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By Jeff Schmitz | Nov. 6, 2025
Bridging the Frontline Disconnect: How Leaders Can Build a Stronger Connection with Workers
As the backbone of retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics (T&L) businesses, frontline workers drive results. Yet, according to Korn Ferry, a new study reveals that more than three-quarters (77%) of these workers believe senior leaders fail to understand their daily challenges. This disconnect doesn’t just harm perception; it weakens culture, stifles innovation, and disrupts operations.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, leaders risk derailing transformation efforts, slowing technology adoption, and losing trust when they fail to connect strategy with frontline execution. Leaders must align their high-level vision with the realities frontline workers face. At Zebra Technologies, we empower organizations to solve this challenge by providing the foundation for intelligent operations with our portfolio of connected frontline, asset visibility, and automation solutions.
Understanding the Disconnect: The Cost of “Cluelessness”
The Korn Ferry article highlights a significant shift in leadership priorities away from emotional intelligence and engagement and toward greater emphasis on digital skills and AI fluency, with only 38% of CEOs ranking emotional intelligence as a top priority. This narrowing focus has left many frontline workers feeling unheard and unsupported.
Flattening organizational structures have also removed layers of middle management, which traditionally bridged communication between leadership and the frontline. Without these critical channels, leaders struggle to understand real-world challenges such as a nurse managing staffing shortages, a retail associate juggling inventory issues, or a warehouse worker navigating complex logistics.
This misalignment doesn’t just lower morale. It slows the adoption of technologies such as AI, which require trust and collaboration to succeed. It also drains productivity, as workers spend more time addressing inefficiencies instead of delivering value.
Intelligent Operations Align Strategy with Action
At Zebra, we help leaders address this disconnect by empowering frontline teams and aligning strategy with day-to-day workflows. Our solutions ensure seamless communication and execution, enabling leaders to turn vision into action.
Our recent research with Oxford Economics demonstrates how improving frontline workflows with modern technologies like AI, automation and data increases profitability and enhances the customer experience across industries. For example:
- Retail teams improve inventory accuracy by 68% and enhance customer satisfaction by 21% with RFID technologies and AI-powered forecasting. These advancements drive a 1.8% increase in revenue and a 1.5% boost in profitability on average.
- Manufacturers achieve an average 2.4% revenue increase and 1.4% profit improvement by using AI for predictive maintenance and quality control. These technologies streamline workflows by eliminating repetitive tasks, allowing workers to focus on complex problem-solving.
- T&L companies reduce routing times and improve delivery precision, unlocking up to 3.4% revenue growth. With real-time asset visibility, teams can turn small missteps into flawless execution.
These examples show how intelligent operations improve outcomes for organizations, workers, and customers alike.
Rebuilding Trust: Listening, Communicating, Empowering
Leaders strengthen connections with frontline teams by listening first. Engagement surveys, job-site reviews, and exit interviews provide essential insights into employee needs and challenges. However, listening without action fails to build trust. Leaders must act on feedback and demonstrate their commitment to improving workers’ experiences.
Clear communication also plays a crucial role. Leaders must explain how corporate strategies benefit workers directly. For example, when organizations introduce Zebra’s mobile computers and tablets, they should show how these tools simplify tasks, improve accuracy, and enhance collaboration. Involving workers in the process builds ownership and trust.
Empowering the frontline with the right tools completes the equation. Zebra’s connected frontline solutions enable real-time collaboration and decision-making. These tools ensure workers can access the information they need, when they need it. This capability improves productivity and demonstrates that organizations value and support their workers.
Build A Digitized, Automated, and Intelligent Future
Zebra envisions a future where organizations digitize and automate workflows to drive intelligent operations. We design solutions that help workers succeed while enabling leaders to make informed decisions. With our hardware, software, and automation technologies, organizations gain real-time insight, foster connected collaboration, and optimize workflows.
The Korn Ferry article highlights the urgent need for leaders to address the disconnect with frontline workers. Solving this issue is good for morale and essential for business success. Aligning corporate strategies with frontline realities unlocks new levels of efficiency, innovation, and trust.
At Zebra, we work with organizations to navigate these challenges. We help leaders improve their operations, achieve the best outcomes for workers, customers, and stakeholders, and ultimately create new ways of working that make work better every day.
