How a simple Heads Up can improve workplace communications for the deskless workforce

Effective workplace communications is the key to success and safety in the workplace. But getting the message across to a dispersed workforce can be challenging. Emails and Slack messages may be perfect for deskbound team members, but for those on the frontline? Not so much. That’s where Heads Up comes in. It solves this problem by bridging the communication gap between distributed teams, far and wide.

Let’s dive into how some of our customers have used Heads Up to improve workplace communications for their dispersed workforce.

JetBlue Airways

Improving communication on the fly

The seventh-largest airline in North America by passengers carried, JetBlue Airways crew members work around the clock to keep passengers safe and operations running efficiently. Managing the airline’s corporate safety program falls upon the ‘Blue Crew’. They rely on Heads Up to effectively communicate on the fly.

Creating engaging content that teams actually want to read is an important, but often overlooked, part of all internal communication strategies. JetBlue understands that the best way to make sure workplace communications are read is by creating content with their employees in mind. Content that is easily accessible, accurate, engaging – with a sprinkle of humor or flair – really takes off with the Blue Crew. 

Heads Up makes quick work of designing rich media messages with video, images, or PDFs that are easy to consume, even if the topic is complex. Even better, employees can view and acknowledge communications without ever having to leave the SafetyCulture platform. 

“The feedback from team members is that with Heads Up, it’s like someone is talking directly to us, it’s a relatable and friendly way to communicate. We’ve been making these communications fun, and I can see that people are watching,” says Kevin Crowley, Ground Safety Programs Senior Analyst, JetBlue.

bp pulse UK

Driving communication with EVCs

As the most-used electric vehicle charging (EVC) network in the UK, bp pulse UK knows how to drive change. It trusts Heads Up to put the power behind its workplace communications.

Before Heads Up, the bp pulse team tried other communication methods that proved ineffective for their dispersed workforce. Managers needed to physically be in the same room as their teams to know if the message had been received and understood by their recipients. 

Heads Up has become a major player in rapid communication for employees installing and maintaining EVC points. For example, when they discovered an incident around their isolation procedure (via Issues), they were able to send a Heads Up message to remind teams of best practices around damaged equipment – all within five minutes. The result? Team members receive the message, and managers gain real-time peace of mind.

“It is critical that we know that people understand the message. When they acknowledge it within Heads Up, we know that we are getting through to them.”

– Andrew Gabb, former Operations Health and Safety Manager, bp pulse UK

DB Schenker

Filtering out the noise

According to SafetyCulture’s frontline worker survey, 42% of frontline workers say the communications they receive from HQ are irrelevant to them. Additionally, 30% felt that frequent internal messages get in the way of doing their job. Heads Up makes it easy to segment message recipients to specific teams, helping companies like DB Schenker cut down on the noise and ensure team members are only receiving content relevant to them.

A global industry leader, DB Schenker moves commercial and trade freight around the world via a multimodal service – including land, air, ocean, and contract logistics. Their dispersed global workforce of over 76,000 presents a challenge in disseminating key safety, quality, security, and environmental messages effectively to the frontline. DB Schenker’s quality, safety, health, and environment (QSHE) team relies on Heads Up to deliver the right message to the right teams at the right time.

No longer lost in translation

From health and safety advice to security reminders and environmental awareness across all sites – Heads Up has removed the risk of important messages going unheard or unacknowledged by employees. Leveraging the video capabilities of the tool, DB Schenker could take this visual approach to support frontline employees whose first language is not English. An AI video generator could be a valuable tool in this context, providing a simple and efficient way to produce diverse and engaging video content for a global audience. Using a custom avatar for videos can further enhance understanding and engagement by delivering messages in a relatable and personalized manner for a global audience.

There’s always going to be some initial hesitation when introducing new ways of working, but that was short-lived as frontline workers quickly recognized the value of Heads Up. Content tailored to their role, and the information that matters most to them, means messages are getting through much more clearly. Now DB Schenker’s frontline team members are proactively approaching the QSHE team with ideas around the information they’d like to see more of. 

“Heads Up is simple, efficient, and engaging. I’ve been able to reinforce key messaging and show the frontline that the QSHE team and DB Schenker are taking action to ensure the workplace is safe for all their employees,” Tiffany Argent reflects on her time as QSHE Cluster Lead Manager, DB Schenker. “It’s nice to see that a feature as simple as this has made a difference to the frontline.”

Fresh & Clean (Alsco)

Cleaning up the multi-channel mess

A division of Alsco, Fresh & Clean manages hygiene and washroom rental programs throughout Australia, delivering a wide range of functional, hygienic, and stylish products and services with an eco-friendly focus. Technicians spend their days traveling between customers, leaving only a handful of team members working from HQ. Connecting through emails, texts, and handwritten memos left on a noticeboard or in a folder created a messaging mess. Implementing Heads Up helped Fresh & Clean streamline their communications to a single channel.

“Fresh & Clean has such a mobile workforce and so Heads Up is absolutely perfect! Our frontline teams love it. They may not be the most tech-savvy team, but they’ve adapted extremely well,” says Alsco’s National Project Manager, Jason Baulch, who was responsible for the rollout of Fresh & Clean. “And for us, it’s so simple. It’s really effective and easy.”

With Heads Up, posted memos have transformed into engaging videos that help supervisors emphasize their message and ensure it was received. Sending and receiving communications through Heads Up has transformed the way managers could communicate directly with their entire team – no matter their location. The comments section allows for two-way feedback and engagement from staff, giving everyone an easy way to share their point of view, opinions, and ideas back to management.

Fresh & Clean not only cleaned up their employee communications, it created an award-winning strategy that keeps things fresh while still ensuring the message is received loud and clear. In 2021, they won Alsco’s National Safety Improvement Award, thanks to their new traffic management plan and the engaging Heads Up video that went along with it.

The SafetyCulture platform has come a long way since its days as a checklist app. Today, it has evolved into a workplace operations platform, offering solutions in inspections, reporting, training, and workplace communications. Heads Up is a much-loved feature that our customers say drastically improves their working day because it bridges the communication gap between its teams.

Keen to learn more? Dive deeper into these Customer Stories…

• bp pulse Customer Story
• DB Schenker Customer Story
• JetBlue Airways Customer Story
• Fresh & Clean Customer Story

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