Meet Ben Skinner

Employee recognition programs can be one of your top tools in the war for talent. Done right, they increase employee retention, build workplace morale and have a major impact on productivity.

If you’re new to employee recognition, don’t worry – the principles are simple. Ultimately, your employees like to be thanked for all the work they put in. If you do this, they will be happier and work more productively. 

You might have some form of employee recognition in place already, such as bonus schemes. Right now, however, it pays to go a little deeper with your employee recognition processes. Here’s what you need to know about recognition and rewards in the workplace. 

Employee recognition programs: what are they? 

There are quite a few definitions of ‘employee recognition’ floating around right now. We like Perkbox’s for its simplicity: 

“Employee recognition is when a company acknowledges its staff for great work.”

It’s that easy. An employee recognition program is any set of processes you have in place to facilitate this. This could be: 

• Peer to peer gifting schemes
• Employee award ceremonies
• Formalized career pathways and regular salary review schemes
• Target-based financial bonus schemes

Why do you need employee recognition programs? 

‘Underappreciation’ has always been a key driver of high employee turnover and low employee engagement. If you take your employees for granted, they are more likely to leave and less likely to perform well at work. 

On the other hand, a simple ‘thank you’ just once per month to your employees doubles employee engagement, halves risk of them leaving and triples the likelihood of them sticking with you in the long term. 

And if that’s the impact of one ‘thank you’, imagine how much positivity a fully thought-out employee recognition program can do!

When you make the effort to thank your employees for their hard work, you: 

• Create a positive work environment where everyone feels valued 
• Incentivize staff to go the extra mile and boost their performance
• Reduce absenteeism – and, just as importantly, reduce presenteeism
• Increase employee engagement, job satisfaction and productivity

Why employee recognition programs are so important now

Recognizing your employees keeps them with you. And that’s more important than ever. 

‘Lack of appreciation’ has consistently been named as a major reason behind so many people quitting their jobs right now. In fact, a recent survey found it to be the second most popular reason for quitting, behind inadequate pay. 

With a record number of open vacancies in the US right now and major competition to fill them, you can’t afford to be letting talent go – particularly when employee recognition programs are so effective for relatively little input. 

It’s the small things that make a difference, now more than ever. 

Ideas for employee recognition programs 

Different types of recognition are appropriate for different occasions. Only recognizing employees at key workplace milestones (e.g. anniversaries, promotions) isn’t enough. 

Instead, aim to create a staff recognition program that works as well for everyday acts of recognition as it does for those big occasions. You could try: 

• Monetary rewards: this doesn’t have to be a big end of year bonus or salary increase! Smaller, more everyday options include extra days of PTO and meals on the company or a personalized t-shirt with your logo design.
• Public recognition: shout outs on the company app, wall of fame, on social media or at a company award ceremony are all good options here
• Private recognition: creating a peer to peer gifting system builds camaraderie and good feeling. Keep a stock of vouchers, chocolates and bottles of wine that employees can send to their colleagues to thank them
• Celebration of lifetime events: show you care about your employees as people by celebrating their life milestones – cakes and collections for weddings, birthdays and new family additions are always appreciated

Use these ideas as a foundation to build on. Add in the big work milestones – the salary increases, the bonuses, the promotions – and you’ve got a program that makes your employees feel appreciated every day, not just on special occasions. 

How to create an employee recognition program 

According to Gartner, a well designed employee recognition program can increase productivity by around 11%.

To achieve this, it’s worth spending a little time establishing what your (and your employees’) needs are here. Gathering requirements early will help ensure the effort you spend on your employee recognition program pays off in the long term. Flawed requirements trigger 70% of project failures, so it’s worth spending the time here. 

Here’s a quick five step plan for doing this: 

1. Survey your employees

Different things work best for different workforces. For example, a stable, long-term workforce might appreciate recognition of birthdays, marriages and kids, but a workforce made up of short-term contractors might be less invested. Create a survey to gauge opinion on how your employees want to be recognized. 

2. Find the tools that would work for you

For remote and mobile workforces, an employee app with recognition features might hold the key to success. Take that survey info on how your employees want to be recognized, and get started on figuring out which tools you need to do that in your specific environment. 

3. Identify your stakeholders

This shouldn’t be difficult – every department in your organization has an interest in retaining top talent and improving productivity. Put together a committee with representatives from each of these groups to guide the implementation, perhaps headed by your HR/People Team experts.  

4. Define your budget for employee recognition

In an ideal world, you’d have an infinite amount of cash to show your employees just how brilliant they are – an HR manager can dream, eh? 

Unfortunately, we live in the real world and this might not be – no, definitely won’t be – achievable. Resources are finite, so you really need to make your case — finding a senior sponsor will help you maximize your chances of a decent budget. Remember: senior execs are broadly numbers people. Show them the real, tangible difference employee recognition programs have on productivity, retention and engagement for best results. 

5. Identify your metrics for success

Once implemented, how can you tell your employee recognition program is working? 

Identify some changes you’d like to see, and set some progress targets around these. You might want to see fewer people leave, for example, or fewer ‘lack of appreciation’ answers on those all important exit interviews. Keep tabs on your progress towards these and tweak your approach as necessary. 

The best employee recognition apps

Here are some of the best employee reward and recognition apps out there right now. 

Blink

Our Colleague Recognition feature is an easy way to make your employees feel valued in a meaningful, personalized way. Anything worth remembering, recognizing or celebrating can be posted to your company news feed in seconds! 

Nectar

Nectar is an all-in-one employee rewards platform that incorporates social recognition, awards, challenges, milestones, discounts, and other kinds of perks.

Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway’s employee recognition features are part of a wider employee engagement suite. With a focus on continuous recognition and celebrating daily success, there’s plenty of scope to build out your program.

Bonusly

Bonusly is simple. You give out points for good performance. Your employees can redeem these for a reward of their choosing – or hard cash, if that’s what they prefer. 

Motivosity

Motivosity’s ‘Thanks Matters’ card is an innovative way of rewarding employees. Like Bonusly, you assign points for great performance. These points directly translate into cash, which employees can access via a special Visa debit card. 

Kazoo

Kazoo’s employee recognition features sit nicely with the app’s overall employee engagement focus, and emphasizes a diverse rewards scheme that works for each employee – choose from experiences, custom swag, gift cards, charity donations and more.

Final thoughts on employee recognition programs 

‘Recognition all day every day’ should be your goal here. It’s about the atmosphere it creates as much as the award certificate or gift voucher your employees go home with at the end of the day. 

Keep your employee reward recognition program simple, meaningful and relevant. It’s not always about the big gestures. Remembering a birthday, putting in a good word with the boss or simply taking the team out for dinner after a difficult deadline can have a huge effect on morale – don’t dismiss their importance. 

Blink makes it easy to recognize great performance. Book your free demo today!

The first days in a new job are always a little stressful. There are faces and names to remember, new systems to learn, and a ton of information to process.

A good onboarding program alleviates some of that stress. It gives employees the information and support they need to quickly acclimatize to their new role.

But onboarding programs aren’t as good as employees would like them to be. According to a survey by payroll company Paychex, only 52% of employees say they’re satisfied with the onboarding experience at their current job.

The research also revealed that poor onboarding can lead to:

• Disorientation
• Feeling undervalued
• Losing trust in the organization
• Losing interest in the role

An employee’s first few months at your organization are crucial to employee retention. We know that up to 20% of new hires quit within the first 45 days of employment and that, by 90 days, almost a third of new employees have chosen to leave.   

To prevent your newly hired talent from going the same way, it may be time to rethink onboarding.  

Good onboarding goes beyond orientation. It’s a program of employee engagement that starts before an employee arrives for their first day and continues for up to a year.

At this point, it blends seamlessly with your employee engagement strategy to sustain engagement and retention over the entire employee lifecycle.

In this post, we’ll be looking in detail at what you can do to engage employees — from recruitment to an employee’s first day to their annual review and beyond.

Ready to engage new employees from day one? 

An overview of the employee lifecycle

We can break the employee lifecycle down into five key stages. These are:

Attraction — The employer branding, recruitment marketing, and job ads that introduce potential applicants to your organization.

Recruitment — The process of shortlisting, interviewing, and hiring employees.

Onboarding — Assimilating new hires into your organization through a comprehensive training and coaching program.

Development — Giving employees the training and development opportunities they need to progress in their careers.

Separation — Parting on good terms so that ex-employees will continue to act as employer brand advocates.

At every stage of the employee lifecycle, you need to incorporate employee engagement and retention strategies. These will help to ensure employee satisfaction long term.

Some things should come as standard. A positive workplace culture. Co-worker connection. Open company-wide communication. Employees should also get the training, resources, and tech tools they need to succeed in their work.

These engagement essentials apply to every employee, at every lifecycle stage. But you can also tailor strategies to the tenure of each individual. Engagement and retention success requires a blend of broad, ongoing initiatives and targeted interventions at key points in the employee lifecycle.

The importance of employee engagement through onboarding and beyond

To keep employees invested in their work and your company, you need an engagement strategy that starts and ends strong. It should begin before a new hire’s first day — where it sets the scene for the employee experience — and continue beyond their last.

Get it right and here’s what you can expect for your organization.

Better productivity and performance

Engaged employees are invested in their work and your company. This means they’re more likely to work hard. They’re happy to collaborate and innovate. They’re committed to quality and make fewer mistakes.

Improved employee retention rates

When you make a success of employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle, workers are less likely to leave your organization. There are lots of benefits associated with employee retention. These include reduced recruitment costs, improved employee training, and improved customer relationships.

Stronger workplace culture

Engaged employees contribute to a strong workplace culture. They’re confident in their roles and resilient to stress. They demonstrate collaboration, trust, and motivation — helping to amplify workplace values.

Increased business profits

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report for 2024, sustained employee engagement helps organizations achieve their goals. Benefits include:

• a 23% increase in profitability
• a 17% increase in productivity
• a 10% increase in customer loyalty

You also reduce costs associated with recruitment.

How to engage workers at every stage of the employee lifecycle

So we’ve covered the employee lifecycle — and why employee engagement is important for your business. Now, let’s look at what you can do to improve engagement and retention at every lifecycle stage. 

Attraction

At this first stage of the employee lifecycle, it’s all about employer branding. You need to get clear on your brand — then, create engaging content, job ads, and job descriptions that showcase it. 

Just be sure that your branding accurately reflects who you are as an organization. It should create realistic expectations for prospective employees so there’s no confusion when a new hire starts work.

Work on employee engagement throughout the rest of the lifecycle and existing employees will do some of this hard work for you. If they feel engaged, they’re more likely to share their positive employee experience — in online employer reviews and via word of mouth. This makes it easier to attract talented candidates. 

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Clarify your employer brand
• Create content that showcases your employer brand
• Write detailed job descriptions

Recruitment

How you treat candidates during the recruitment process is important. It helps to establish your workplace culture in the minds of candidates. It also impacts employee engagement during this lifecycle phase and beyond.

So aim for a speedy recruitment process, punctuated with reliable and engaging communications. Show appreciation for the time candidates spend on their applications and try to reply to everyone who applies, even those who are unsuccessful.

Also, highlight your company values as often as possible. Make it clear what matters to your organization and how people achieve success there.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Streamline your recruitment process so candidates aren’t left waiting
• Highlight workplace culture in comms and interviews
• Use candidate communications to thank candidates for their time and effort

Pre-boarding

Once a candidate has accepted your job offer, you can start giving them the support and resources they need to hit the ground running.

So give them practical information, like where they should go and what they should wear on their first day. Send over a copy of the employee handbook and get them started on new hire paperwork.

Also, help them to build some early connections. Get their manager to send a friendly note and — if you have lots of new hires starting at the same time — put them in contact with each other via your company intranet or app. That way, they’ll know at least one familiar face.

You might like to send a small gift to your new hire, too. A welcome package, including items like cookies or a coffee mug, helps to create a sense of belonging before employees even step through the door.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Send a gift
• Give employees access to useful information
• Introduce employees to at least one manager or employee

Day one

First impressions are difficult to change and we know that 44% of new hires regret their decision after the first week.

But we also know that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years after a great onboarding experience. So start as you mean to go on. 

Before your new hire arrives, tell the relevant team to expect them and prep any essential devices, passwords, and resources. Set them up an account on the company intranet or app.

During the first day, give employees a clear point of contact. This could be a manager, buddy, or mentor — someone they can turn to with their questions or concerns. Also, give them clear information on their role and assign lots of time for relationship-building — with managers and co-workers.

The priorities for this first week are practicalities, culture, and connection. Focus on these areas and don’t overwhelm your new hires with too much information. 

Start by establishing the basics. For example, for frontline workers, you may like to begin by training them in essential health and safety protocols. You can then build on this foundation logically over the next weeks and months.

Also, make sure that new hires find it easy to access the information they need during these early days. In frontline organizations, a mobile-first digital solution — with all tools and resources available via one dashboard and one login — works best. 

That way, employees don’t have to track down a paper manual to read up on policies. Or go to a more experienced member of staff to get answers to their FAQs. They have essential onboarding resources at their fingertips. This speeds up their learning.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Ensure your new hire’s workstation, log in details, and passes are ready to go
• Introduce your employee to other members of the team
• Introduce your new hire to the employee app and its onboarding resources
  

Day 30

At this point in the employee lifecycle, your new hire is probably feeling more familiar with the basics of your organization. But onboarding is far from over. Employees are still learning the ropes and need ongoing support.  

So conduct regular check-ins. These meetings are an opportunity to find out what extra training your new hires might need. They’re a chance to highlight areas of achievement and to provide constructive criticism. 

Clear expectations are also important. Work together to set goals for the next couple of months and for the first year.   

Encourage employees to share their thoughts too, either in these face-to-face meetings or with the help of anonymous survey tools.

Find out what they think of the onboarding and employee experience so far. Ask about the quality of the information provided and the pace of delivery. Employee answers will help you improve your onboarding process for future hires.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Send out a survey to assess the initial onboarding experience
• Conduct regular check-ins
• Set goals for 90 days and the first year

Day 90

Three months in, your employee should now feel like a productive member of their team. They’re contributing in a meaningful way towards company objectives.

So now’s the time for another review. This is another chance to discuss progress, celebrate achievements, and review any goals you set in previous meetings.

You could also try to broaden an employee’s experience at this point. Perhaps there are new projects or responsibilities an employee could take on. Or useful connections they could build with other teams or departments.

It’s also helpful to outline what career paths are available within your organization. In frontline organizations, particularly. Here, it can be hard for new employees to visualize where they go from the shop floor or the warehouse.  

Mapping the opportunities available helps keep people engaged and invested in their work. It gets them thinking about a long-term future at your organization, too.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Review goals and progress toward them
• Recognize and praise success
• Discuss career paths along with learning and development needs

Day 180

Mid-way through an employee’s first year is another great point for engagement intervention. You should ensure that employees are getting training and development opportunities that align with their career goals.

Supporting employees to network is also important. Encourage them to take part in employee communities and company-wide committees. Keep planning social events that support team building and co-worker connection.

Also, remind employees of your open-door policy. They should know who to turn to — and feel comfortable raising their problems and questions.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Enroll employees in learning and development programs
• Plan social activities that widen an employee’s network
• Remind employees of your open-door policy

Day 365

After a year in the job, it’s time for a celebration. Recognize your employee for all they’ve achieved in their first 365 days by posting a message of appreciation on the company news feed. That way, co-workers can add their own congratulations, too.  

Now is also a great time to give and gather employee feedback. In the annual performance review, highlight employee successes and areas for improvement. Set new goals for the coming year.

To get honest employee feedback, use a mix of surveys and 1:1 meetings. Get employee satisfaction scores. Then, use them alongside other employee engagement KPIs to find out how your organization has performed over the first year of the employee lifecycle.  

Drill down into the data to find particular teams, managers, or departments that aren’t producing the employee retention and engagement you’d hope for. Then use your findings to make data-backed improvements.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Recognize this milestone!
• Conduct an annual performance review
• Look at surveys and analytics to assess your onboarding process

One year +

As we mentioned earlier, employee engagement and retention efforts don’t end after the first week, the first month, or even the first year of the employee lifecycle.  

A year in, you should strive to maintain a positive and inclusive workplace culture. You should prioritize clear and effective internal communication using dedicated employee communication tools. You should continue to recognize and reward good work.

Training is also still important. As well as offering learning and development opportunities, you may like to consider stretch assignments or lateral moves so employees continue to feel challenged and engaged in their work.

If an employee decides to leave, conduct timely exit interviews and surveys. Find out why employees are leaving and what would convince them to stay.

Supportive, two-way conversations at this point in the employee lifecycle can help you identify and rectify engagement issues, making your organization an even better place to work. They also increase your chance of ex-employees becoming loyal employer brand advocates.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Continue to recognize and reward employee work
• Support employees to achieve their career goals
• When an employee leaves, conduct exit interviews and surveys

Using technology to boost engagement throughout the employee lifecycle

Improving employee engagement across the whole of the employee lifecycle improves retention, productivity, and business profits. But completing tasks in line with key lifecycle milestones inevitably adds to the workload of already stretched managers and HR teams. 

This is where the right technology — like a modern intranet or an employee app — makes things easier. By giving employees access to an intuitive, digital platform, you benefit from the following. 

Surveys. You can use an employee app or modern intranet to send surveys to employees. Because these surveys come in a user-friendly format, you get more responses and more useful data.

A centralized hub. You can give employees access to a digital hub. This contains useful onboarding information like policy documents, FAQs, and a people directory. It also provides easy access to other workplace tools, like learning and development software.

Recognition. With the help of an engaging company news feed, it’s easy to share recognition with employees and the wider company, too.

Automation. The right tech will send automated messages and surveys as employees reach each new milestone, taking the pressure off your managers and HR team.

Communication channels. Employee communication tools make it easier for you to conduct 1:1s and share company culture with all employees — including those who work remotely or at the frontlines of your organization.

Data. You can see how new and seasoned employees interact with your chosen platform, getting to know which content best engages your workers and spotting engagement issues early. 

Analytics. Analytics and reporting features help you understand survey responses and identify gaps in your engagement strategy.

Here at Blink, our employee super-app provides all of the above to every employee’s smartphone.

You can use Employee Journeys — along with features like surveys, recognition, and a content hub — to deliver a personalized content path for employees.

With our app, you can automate need-to-know messages and milestones from day one of the employee lifecycle, supporting a comprehensive and consistent onboarding, training, and feedback experience.

If you’d like to learn more about Blink and what it can do for employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle, schedule a personalized demo today.

Effective communication is the glue that holds all your employees together. It unites everyone, from the top management to the frontline and remote workers, towards a shared set of organizational goals and values.

Yet a recent study paints a grave picture of most working environments. 80% of professionals rate their business’ communication as poor or average.

And when kept unchecked, ineffective communication often leads to a snowball effect of disengagement and confusion. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. Implementing effective organizational communication strategies is the key to unlocking smooth coordination among your employees. And in this post, we’ll take a look at what those strategies are.

Why is organizational communication important?

In a recent report called "Internal Communication in the Eyes of C-Suite Leaders", it was found that C-suite executives recognized the vital role internal communication plays in improving their bottom lines and driving business results. And rightly so.

Workers need to interact and exchange information and documents with one another frequently. Plus, they want the top management to listen to their concerns, suggestions, and feedback.

The same goes for senior leaders in the company. They want to make sure that internal marketing campaigns, critical company announcements, news about employee benefits, and other important messages are reaching each and every member of the workforce.

By fulfilling these needs for both parties, a good corporate communication strategy solidifies the bond among the workers and facilitates the sharing of information. The result? A big boost in employee engagement and productivity.

Now the question is, how can you level up your company’s communication? By following the most effective organizational communication strategies.

What are the best organizational communication strategies?

Without further ado, here are our best organizational communication strategies to help resolve workplace conflicts and facilitate a smooth exchange of information across your company.

1. Create a corporate communication plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail. If you don’t have an internal communication plan in place, drop everything else and build one first. Without a plan, you won’t have a clear roadmap to implement effective communication in your business.

A great communication strategy will help you answer vital questions like:

• How to make your messages more relevant and engaging?
• Which communications channels should you be using?
• How can you ensure the right content reaches the workers at the right time?
• What roles will your C-level executives play in workplace communication?
• How will you encourage employees to engage in two-way conversations?

The planning process starts with having a clear understanding of your communication goals and audience. And then conducting an audit of the current communication campaigns and channels you have in place.

This is followed by determining your communication schedule and channels for the next six or 12 months. To learn more, check out our in-depth guide on building an internal communication strategy.

2. Encourage one-to-one conversations

Not every concern can be appropriately discussed in a group setting. For example, you may want to address a personal grievance or performance issue. And in such cases, it’s much better to initiate a private chat.

A one-on-one meeting gives you the chance to read the worker’s body language, know their communication style, and get visual cues on how to proceed with the interaction.

Even when you don’t have a specific issue to discuss, setting aside one-to-one time with your employees on a regular basis is essential. Because it helps you understand and bond with them more effectively. So make sure to add this company communication strategy to your arsenal.

3. Sprinkle a little humor

Workplace communication is usually a serious endeavor. You often convey information that’s intense. Whether you’re discussing a problem or setting goals, laughing and cracking jokes may seem out of place.

But a series of serious interactions can put workers in a negative mindset. And it affects how they interpret and draw conclusions from the information shared with them. When a meeting gets too heated, people want to leave as soon as possible, which hinders the flow of information. 

Although it’s not always possible to avoid a stressful conversation, levity can help you a lot in pushing your company’s communication strategy forward. Lightening the mood is an important skill that helps you defuse tense situations and relax everyone involved in the communication.

So the next time you’re communicating something to your employees, try to make them laugh.

Also, if you’re worried that your jokes won’t be any good, then you’re focusing on the wrong thing. It’s not so much about making clever remarks as about trying to make people feel relaxed and comfortable. In fact, research shows that people welcome any kind of levity as long as it’s not offensive or hurtful.

4. Nurture two-way communication

Effective communication is supposed to be a two-way street. An organization cannot reach its full collaboration potential if information flows only in one direction — from top management to the rest of the workers.

If employees can’t ask questions or discuss the information conveyed, then you aren’t communicating. You’re commanding. You’re giving orders and expecting workers to follow them.  

Of course, some directives are absolute and non-negotiable. But you can’t rely on this approach all the time when working with today’s skilled, talented professionals who thrive in an environment of autonomy.

Instead, the right company communication strategy is to invest in creating a receptive space where workers can put forth their concerns, share suggestions, and feel heard. And make sure those inputs are acted on. Not brushed under the carpet.

Listening to feedback doesn’t just help your employees feel valued. It also helps you clarify your message. You may think your communication is crystal clear but still miss some aspects critical to help others understand the information. Two-way communication can fill those gaps.

Facilitating two-way communication in your organization is easier than you think. For example, Blink is a corporate communication app that comes with a social-media-style news feed visible to all employees.

Anyone in the company can post an update, on which others can like and comment. This helps the most relevant stories rise to the top. Plus, the admins can choose to amplify selected updates even further. 

5. Bring consistency in your communication

All your communication, whether written or verbal, and whether internal or external, should have the essence of your company’s brand and workplace culture.

Plus, it should have a unique, consistent voice that reduces any chance of ambiguity and unifies your workforce. Such a voice also helps you communicate in the right spirit, not to mention avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.

But the more people participate and contribute to your organization’s communication, especially from different locations and time zones, the harder it gets to keep the voice consistent.

So what you need is a set of shared guidelines, formats, and best practices that everyone can refer to when creating content. And you can prepare the same in the form of a communication style guide.

Once you’ve clearly laid out your communication guidelines, make sure to train your communication department, as well as other contributors, on how to put the instructions into practice for subsequent messages.

6. Make use of visual aids

Different people have different learning styles. Some are comfortable reading pages after pages of text, some want to listen on the go, while others need something to view, like a video.

Regardless, almost everyone gets enticed by imagery. Presentations and infographics help people wrap their heads around the given information. So using colorful posters, charts, and graphs to distill complicated ideas is one of the best ways to make your message clear and memorable.

There are many ways to use visual aids for workplace communication. For example, if you find yourself repeating certain messages to your staff, or answering the same questions again and again, you can save time and effort with a visual aid to share the corresponding content.  

Is someone in your ear every 10 minutes with questions about holidays? Design a holiday calendar workers can check on their own. Bombarded with requests about printer passwords? Print them in large letters and stick them near the machine.

You don’t need to be a master designer to do this. Tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Venngage come with drag-and-drop functionality and hundreds of ready-made templates designed by professionals. So all you need to do is pick a template and replace its contents with yours. 

7. Train your staff on effective communication

We have spent a good chunk of our lives communicating with others, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re good at it.

For example, many employees have such a logical, fact-based communication style that they often forget to take others’ emotions into account. Others often get carried away by feelings and miss key details. And the gaps in communication lead to conflict, ambiguity, and workplace politics.

So in any organization, effective communication should be proactively taught and encouraged. And it should be a vital part of the training programs you have in place for workers.

Great communication training helps teach your employees how to keep their emotions in check and present their ideas clearly and comprehensively.

8. Conduct more open sessions

Meetings are seen as a dull affair, especially when just one or two people are doing most of the talking. You’ve probably sat through many where you were just expected to attend and listen.

But that doesn’t mean all meetings are bad. A meeting is just a tool. And like any other tool, you can handle it effectively or poorly.

So every once in a while, you should conduct an open session with all the workers in your company or in specific departments. This meeting will have a set agenda, and every employee will be encouraged to speak up and talk about their work, their experiences, and any concerns or suggestions.

Scheduling such open sessions regularly will not just improve communication, but also help you get a pulse of different teams and your overall culture.

9. Leverage the right tools and technology

Remote work, dispersed teams, smartphones, and other advancements are shaping the new reality of work. But in many organizations, the communication systems and processes haven’t caught up to this change.

The good news is modern technology and employee engagement tools have made it easier than ever to streamline internal communication and include every employee in the process, from hiring to global HR services.

Frontline workers, for example, have largely been excluded from communication channels available to desk-based employees, such as email and instant messaging. With the rise of smartphones and mobile apps though, it is now possible to make them a crucial part of your ongoing communication.

With Blink, for example, workers can easily share documents, engage in live chat with one another, and resolve problems fast.

So it’s time for you to see if the technology you have in place is really enough to get the job done. If not, invest in the right tools to take your communication to the next level.

10. Cultivate the habit of active listening

No doubt, writing and talking clearly are crucial for proper communication, but managers and other employees should also know how to listen.

Poor listening undermines communication and defeats the purpose of effective collaboration. Without the right listening skills, messages are more likely to be misunderstood.

Now, you may think you listen, but good listening is more than identifying others’ words. As Stephen Covey says, “Most of us listen with the intent to respond, not to understand.”

So, cultivate a habit of listening among yourself and your employees. Encourage everyone to practice active listening methods. And teach your staff to reflect, summarize, and ask clarifying questions when listening to a customer or coworker.

When employees and customers feel heard and understood, they’re more likely to keep working with you and have a positive image of your brand.

How can you improve organizational communication in the workplace?

Follow these tips to help achieve effective communication in the workplace:

1. Use the right tools. Having the right tools to communicate, that everyone can access, and use is vital. Review your tech stack and make improvements where needed.
2. Get feedback. Employee surveys can help shed light on your current communication methods and where you can make improvements.
3. Use different communication formats. Images, emails, videos, the list goes on. Use different formats for the different types of communications you need to deliver.
4. Distribute through the right channels. What's the best way to deliver the message? Email, instant message, intranet, app notifcation? Make sure you pick the right channel.
5. Focus on employee engagement strategies. An engaged workforce is open to communication and sharing their voice.
6. Measure the outcomes. Keep a close eye on your metrics. How many people are reading your emails and communications? Is it enough or do you need to improve?

Wrapping up: effective organizational communication strategies

As you can see, good communication doesn’t happen by accident. You need to make sure that your messages successfully reach the intended audience, are interpreted clearly, and are understood empathetically.

It takes effort from both you and your staff. So the more confidently you apply the organizational communication strategies we have outlined in this guide, the more your team would also integrate them into their actions. So take time to develop and execute these concepts diligently to build a collaborative and efficient workplace.

And remember, using a communication solution like Blink can reduce your communication effort while increasing the penetration of your messages, even with a largely remote or dispersed workforce. Book a free demo today.

As companies search for more agile, user-friendly solutions for internal communication and employee engagement, many are exploring Interact intranet alternatives that offer better customization, modern UX, mobile access, and integrations. While Interact has been a long-standing player in the intranet space, users often cite limitations around design flexibility, content sprawl, and admin complexity—especially for organizations with hybrid or deskless teams.

In this post, we’ll explore the top 10 Interact Intranet alternatives for 2025. Whether you're looking to enhance employee experience, streamline communications, or drive engagement across distributed teams, this list will help you compare platforms based on strengths, potential drawbacks, and pricing.

What to look for in an Interact intranet software alternative

When evaluating Interact intranet replacements, keep these key factors in mind:

• Ease of use: Can employees navigate the platform without heavy training?
  
• Mobile accessibility: Is there a native mobile app with full functionality?
  
• Customizability: Can you brand and structure the experience to match your organization?
  
• Engagement features: Does it go beyond file storage and announcements to include recognition, surveys, or social feeds?
  
• Integrations: How well does it connect with tools like Microsoft 365, Slack, HRIS platforms, or scheduling software?
  

The top 10 Interact intranet alternatives

#1. Blink (best overall Interact intranet software alternative)

Blink is the modern employee experience platform that unifies communication, engagement, and productivity into a single app—without the complexity of a traditional intranet. Unlike Interact, Blink delivers a streamlined, mobile-first experience that actually gets used—whether your workforce is corporate, remote, or frontline.

With Blink, you can publish updates in real-time, manage compliance workflows, integrate with the systems your teams already use (like Kronos, SharePoint, or Workday), and give employees a single place to access everything from HR resources to payslips to scheduling tools.

Blink also stands out with its analytics and targeting capabilities, ensuring every message lands with the right audience—something many Interact users struggle with.

Pros

• Mobile-first and intuitive UX
• Powerful integrations and real-time analytics
• Drives measurable engagement at scale

Cons

• Not ideal for companies that want a static intranet experience
• Enterprise plan required for advanced customizations

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#2. ThoughtFarmer

ThoughtFarmer focuses on social intranet features and knowledge sharing. It’s designed for ease of use and supports both top-down and peer-to-peer communication, making it suitable for collaborative teams.

Pros

• Clean UI and strong support for content management
• Good for mid-sized organizations
  

Cons

• Limited customization for branding
• Mobile app lags behind desktop features

#3. Jostle

Jostle promotes employee engagement through a simplified interface, making it easy to share news, connect departments, and celebrate culture. It’s best suited for organizations that don’t want to invest time in heavy customization.

Pros

• Easy onboarding and admin tools
• Strong emphasis on culture-building

Cons

• Limited integrations with enterprise platforms
• Less flexible for complex org structures

#4. Simpplr

Simpplr is a sleek, AI-powered intranet focused on enabling internal communications. It emphasizes intelligent content distribution and automation, appealing to large enterprises with robust content strategies.

Pros

• AI-driven content delivery
• Enterprise-grade scalability
  

Cons

• Can be complex to deploy
• Higher cost for small teams

#5. MangoApps

MangoApps is a modular platform that blends intranet, communication, and task management into one tool. It’s ideal for companies that want a little bit of everything in a single environment.

Pros

• Extensive features from wikis to task tracking
• Good for hybrid teams

Cons

• UI can be overwhelming for new users
• Setup may require IT support

#6. Staffbase

Staffbase offers a mobile-friendly intranet focused on internal comms and employee engagement. It’s often chosen by large organizations with complex communication needs.

Pros

• Strong internal comms features
• Personalized content targeting
  

Cons

• Enterprise-focused pricing
• Less flexible for small teams or startups

#7. Axero

Axero’s Communifire platform delivers an all-in-one intranet solution with collaboration tools like forums, blogs, and task management. It appeals to organizations that want both communication and project tools in one place.

Pros

• Broad range of features
• Community-style interaction tools
  

Cons

• Learning curve for new users
• Less mobile-optimized than some competitors

#8. Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint is one of the most well-known enterprise intranet platforms, offering deep integration with Microsoft 365. It’s extremely flexible but often requires IT and governance to manage effectively.

Pros

• Deep Microsoft 365 integration
• Highly customizable

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Not built for employee engagement

#9. Workvivo

Workvivo blends intranet and social engagement features, positioning itself as a digital hub for company culture. It’s especially strong in recognition and community-building use cases.

Pros

• Built-in recognition and community tools
• Engaging UX for culture-first organizations
  

Cons

• Limited document management capabilities
• Not as flexible with integrations

#10. Happeo

Happeo is a Google Workspace-native intranet that integrates deeply with Google Drive, Gmail, and Calendar. It’s a good option for companies that are fully embedded in the Google ecosystem.

Pros

• Seamless Google Workspace integration
• Strong search and navigation features
  

Cons

• Less functional for Microsoft-based companies
• Lacks some advanced comms features

Final thoughts: Choosing the right Interact intranet alternative

Finding the best Interact Intranet alternative comes down to your organization’s goals—whether it’s boosting engagement, simplifying communication, improving mobile access, or replacing outdated tools.

For companies that want a modern platform that employees actually use, Blink stands out as the top choice. It combines everything Interact offers with better usability, mobile functionality, and real-time engagement tools—making it ideal for the future of work.

Whether you're a global enterprise or a growing mid-sized team, there's an intranet solution on this list that can help streamline your internal communications and empower your people.

Previously published in Healthcare Business Today

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Mass walkouts make headlines. It would not be surprising if 2024 saw an increase in these headlines - particularly in sectors such as healthcare. The recent strike that saw 75,000 Kaiser healthcare workers walk off the job is reflective of the deep level of disengagement among frontline healthcare professionals in general. Unless healthcare leaders can spot rising levels of disengagement, understand what causes it, and take proactive steps to prevent it within their organizations, these worrying trends will continue to persist.

Unfortunately, despite significant and somewhat effective efforts by HR leaders to recognize and reward frontline workers for their contributions, the healthcare industry is struggling to bridge the gap between organizational initiatives and frontline satisfaction. Benefits programs, loyalty initiatives, listening surveys, and wellbeing apps have failed to move the needle, mainly because these initiatives simply don’t always reach those needing them. Technologies such as e-learning and team scheduling platforms, messaging, and collaboration tools - designed to engage employees and encourage a more connected and cohesive organizational culture  - have not had the desired impact on frontline staff. 

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Mismatch Between Technology and Reality 

The problem is that while the pace of digital transformation in the enterprise space has been undeniable, the technologies most healthcare organizations purchase today are designed for desk-based workers who are permanently online and have ready access to IT support and/or relevant training resources; or are another add on to an existing legacy system.

The modern enterprise tech ecosystem is incompatible with the reality of frontline work – where mobile ease of use and accessibility are pivotal to driving impact. These tools simply don’t work effectively when rolled out to hospital staff who are time-constrained, constantly on their feet, and rarely anywhere near a desktop computer, especially for anything nonclinical. 

A survey of more than 500 US healthcare workers reveals that 37% say technology frustrates them. This lack of positivity around technology creates inequality of opportunity and influence within the workplace, as healthcare workers often don’t enjoy the same sense of value and belonging as their office-based peers, nor do they have the same opportunities for career advancement.

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READ MORE: Achieving Employee Techquity: Our guide on why successful digital inclusion in healthcare starts in your teams.

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Purpose-built Technology for Delivering Exceptional Care

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Healthcare workers aren’t averse to using technology. As consumers, their digital world is immediate and enriching, driven by intuitive smartphone apps, instant notifications, and a sense of always having the tools they need at their fingertips. Yet in their jobs, the current digital experience can be slow and disjointed.

To close the digital divide, organizations must deploy technologies specifically designed with the on-the-go frontline healthcare experience in mind. For example, offering single sign-on (SSO), mobile-enabled access to all applications will greatly improve accessibility. Building a hub can make it easy for all workers to access important information and other systems. Simple mobile forms can replace paper trails, help workers improve efficiency, and eradicate convoluted processes so that workers do not waste time on administrative tasks.

Elara Caring, one of the largest US-based providers of personal care, home health, and hospice care, successfully addressed these challenges after experiencing a 65% annual staff turnover rate due to low morale and lack of peer-to-peer connection. The company decided to deploy Blink, the frontline employee super-app, which has transformed its operational landscape and solved its million-dollar challenge. 

Elara, using Blink, streamlined onboarding, enhanced communication efficiency, and created a sense of community among employees, some of whom were never connected to the organization. By leveraging capabilities like SSO and automating daily tasks, Elara centralized operations and increased its productivity. Additionally, they facilitated seamless communication and peer-to-peer networking, fostering a culture of recognition and empowerment within Elara's workforce.

By leveraging Blink's multifaceted capabilities, Elara not only mitigated its turnover challenge but also established a more cohesive, efficient, and connected workforce, reinforcing its commitment to employee well-being and organizational success.  And, now that Elara has been able to connect to this large employee constituency successfully, they are innovating on exciting new opportunities for improving these workers’ work-life and their patients’ experience.

Importance of Organizational Culture Shift  

Creating a digitally inclusive environment for frontline workers goes beyond technology adoption. It requires a cultural shift within organizations – one that values and actively supports the digital empowerment of every employee, regardless of role.  People and HR leaders must champion digital inclusion as a strategic priority, ensuring that frontline workers are not just recipients of technology but active participants in the digital transformation journey.

Organizations can foster this culture by promoting digital literacy programs, encouraging peer-to-peer learning, and recognizing the unique contributions of frontline workers. Understanding the specific pain points of these employees leads to more effective and user-friendly solutions and an increase in technology adoption.

Essentially, closing the digital gap for frontline healthcare workers isn't just about technological advancements, it's about ensuring exceptional healthcare and workplace equity. By investing in the right tools, training, and culture initiatives, healthcare organizations can enable and empower their frontline workforce to better thrive in the digital age.

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The most common communication challenges in organizations from big enterprise businesses to small startups are so widespread that dealing with them can start to feel normal.

It’s easy to forget that internal communications issues can have a big impact. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can safely back burner internal comms because communication challenges and barriers are so widespread.

The fact is that poor internal communications can seriously harm your business. It’s a domino effect of frustrating communication, poor morale, lower productivity, higher absenteeism leading to higher employee turnover, and finally, higher costs and smaller profits.

Of course, when you’re in the thick of things, the relationship between poor internal comms and your bottom line might not be very clear. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that communication was thought of as a nice but not necessary soft skill.

We put together this article to lay out some of the ways communication challenges and barriers can sap a company’s resources along with strategies for making your internal comms more effective (also see the best way to improve internal communications).

The deep impact of communications challenges in organizations

The idea that internal communications problems can make a business less profitable can seem overblown.

The statistics, however, show that having a weak internal comms strategy (or having no strategy at all) can have a detrimental impact on everything from employee engagement to your business's bottom line.

Here’s how communications challenges in organizations affect success.

Communication challenges and barriers lead to increased employee turnover

Studies looking into the real cost of employee turnover often show different results.

Some studies show it costs employers 33% of a worker's annual salary to hire a replacement while other research suggests that it costs three times that salary.

What all of the data has in common is that employee turnover definitely costs companies big bucks.

Employee retention and profitability go hand in hand, and the good news is that research shows that 75% of employee turnover is preventable.

Relationships suffer when communication is a problem

Two heads are better than one, but whole teams of heads are necessary for long-term success.

When people can’t communicate with one another effectively because of technical barriers or, worse, can communicate but feel uncomfortable doing so because there’s not a culture of openness at a company, collaboration may slow or even stop.

That means innovation can’t happen and problems languish with no solutions. Your employees just can’t be as productive when relationships with colleagues are strained and everyone feels like they’re working in isolation.

Less productivity means less profit.

Customer service suffers when there are communication challenges

Internal communications and external communications are inexorably linked.

Employees need access to information to answer customer queries, respond to sales inquiries, or help customers get what they need.

When they can’t get that information easily, they’re apt to feel a strong sense of disengagement that can actually lead to everyone—workers and customers alike—feeling frustrated and dissatisfied during encounters.

Dissatisfied employees leave, and as we’ve shown above, that costs money. And dissatisfied customers take their business elsewhere, costing you even more.

Poor communication = stress = higher healthcare costs

This might seem like a stretch, but stress costs the United States $300 billion every year—a figure that includes costs shouldered by businesses that provide insurance to their employees.

While there’s no way to show a hard and fast causal link between frustrations caused by comms issues and increased healthcare costs, it’s worth mulling over the idea that the communications challenges in organizations that stress workers out may also be contributing to expensive physical and mental health issues in those same employees.

Healthcare is expensive, after all, and effective internal comms is cheap in comparison.

Internal communication problems can be a motivation killer

Workers who don’t feel like they have an important role to play, who don’t understand what is expected of them, and who feel like they don’t have a voice literally can’t give their all.

Time that would otherwise go toward productive (and profitable) work is instead spent trying to navigate a confusing company culture or to figure out what that company’s priorities are. There’s no passion among employees because they feel totally disengaged from their tasks and their teams.

The Gallup State of the American Workplace report put it succinctly: “Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work—they are resentful that their needs aren’t being met and are acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers potentially undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.”

Communications challenges in organizations lead to mistakes

Workers who have access to the information they need to really contribute to a company make fewer mistakes because they feel comfortable concentrating on the work in front of them.

Employees who are focused on trying to figure out what their priorities should be or simple emotional management are more prone to error.

In a retail environment, the result of this kind of disengagement may be fewer sales. In industries like healthcare, however, mistakes can lead to hugely expensive regulatory issues or even injury and death.

Poor internal communication makes boosting employee satisfaction impossible

You can’t boost your workers’ overall satisfaction if you don’t have a clear idea of what employees like and don’t like about their day to day.

At companies with strong internal communications strategies, managers regularly touch base with employees to get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t. When comms just isn’t a priority, chances are slim to none that workers will open up about what changes could make your business better.

Absenteeism rates are higher when communications is an issue

Employees who can’t jump ship at the moment may show their communications-related dissatisfaction by simply not showing up.

A Gallup study conducted in the UK showed that disengaged workers miss 10 more working days each year compared to peers who feel a strong connection to the company vision and are clear on what’s expected of them.

The biggest challenges facing internal communications teams

The factors that have contributed to the biggest communications challenges in organizations are well documented at this point. Lack of clarity, platform. and targeted messaging.

The main problem that companies have faced has always been how to address those factors effectively and economically. Email and Dropbox alone are outdated.

Just having a clear vision doesn’t necessarily mean it is easy to share and then reinforce that vision. A company intranet portal that provides a platform for internal comms may not actually facilitate good communication. And getting the right information into the hands of the right people has always been tough.

Luckily, solving the big communications challenges in organizations has become easier with tech tools like an internal communications tool. Intranets have evolved over time from simple information repositories to a kind of mobile base of operations where business happens from anywhere.

Blink, for instance, can help you communicate administrative and benefits information, but is also a platform for collaboration, a place to store and search for data, a way to solicit feedback (including anonymous feedback), and a social hub for employees to share with one another.

It lets internal comms teams curate messaging so employees stay on the same page without getting overwhelmed by emails, meetings, memos, and Slack chatter.

Up-to-date internal comms tools like Blink’s employee app are even more important for businesses with a lot of frontline workers—especially now that nontraditional employees like remote workers and long-term contract workers make up such a large percentage of the workforce.

By automating paper-based processes, microapps like this help increase productivity overall.

How effective internal communications will change your business for the better

Curious about what effective internal communication can really do for your bottom line? Here are some statistics that might surprise you:

• Companies that communicate effectively are 50% more likely to report below average turnover levels.
• A 5-point improvement in employee attitude results in a 1.3% increase in customer satisfaction and an increase in company revenue.
• Higher engagement can mean a 40% reduction in absenteeism.
• Employees who feel fully informed and more engaged may be 21% more productive.
• Companies with effective communication strategies see 47% higher total returns to shareholders.
• Poor communication is cited as the main cause of failure for IT projects.
• 69% of employees say they’d work harder if their contributions were recognized and praised.

Knowing what you know now, we also want to offer you a quick list of steps you can take right away to gauge how your internal comms is currently working and to enhance your internal comms strategy.

1. Assess your current strategy — Assuming you have one, that is. If not, you’ll want to make one. But if you do, take the time to consider your internal communications objectives, who has ownership of comms, if the tools you are using are effective, and whether your current strategies are really getting the job done.
2. Poll your employees — Do they feel like they have a voice in your company? If they have an idea, can they easily share it? When they have questions, can they find answers quickly and easily? Does dealing with administrative tasks take up way too much time? Do they like your communications tech? Let workers answer anonymously and adjust your comms strategy accordingly.
3. Put everything in one place — Make this the year you finally commit to storing your company data in one place so tracking down a file is never again a half-day affair. When you use Blink to store the information your employees need—from HR docs to project guidelines—they can easily find it all.
4. Stop sending so many emails — Lengthy, reply-all type email threads are frustrating and, frankly, easy to ignore. Worse, they interrupt the flow of work and often contain irrelevant information leaving workers feeling resentful instead of informed.
5. Send information to the right people — Use a comms platform like Blink that lets you send information to specific employees and teams instead of the entire company. You can even label posts priority and check to make sure that your messages were received and read by recipients.

The bottom line is that employees at every level of your company will be happier, more productive, and more passionate about their work if they feel informed.

The internal communications strategy you put into place now will not only make it easier for your employees to do their jobs, but will also make your company more profitable in the long run.

Blink makes it easier to overcome the most common organizational communication tool challenges in organizations. Are you ready to tackle the challenges facing internal communications at your company?