Jobs

Field Based

​A field-based employee is someone who doesn't work in the traditional office environment; usually, a field-based continuously works at changing temporary locations, with tenures at the location ranging from a few days to months. When a field-based employee finishes up one project, they move on to the next one at a different location.

Field-based employees may report back to people who work in the main office of the company, but they usually don't report there daily like traditional office workers. The site where the field-based employee works varies from industry to industry. For example, construction workers who work at construction sites are field workers; the construction site can be considered their field. There are field-based employees in other industries too, such as manufacturing, warehouses, retail, packaging and transportation. Truck drivers and traveling salespeople, for example, are both field-based employees.

Field-Based Employee Challenges

When you work in an office environment, you generally follow a routine: arriving at the office at a certain time, taking a lunch break at a certain time, leaving at a certain time. Other parts of your routine that you may overlook include having a fixed commute and coworkers, something that may not be relatable to field-based employees.

Field-based employees have their own specific set of challenges:

Changing Locations

Field-based employees often have to go to different places every day, which could be in remote locations without the same access to computers or internet as office-based workers. Alongside this, field-based employees often need to set up a temporary base of operations at the site where they are working.

Different Co-workers

Field-based employees may have to meet and work with a new cohort of people nearly daily, therefore needing to put in more effort into communicating with those people and building rapport. Continuously rotating coworkers can also make figuring out who to report and send updates to confusing.

Dynamic Schedules

Field-based employees often don't have fixed timings. They may need to start their shifts earlier or stay later than standard business hours. For example, truckers usually drive through the night, and a portion of restaurant or retail workers work past 5pm.

Exposure to the Elements

Field-workers may have to work outdoors where it might be hot, humid, rainy or cold. They may have to travel long distances which can also take a toll on them. Given that field-based employees are often meeting new people, they are also more vulnerable to infection which is definitely a concern in the post-COVID era. Often, field-based employees who are working heavy machinery are at risk of life-threatening accidents; this happens in fields like construction, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.

How to Improve Communication with Field-Based Employees

One of the most daunting challenges field-based employees face while on the clock is the lack of communication channels with supervisors or head offices. Given that field-based employees are often out in the field, it's not possible to supervise what they're doing step by step.

If you run a company which employs many field-based workers, then it's necessary for you to keep in touch with them on a regular basis to check in on their well-being and pass on information that might be useful to them. You'll also need to get updates from them regularly to make sure the project is going as planned.

Here are some tips for communicating with field-based employees:

Daily check-Ins: It's a good idea to have check-ins with field-based employees every day, if possible. As with the challenges that comes with being a field-based employee, it’s important for office-based colleagues to be flexible in the timing and delivery of check-ins.

Scheduling/Planning: If the field-based employee is working on a long-term project, then it's a good idea to come up with a strategy before the project commences to avoid last-minute changes with a field-based employee’s less flexible schedule.

Channels of Communication: There are many ways of communicating with field-based employees, such as calling, video-calling, texting and emailing. Our personal favorite, digital signage, will be discussed in detail below.

Meetings: Even if the employee works in the field, it is sensible to touch base with them in a more structured meeting on job duties whether in-person, over a phone call or through a video meeting.

Site Visits: Site visits alleviate some communication burden on field-based employees; a designated employee can come up with an agenda for a site visit and field-based employees can treat the visit as a direct channel to their colleague that does not intrude on their daily schedule.

The Perfect Tool to Communicate with Field Employees

As a digital signage solution provider, we have to showcase how digital signage can be a great way to communicate important information to field-based employees.

When considering traditional methods of communication, such as email or employee messaging apps, it's important to note that over eight out of ten (83%) deskless employees do not access to a corporate email account and six out of ten (60%) of companies have little to no flexible technology solutions their deskless workers.

Therefore, digital signage offers the following benefits to field-based employees:

Safety: You can quickly indicate safety measures and point out hazardous locations.

Real-time updates: Share simple information like your daily agenda and weather updates with just a few clicks; broadcast your more complex data to track movements towards wider organizational goals.

Company culture: News, updates and promoting events are all fit for digital signage to strengthen your employees' experience and engagement.

Recognition: Motivate employees and boost employee morale with positive affirmations. Use digital signage to let employees know when it's time to take a break, go to lunch or go home, and even encourage them to use their employee benefits.

Conclusion

Whether you call them field-based, frontline or deskless, the ever-changing locations and responsibilities of these employees show how difficult it can be within their role. At ScreenCloud, we believe in making work as enjoyable and easy as possible — which is why we recommend digital signage and use screens that communicate to keep field-based employees outside the office yet still in the know.