives Frontline Participation?
Beyond logistics, successful frontline survey programs address the psychological and cultural factors that influence participation. Research shows that deskless workers often feel disconnected from corporate decision-making, making them skeptical that their feedback matters.
Demonstrable Action from Previous Feedback
Nothing drives participation like proof that previous feedback led to real changes. Organizations like Keurig Dr Pepper and Mohegan explicitly communicate changes made based on frontline feedback, creating a virtuous cycle of participation and action.
Local Leadership Advocacy
Frontline workers trust their immediate supervisors more than corporate communications. When shift supervisors and team leads champion the survey and are given time to discuss it during team meetings, participation soars.
True Confidentiality on Shared Devices
Many deskless workers share computers or devices, creating confidentiality concerns. Clear communication about how responses remain confidential even on shared devices is important. This includes technical details like automatic session timeouts and clear visual indicators when someone is logged out. Mohegan devoted months to this kind of messaging, relying heavily on on-site videos and messaging (posters, wall-sized monitors promoting the survey, and more), with excellent results for participation and post-survey action.
Language and Accessibility
Surveys must be available in all languages spoken by the workforce and accessible to varying literacy levels. This might mean simplifying language, offering audio options, or providing translation support during survey sessions.
What Can We Learn from Enterprise Customer Success Stories?
Ahold Delhaize, with their massive retail workforce (400,000+ employees) , achieved remarkable participation by combining QR codes in break rooms with dedicated iPad stations and float coverage during peak survey periods.
Comcast (170,000+ employees) revolutionized their approach by embedding survey links into existing technician tools, meeting field workers where they already engaged with company systems.
A major sportswear retailer (once featured in our continuous listening case study) used shift-specific communication and local champion networks to achieve 85% participation among retail staff, eventually exceeding their corporate office participation rate.
These organizations prove that high frontline participation is achievable when you design with deskless workers in mind from the start.
The Path Forward for Truly Inclusive Listening
Reaching deskless workers is at base about fairness, but it will result in business success. These employees are closest to your customers, your products, and your operational realities. Their insights are invaluable for improving customer experience, operational efficiency, and workplace safety.
The strategies outlined here, including mixed-access methodology, physical infrastructure, protected time, and cultural consideration, require substantial investment and planning. But the alternative is making decisions based on partial information from a minority of your workforce.
As one CHRO told us: "We spent years wondering why our customer satisfaction scores didn't match our employee engagement scores. Then we realized we were only hearing from headquarters. Once we truly listened to our frontline, everything clicked."
Ready to hear from all your employees, not just those with desks? Access our comprehensive resources on frontline engagement:
- Watch our webinar on Engagement and the Hourly Workforce
- Explore best practices for engaging hourly workers
- Learn how training impacts frontline engagement
- Read customer success stories from Keurig Dr Pepper, Mohegan, and Ahold Delhaize
Schedule a demo to see how Perceptyx's platform supports multi-channel access for deskless workers, or subscribe to our blog for ongoing insights on inclusive employee listening and then check out our FAQ to learn more.