Nearly 70% of the current U.S. workforce is concentrated in frontline jobs, according to a report released by McKinsey & Company in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Walmart and PolicyLink.

The report, Race in the Workplace: The Frontline Experience, shines a light on the experiences of Asian, Black and Latinx frontline workers, the pathways for economic mobility and how companies can support their employees.

It expands on a previous report released last year which took an in-depth look at the challenges Black workers face in corporate America.

The report is primarily focused on frontline workers who earn lower wages and salaries, those who work directly with customers or are directly involved in making or selling a product or providing a service.

The frontline experience for Black, Latinx and Asian workers at a glance:

• One-third of workers in the bottom 10% of income had jobs with paid sick leave.
• More than 70% of frontline workers want to be promoted within their companies, but only 4% advance to the corporate level.
• 45% of hourly employees don’t believe their company encourages them to take advantage of work-life policies (for example, leave of absence and parental leave).
• Frontline hourly employees are nearly 20% less likely than corporate employees to believe that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies are effective.
• 39% of hourly respondents believe their employer takes an objective, empirical view of performance and promotion.

The report draws on research and analysis comprising several different data sets including:

• The Employee Experience Survey and the Race in the Workplace 2022 Talent Pipeline, which includes McKinsey’s Inclusion Assessment, provided data about the experiences and perceptions of employees across sponsorship, mentorship, feedback, advancement and employee resource groups.
• The full data set for the talent pipeline analysis includes input from 51 companies and covers an estimated four million employees from the front line to the executive level.
  • These findings were augmented by data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Community Survey and more than 50 testimonials from frontline employees across different races.
• To understand career progressions, the report drew on McKinsey research that analyzed the job histories of 29 million people and more than 800 occupations.
• The report collected individual testimonials from 50 frontline workers and preliminary experience analysis from 1,600 workers.

The report offers a road map for companies to provide more opportunities and implement solutions that could improve the lives and livelihoods of frontline workers in a material way, including:

• Formalize paths for advancement from the front line to corporate roles: First, companies could facilitate conversations with frontline workers to understand their interests and identify development needs. Second, they could consistently highlight internal job openings with the potential for career advancement.
• Overhaul the frontline talent management system: Companies could implement a systematic debiased approach to performance reviews to help identify frontline workers for advancement opportunities and create individual development plans.
• Establish a talent market program: Companies that are unable to accommodate progression within roles could partner with other companies through talent platforms and brokering to orchestrate smart job moves for promising workers.
• Define the skills frontline workers need for higher-level roles: Companies can catalog the skills that frontline workers are gaining in their current roles and then compare these skills with the specific requirements for higher-level roles.
• Reward experience rather than relying on credentials: Companies should consider shifting their hiring requirements away from a credentials-based approach that serves as a proxy for certain skills.
• Identify Gateway jobs and remove artificial barriers to promotion: Gateway jobs give workers the opportunity to build skills and experience and earn a higher wage. Companies could share information about internal career progressions with frontline workers, with an emphasis on the Gateway roles available to workers in certain jobs.
• Give a voice to frontline workers: Companies can gather insights from customer-facing employees, involve frontline workers in decision-making and give them a platform to share ideas with senior leaders.
• “Raise the floor” on the frontline experience: Companies should consider reassessing the benefits available to frontline workers and expanding their offerings. For example, mental health support, greater flexibility in the workplace and improved transparency and predictability in scheduling.
• Invest in frontline managers: Companies can show their commitment to elevating the frontline experience by improving the representation of workers of color in manager roles.

According to the report, companies that truly invest in the front line can make these roles a starting point for a fruitful career, a clear path to earning higher wages and a way to transition to interesting new jobs across industries.

Want more?

Read the full report.