With desk-free workers making up approximately 80 per cent of the global workforce, HR teams face a pressing challenge: how to support, engage, and empower effectively. These workers, who cover sectors like retail, travel, hospitality, and grocery, are the lifeblood of many industries. From warehousing to front of house, they are vital for keeping big businesses moving. Yet, managing and enabling them to perform at their best often involves unique challenges compared to their desk-based counterparts.

Challenges in managing desk-free workers

Desk-free workers typically operate in fast-paced environments where immediate decision-making and constant communication are critical. They’re away from computers and at the coalface of the business, so digital channels of communication are typically off the table.

For HR teams the obstacles are varied:

• Limited access to consistent training and development
• Difficulty in maintaining regular communication with on the ground staff
• Complex scheduling and shift management
• Often high rates of employee churn
• Ensuring real-time feedback and recognition.

These hurdles can result in disengagement, inefficiency, and higher turnover rates. With the advent of new technology such as AI and the challenges posed by integrating these modern ways of working, HR leaders will need to look carefully at how they proactively manage desk-free workers in 2025 and beyond. Technology has a clear and important role to play – but how?

Best use of people and skills

One of the key challenges HR teams face is helping managers identify the best of use of skills within their teams. Any people management function requires managers to be adept at identifying the best use of in-house skills: which person does which part of which job best? And how can you adapt schedules to accommodate this?

With desk-free workers this can be even harder to navigate. Evaluation and training programmes may well be centred on the practicalities of the job – ensuring legislative demands are met, for example – so HR leaders need to ensure a different way of managing.

Freeing up repetitive time

Freeing up time in order to perform more productive tasks is a clear goal for management of desk-free workers. When a job has a tendency to be highly repetitive, the opportunity for boredom, carelessness, and lack of concentration is amplified. This poses plenty of risks to HR – from incidents and accidents through to high staff turnover through job dissatisfaction.

This is a key area where technology can come into play.

Modern intelligent video management systems are an exciting opportunity to help solving this particular problem. Most organisations have 24/7 video coverage throughout their set-up, and making this smarter is usually only a matter of a software upgrade and cloud-based plug in solution.

By using your existing wealth of video content more intelligently, you can transform people management in a desk-free setting.

Analysing real-time traffic

Video management systems equipped with AI-powered analytics can monitor real-time foot traffic in areas like retail stores, restaurants, or transportation hubs. The system identifies peak periods by tracking customer flow and patterns, alerting managers to adjust staffing levels dynamically without requiring manual monitoring.

Over time, you can build an intelligent, data-backed picture of your peaks and troughs in activity, allowing a more dynamic rostering system to be put in place and helping to ensure that employees on the ground are in the most appropriate place at the right time.

Predictive workload insights

Using historical video data, video management systems can predict busy periods based on patterns like time of day, seasonality, or specific events. For desk-free workers, this proactive approach ensures workers are scheduled more efficiently, reducing idle time during slow periods and preventing burnout during peak times – all contributing to a happier, more engaged and better fulfilled workforce.

Automating queue management

Video technology can detect long lines or overcrowded areas and trigger automatic responses, such as opening additional counters, redirecting workers to high traffic areas, or sending real time alerts to management.

Floor managers no longer need to manually monitor these situations, allowing them to focus on delivering quality customer service. This type of monitoring is perfectly suited to shop floors and grocery retailers, where staff will typically change their tasks throughout their shift depending on what the current demand is.

Not only does this help employees have a more productive and more enjoyable shift, it benefits the customer by delivering a smoother experience, and helps better the organisation’s reputation.

Enhancing workflow adjustments

By integrating video analytics with task management systems, desk-free workers can receive real time task updates aligned with busy periods. Hospitality is a good example here: if a video system detects an influx of guests, it can automatically notify cleaning or service staff to prioritise tasks that improve customer experience, like preparing more rooms or refreshing high traffic areas.

Aiding remote oversight for managers

Video systems allow managers to monitor operations remotely and identify trends or bottlenecks without being physically present. This helps both manager and worker – managers can manage without distraction, while workers gain more autonomy and decision-making power because management time is focused on resolving strategic issues and not micro-managing.

By automating the identification and management of busy periods, video management systems not only save desk-free workers significant time but also create a more organised, responsive working environment. This reduces stress, improves efficiency, and allows employees to concentrate on tasks that add the most value.

For HR leaders, one of the important keys to modern management of desk-free workers is actionable video data, to help crack the nut around supporting, engaging and empowering this vast workforce.

Technology plays a vital role, of which video management systems are just one part, and as we move forward into an increasingly AI-centric approach to workforce management, the HR leaders of tomorrow will need to develop a clear strategy and understanding of just how intelligent modern tech systems can be an asset to their organisations and to their desk-free workforces – delivering improved efficiency, enhanced employee experience and better organisational outcomes.