Antoine Bisson, CEO at Poka, explains how connected work platforms can strengthen manufacturing workforce engagement, preserve essential knowledge and support cultural change from the shop floor to senior leadership.

For decades, UK manufacturing has been defined by top-down compliance across rigid silos of business processes. Today, a brain drain of retiring experts, alongside a new, digitally confident generation of workers demanding transparency, is exposing the weaknesses of this disconnected manufacturing environment. To thrive, factories must transition to a digitally driven culture, one that uses connected work platforms to bridge the knowledge gap and empower operators to take true ownership of their roles.

From real-time data sharing to enhanced leadership visibility, digitally connected work is a catalyst for building the manufacturing company of the future. It is a cultural transformation that goes from shop floor to top floor, because the future of manufacturing will be driven by an engaged workforce, not just machinery.

As the UK manufacturing economy loses £6 billion per year due to 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies, there’s an urgent need for digital transformation to support a new era of connected work. For years, UK factory floors have been defined by adherence to routine, a focus on compliance and work operating in isolated silos. Communication was limited, knowledge was passed down informally, and accountability often relied on supervisors enforcing rules rather than operators taking ownership.

Now, there is a cultural shift: a retiring workforce with its own accumulated knowledge, a new generation of digitally confident workers with different expectations, and smart manufacturing approaches changing operations.

Building a positive workforce culture is now as critical as technology to driving factory success.

But driving cultural change involves more than adopting new tools. It means empowering workers, encouraging collaboration and building a system where everyone has the information and accountability to succeed. This approach is called connected work, and it comes with its own challenges.

Closing the knowledge-sharing gap between recruitment and retirement

Loss of institutional knowledge is a critical challenge for manufacturers, and it is at the retirement stage that many are seeing vital insights walk out of the door. One of our Poka customers, for example, identified that workers nearing retirement were passing down best practices informally, sometimes at what they called “family reunions”.

Factories risk operational inefficiencies if they are unable to establish a structured approach to sharing and storing years of hands-on knowledge. But productivity is only part of the issue. There are also financial implications, especially when one hour of unproductive labour per week due to skills gaps can cost as much as £4,300 per employee annually.

Accountability needs to work both ways

Accountability is an often-overlooked challenge among factory workforces. Typically, supervisors are responsible for tracking compliance, while operators remain disengaged from key processes. This lack of visibility into operations can create frustration and hinder productivity.

Modern workforces expect openness to change and development

Today’s workforce is unlike previous frontline generations. Younger workers expect the same transparency and accessibility at work as they have in their personal lives. If new hires walk into an outdated factory with manual paperwork and limited access to work information and training, they can quickly lose interest and engagement.

Digital tools are available to meet these challenges and enable cultural change. From my time working with Poka customers, including manufacturers such as Blue Diamond, Nortek, Kimberly-Clark and Bel Group, I have seen these challenges first-hand. I have also seen how modern connected workforce solutions address them by connecting workers and encouraging a culture of compliance and collaboration.

In particular, there are four key areas where connected work can strengthen manufacturing workforce engagement and drive cultural improvements.

1. Moving from compliance to empowerment

Manufacturing workers should be engaged, informed and accountable, with the confidence to do more than follow instructions. That’s why connected work shifts responsibility from supervisors to operators. When workers own their processes, they perform better.

Connected work allows operators to digitally document and share best practices. Using this knowledge base, employees can take the initiative to troubleshoot issues, boosting efficiency and productivity while encouraging a proactive workforce.

Compliance processes will also be affected by AI adoption. Nearly 40% of UK manufacturers already use AI tools in at least one core process. However, compliance readiness is a key differentiator alongside adoption, particularly as the European Union’s AI Act makes rules and governance part of the innovation cycle for AI deployments.

With improved accountability, work culture shifts in the right direction. Empowerment on the factory floor fuels innovation through greater physical and mental engagement. Workers can contribute operational suggestions alongside following established procedures. This lack of visibility into operations can create frustration, weaken manufacturing workforce engagement and hinder productivity.

2. Taking collaboration to new heights

Factories have traditionally operated in silos, with communication gaps between shifts, teams and locations. Information can get lost during handovers, and best practices remain isolated within individual teams rather than benefiting the entire organisation. These disconnects create inefficiencies, slow down innovation and make it difficult to scale improvements across multiple sites.

Although hands-on work is a key way to learn and retain knowledge of on-the-job duties, relying on it alone can create bottlenecks in knowledge transfer. Connected work captures insights as they happen, digitally recording factory floor work and procedures in real time, allowing knowledge to be stored, shared and made widely accessible. Process improvements can then emerge from the shop floor, with operators actively contributing ideas to solve the challenges they face first-hand.

3. Using real-time data to support collaboration

Factory floor activities should be guided by live data and analytics. Digital dashboards and knowledge-sharing tools make support readily accessible to workers on the factory floor. According to Deloitte, when frontline workers use digital technology to aid their performance, productivity increases by an average of 22%. The impact also extends to innovation.

Operating in a more connected and digitally aligned way enables more efficient problem-solving and creates a culture where employees feel supported and capable, while prioritising continuous improvement. A digital database acts as a central, accessible hub where operators, supervisors and engineers can view stored information. This ensures everyone can access the same detailed information, regardless of their shift, role or location, supporting transparency, clarity and continuous learning across the organisation.

Digital tools are available to meet these challenges, improve manufacturing workforce engagement and enable cultural change. Connected work allows employees to share best practices easily, leading to improved standardisation and more effective problem-solving across the business. This creates a collaborative culture where teams work together to drive continuous improvement.

4. Extending cultural transformation beyond the factory floor

Cultural transformation extends from the frontline workforce to every level of the business, including leadership and key executives. When leaders actively engage with their workforce, culture shifts from top-down enforcement to a shared commitment to improvement.

A key part of this transformation is visibility. Every technology investment ultimately succeeds or fails based on human behaviour. This is particularly relevant for manufacturing workforces. As automation and AI reshape enterprise workflows, senior decision-makers in the UK are prioritising connectivity.

Nearly seven in ten organisations are launching mandatory AI literacy or reskilling programmes for their employees in 2026. This reflects an understanding that digital maturity has a cultural dimension alongside its technical requirements.

With connected work, executives and plant managers gain real-time access to what’s happening on the factory floor. Senior staff can see training progress, process improvements and areas where teams are struggling, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and proactively address issues before they escalate. This direct visibility empowers leaders to champion cultural change, ensuring that factory-wide initiatives align with both operational needs and long-term business goals.

The future of manufacturing workforce engagement

Manufacturing depends on people as well as machines. Its future requires a rethink of factory culture and a shift from compliance towards empowerment. Connected work platforms can act as a catalyst for change, keeping vital knowledge within the organisation and supporting a consistently positive culture as workforces change.

The future of manufacturing belongs to those who empower their people and achieve workforce engagement.

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