NOW IN DEVELOPMENT!
The Frontline Enablement Handbook
The first how-to guide for improving the frontline experience!
Eighty percent of the global workforce is on the frontline. They’re grocery clerks, manufacturing workers, delivery drivers, restaurant servers, first responders, hotel housekeepers and retail associates. They do a wide variety of jobs, but they share common challenges. Their work is physically demanding (and often dangerous). They’re paid by the hour and managed to the minute. They’re distributed across locations, regions and geographies. And their everyday performance plays a critical role in their organizations’ success.
While frontline employees make up the vast majority of the global workforce, they’re also the most under-supported contingent of employees. Only 1% of corporate technology spend goes to supporting frontline workers. Forty-three percent of frontline managers say the lack of employee training is negatively impacting their day-to-day work. It’s no wonder frontline organizations consistently struggle with employee retention. Forty-two percent of frontline workers want to quit their jobs. Meanwhile, 49% of frontline managers are burning out as they try to hold things together.
Companies often say that their frontline workforces are their most valuable assets, the faces of their brands and their connection to their customers. If frontline employees are so important to business success, they deserve more than corporate hand-me-downs.
Frontline work is different - so frontline workers require a different type of support.
From the Association for Talent Development (ATD)
and JD Dillon - author of The Modern Learning Ecosystem.
The Frontline Enablement Handbook (working title) will guide HR, L&D and Operations professionals as they apply the tools, tactics and technologies needed to empower their frontline teams. Published by the Association for Talent Development (ATD), this handbook will share proven practices for overcoming common obstacles to enabling frontline workers so everyone - regardless of role, location, tenure or language preference - has an opportunity to do their best work every day.
“The heart and soul of our company is our frontline employees, who create magic and memories for guests and customers. Without them, there is no Disney magic.”
The concepts, principles and frameworks presented in our book will apply regardless of industry, location, scale or available resources. The handbook will be modular, allowing practitioners to read the entire story or pick and choose specific sections to address timely needs.
Our frontline story will unfold in 8 parts:
Part 1 | A Familiar Frontline Story
We'll set the stage for our story by exploring our own frontline experiences, introducing our contributors and explaining how you can use this book to improve your frontline employee experience.
Part 2 | Meet the Frontline Worker
We'll explore the current state of frontline work, including shared attributes, current challenges, potential opportunities and a research-backed framework for a great frontline employee experience.
Part 3 | Architecting a Frontline Enablement Ecosystem
We'll highlight common challenges organizations face when trying to enable frontline workers and offer a strategy for architecting a frontline-focused ecosystem, including design, technology, data, engagement and motivation practices.
Part 4 | Empowering Frontline Managers
Before we can focus on frontline workers, we must address the undeniable importance of their managers and discuss how we can help them become better coaches, better community builders, better operators and better leaders.
Part 5 | Today: Helping Frontline Workers Do a Great Job Every Shift
We'll begin shaping our frontline enablement strategy by focusing on TODAY - the practices that will help employees do their best work every shift, including onboarding, job training, compliance, communication and performance support.
Part 6 | Tomorrow: Fostering Future Opportunity for Frontline Workers
Once we've taken care of TODAY, we can improve TOMORROW and foster future-focused opportunities through practices like cross-training, upskilling, mentoring, career development and change management.
Part 7 | Evolving Your Frontline Enablement Strategy
We'll share tactics for building trust with your frontline teams as well as gaining buy-in for frontline enablement practices and investments from key stakeholders, including executives, HR, L&D, legal, IT and operations.
Part 8 | A Call for Change
We'll wrap up our story by summarizing key takeaways and explaining how everyone - regardless of role, title or industry - can become a frontline advocate in their everyday lives.
“Our partners, who are the heart and soul of our company, have been instrumental in creating the Starbucks experience. Their dedication, passion, and hard work make all the difference to our customers and to our business.”
JD Dillon is the lead author and curator for The Frontline Enablement Handbook.
JD has spent his entire 25-year career working with frontline employees. He started out managing movie theaters (AMC Theatres) and theme parks (Disney), where he developed an operational perspective on frontline work. He then transitioned into L&D, where he's spent 15 years supporting teams in hospitality, retail, operations, food service, entertainment, contact centers, transportation and customer service.
Today, JD builds technology, content and services that enable 4 million frontline workers around the world (Axonify). His first book - The Modern Learning Ecosystem - is a practical, personal, humorous take on the role L&D must play in building disruption-ready organizations.
JD is an unyielding advocate for the frontline workforce and the right person to lead this global L&D effort.
Share your frontline story as a contributor to The Frontline Enablement Handbook!
The frontline story is too important and too expansive for one person to tell. That's why JD is inviting contributors from across the global professional community to share their practices, insights and experiences as part of The Frontline Enablement Handbook.
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- Case Studies will provide real-world examples from organizations doing great work with their frontline teams. These entries will ground our story in application rather than theory and highlight achievable solutions that apply across industries, regions and use cases.
- Expert Insights will reinforce key themes throughout our story. We will curate insights from a variety of contributors, including corporate practitioners, executives, government officials and regulators, to represent the full scope of the frontline employee experience.
- Letters from the Frontline will reflect the everyday reality of the frontline work experience. These anonymous letters from a diverse group of frontline employees and managers will ensure the people doing the job are properly represented within their own story.
- Case Studies will provide real-world examples from organizations doing great work with their frontline teams. These entries will ground our story in application rather than theory and highlight achievable solutions that apply across industries, regions and use cases.
Would you like to share your frontline story? Contact JD if you'd like to submit a case study as part of The Frontline Enablement Handbook.
*All contributions will be reviewed and approved by the lead author and publisher before they are included in the final work. The publisher will partner with contributors to support public relations and/or legal review and approval requirements as part of the content development and publication process.
"No job, no matter how lowly, is truly 'unskilled.' It takes knowledge, experience, and often considerable physical and emotional effort to survive in those jobs."
Publishing in May 2026!
Check back on FrontlineHandbook.com and follow JD on LinkedIn for the latest updates.