The average healthcare worker’s day is a whirlwind of patient care, quick decisions, and teamwork, rarely with a moment to sit, let alone check emails or attend a meeting. While office-based colleagues catch up on company news over coffee, front-line workers are running from room to room, often the last to hear about policy changes or organizational updates.
This is the reality for millions of frontline healthcare workers. Their dedication keeps hospitals running and patients taken care of, yet they’re often left out of organizational conversations, missing information and engagement opportunities that desk-based employees might take for granted.
This presents a growing challenge and opportunity for employers in healthcare. As high turnover, burnout, and workforce shortages continue to rise, it’s time to take a hard look at how to engage those delivering care on the front lines. Because when your workforce is on the move, your engagement strategy needs to keep pace.
The High Cost of a Digital Divide
In many workplaces, people teams rely on emails, Slack messages, and webinars to reach employees. But in healthcare, these channels often miss the mark. Nurses, aides, and other frontline roles may not have dedicated devices, time during their shift, or even access to a corporate login.
This disconnect isn’t just inconvenient; it’s damaging. When updates about new benefits, mental health resources, or appreciation programs don’t reach your people, they not only feel excluded from the very culture meant to support them but also miss out on opportunities that could ease their stress, improve their wellbeing, or simply make coming to work more enjoyable. Over time, that lack of connection can lead to disengagement, burnout, and attrition.
Burnout remains a crisis in healthcare: the 2024 National Forum on Healthcare Workforce Wellbeing reported that 56% of nurses and clinical staff are experiencing burnout, with lack of support and recognition cited as top contributing factors.
Why Recognition Matters
Healthcare workers aren’t just looking for higher pay; they want to feel heard, supported, and genuinely appreciated. Organizations need to take seriously the struggle their workforce has experienced. An important aspect of healing and building towards the future is a focus on timely, meaningful recognition at both the individual and organizational levels.
According to a recent survey, nearly one-third of employees want both employers (32%) and managers (34%) to recognize, reward, and provide feedback on their contributions as a way to support their well-being. This kind of everyday appreciation builds belonging, especially when stress is high and praise is rare.
In fact, 36% of people say consistent, frequent recognition is more important to them than a 10% pay raise. While fair compensation will always matter, especially in a field where workers have long fought for better pay, this stat underscores that recognition and feeling valued can have a meaningful impact on morale, particularly in high-stress, high-emotion environments like healthcare.
Understanding the Barriers
Reaching healthcare workers requires rethinking communication altogether. It’s not about adding more tools; it’s about smarter, simpler touchpoints that fit into the realities of shift work and patient care.
Shared computers are limited. Emails go unread. Personal phones may be off limits. Long memos and newsletters don’t stick. This “deskless disconnect” is one of the biggest hurdles HR teams must address.
Communication gaps are real and widespread: deskless workers, who represent 70–80% of the global workforce and are heavily represented in healthcare, often lack access to digital channels built for office environments. In fact, only 32% of deskless employees feel their organization communicates as effectively with them as with office-based staff.
This disconnect isn’t just a communication challenge; it’s one of the most pressing issues HR teams in healthcare face today. It underscores the need for engagement strategies built around the reality of frontline work, not retrofitted from corporate norms.
Practical Strategies for Real Engagement
• Start with communication: Use the channels your teams already trust, digital screens in break rooms, mobile alerts, pre-shift huddles, or quick video updates. Messages should be short, relevant, and digestible in the moments between patient care.
• Make recognition part of the workflow: Empower every employee, from nursing assistants to environmental services staff, to give and receive timely appreciation. Recognition tied to patient impact or supporting across teams helps build team culture and reinforces the importance of each role.
• Make benefits and support easy to access: Whether it’s mental health resources, financial guidance, or wellbeing perks, simplify how people access what’s available. Think QR codes on posters, mobile-friendly portals, training managers on resources, or just having a go-to hub people can trust.
• Support managers: In offline environments, we often lean on managers to bridge the gap. Make sure leaders are recognizing them and highlighting available benefits—both to support managers directly and to model how the organization cares for the front lines.
• Build feedback into the day-to-day: Instead of annual engagement surveys, use quick check-ins or short pulse polls to see how things are going—and then show how the feedback is being actioned. When people see change happen, they’re more likely to stay engaged.
A New Model for Inclusion and Impact
A one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement doesn’t work in healthcare. Frontline workers need a strategy that’s mobile-first, recognition-driven, and grounded in real-time communication.
Solutions like inclusive recognition platforms, mobile access to wellbeing benefits, and real-time communication tools are now essential. Especially in high-turnover environments, building a connected culture that extends to every corner of your workforce can be the difference between losing great people and keeping them inspired, supported, and thriving.
The future of healthcare depends on the people who deliver care today. It’s time to close the gap between the desk and the floor by designing systems that recognize, support, and include everyone, no matter where or how they work. When healthcare workers feel seen, connected, and appreciated, everyone benefits: patients, providers, and the industry as a whole.
About Alex Powell
Alex Powell is the Director of Insights at Reward Gateway, a leading employee engagement platform provider empowering more than 10 million employees to connect, appreciate and support one another to make the world a better place to work. Powell is a highly experienced employee engagement consultant, trainer, and speaker. For over 20 years, she has helped HR and business leaders implement strategies that drive true culture change. Her wealth of knowledge comes from coaching and training thousands of managers from a wide range of industries across the globe
