As Dr. Bob Nelson says, “Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.” 

In our post-pandemic world, it's not enough to assume frontline employees are just " happy to have a job." 

Things have changed, and frontline workers no longer seek jobs where the expectation is the bare minimum in exchange for a paycheck. 

They are more attracted to a work environment where they feel valued and respected, with managers who make them feel like they're contributing to something significant and are working towards common goals. 

If you're an HR Director, Communications Director, or Talent Acquisition Specialist who manages a mobile workforce, you know how challenging good communication can be.

Deskless workers often work in remote settings or visit different locations throughout the day, so you may go long stretches without seeing or verbally communicating with some of your employees. 

Because of this, communication channels that work for office and onsite employees aren't practical for mobile workers.

RICHMOND, VA November 29, 2022 -- Growth Street Partners today announced a minority growth equity investment in goHappy, the leading provider of frontline employee communication and engagement software. goHappy will use the investment to expand its platform and extend its leadership position in this increasingly important category.

goHappy was founded by Shawn Boyer, the Founder and former CEO of Snagajob. The company’s SaaS platform is currently used by mid-market to enterprise organizations, across a number of verticals including restaurants, hotels, senior living communities, manufacturing facilities, retail, logistics, as well as organizations in other verticals that employ frontline workers. The platform allows the corporate offices and frontline leaders of these organizations to communicate directly with their frontline workforce, more effectively capture their feedback, and then take action on that feedback to drive improved business results. Using the platform, customers have experienced as high as a 20%+ reduction in employee turnover and double digit increases in desired organizational behaviors such as 40%+ increased participation in open enrollment.

goHappy is on a mission to help organizations build better work environments and cultures for all their employees, and especially their frontline workers who are too often overlooked. According to a Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report, 62% of frontline workers say leadership does not prioritize culture building or communication, and 51% of frontline workers in non-management positions do not feel valued as employees. Furthermore, 69% of frontline managers say corporate is not effectively communicating with them, and 63% of frontline workers say messages from leadership do not make it to them. A recent global Boston Consulting Group survey also found that 37% of frontline workers are at risk of leaving their current jobs in the next six months.

"Organizations that employ frontline workers are starting to make significant investments in engaging and retaining these workers, and goHappy is at the center of this movement. Partnering with Growth Street positions us to double down on our commitment to helping these organizations engage their frontline workforce, and in doing so, drive better business outcomes and bottom line results,” explained Shawn Boyer, the Founder and CEO of goHappy.

“Growth Street is excited to partner with Shawn and the rapidly growing goHappy team," said Nate Grossman and Steve Wolfe, the Co-Founders of Growth Street Partners. “The frontline workforce has too often been left behind by HR technology, and no one is better positioned than Shawn and goHappy to solve this challenge and to help better engage and retain these workers."

In conjunction with the minority growth investment, Growth Street Partners will join the Board of Directors.

About goHappy
goHappy revolutionizes how employers communicate and engage with their frontline workers by providing the most inclusive and simple app-free technology ever created. Key to goHappy’s success is enabling employers to reach 100% of their deskless employees where they already are - in their text messages. Founded by Shawn Boyer who also founded Snagajob - the nation’s largest marketplace for hourly work - and a team that brings over 100 years of combined frontline employee engagement experience, goHappy’s mission is to help ALL frontline workers feel more valued and connected so they can reach their full potential. In turn, employers not only improve communication to maximize engagement and happiness within their frontline employees, but also benefit from the bottom line impact that those improvements deliver. For more information visit: www.gohappyhub.com.

Growth Street Partners
Growth Street Partners provides early growth capital to rapidly growing SaaS and technology-enabled services companies addressing underserved markets. The firm partners with founders who have personally lived through the problems their businesses solve. The firm has raised two funds and has over $200 million of assets under management. Recent investments include Pear Deck, ChildCareCRM, Visual Lease, Hotel Effectiveness, Suralink, HR Acuity, Govenda, PikMyKid, Public Input, and uConnect. Recent investment realizations include the majority sales of Hotel Effectiveness and Pear Deck, the majority recapitalization of Suralink, and the minority recapitalizations of Visual Lease and HR Acuity. If you are a founder from industry looking to scale your business without losing control or are simply interested in more information, please visit www.growthstreetpartners.com.

Your frontline employees work hard. And amid busy schedules and the holiday rush, it can be easy to overlook showing them how much you appreciate their dedication to your organization.

Hourly workers often put in more than 40-hour work weeks during the holiday season — especially amid a labor crisis — and miss out on celebrations with family and friends. 

Although frontline employees receive overtime pay for their extra hours, it’s a requirement by the department of labor. 

Rewarding your hourly workers beyond what is expected of you, especially when they sacrifice so much, is essential to let them know you care. 

Engaged employees have higher productivity levels, lower absenteeism rates, and greater job satisfaction. 

In addition, companies with high employee engagement tend to financially outperform those with low engagement scores.

Although the positive outcomes from engaged employees speak for themselves, many businesses still need help to proactively engage their frontline workers.

Seasonal hiring is both exciting and stressful for many businesses. 

Busy seasons such as holiday shopping and back to school are a welcome uptick in profits. But, these busy times of the year can also be worrisome as you struggle to find enough employees to meet customer demands.

Employee engagement is one of the most important indicators in gauging satisfaction in work. This is especially true amongst Front Line Workers. People are looking for more than just a 9-to-5 job these days. They crave to be involved in their work, and want to be enthusiastic about the organization they work for and to be committed to those they work with.

Communication in the workplace has changed drastically over the last decade — most notably, in the previous few years, thanks to the pandemic. 

During the pandemic, the world learned that frontline workers are the backbone of our economy as we watched them leave jobs en masse. Now we know that if organizations want to succeed, they need to improve interpersonal communication for all employees, not just those who occupy a desk.

Despite making up 80% of the global workforce, frontline employees have consistently been excluded from company-wide communication. But, thanks to an influx of much-needed HR technology, things are changing. 

Whether you operate a single retail location or a chain of stores, your retail employees are your best asset. They are the ones who interact with your customers daily and can create a positive or negative association with your brand. 

But, with a 69% employee turnover rate in retail — 12% higher than the U.S. national average — it can feel like most of your time and resources are spent on hiring and training new staff rather than nurturing existing employees to be your best brand ambassadors. 

With an approximate price tag of $3400 to replace one employee, a retention strategy should definitely be on your radar.