Dayforce study finds frontline leadership gap widening

Dayforce has published research pointing to rising strain in Australia's frontline workplaces, with a sharp fall in the share of frontline workers who believe leaders understand their challenges.

Based on responses from 759 Australian managers, executives and frontline workers, the findings suggest many organisations rely on manual fixes and last-minute decisions to keep shifts running. What appears stable at an organisational level often depends on workers and managers making on-the-spot adjustments to schedules, staffing and pay issues.

The study found that 75% of executives and 62% of managers said shift-level disruption has at least a moderate effect on financial or operational performance. Among frontline managers, 45% said such issues lead to overtime.

Improvisation also appears common. Three-quarters of frontline workers said they rely on manual workarounds at least sometimes, while 91% said they find ways to fill open shifts themselves. Among executives and managers, 63% said they spend at least three hours a week dealing with issues instead of improving operations.

The figures also point to pressure on employee wellbeing. According to the research, 89% of frontline workers and 93% of managers said shift-level problems harm their wellbeing. It also found that 67% of workers and 77% of managers had considered leaving their job because of those issues.

Leadership gap

One of the starkest findings was the drop in confidence that senior leaders understand frontline conditions. Only 38% of frontline workers said leaders understand the challenges they face, down from 73% the previous year.

The research also highlighted concern about oversight and accountability. Nearly all executives and managers surveyed, 97%, said shift-level issues create compliance risk. Meanwhile, 45% of executives said they are accountable for frontline decisions that carry cost risk without real-time visibility.

Katerina Hanna, Vice President of Customer Success at Dayforce, said the pressure is often hidden from view.

"Frontline operations may look stable from the outside, but they're under constant strain at the shift level. Systems and processes aren't keeping up, and that pressure is falling on frontline managers and workers to fix issues in scheduling, time, and pay just to keep operations running. Those workarounds keep the business moving in the moment, but over time they increase costs, raise compliance risk, and add strain on employees. Closing the adaptability gap requires more than better planning; it requires the ability to see and respond to what's happening in real time," Hanna said.

Avoidable issues

Despite the scale of the disruption described in the survey, many respondents said the problems could be reduced. More than three-quarters of executives, 79%, and 67% of managers said many shift-level disruptions are at least moderately avoidable if organisations have better real-time information.

That finding sits at the centre of Dayforce's argument that the issue is less about complexity itself than how it is managed. In sectors that depend on shift work, stores, facilities and service sites often face changing demand, staffing gaps and pay queries that need attention during the working day rather than after the fact.

The report frames this as "frontline adaptability", which it defines as the ability to manage disruption as it happens. It groups organisations by an adaptability score drawn from five areas: demand responsiveness, real-time resolution, skills fluidity, operational enablement and decision confidence.

Hanover Research conducted the online survey across six countries, covering 5,693 respondents working in frontline organisations with at least 100 employees. The Australian results form part of that wider study, but the local sample points to a particular deterioration in perceptions of leadership understanding.

For employers, the findings add to the broader debate over labour retention, management oversight and operating costs in frontline-heavy sectors. If routine shift problems trigger overtime, stress and possible compliance issues, the consequences can extend beyond individual worksites to overall performance and staff turnover.

Hanna said organisations that handle disruption better are moving away from reactive fixes.

"The good news is that most disruptions are avoidable, as the known root cause is limited data availability and visibility in the moment. Closing that gap means moving beyond reactive workarounds. Organisations getting this right are building more flexible operations grounded in systems that can adapt in real time, which is an essential capability in today's economic and geopolitical environment," she said.