Meet Alisha McGuire

When executives at Nokia Bell Labs brought engineers and scientists together from separate teams, their experiments led to the invention that we know as the vacuum tube.

Since then, the product has transformed hundreds of industries and solidified Nokia’s place in the telecommunications technology space.

The global revenue of their network infrastructure has been increasing by 22% year after year, and for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, it was €1.7B.

That’s the power of cross-functional collaboration. Many of the problems organizations face today need not one, but multiple teams or departments to work with one another. And in a survey of more than 2000 professionals, LinkedIn has identified cross-functional collaboration as a key leadership skill.

That’s why in this post, we’ll take a look at the meaning of cross-functional collaboration, its advantages, and best practices to facilitate cross-functional collaboration at work.

What is cross-functional collaboration?

Cross-functional collaboration refers to the concept of employees from different operational areas of a company working together as a team to complete a project or solve a problem. For example:

• Ecommerce website designers, developers, and copywriters may join forces to deliver a cohesive user experience.
• Sales, customer support, and marketing teams may engage in cross-team collaboration to create a uniform customer journey.
• Manufacturing floor staff and procurement managers may collaborate to reduce excess inventory and ensure stock availability.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Cross-functional collaboration has endless applications and possibilities depending on the business requirements.

Importance of cross-functional collaboration

So why would you want different departments to collaborate? The future belongs to cross-team collaboration. According to Deloitte, “We’re seeing a shift from hierarchies to cross-functional teams. Adopting team structures can improve organizational performance, while not doing so puts you at the risk of falling behind.”

We’ve covered some use cases above but the benefits of cross-functional collaboration go beyond that. These include:

Increased innovation

When you involve people from different parts of the business, you get different points of view. The combination of these unique perspectives can lead to creative ideas for solving problems and lifting production.

Better efficiency

Cross-functional collaboration can make your business operations more efficient. The more different departments collaborate, the more their workflows will evolve and improve.

For example, if a manufacturing company suddenly loses its regular supplier, sales representatives, the ordering department, and the warehouse manager can unite to find a new vendor.

With this cross-team collaboration, they have a high chance of quickly finding a new supplier that satisfies the criteria established by all three of them.

Faster acceptance and implementation of change

When you involve people from different spheres in a change initiative from the beginning, you also get their empathy, buy-in, and trust. And they spread this acceptance to other people in their respective teams.

The result? Everyone’s on the same page, and there are fewer delays in execution. For example, some companies have orientation programs where a new employee is required to spend some time in each department.

This leads to a better understanding of the challenges and decision-making processes in different parts of the business. So whatever team the employee ends up with, he’d still be able to welcome changes introduced by other teams. 

Enhanced organizational knowledge

This one’s a pretty obvious benefit of cross-team collaboration. When you collaborate with other departments, you also get to know the tools, processes, and best practices they are using.

The inner workings of a different department help you learn lessons that you can implement in your own team. For example, they might be using a better tool for data visualization which is also cheaper than yours.

Plus, you get a better sense of how your work and the other team’s work fits into the bigger picture.

Ways to streamline cross-functional collaboration

As you can see, solving problems that affect multiple teams or departments goes a long way in giving you an edge against the competition.

You may think that bringing people together from different teams would be easy, since they’re all part of the same company. But that’s often not the case, especially in medium and large-sized businesses.

Different departments may have conflicting agendas, values, goals, and priorities. And these differences prevent them from progressing on cross-functional projects.

So let’s see the core steps you can take to improve cross-functional collaboration in your business.

Have a clear vision

30% of employees worldwide cite inadequate vision as the reason for the failure of projects in their companies.

Image Source: PMI

If that’s the case for regular projects, you can imagine how high it would be for cross-functional projects.

When you don’t share a concrete reason for the existence of a cross-functional project, why would anyone prioritize it over the tasks within their own team?

Be transparent with the teams involved about why you started the project. Tell them why they were chosen for it. And clarify what’s the end goal.

For example, if you are launching an onboarding program with a mentor from each department, the vision could be to quickly transform new hires into long-term assets.

The more open your communication, the more invested different departments will be in the project’s success.

Gather the right team members

How you build your cross-functional team plays a big role in your project’s success.

For example, having a finance expert in the team will be crucial for a cross-functional project that involves cutting energy costs and becoming a more eco-friendly company. Plus, you’ll also need PR experts that can spread the story in news outlets and give the whole thing a positive spin.

When putting together a cross-functional team, also consider the diversity and influence exerted by every member within the organization. People who are well-liked and respected even outside their immediate departments make perfect candidates for cross-functional initiatives.

Clarify roles and responsibilities

Do any of these ring a bell?

“I thought he/she was going to do it.”

“I keep butting heads with someone in the other team doing my job.”

“I am reporting to two managers from different teams with different ideas on what my job is.”

If you don’t clear up the expectations from each cross-functional team member, your team will remain confused about what exactly they should do, and who will carry out each task.

Remember, employees with clarity on their roles report a high level of satisfaction (75%), effectiveness (86%), and productivity (83%).

Image Source: Effectory

So when engaging in cross-team collaboration, make sure to clearly organize both individual and collective tasks for your workers. Every employee should know what tasks they are supposed to do on their own, and what is to be done in collaboration with other team members.

Put up roles for everyone else to see

A study of American workers across many industries found that 20% end up duplicating the work of others. The reason? Not being able to reach the concerned coworker.

Image Source: Panopto

So while it’s good to clarify roles and responsibilities for each team member, they must also know what everyone else is doing and responsible for. This will help you in two ways:

• There will be no repeat or duplicate work. If someone is already handling a task, another person will not take it up.
• When a team member runs into a problem or needs some information, they’ll know who to reach out to.

The basic information you should openly display for each team member includes:

• Full name
• Department name and job title
• Role within the cross-functional project
• Contact information

‍ A great way to streamline this process is to use an employee directory. Blink, for example, is an internal communication app that offers this feature.

It lets you create a directory where information about each worker can be displayed. Plus, employees can search or reach anyone in the directory via instant messaging. 

Ensure clear and regular communication

The ability to communicate the goals, status, and outcome of your team's work is crucial for cross-functional collaboration. When cross-functional teams don’t discuss project updates and requirements with one another, they cannot realize their full potential.

But cross-functional communication can be tricky. People are occupied with projects within their immediate teams, and no one may be willing to go the extra mile to communicate with other departments.

A great way to make communication easy for everyone is by implementing simple communication channels. Even better if you can provide a designated space for employees to share updates, exchange messages, and share documents.

That way, you make it easy for different departments to share information without switching between multiple apps.

Another thing you should do is to create a concrete communication strategy for your cross-functional project. The communication strategy will clarify how and when to send updates, and set communication expectations for the teams involved.

Create comprehensive documentation

Cross-functional projects are usually big, and big projects are scary. There are many moving parts that can overwhelm the teams involved. They may not know where to begin, how to carry out a task, or whom to ask.

In such a situation, documenting every aspect of the project can be a huge help. It clarifies processes and boosts productivity in both the short and long term.

Documenting involves writing down details about the project goals, baseline measurements, ongoing tasks, expected results, and more. Then making all this information available to the departments that have a stake in the cross-functional project.

You can begin by creating a project timeline to set and communicate the main tasks and a schedule based on when they should be completed as well as establish a project baseline.

Take construction projects, for example. These are typically complex cross-functional ventures because they require the design, procurement, and construction teams to collaborate deeply with one another.

And they have many tasks and subtasks to be managed on a strict timeline, as delays can lead to increased costs. Here’s what a project timeline might look like for such a project.

Image Source: GanttPRO

This level of detail in your documentation goes a long way in showing both the big-picture view and small tasks associated with the project, making the project vision easy to digest for all the team members.

Conclusion: how to streamline cross-functional collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration can be daunting, but its potential for your business can’t be ignored. It’s an opportunity to leverage the leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills from all corners of your company and use them to drive powerful results.

So use these strategies to set a solid foundation for cross-functional success. As your teams start collaborating, encourage them to keep adjusting and learning from the experience. Because these lessons will help you improve your organization’s ability to facilitate cross-functional collaboration even further.

And if you’re looking for a tool that can help enhance cross-functional collaboration at work, look no further than Blink. Request a free demo today.

HR and employee engagement conferences are more than educational forums for people management insights (although that’s absolutely one of the benefits of attending these events). They are also a gateway to exciting, lucrative networking opportunities — it’s no wonder that huge businesses are built on running conferences for HR and people leaders.

Which employee engagement and HR conferences are best for you to attend in 2023? We’ve put together a list of the events worth your time and the speakers you should be lining up to hear from.

The importance of employee engagement conferences

Every organization strives to engage its workforce, making employee engagement investments and running employee engagement programs. And yet, the latest surveys illustrate that 79% of employees don't feel engaged at work meaning that we’ve still got work to do. 

Disengagement is widespread — particularly when it comes to frontline employee engagement — and every business can take bold steps to improve.

Employee engagement is about inspiring your staff to be the best version of themselves. It requires a proactive attitude, one that picks employees up and motivates them to find their feet and climb higher. 

But the opportunity to engage employees can only be achieved by seeking out the tried and tested advice of experts. And that’s where employee engagement conferences come in.

What's the link between employee experience and employee engagement?

This is a topic we see come up a lot, but there’s an easy way to remember where employee engagement fits within employee experience.

Employee engagement is the target you're trying to hit and employee experience is the means to get you there. 

Employee experience covers everything an individual sees, hears, feels, and believes while at work. It’s made up of countless interactions (or ‘moments that matter’) across the employee lifecycle, from the initial onboarding process to daily tools and responsibilities. Employee engagement, on the other hand, is how demonstrably committed a worker is to their role and your organization.

What are the 4 Cs and 3 Es of employee engagement?

Driving employee engagement is easier when you have a simple guide to follow. Here are the seven key points that will take center stage at employee engagement conferences in 2023:

• Contribution - employees need to feel they have an active role to play in your company and that their work is making a notable impact
• Connection - whether working remotely, on-site, or on the frontline, it's important to avoid working in silos by forging meaningful relationships with co-workers
• Communication - having a management team that’s accessible and approachable offers employees the means by which to speak up and take part
• Confidence - members of staff need certainty in their role, to allow them to perform to the highest of their abilities, without worrying about the health of the company or if their job is at risk
• Empowerment - instilling employees with a sense of trust and authority gives them the motivation to go that extra mile
• Enablement - in order to improve productivity, every employee needs to have the right tool for the job, so ensure their technology needs are met
• Energization - give your staff a reason to act, in an age of unmotivated employees resorting to quiet quitting, incentivize your workers to go above and beyond

The challenges and benefits of frontline employee engagement

Frontline employee engagement challenges

When it comes to frontline employees, there are several unique challenges to consider. And all too often courses, articles, and guides don't feel as relevant or relatable — as if they've been written with one (office-based) employee model in mind.

Frontline workers feel disengagement more acutely than most other professions. For one, there’s the disconnection inherent in their line of work, separating them from their co-workers and the wider organization. This deals a heavy blow to morale and productivity in the process.

The trick is to find an employee engagement solution that suits the frontline’s needs and requirements. It should speak to their inconsistent sense of belonging with the company and offer clear development to help employees build careers with your organization, rather than ‘just jobs’. 

This goes beyond empty investments and initiatives. Frontline employees want to feel listened to, recognized, and included in strategies that directly affect them, rather than being an afterthought.

Frontline employee engagement benefits

The truth is, we all know the benefits of an increase in engagement. Employees that are committed, motivated, and engaged at work deliver more and perform better — and that means your bottom line improves across each and every level of your organization.

Absenteeism and health and safety incidents fall significantly and employee turnover plummets as staff engagement soars. With this, your competitiveness in the industry and attractiveness to prospective new hires is solidified. For CHROs, this is what makes the job feel great and it's understandable to see why employee engagement conferences are so appealing.

Learn more about how frontline organizations can improve employee experience and engagement through Blink’s customer case studies.

11 must-see HR and employee engagement conferences for 2023

UNLEASH America 2023

• Date: April 25-27, 2023
• Location: Las Vegas, USA
• Ticket Price: $1,695

Priding themselves on securing top industry names, you can expect to see representatives from Amazon, Deloitte, Capital One, UPS, Microsoft, and many others, all sharing their invaluable talent management insights.

With a strong focus on HR tech, UNLEASH is the ideal opportunity to explore how technology is changing the future of work across all industries — and the investments you can make to elevate efficiency. It's a must for those in HR and employee engagement.

CIPD Festival of Work

• Date: June 7-8, 2023
• Location: London, UK
• Ticket Price: Free!

This convention is not to be missed. One of the biggest of its kind, the CIPD Festival of Work boasts an impressive roster of guests. Organizations with frontline workers will be particularly interested in hearing from Danny Mortimer, CEO of NHS Employers, Tunde Agoro, Head of ESG at Hydrock, Fiona Brunskill, Chief People Officer of Transport for London, and Toby Culshaw, Global Head of Talent Intelligence at Amazon.

And for that specific focus on employee engagement, CIPD has two keynotes lined up: ‘Maintaining engagement through periods of change’ and ‘Employee listening — the key to retention and employee engagement’.

SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2023

• Date: June 11-14, 2023
• Location: Las Vegas, USA
• Ticket Price: $1,995-$2,495

Energetic, vibrant, and fun — SHRM's annual conferences are well-known in the HR world. SHRM’s mission is to offer the widest possible reach with its events, covering ways to improve every facet of working life.

This gathering of industry professionals from all walks of life guarantees that every organization has something to gain from the expansive four-day HR conference.

HR Summit

• Date: September 28, 2023
• Location: London, United Kingdom
• Ticket Price: TBD

HR Summit is the UK’s home for HR networking. Understanding that your time is precious, their goal is to pair you up with professionals that can answer the burning questions you have and provide the solutions you need.

They achieve this by organizing pre-arranged, face-to-face meetings between delegates and key industry suppliers. The event also features an array of cutting-edge technology, as well as HR products and services, all presented without a pushy hard sell.

HR Vision

• Date: May 9-10, 2023 and October 4-5, 2023
• Location: Amsterdam, Holland and London, UK 
• Ticket Price: £1,499-£2,499

Technology is a main talking point at many HR conferences. The tools we use to manage staff and improve business practices are growing exponentially — and HR Vision dives into the tech that’ll revolutionize your workflows.

The aim of this HR conference is to empower your workforce with the right HR technology and connect People leaders to an impressive set of speakers. Look out for Brady Pyle, Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer at NASA, Stephen Pierce, Deputy MD and CHRO of Hitachi Europe, and Cath Possamai, CEO of Recruiting Group, British Army, and other big names on the HR Vision agenda.

CHROs particularly interested in HR technology should also look at HR Technologies conference in London on 3-4 May.

Western Cities HR Conference 2023

• Date: October 4-6, 2023
• Location: Edmonton, Canada
• Ticket Price: $120

The idea of a sprawling event can feel overwhelming for those new to the employee engagement conference scene. Thankfully, there are more intimate options, such as Canada's Western Cities HR Conference 2023. 

This event is made up of personal interactions with like-minded professionals and is designed to help managers gain a better understanding of their employees’ challenges. And with a focus on improving employee experience to drive employee engagement, this year's Western Cities HR Conference may be the best option for those looking to dip their toe into the HR conference experience.

HR Technology Conference & Expo

• Date: October 10-13, 2023
• Location: Las Vegas, USA
• Ticket Price: $495-$1,825

Delivering the best HR tech on the market is what a lot of HR conferences pride themselves on. But for companies looking ahead to the horizon, they want to know what the next leap is, several years down the line — and how they can get in on the action early.

For those businesses, HR Technology Conference & Expo is where it's at. The organizers certainly know that having your finger on the pulse and investing in HR technology is a reliable way to improve your company’s HR standing.

Gartner ReimagineHR Conference

• Date: September 11-12, 2023, October 23-25, 2023, and December 4-5, 2023
• Location: London, UK, Orlando, USA, and Sydney, Australia
• Ticket Price: $3,700-$4,250

While still too far away for an agenda to have been published, we’re expecting more top-quality content from Gartner’s ReimagineHR Conference in 2023. Attendees of this employee engagement conference will learn how to tackle pressing issues within talent management, such as attrition, while keeping one eye on what’s coming further down the line.

What's more, this is a great opportunity to explore leadership development, culture building, and improved strategic decision-making — all to help your business operate at its highest possible level.

Workday Rising and Workday AMEA

• Date: September 26-29, 2023 and November 14-16, 2023
• Location: San Francisco, USA and Barcelona, Spain
• Ticket price: TBD

Workday’s online employee engagement content was available until April 2023 and it’s bringing the in-person experience to San Francisco and Barcelo towards the end of the year. 

With a rallying cry of “It’s time to rise”, Workday Rising’s conference content is always inspiring — and helps deliver more than a few of those employee engagement 4 Cs and 3 Es. It’s energizing and empowering, designed to enable People leaders to excel in their roles. You’ll also connect with fellow leaders and gain greater confidence in the work that you do.

How to get the most from an employee engagement conference

With so many options in mind, having a clear game plan will result in the best takeaways and ROI from your experience. Here's what you should focus on:

Research and planning

What are the particular challenges your organization is facing? Will improving retention have the most impact or do you need to create a culture of communication? Understanding where you’re at today and where you want to be in the future is a great way to prepare for employee engagement conference season.

While it might not look like it on the surface, each HR conference will have its own niche angle. Research the speakers, investigate the talking points, and read reviews of how engaging and effective their output is. What you want to see are the success stories, so you can become one too.

Organize your time

HR conferences are designed to wow you. There are multiple stands, panels, and events that will draw your attention, but having a clear itinerary will keep you on track. Keep the exact timings and locations of must-see sessions marked down to avoid disappointment. But don't overload yourself either. Make sure you schedule breaks and allow for chance encounters, too.

Network before, during, and after

Speaking of encounters… The best thing about employee engagement conferences is that you’re with like-minded professionals. Hunt down the group chats or hashtags on sites like LinkedIn to build those connections in advance, then make time in your schedule to introduce yourself in person.

And, perhaps most importantly, keep the fire burning. Maintain momentum and keep in touch to convert that conference acquaintance into a strong business connection.

This is particularly important for HR leaders from frontline organizations. As we know, there are very few conferences that cater specifically to the frontline employee engagement challenges, so use the events listed above to find your allies. You can support each other from there!

Meet Blink at an employee engagement conference near you

Here at Blink, we don't just talk about HR conferences — we attend them too. Take a look at the exciting employee engagement conferences we'll be attending this year. And whether this is your first time or you're a seasoned pro, come and say hello.

At Blink, I am responsible for the ongoing success and happiness of our wonderful customers 🚀

I lead our brilliant global Customer Success and Customer Support teams. Together, we nurture our customers in every way possible. We work collaboratively with our customers and all the internal teams at Blink to ensure our users are getting the absolute best value out of our transformative SaaS platform.

I was born and raised in Camden Town, London. I left the capital to go to university but Camden is where my heart lives so I came straight back once I graduated!

I studied Anatomy & Physiology at the University of Manchester and my plan was to kick-off a career in Healthcare 🏥 After months of work experience at the MRI Hospital in the Oncology Gynaecology Department, I came to the realisation that a career in Healthcare sadly wasn’t for me. However, my respect, appreciation, and gratitude for how incredibly hard the nurses, technicians, doctors, surgeons, and supporting staff work on the frontline skyrocketed.

When I left University, I no longer had a career plan which was scary. All I knew was that I loved people – helping, communicating, and supporting people. So, I literally typed ‘jobs for people who love people’ into Google to see what opportunities came up! Recruitment was the top result and that’s how I fell into my first role 💙

My first job was a hybrid Business Development and Recruitment Consultant role within a large corporate company. I learned very quickly that a hardcore Sales role didn’t suit me and I wanted to have more of a positive and influential impact than I could within that corporate environment.

This is when my journey into working in start-ups began. I joined a small technology recruitment start-up whose mission was to change the way companies recruit for their product and engineering teams. I worked my way up from Talent Manager to Account Manager where I had my own portfolio of customers that I was responsible for. I worked with companies including Cazoo, MADE.com, dnata, Emirates Holidays, and many more to help them design, advertise, interview, and hire for their product and engineering teams.

When the opportunity arose to work for a company whose purpose is to make the work lives of the frontline easier, happier, and more connected, I leaped at the chance.

I joined Blink in November 2019 as the first-ever Customer Success Manager. I was responsible for all of our customers throughout their post-sales lifecycle. I single-handedly managed customer support, implementations, and customer success for all our customers.

Since then, we’ve grown from just me to three established global teams: Customer Success, Customer Support, and Implementation. I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to build my own teams, create our ways of working, take on increasing levels of responsibility and accountability, and achieve glowing success with our customers.

Now as Head of Customer Success, my role is much more strategic and focused on the leadership of my team.

There are three main reasons why I love what I do. The first is the people. I get to work with incredible people internally and externally every single day.

The second is the challenge. I’m learning, growing, and developing at a rate that I didn’t think was possible! And the best thing is that I get to share this with those around me, particularly my team.

The third is our mission. We’re all working together to make the working lives of the frontline easier, more efficient, more connected, but most importantly give them their voice and let it be heard.

What makes him awesome?

I would like to nominate Mark following his heroic and kind-hearted behavior that recently saved a young girl’s life.

Mark pulled into the bus stand when a colleague approached him and alerted him to a young girl who had been found on the floor in a state. Mark approached the girl, and she told him she  was considering ending her life.

Mark brought her back to the bus in a warm, safe space and he asked her about what happened — the girl believed she was drugged and the culprit had stolen her rucksack with her personal belongings inside. Mark called the paramedics and he waited with her for two hours as he spoke to her and calmed her down until she fell asleep on the bus. He monitored her every 5-10 minutes to check that she was breathing and wasn’t in danger. When the paramedics came, he took them up the road to try to search for her bag but sadly to no avail.

Thanks to Mark’s selflessness and fatherly instinct, he saved her and brought her to safety in the hands of the paramedics. Mark deserves to be thanked and recognized for this act, and should know the huge impact he has had on this girl’s life.

How has Blink helped in his role?

Mark is very active in the community and he always takes part in events, which he finds through the app.

Nominated by: Mollie Pye, Site Operations Manager

If you’re like most people, you’d probably prefer not to imagine what happens in a worst-case scenario, or a situational crisis.

However, imagining what could go wrong — and how you’ll react to it — is one of the most important things you can do for your business. 

An effective crisis communications plan starts with your employees. With early, clear, and consistent messaging, your team can become advocates for your company during any crisis. 

By following these four straightforward crisis communication best practices, your stress levels will go from 100 to 10 (hopefully).

The 4 crisis communication best practices you need to remember

1. Make messaging consistent
2. Back up statements with action
3. Balance timeliness and precision
4. Practice empathy

Let’s have a more in-depth look at each of these practices. 

1. Make messaging consistent

Your internal communications during a crisis should convey the same stance and expectations to every member of your team, regardless of level. 

That is more effective if you already have an easy, direct line of communication with each member of your organization. 

While different roles may need to respond differently, it’s crucial t foster a sense of transparency rather than secrecy to ensure a better response across your organization. 

Communicate often to make sure everyone is on the same page, even with constantly changing information.

In a 2020 Edelman study on internal communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, 63% of employees wanted daily updates, and 23% wanted communications multiple times a day.  

2. Back up statements with action

It's important for your team to understand how to talk about a situation, but it's even more important for them to understand what's being done — and their role in the process. 

As soon as you have a response plan, communicate it to your team. That way, what's being done to resolve an issue is at the forefront of the conversation. Share what your organization's plan is to prevent situations from arising and use as many concrete steps as you can. 

Recruit those in your organization who can help with definite tasks. Perhaps the PR team needs to create an official statement, or the development team needs to redesign a product. Whatever it is, let everyone know how they can help to react to the crisis. 

3. Balance timeliness and precision

The moments immediately following an event are often the most critical for your internal communications during a crisis. 

You don’t want there to be a sudden vacuum of silence where others may be left to speculate. That is the time to get your initial response out quickly, to guide the narrative. 

It’s alright to let your employees know there are some things you still don’t know. It’s better to be upfront about how you’re addressing uncertainties than to wait to communicate at all. 

With that in mind, it’s also appropriate to take your time to craft a more thought-out response for the long term. Planning for crises means you’re prepared immediately in the event. 

While it can be impossible to plan out the details of your crisis response, it's vital to create crisis response documents that lay the groundwork processes for establishing more detailed responses with your team. 

4. Practice empathy

The crisis will undoubtedly affect your employees day-to-day, some certainly more than others. 

It’s critical to empathize with your employee’s struggles throughout the crisis and recognize where their duties have become more difficult.

A 2020 Catalyst survey on the effects of empathy in the workplace during COVID-19 found that empathetic leaders and managers increase productivity, innovation, and engagement. 

Although you don’t want to dwell on how the situation is causing setbacks or difficulties, you can still empathize with your workers while returning to the positive.

Communicate your gratitude for their continued hard work and outline plans to alleviate their stressors. 

The Catalyst study states empathetic leadership entails: 

• Respecting life circumstances
• Supporting both life and work needs
• Fostering inclusion

Open lines of communication to hear their input and experiences. Solicit feedback through forms, polls, and one-on-one interviews. Let your employees know that you want to listen to their thoughts on tackling the crisis from their point of view. 

Show up in more than just writing. Video messages and calls communicate more empathy than written statements. 

Final thoughts: 4 crisis communication best practices

Your internal communication during a situational crisis is just as important as your public communication — and perhaps even more so. 

That’s why it’s essential to lay the groundwork for a plan so you can react effectively if necessary. Your internal crisis communications should be consistent, actionable, timely, and empathetic. 

All the members of your organization deserve frequent, comprehensive, and accessible updates during a crisis. 

Psst – looking for crisis communication tools?

Blink’s employee communications app provides an efficient way for you to communicate with everyone in your organization. From company-wide status updates to policy changes through the intranet, the all-in-one app makes connecting with your employees simple. 

Employee experience in 2025: trends to watch

Employee experience (EX) has been a trending topic across workplaces for a few years now. Originating as what seemed like a corporate buzzword quickly became a large-scale strategy for major employers across the globe. 

In 2023, we saw a different story. For employers, there were strikes. There were debates about a return to the office. The Great Reshuffle was replaced by the Great Gloom – an epidemic of unhappy workers.

And according to Forrester, the EX outlook for 2024 remains gloomy:

“Two key metrics dropped between 2022 and 2023 globally: Employee engagement fell from 41% to 37%, while culture energy fell from 63% to 59%[...]We predict that 2024 will see continued decline, with employee engagement dipping to 34%.”

These percentages are likely lower for frontline employees. 

That’s because frontline workers often miss out on the employee engagement boosts available to their office-based counterparts. We’re talking connection and development opportunities, tech tools, and regular recognition.

The key issue now is what employers plan to do about it. Employee experience remains an important focus for any forward-thinking business. That’s because when employees are happy and engaged, your business benefits from:

• Better staff retention and talent acquisition
• Improved productivity and performance
• Higher rates of customer satisfaction
• Improved employee wellbeing and attendance

This all impacts a company’s bottom line. Organizations with the best employee experience can achieve nearly three times the financial returns on assets when compared to those with the worst.

So how are companies planning to engage and retain employees in 2024? And what EX patterns are already emerging? Here are the employee trends set to impact the future of employee experience over the coming year and beyond. 

Top 5 EX trends to look out for in 2025

The growth of AI in the workplace

First on our list of employee experience trends is artificial intelligence (AI).

AI was a hot topic in 2023. As generative AI – like ChatGPT and Bard – marched onto the scene, lots of people got their first, hands-on experience with the technology.

Many businesses are already on board. 55% of respondents to a McKinsey survey said that their organizations were using AI in 2023. And more than two-thirds expect their organizations to increase AI investment over the next three years.

AI isn’t going anywhere. So in 2024, we predict that more companies will harness its potential for both business and employee experience transformation. Here’s how.

Streamlining workflows

AI is helping to streamline workflows. Which is good news for organizations – and for frontline employees.

Tech takes care of repetitive and monotonous tasks. It reduces frontline friction, so employees can perform tasks more easily. Workers get to spend more time on customer care and on activities that demand a higher level of expertise.

For instance, in retail, AI is predicting increased footfall. This gives shop floor staff time to prepare the store and provide a better service.

In healthcare, AI can help to reduce waiting times, which means happier patients and frontline healthcare staff.

And in manufacturing, real-time AI insight into equipment status allows workers to make repairs before machines break down entirely, making their job easier.

In 2024, more businesses will use AI to improve processes and streamline the work of their frontline teams.

Internal communications

AI is also playing an important role in internal communications. Leaders are using AI to perform tasks like these:

• supporting DEI by highlighting bias in real-time, as employees type a message
• identifying employees who haven’t received recognition in a while
• helping employees find relevant resources on the company portal

Some organizations are also using AI chatbots to support the employee experience. Bots provide 24/7 assistance to employees, guiding them through company systems and helping them complete HR self-service tasks.

This spells satisfying experiences for employees where their queries are answered quickly – and a lighter workload for your People Team.

HR

HR teams are using AI to hone recruiting, onboarding, and training processes. They’re making these EX touchstones more effective and streamlined.

AI is helping to:

• remove bias from the recruitment process
• predict the needs of new hires
• highlight training resources relevant to a chosen career pathway

This means People Teams get more time to focus on value-add employee experience activities. And employees feel more engaged with your organization, right from the very beginning of their journey.

But a word of warning. Getting the right AI balance will be key. Employees are happy to deal with AI for some HR functions. But AI in its current form lacks emotional intelligence. A real, human touch is still needed if you want to achieve the very best EX.

Education

As a whole, organizations are more optimistic and curious about AI than they were five years ago. But there’s a disconnect between leaders and frontline employees. According to a BCG survey:

• Leaders are more optimistic than frontline employees about AI (62% vs 42%)
• Leaders are more likely than frontline workers to say they’ve received training to improve skills and stay relevant (44% vs 14%)
• Leaders use generative AI more regularly than frontline workers (80% vs 20%)
• Regular generative AI users are more optimistic than non-users about the technology (62% vs 36%)

Frontline workers are worried about AI eroding or stealing their jobs, so we anticipate AI education being an important part of the puzzle in 2024. Leaders will have to explain the value of this tech to employees and how they plan to use it going forward.

Top tip: Check out this research from the American Psychological Association. Employees are more likely to worry about AI when they don’t feel valued at work. So developing other areas of employee experience – like recognition – can help smooth your journey toward AI adoption.

Adopting EX technology

Every digital interaction a worker has at your company forms part of their digital employee experience (DEX). But workplace tech often falls short.

It fails to mirror the seamless digital experiences people get in their lives away from work. It’s also often inaccessible to any worker who doesn’t sit behind a desk.

However, in 2024, it feels like things are changing.

Updating technology

52% of employees believe that software related to their employee experience is dated and difficult to use. And 52% of frontline employees say they would leave their jobs over poor tech tools.

Employers are taking note. In response to employee tech frustrations, companies are upgrading from old company intranets to modern, mobile-first solutions.

They’re using employee apps, like Blink, that help organizations create connected company ecosystems that include every member of the workforce.

Available via a smartphone app, Blink doesn’t rely on email addresses or a complicated login process. It’s a secure, streamlined platform that puts company comms, tools, and resources in the same accessible place.

And because mobile-first apps like Blink are similar to the digital tools employees already use at home, they’re intuitive. Any team member can pick up an app and use it instantly.

Streamlining technology

We now know that too many tools hamper the employee experience. Rather than switching between different platforms, employees prefer to use the fewest number of programs to achieve their goals.

So this year, companies are battling tech bloat and looking for tools that perform multiple functions. They’re also implementing tools that meet the needs of various departments – like HR, IT, and comms teams – bringing all EX essentials under the same roof.

This streamlined approach will reduce the need for multiple employee logins. Instead, tools will be increasingly integrated and easy to use.

Personalizing the experience

Employees are getting personalized experiences away from work. Movie recommendations on Netflix. The annual listening roundup from Spotify. A shopping list from their supermarket app.  

We know that a personalized approach drives customer loyalty. So could this be the year employers apply the same logic to their employee experience?

Personalized internal comms

Good internal communication is essential to EX. It fosters trust between employees and leadership. It also makes your workforce more engaged, connected, and aligned.

The best internal comms are reliable and consistent. They’re also personalized to each employee, based on their location, department, role, or tenure.

Comms leaders are increasingly using personalization as a way to get their message heard. They’re doing this with the help of tech that allows them to segment employees more effectively. 

This means employees no longer receive irrelevant memos. They don’t get distracted or overwhelmed by internal communications that don’t apply to them.

Instead, they receive tailored messages that resonate – and that encourage sustained engagement with comms going forward.

Personalized tech

As you’ve probably gathered, tech and AI are a common thread throughout these employee experience trends. They’re integral to the progress being made in the sector.

As well as using AI to segment your workforce and target internal communications more effectively, you can use tech to create personalized digital experiences.

For example, employees can reconfigure their company dashboard, prioritizing the features most relevant to their work. Some companies are using tools that go a step further, using AI to personalize portals automatically.

Personalized learning and career pathways

L&D and career advancement are still top priorities for frontline employees in 2024. But one size never fits all. So we expect more organizations to develop personalized learning and career pathways for their employees.

It’s about making learning accessible and engaging for each individual. Leaders will make micro-learning, mentorship, coaching, on-the-job learning, and online courses available to all employees.

It’s also about making learning relevant to each individual career path. Tech tools – once again – stand at the forefront of this shift. L&D leaders are using them to identify and benchmark skills related to each role. And then recommend relevant learning materials and assessments.

Employees want to be heard

Companies that only engage in top-down communication will stick out like a sore thumb in 2024. Listening and open communication are now cornerstones of good employee experience management.

Employees want to feel heard because it helps them to feel valued. And employers stand to benefit, too. 

When you give employees a voice – and listen to what they have to say – you gain valuable insight into what your workforce wants. You then make better EX decisions. But this is only possible when you allow information to travel in all directions – top-down, bottom-up and peer-to-peer. 

Manager training

Good company-wide communication relies on an open company culture. But it seems there’s disagreement over how well organizations are doing. 

According to Leapsome’s Workforce Trends Report, 97% of HR leaders say that they have a good feedback culture. But only 13% of remote employees agree. What’s more, a third of all employees don’t feel they can talk to HR.

This is perhaps why organizations are putting greater focus on manager development. Managers help set the culture. But listening and open communication don’t always come naturally. 

With training, managers can gain the active listening and empathy skills they need to encourage collaborative communication. They also learn to embrace rather than shy away from employee feedback.

Surveys & feedback

In a bid to make EX strategies more effective, we expect organizations to spend more time in 2024 gathering the opinions of employees.

They’ll be finding out what matters to their workers. And what workers think of EX as it currently stands. 

Companies will develop a regular schedule of feedback requests and surveys. Annual surveys to track progress over time – and pulse surveys to get an up-to-the-minute snapshot of their organization.

Personalization comes into play here too. By personalizing surveys to different departments, teams, and employee journeys, organizations get better feedback engagement and more accurate results.

But simply filling out a survey isn’t enough to make employees feel heard. Currently, it’s a hollow exercise for a worrying proportion of organizations.

According to O.C. Tanner’s Global Culture Report, only 58% of organizations take action to improve after receiving employee feedback.

So to get the most employee satisfaction and retention benefits from your surveys, always incorporate the following actions: 

• Acknowledging and thanking employees for feedback
• Sharing survey results
• Communicating how you plan to use employee feedback to improve EX

Giving everyone a voice

When it comes to being heard, some employees seem to have a louder voice than others. Usually, it’s those closer to the heart of operations – employees based at HQ who get regular contact with managers and leaders.

However, as organizations strive to improve EX for all employees, they’re looking to include everyone in the conversation. This means frontline as well as desk-based teams.

Leaders increasingly understand the importance of spending time with frontline workers – either digitally or in person. It’s a way to grasp the realities, successes, and challenges of their roles.

We predict more of this in 2024, as well as a push for more inclusive decision-making.

With the right communication tools, accessible to everyone, head office can pose questions and present problems to all employees. They can get input from all members of the workforce and craft better, more effective solutions.

Data-driven decision-making

As we’ve seen, companies are using tech solutions to supercharge their EX. In the process, they’re gathering a ton of valuable data that they can use to inform their future efforts.

Data-driven decision-making is the last of our employee experience trends. And it seems it’s becoming par for the course. Organizations are routinely asking their employees:

• Are you engaged with your team?
• Are you happy with management? Leadership?
• Are you satisfied with your experience at work?

Companies are using data from staff surveys to better identify employee experience issues. But they’re also getting a sense of the bigger picture by setting employee sentiment data alongside statistics on staff retention and productivity.

With the help of segmentation, they’re able to understand these figures at a granular level – by location, by department, by manager. This is allowing leaders to make more targeted and effective EX interventions.

But to harness the potential of data-driven decisions, you need the right tech tools. You need readily available, real-time data. You also need data that is well-presented and easy to digest so management can pivot EX strategies effectively.

Blink analytics lets you see positive and negative team relationships at a glance. It shows you the data associated with each individual post on the company newsfeed. And it has all of the features you need to filter and benchmark data with ease.

‍

What’s your EX plan for 2025?

2023 was a tough year. But the future of employee experience remains bright and exciting.

In 2024, we expect to see a real internal comms culture shift. Organizations are finding ways to amplify unheard frontline voices. They’re also making real efforts to act upon what they hear – and to involve everyone in the conversation.

AI and tech are a powerful force that we can use to improve EX. They make work easier and more enjoyable for employees while helping leaders create personalized and engaging experiences at every point in the employee journey.

And finally, thanks to both employee listening initiatives and great AI and tech tools, employers are getting better access to perspective-changing data. This is allowing them to drive informed and effective EX transformation.

So what are your EX plans for 2024?

Incorporate these employee trends into your EX strategy and you’ll get ahead of the competition. You’ll develop an employee-centric approach that drives better retention, productivity, and profits.

Check out a preview of Blink here to see how our frontline employee super-app can help transform employee experience.