Best employee communication apps for 2026 (ranked)

Digital signage for frontline workers: what actually works

Walk into any warehouse or factory break room and you'll find a screen on the wall, cycling through safety alerts, shift schedules, or a slide deck frozen since 2019. Screens solve one real problem: they reach workers who aren't at desks and can't check a phone on the floor. But they create another. There's no way to know who actually saw the message, and that gap is measurable.

This guide covers how digital signage works in frontline environments, where it genuinely earns its place in the channel mix, and where mobile-first communication fills the gaps it can't.

What is digital signage for frontline workers?

Digital signage for frontline workers refers to screen-based displays deployed in physical work environments to communicate operational information to employees who don't use desk computers or company email. Common locations include break rooms, production floors, warehouse loading bays, locker rooms, and staff entrances.

Typical content includes shift schedules, safety briefings, KPI dashboards, policy updates, training reminders, and HR announcements. Screens are centrally managed through a content management system (CMS), so communications teams or IT administrators can push updates across every screen in every location from a single dashboard.

The core appeal is reach without requiring a personal device. In environments where smartphones are prohibited, clean rooms, food production, heavy machinery operations, a wall-mounted screen is often the only scalable way to put information in front of workers during their shift.

Where digital signage genuinely earns its place

Not every deployment of digital signage is washing its face. But in specific operational contexts, the case is strong.

Factory floors and production environments are the clearest fit. When workers are operating equipment that demands full attention, and when personal device use is either prohibited or impractical, screens mounted at eye level near workstations or break areas are one of the few viable ways to deliver operational messaging. Safety alerts, shift targets, downtime notifications, and quality metrics all belong here.

Warehouse and distribution environments have a similar profile. Loading bay screens showing today's dispatch priorities, attendance boards, or compliance reminders reduce the relay of information through supervisors, which means fewer distortions and faster response to changing conditions.

Break rooms deserve separate consideration. A screen in a shared rest space reaches workers at the precise moment they have headspace to absorb information. Pre-shift briefings, HR policy updates, benefit enrollment reminders, and company news all perform better in a break room context than they would on a production floor, where attention is split.

Healthcare and public-facing environments use digital signage primarily for wayfinding and patient-facing communication, but staff-facing screens in nurse stations and staff rooms serve a genuine internal communications function, particularly for shift handover information and policy updates that supervisors can't always relay in person.

The real limitations, and why IT directors need to plan around them

None of this means digital signage solves the frontline communication problem on its own. There are four structural limitations that any IT or Operations leader evaluating a digital signage investment needs to account for.

No read receipts, no compliance trail. Digital signage is broadcast communication. You can verify a screen was on. You cannot verify that a specific employee saw a specific message. For regulated industries, healthcare, food production, financial services, where you need to prove that a policy update or safety briefing was acknowledged by named individuals, a screen on a wall doesn't give you that. You need a channel that generates a paper trail.

No two-way communication. Screens push information. They don't enable responses, questions, or acknowledgment. When a policy changes and a worker has a question, that question either goes unanswered until they find a manager, or it goes up through a chain that introduces delays and inconsistencies. In high-regulation environments, unanswered questions about safety procedures have real consequences.

No reach outside the building. Workers who are on their commute, at home reviewing a shift change, or working a split shift across two sites can't see a break room screen. For any communication that needs to land before the shift starts, schedule changes, emergency alerts, pre-shift safety reminders, digital signage arrives too late or not at all.

No data on individual engagement. You can measure screen uptime, content loop completion, and scheduled broadcasts. You cannot tell your CHRO which employees haven't acknowledged the new safety protocol, or show your compliance team a timestamped record of individual engagement. When you need that data, and in most regulated environments, you will, digital signage can't provide it.

Why frontline workers need more than a screen

The communication gap isn't about technology, it's about verification. Research consistently shows that organizations with high frontline turnover cite poor communication as a top driver. Screens don't close that gap on their own because they don't create the conditions for two-way trust.

The pattern shows up in adoption data. When organisations add a mobile-first communication layer alongside physical signage, engagement metrics change substantially. According to Blink's customer data (2024), at easyJet 88% of over 20,000 employees became active users of a single platform. At JD Sports, 87% adoption was reached in 10 days. At Dollar Tree, 96% adoption across a workforce that was never going to be reached through break room screens alone. At Stagecoach, adding a direct mobile channel contributed to a 26% reduction in driver turnover.

That's not an argument against digital signage. It's an argument that signage works best as part of a layered channel strategy, where screens handle broadcast operational messaging in physical spaces, and a mobile-first platform like Blink handles everything that requires reach, verification, and response. Blink's frontline communication solutions are built specifically for the workforce that screens can't fully reach.

Getting your channel strategy right

For IT and Operations leaders evaluating digital signage as part of a broader frontline communication infrastructure, the decision framework matters more than the technology choice.

Step 1: Audit your content types. Not all communications belong on a screen. Separate broadcast operational content (shift schedules, safety KPIs, downtime alerts) from compliance-sensitive content (policy acknowledgments, training completions, HR updates) and personal content (payslips, individual schedule changes, direct manager communication). The first category suits digital signage. The second and third require a channel with verification.

Step 2: Map your compliance requirements. If you're in a regulated industry, establish exactly which communications require individual acknowledgment and a timestamped audit trail. This determines which parts of your channel mix need a verification layer, and where digital signage alone creates regulatory exposure.

Step 3: Establish your integration requirements. A digital signage CMS that pulls shift data from your workforce management system (Workday, Kronos, SAP) reduces manual content updates and keeps screens accurate. Your IT security model, SSO, GDPR compliance, role-based access control, and audit trails for who published what, needs to be defined before procurement, not after.

Step 4: Define the mobile complement. For workers who do carry smartphones, even in environments where phones are restricted during shifts, a mobile-first platform extends your communication reach beyond the building, enables two-way messaging, and provides the individual engagement data that screens can't. This is the layer that turns your signage investment from a broadcast tool into a complete communication infrastructure.

Step 5: Measure what matters. Screen uptime and content loop metrics tell you the technology is working. They don't tell you communication is working. Layer in mobile engagement rates, acknowledgment completion rates for compliance content, and frontline feedback response rates. These are the metrics that connect communication investment to operational and retention outcomes.

How Blink complements digital signage for frontline teams

If you're evaluating the mobile layer of your frontline communication stack, Blink is built specifically for the 80% of workers who don't sit at desks. It handles everything digital signage can't: individual reach, compliance acknowledgment trails, two-way communication, and a personal communication feed that workers actually check.

Pizza Pilgrims reached 96% adoption. JD Sports hit 87% in 10 days. easyJet has 88% active users across 20,000+ employees. The platform integrates with Workday, ServiceNow, and SharePoint, supports SSO and GDPR compliance, and provides the role-based access control and audit trails that IT Directors need before they can sign off on a new communication layer.

Digital signage handles the wall. Blink handles everything else. See how the two work together, or explore Blink's frontline communication platform to understand the integration model.

The best employee experience tools support HR objectives.

They improve employee productivity, engagement, and retention. They streamline HR processes and they help you demonstrate measurable ROI.

So how do you find an employee experience tool that does all the above?

By understanding the platform features that really drive HR impact — and knowing what to do to ensure platform success.

Let’s take a look.

What is employee experience?

Employee experience is the combined impact of every interaction an employee has within your company — from their first day to their last, and everything in between.

It’s shaped by company culture, the quality of workplace communication, learning and development opportunities, compensation, and well-being support.

It’s also shaped by the software and resources employees use to do their jobs — whether that’s a dedicated employee experience platform like Blink or tools that support your operations. 

Ultimately, employee experience is not one thing. It’s the accumulation of small, daily moments that determine how employees feel, how hard they work, and how long they stay at your organization. And it has a direct impact on the metrics that matter most to HR.

Why employee experience matters for HR

A positive employee experience improves employee engagement, productivity, retention, and performance — core HR goals.

It helps HR teams to hit their hiring targets. When you’re known as a great place to work, you attract better candidates. It also reduces HR workload because employees can access the resources they need when they need them, and there are fewer avoidable queries.

The organizations that understand this don’t treat employee experience as a culture initiative. They treat it as a business strategy.

Let’s look at some examples.

• Cisco has built an onboarding experience that 90% of employees say exceeds their expectations. Beyond this initial training, the company is committed to helping employees do their best work and progress in their careers.
  
  
• Hilton, named the #1 World’s Best Workplace in 2025, has made employee well-being central to its employee value proposition (EVP). With sabbaticals, benefits for caregivers, and mental health support, Hilton has ensured that 85% of its staff feel balanced and healthy at work.
  
  
• Elara Caring — a provider of personal care, home health, and hospice services with over 32,000 caregivers — has prioritized internal communication and co-worker connection. After implementing a frontline app, 95% of employees say they feel more connected to the company.

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Employee experience in frontline organizations: Key considerations

With over 2.7 billion deskless workers globally, the employee experience gap between frontline and desk-based staff is one of the most significant — and most costly — challenges HR leaders face.

Frontline workers are often disconnected from leadership, colleagues, and company culture. They have limited access to desktop-based tools. And they miss out on development opportunities and workplace perks that desk-based employees take for granted.

When their experience is poor, they leave — at rates that consistently outpace desk-based worker attrition.

Closing this gap requires intentional effort — and in most cases, it requires digital tools that every employee can actually access.

10 employee experience platform features that drive HR success

The right employee experience platform gives you the tools to hit your most important HR targets — whether that’s improving retention, driving engagement, streamlining onboarding, or building a culture that people genuinely want to be part of.

But not all platforms are built equal. And for organizations with a large frontline workforce, you need tools that meet staff where they are — serving customers, transporting goods, and keeping your operations on track.

Here are the features that matter most, and how each one connects to your HR goals.

1. Frontline-friendly features

For organizations with a significant frontline workforce, these frontline-friendly features are a baseline. Every other feature on this list only delivers value if frontline employees can actually access and use your platform.

To ensure your EX platform meets the needs of frontline workers, look for:

• Mobile-first design. Platforms that are built for smartphones from the ground up. Not a desktop platform with a mobile app bolted on.
• Offline capabilities. So employees in low-connectivity environments aren’t cut off from the information they need.
• Intuitive, consumer-grade interfaces. Frontline workers won’t adopt tools that feel clunky or slow. The bar is set by the apps they already use in their personal lives.
• No corporate email required. Access is granted via a phone number or employee ID, so every worker can use your systems from day one.

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Ensure your employee experience investment reaches all employees — not just those who sit at a desk.
• Reduce the friction that causes low platform adoption rates and poor ROI.
• Close the experience gap between frontline and desk-based employees that drives disproportionately high frontline attrition.

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2. Two-way communication tools

Effective internal communication requires two-way channels that give employees access to leadership updates, co-worker conversations, and company news — and give leadership real visibility into what employees are thinking.

Look for platforms that support instant messaging, a dynamic news feed, live streaming, voice and video calling, and pinned updates.

You also need structured channels for different types of communication, so the right messages reach the right people without everything competing for attention in the same feed.

For frontline organizations specifically, those comms channels need to be available on smartphones. Push notifications and mandatory reads also come in very useful. 

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Easily communicate company updates, initiatives, and events to your entire team or specific departments.
• Work toward employee engagement goals by gathering valuable employee feedback through direct one-on-one or group chats.
• Build trust and transparency because employees feel they have a direct line to leaders.

3. Surveys, polls, and real-time feedback

Annual surveys tell you how employees felt twelve months ago. But by the time the results land, the moment to act has usually passed.

Real-time feedback tools — pulse surveys, quick polls, employee sentiment analysis, and manager check-ins — give HR a live picture of how employees are feeling, what’s working, and where action is needed.

This can make the difference between responding to a retention crisis and preventing one.

The best platforms make surveys easy to launch and feedback easy to send. Short, targeted surveys take seconds to complete and get higher response rates — particularly from time-poor frontline workers. 

You should also look for analytics and reports that help you make sense of your findings. That way, you can create a plan of action and employees get to see visible change in response to their feedback. 

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Surface issues before they impact engagement and retention.
• Get the data to make evidence-based decisions on HR initiatives, rather than relying on instinct.
• Demonstrate to employees that their voice matters, driving engagement and belonging in the process.

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4. Audience segmentation tools

While 75% of workplace communicators say tailored messaging is critical, only 20% segment their audiences regularly.

This is a problem. Because a retail associate doesn’t need the same updates as a warehouse operative. A new starter needs different content than a ten-year employee. 

When every employee sees everything, the platform becomes noisy — and people stop paying attention.

Audience targeting allows HR and comms teams to deliver the right content to the right people, based on their role, location, department, and tenure. It helps you reduce overwhelm and land messages more effectively.

What’s more, when staff are confident of finding personalized content on your employee experience platform, they keep logging in. So you reach more employees through the same streamlined channels. 

When choosing employee experience software, look for tools that allow you to create and manage employee groups, and tools that let you customize dashboards on an employee-by-employee basis.

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Improve message cut-through by ensuring employees only receive content that’s relevant to them.
• Enable more targeted feedback collection — surveying specific teams or locations rather than the whole organization at once.
• Reduce the noise that causes employees to disengage from internal comms and EX platforms entirely.

5. Automated employee journeys

Onboarding is one of the highest-stakes communication challenges in any organization. 

When it's inconsistent — when new hires receive different information depending on which manager onboards them or which shift they start on — it shows up in slower ramp-up times, more HR queries, and higher early attrition.

Automated employee journeys solve this by delivering the right content to every employee at the right moment — consistently, regardless of role, location, or manager.

Pre-boarding information before day one. Essential policies and system guides on arrival. Role-specific training in a logical sequence. Check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days to identify and address early disengagement.

The same logic applies beyond onboarding — to role transitions, promotions, returns from leave — any other moment in the employee lifecycle where timely, consistent communication makes a meaningful difference.

Pick an employee platform that supports content automation — and connects with your HRIS — and staff get a more consistent and comprehensive experience. 

How does this help me meet my HR goals?

• Reduce the volume of repetitive onboarding queries that consume HR capacity.
• Ensure every new hire gets the same high-quality experience regardless of manager or location.
• Improve early retention by giving new starters the confidence and information they need to succeed from day one.

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6. Recognition and rewards

Employees who feel recognized perform better and stay longer. But only 61% of desk-based workers feel seen and appreciated at work. And this figure drops to 43% for desk-based teams.

A mobile-first platform with built-in recognition tools changes that. It enables peer-to-peer recognition, manager shoutouts, and company-wide celebrations of employee achievement — visible to everyone, not just the people who happen to be in the office.

The most effective recognition tools fit seamlessly into the work day.

If giving recognition means logging into a separate system and filling out a form, it won't happen consistently. If it takes two taps from the same app employees use for everything else, you embed recognition in company culture.

How does this help me meet my HR goals?

• Drive engagement, belonging, and retention by ensuring every employee — frontline included — feels seen and valued.
• Motivate employees to do their best work, improving performance and productivity. 
• Improve the employer brand, making your organization a more appealing place to work.

7. Digital forms and workflows

HR processes are often still paper-based or scattered across disconnected systems — particularly in frontline organizations. 

Leave requests, incident reports, onboarding paperwork, equipment sign-offs — each of these small administrative tasks consumes significant HR time when multiplied across a large workforce.

Digital forms, accessible from a smartphone, remove that friction. Employees complete forms in the moment they're needed, on the device they're already using. Submissions are tracked, data is captured cleanly, and HR spends less time chasing paper and more time on work that requires their expertise.

The best platforms let you build, customize, and update forms without IT involvement — so HR can respond to changing processes quickly without adding (another) ticket to the queue.

How does this help me meet my HR goals?

• Reduce HR admin burden by digitizing manual, paper-based processes.
• Improve data quality and compliance by capturing information consistently and in real time.
• Free HR capacity for strategic work by eliminating the time spent chasing, collating, and correcting paper-based submissions.

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8. Enterprise-wide search

When employees can’t find what they need, their first port of call is often HR. The people team spends a lot of time answering questions that are already answered elsewhere.

The issue? Information is hard to find — because it’s hidden away in an intranet folder, in an outdated handbook, or in a lengthy chat thread. In the case of frontline employees, it’s often because they can’t access company resources from their smartphones.

A searchable, centralized, mobile-first knowledge hub — with user-friendly content management tools — reduces unnecessary queries. It also empowers workers, because all the information they need to do their jobs well is right at their fingertips.

With the right EX platform, you put policies, procedures, FAQs, a people directory, and training materials within easy reach — across all devices — so your HR team spends less time fielding questions.

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Reduce the volume of routine process and policy queries that consume HR team time.
• Improve employee productivity by reducing time spent searching for important documents or information.
• Support compliance by ensuring every employee is working from the same, up-to-date version of every document.

9. Integrations with your HRIS

An employee experience platform that doesn't connect to your core HR systems creates more work, not less. Employees end up juggling multiple logins. Data lives in silos. HR spends time manually reconciling information across systems.

The right employee experience platform supports deep HRIS integration. It syncs with your HR system — pulling in employee data, org structures, and role information automatically.

Onboarding journeys trigger on the right day. Audience targeting reflects current team structures. Employees can access payroll, shift swap tools, benefits, learning systems, and leave information without leaving the platform. 

Single sign-on (SSO) is essential. But the strongest integrations go further. They provide two-way data sync and automated user provisioning, so you can turn your platform into a digital front door for your entire HR tech stack.

How does this help me meet my HR goals?

• Reduce the manual admin burden of maintaining employee data across multiple systems.
• Give employees a single, trusted place to access HR information and complete HR tasks — reducing queries and improving self-service.
• Improve the ROI of your existing HR tech by increasing adoption through a single, accessible front door.

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10. Reporting & analytics tools

It’s hard to make meaningful improvements to employee experience — or to make the case for HR investment — without reliable data.

An EX tool with strong analytics capabilities gives you real-time visibility into how the platform is being used — who’s engaging, what content is landing, which locations or teams are disengaged, and where communication is falling short.

That data informs better decisions: smarter content strategies, targeted interventions, and a clearer line between HR activity and business outcomes — like retention and productivity.  

Look for tools that track a wide range of KPIs and provide customizable dashboards and metrics. AI-powered data insights and data segmentation tools will also prove useful. 

How will this help me meet my goals?

• Gain valuable insights into employee experience.
• Inform HR initiatives and decision-making by tracking progress and identifying areas for improvement.
• Demonstrate the ROI of HR and communications investment to leadership and finance.

How to choose the right employee experience tool for your business

Choosing an employee experience platform is a big decision. The right tool can reduce turnover, improve operational performance, and give every employee — including those on the frontline — a reliable connection to the information and culture that keeps them engaged.

The wrong one? Well, it adds to tool sprawl, sits unused, and creates more HR problems than it solves.

We’ve explored the features you should be looking for when choosing an employee experience platform that helps you meet HR goals. But what does the process of finding and implementing a new EX tool really look like?

Here’s a rundown of all the steps involved.

Start with your workforce, not your wishlist

Before evaluating any platform, get clear on what your end users need from a new tool. That means talking to people from across your organization — leadership, different departments, office-based workers, frontline employees.

Ask what bugbears they have with the tech tools you currently use — and what features and functionality they’d be looking for if they were picking a new platform. Quiz them on existing workflows and the places where bottlenecks occur.

Get input from your workforce and you’ll find it easier to draw up a list of platform must-haves. Employee buy-in also helps to ensure adoption and usage once your new tech tool goes live.

Define your HR outcomes

Another task to complete before you sit down to a demo? Establish the two or three key outcomes that matter most to your organization right now.

Is the priority reducing frontline attrition? Fixing onboarding consistency? Getting recognition to employees who currently receive none?

These priorities should drive your evaluation. So if a vendor can’t clearly explain how their platform moves the metrics you care about most — with evidence from organizations similar to yours — proceed with caution.

Assess integrations

Before committing, audit your current tech stack and ask vendors specific integration questions:

• Does it integrate with our HRIS — and how deep does that integration go?
• Does it support single sign-on, so employees don't need another set of credentials?
• Can employees access payroll, scheduling, and benefits tools through the platform — or does it just link out to them?
• What happens when one of our existing systems updates — who manages the integration maintenance?

Deep, maintained integrations are what turn a communication tool into a genuine digital front door and help your organization to avoid tool sprawl.

Don't underestimate the adoption challenge

The most common reason employee experience platforms fail to deliver ROI isn't a bad product choice. It's poor adoption — particularly among frontline workers who’ve learned to be skeptical of tools that promise to make their working lives easier…and then don't.

When evaluating platforms, ask vendors:

• What does a typical frontline rollout look like?
• What adoption rates do your existing customers achieve, and over what timeframe?
• How do you support manager activation — since managers are often the critical link between a platform launch and frontline engagement?
• What onboarding resources and tutorials are available to keep adoption momentum high?
• What other support do you provide during platform launch?

A vendor who can point to concrete adoption data is a vendor worth keeping on your shortlist.

Watch for these red flags

Not every platform that markets itself as an employee experience tool is built for the realities of your organization. Watch for:

• Desktop-first design presented as mobile-ready. There's a significant difference between a platform built with a mobile-first mindset and a desktop platform with a mobile app bolted on. Ask to test the mobile experience before making any decisions.
  
  
• Weak or templated analytics. If you can't measure adoption by role, location, and department — and connect communication activity to business outcomes — you can't demonstrate ROI or identify where the platform is falling short.
  
  
• Shallow integrations. A platform that integrates with your HRIS in name only, without real data sync or SSO, won't reduce the friction that drives employees to workarounds.
  
  
• Rigid workflows. Platforms that can’t adapt to your organization’s culture and processes will slow managers and teams down, instead of helping them. Look for platforms that can be customized and personalized to organization and employee needs.

Pilot before you scale

A full-scale rollout might feel efficient. In practice, it simply hides problems until they're really expensive to fix.

Different employee groups — frontline workers, managers, desk-based staff, new starters — have different needs, habits, and access patterns. What works well for one group may not work for another.

Run a structured pilot with a representative group before rolling out to the full workforce. Track adoption rates, ease of use, and qualitative feedback. Use what you learn to refine your onboarding approach, notification settings, content strategy, and governance before scaling.

A phased rollout reveals friction points early, when they’re still cheap to address.

Measure continuously, not just at launch

Implementation isn’t the finish line. The needs of employees change over time. Business priorities shift. Communication strategies that work well at 500 employees may need adjusting at 2,000.

Build regular platform reviews into your HR calendar. Use analytics to track adoption trends, content engagement, survey participation, and the correlation between communication activity and business metrics like attrition and productivity.

The organizations that get the most from their employee experience platforms are the ones that treat them as living infrastructure — not a one-time rollout.

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Next-level employee experience and HR impact

Choosing the right employee experience platform means finding one that works for your people, your processes, and your HR goals.

From frontline-friendly design to analytics, integrations to recognition features, the best platforms make work easier, while improving employee engagement and HR outcomes.

But even the perfect platform won’t deliver ROI on its own. Success comes from understanding your workforce, defining the outcomes that matter most, piloting thoughtfully, and measuring continuously.

Treat your EX tool as living infrastructure, and you’ll see engagement, retention, and productivity rise — making your organization a place employees genuinely want to work.

In April, Blink attended the American Ambulance Association Annual Conference & Trade Show (a.k.a. AAA)  in Nashville, TN. As the premier event in the ambulance industry, leaders gather at AAA to discuss the trends and pitfalls they face, find innovative vendor solutions, and hear from experts about the future of Emergency Medical Services (EMS). 

We had the honor of sharing the stage with a few of those trend-setting industry experts. Blink hosted a panel discussion, “Uncensored: Cutting The BS On Employee Communications,” with two of the industry’s most straight-talking COOs: Danielle Thomas (Lifeline Ambulance) and Meredith A. Lambroff-Brown (Armstrong Ambulance Service). 

Keep reading to discover some of the employee communications insights Danielle and Meredith shared with the audience. 

Why good employee communications matter for EMS agencies 

First, let’s set the stage to understand why frontline communications are so critical for ambulance companies. EMS frontline workers—paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs)--play a critical role in society. Ambulance companies face a difficult task, however, when it comes to keeping a strong workforce and staying connected with them. 

Frontline roles in healthcare related industries are notoriously challenging to keep filled—and EMS is no different. Over the last few years, turnover rates have increased, with an average of 11% turnover in the US and a peak of 20% turnover in high response volume areas in 2022. The turnover problem is compounded by waning applicant pools, with nearly two-thirds of agencies reporting a decrease in applications. 

On top of that, EMS practitioners are a young and increasingly diverse workforce. In California, for example, the EMS workforce is younger on average than the rest of California’s workforce. In the US, more broadly, EMTs are one of the youngest workforces, with a median age of 29.7 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What industry COOs are saying about employee communications

Against this backdrop, what advice and insights did Thomas and Lambroff-Brown have for companies struggling to communicate with a young, mobile, and diverse workforce? Here are a few takeaways from the talk.

1. Comms is a must-have, not a nice-to-have

In many ambulance agencies, the practice of communications is often viewed as an afterthought, rather than what it really is: one of the most powerful tools available. A good communication strategy has the power to educate, motivate, connect, and focus workers; a bad communications strategy can tear down people and workplace culture. 

‍2. Master the building blocks of communications

When working on your internal communication strategy, pay attention to the three main building blocks of communication—what you say, how you say it, and how you deliver it. Each company will need a different voice tailored to their audience, so play around with these facets to ensure your message is being heard. 

‍3. Create a relevant and sustainable comms strategy

Getting employee communications right is hard because language and culture are always evolving. What worked yesterday isn’t guaranteed to work today. That’s why leaders need to constantly ensure their comms are specific, set clear expectations, and provide a model for the rest of the workforce. In other words, “what you put up with, you end up with.” 

‍4. EMS leaders are scared to over-communicate, but shouldn’t be 

In any organization, the comms team will need to handle sensitive topics. Naturally, leaders are scared of over-communicating and causing uproar over certain topics. But, rather than letting the fear of an outcome shut down communications, focus on building trust with the workforce through constant communication. That way, you’re more likely to be given grace to make a communication misstep by employees who feel connected to you already.

‍5. Build the culture with your posts

Your communications strategy plays a critical part in building the company culture. This is especially important—and challenging—for frontline organizations where workers often work alone or in pairs. Don’t shy away from posts that may seem “fluffy,” and be sure to tailor those posts to your workforce. For the younger EMS workers, the COOs take advantage of videos in the Blink Feed, because that’s how that generation consumes information.  ‍

6. Control the narrative

Rumors and misinformation are an unfortunate part of managing frontline communications. Rather than avoid tough topics, the comms strategy needs to prioritize getting ahead of the narrative. Whether it’s discussing the disparity between racial representation in the workforce and in leadership roles or an emergency issue like an error with gas card payments, set the terms of the discussion early and provide clear next steps to fend off the rumor mill. 

‍7. Measure the operational impact of your strategy

Good comms are measured by more than anecdotes. Inefficient communications and misaligned technology hinder frontline workers and contribute to waste and high turnover. When Lifeline Ambulance switched to Blink for their communications and HR tool, the company saved $420,000 in the first year—nearly 10x more than their investment in Blink. Understand the operational cost of your current strategy, find new strategies and new tools like Blink, and measure the impact regularly.

In summary, a good frontline communications strategy is one of the most important things an EMS agency can do.  But communicating with a young, diverse frontline workforce can’t follow the same playbook as your office-based staff. Ambulance agencies need a communications strategy that is tailored to this mobile, fast-paced, highly-dispersed workforce.

If you can find what works for your agency, it can help reverse the turnover trend and help create positive employee engagement that propels the business forward.

It was a compelling, hour-long discussion with both COOs. This summary is just a fraction of the insights the audience walked away with. 

‍

Teamwork makes the dream work — it really does. 

Teamwork in the workplace is good for productivity and employee engagement. It boosts an organization’s ability to solve problems, make decisions, and come up with innovative ideas.

It’s also something your workforce is craving, with 39% of employees saying their organization doesn’t collaborate enough.

So if you feel your employees are working alongside each other — rather than really working together — it’s time to take action.

This guide covers 27 practical teamwork strategies — from the fundamentals of team collaboration to the importance of good internal comms to the specific challenges of managing teamwork within a dispersed frontline workforce.

Whether you’re dealing with a specific friction point or are simply wondering how to improve teamwork across your company, there’s a starting point here.

27 innovative ideas to improve team performance

Improve teamwork in the workplace with these actionable teamwork strategies.

1. Keep employees in the loop

It’s easier for people to work together when everyone’s on the same page. When updates are hard to find — or fail to reach every employee — collaboration takes a hit.

Effective team communication means targeted and timely updates that reach every team member — including those without a desk or corporate email. Because when people know what’s happening, they can contribute.

Blink’s news feed puts company updates, team announcements, and operational information directly into every employee’s pocket — in real time, on the device they’re already using.

2. Clarify roles and ownership

Ambiguity is one of the most common causes of team friction.

When people aren’t clear on what they’re responsible for — or where their role ends and someone else’s begins — you get duplicated effort, missed handoffs, and (worst case scenario) simmering resentment.

When planning teamwork projects, team leaders should define the scope of each role from the start. Once roles are established, you can bring the team together to map skills, create project workflows, and agree on timelines.

By setting expectations early in the process, team members can work to their strengths and keep projects on track.   

3. Ensure teams have the resources they need

Next on our list of teamwork tips, we’re talking resources. Because teams can’t perform without the right information, tools, and support.

That sounds obvious. But in practice, frontline workers routinely report not having access to the policies, procedures, and guidance they need to do their jobs well.

A centralized, mobile-accessible knowledge hub — searchable and always up to date — gives employees the info they need without having to ask a manager or wait for a co-worker response.

4. Build a culture of psychological safety

Teamwork only works when people feel they can speak openly. Share an idea without it being dismissed. Flag a problem without it being treated as a complaint. Disagree without damaging a relationship.

Psychological safety is a core driver of team performance. Teams where people feel safe to speak up, challenge assumptions, and admit uncertainty make better decisions and solve problems faster.

Building this kind of culture requires a company-wide commitment to open communication. It also requires the right communication channels.

Employees should have an easy way to contribute, ask questions, raise concerns, and get a speedy response — whether they work in the office, remotely, or on the frontlines of your organization. 

5. Lead from the top

Leaders play a pivotal role in encouraging teamwork in the workplace. When leaders model collaborative behaviours, the workforce is more likely to follow suit.  

That means defining objectives clearly, treating people fairly, and showing up authentically in regular, informal moments.

Leaders who are present and visible help to create the culture of open communication and psychological safety in which collaboration thrives. But when leaders are remote — physically or emotionally — you’re more likely to get teams defaulting to self-interest.

Read more: Leadership and team collaboration: 6 tips to lead the way.

6. Get clear on organizational purpose

Want to inspire and motivate your teams? Then every employee should understand what the organization is trying to achieve — and how their work contributes to that goal.

Without that clarity, team members optimize for their own local goals rather than shared ones, and collaboration across functions becomes a negotiation rather than a partnership.

A clearly defined purpose shapes decision-making, aligns priorities, and gives employees a reason to care about outcomes beyond their immediate to-do list.

If you feel your teams are lacking direction, start by clarifying your company mission. Then regularly reference it across internal communication channels.

7. Get new hires into a collaborative mind-set from day one

The habits employees form in their first few weeks in a workplace tend to stick. So an onboarding program that introduces new team members to collaboration tools, communication norms, and team culture helps set the scene for effective team working.

During the onboarding process, you should also connect new hires with their teammates early. You’ll help them build the strong team relationships that form the foundation of collaboration.

8. Set team KPIs

If you want to improve team performance, clarifying some team KPIs can help. Rather than just setting goals for individuals, define objectives on a team-by-team basis.

Maybe you want to improve near-miss reporting. Or your on-time project completion rate. Or the number of support tickets your team gets through.

Whatever you’re looking to achieve, work with your team to establish realistic, specific, and measurable goals that the whole team can take responsibility for.

9. Establish team processes

Teams work better together when they understand, not just organizational culture, but the culture of the team they belong to.

To achieve this, managers can work with employees to establish team processes — the guidelines the team lives by.

That might mean always letting other project members know the status of your work in a daily huddle. Or speaking up if you see a problem that could impact team success.

When people are clear on the team-building behaviours that are expected, they’re more likely to demonstrate them.

10. Implement the right communication tools

The internal communication tools your teams use have a direct impact on how well they collaborate.

Fragmented tools — separate platforms for messaging, file sharing, scheduling, and updates — create friction. Decision-making slows down. Context is lost. Employees end up feeling frustrated.

Look for tools that are searchable (so messages don’t get lost in long threads), consolidated (so employees aren’t switching between multiple apps), and capable of supporting both real-time and asynchronous communication.

The best team communication tools for deskless teams are also mobile-first — they work as well on smartphones as they do on a desktop computer. This makes it easy to receive and respond to team messages, even when employees aren’t sitting at a desk.

11. Let teams communicate on their own terms

You provide the comms infrastructure. But then employees should be free to use those tools in the way that best suits the team communication style and the task at hand.

Voice calling, voice notes, video calls, real-time messaging, face-to-face meetings — depending on what the team is trying to achieve, different communication methods may be more or less relevant.

An employee communication app, like Blink, allows for various forms of communication within one user-friendly platform.

12. Run team-building activities

Team-building sessions get a bad rap. Often, because they’re done badly — they can feel forced, awkward, and disconnected from real work.

But done well, they’re an effective way to build trust and insight, and for team members to get to know one another better.

The key is choosing activities that reflect how the team actually works, involve genuine challenge and problem-solving, and create a shared experience people want to talk about afterward.

And don’t forget dispersed or remote team members. If you can’t physically get employees together, online team-building activities are the next best thing.

Read more: Why team building is so important.

13. Avoid micro-managing

Teams that are constantly waiting for top-down approval struggle to get into their stride. Micromanagement stifles their creativity, lowers morale, and makes it hard to build trust.

If you don't give your teams some degree of autonomy, they won't work as a collective because they'll always be waiting for the go-ahead from management. As much as possible, let teams set deadlines, develop workflows, and solve problems independently.

The role of management is to set clear expectations and remove blockers, not to stage manage every step of the process.

14. Offer training

Not everyone is a natural collaborator. But team-working skills can be taught. 

Empathy, active listening, open communication, constructive feedback, dispute resolution — these are all learnable skills.

Training doesn’t have to be part of a formal or lengthy program. Manager-led workshops, peer coaching, and microlearning modules can help you build a more collaborative workplace culture.

15. Boost employee engagement

This is a big one. But when employees aren’t engaged in their roles or with your organization, they’re unlikely to make good teammates.

They’re probably putting in the minimum effort, spreading negativity, and are reluctant to contribute to company goals. 

Wondering whether your employees are engaged? Start by learning the drivers of employee engagement. Then, measure engagement rates at your organization.

If you find that employee engagement is below industry benchmarks or has fallen since your last employee engagement survey, you need to take action before team dynamics suffer.    

Take a look at these 67 employee engagement ideas for inspiration.

16. Mediate disputes early

Interpersonal conflicts are tricky to handle. But ignore the problem and leave it to resolve itself, and the issue usually lingers.

This can result in gatekeeping, slower decision-making, and — if the conflict persists long enough — the resignation of good team members.  

Managers can support teamwork in the workplace with a proactive approach to dispute resolution. That means addressing friction as soon as it’s visible, not waiting for it to become a formal complaint.

Ensure managers are equipped to have difficult conversations early. And create a culture where raising an interpersonal issue isn’t seen as weakness or escalation, but as the responsible thing to do.

17. Use collaboration tools

Wondering how to improve teamwork when your employees are working remotely or in different locations? Digital collaboration tools can help.

Shared dashboards make project progress visible. They show task status and ownership — and they reduce the coordination overhead that can consume a significant portion of team time.

When everyone can see what everyone else is working on, you need fewer status update meetings. Blockers get identified earlier. Handoffs happen more smoothly. And employees spend more time doing the work, rather than managing the process.

18. Recognize good teamwork visibly

Recognizing great teamwork explicitly — calling out the team, not just the outcome — incentivizes employees to work well together, not just to produce results individually.

But — to have the greatest impact on company culture and collaboration — this recognition has to be visible to the organization and fairly distributed.

Employee engagement statistics show that nearly 4 in 10 frontline workers (39%) don’t feel their work is valued as highly as office work. It seems that deskless workers are being left out of the recognition loop.

So ensure praise is shared on channels all employees can use. Blink’s employee app comes with built-in recognition tools, so all employees can receive and share appreciation via their smartphones.

19. Ask for feedback

If you want to know how your teams are really doing, ask them. Not once a year. But regularly, in formats that don’t require significant time or effort to complete.

Use employee surveys to ask them what processes and tools would support collaboration more effectively — and whether any of your current systems are acting as blockers.

Ask them whether they have the information they need to work effectively as a team. If they feel comfortable speaking up and offering opinions. If they feel supported by their teammates. If they have a clear understanding of their role within the team.

The answers employees give will inform your interventions.

20. Launch quick-fire polls

You don’t have to wait for a quarterly or post-project survey to get a sense of how team members are feeling.

Short, in-the-moment polls — What worked well this week? What’s causing friction? What do you need more of? — give managers real-time insight.

For remote or frontline employees, ask these questions over digital tools to give everyone a quick and easy way to provide input.

21. Create a mentor program

Assign employees a mentor, and they’ll integrate faster, build skills more quickly, and develop a clearer sense of how the organization works. You support employees to build relationships across the company, which supports cohesiveness and collaboration.

Mentoring programs don’t have to be complex. A schedule, a few suggested conversation prompts, and a communication channel through which mentors and mentees can stay in touch are often all that’s needed.

22. Break down silos between teams

High-performing organizations don’t just have high-performing teams — they have teams that collaborate across functional boundaries.

But this is only possible when you break down the silos that exist between teams. And this takes an intentional approach.

Use your internal communication channels to highlight the work of different departments. Celebrate cross-functional project successes. Create shared spaces where employees from different teams can connect around common interests or challenges.

The more visibility employees have into what colleagues in other parts of the organization are working on, the more naturally cross-functional collaboration develops.

23. Manage workload balance

When people are stretched too thin, teamwork suffers. It’s hard to support a colleague when you’re already feeling the strain — and the instinct in those situations is to protect your own work rather than contribute to someone else’s. 

Managers can enable supportive teamwork by watching for signs of burnout: declining engagement, rising absenteeism, shorter and less collaborative communication.  

They should also redistribute work when the load feels uneven — and build buffer time into projects so employees aren’t always working at capacity.

Teams that have sustainable workloads collaborate more effectively — because they have the mental space to think about more than just getting through their own to-do list.

24. Use analytics to track teamwork

Employee engagement surveys and manager perspectives are useful in understanding the state of teamwork in your organization. But you can also use software analytics to add another layer of insight.

A good internal communication platform provides answers to a range of questions. 

Which teams communicate most? Which voices are fading into the background? Where is cross-functional collaboration taking place? Which communication channels are used most and least?

With Blink's analytics, you can visualize the people and relationships that make your organization tick. You can spot and address communication pain points before they have too big an impact on teamwork and collaboration.

25. Create a joined-up software ecosystem

Fragmented tools are another collaboration blocker.

When employees have to manually transfer information between systems, check multiple platforms for updates, or work from different versions of the same document, teamwork becomes harder than it needs to be.

Take a good look at your software ecosystem. Do your tools talk to one another? Can you find scheduling, communication, HR, operational, and project management data in one accessible place?

If not, you can improve teamwork in the workplace by auditing your tech stack. Seek out consolidated tools and platforms that offer deep integrations with all the workplace software you use.

That way, teams spend less time navigating systems and more time working together productively.

26. Optimize your people directory

One of the simplest improvements you can make to team collaboration? Make it easy for employees to find each other.

A well-maintained people directory — with profiles that include role, team, skills, interests, and contact information — removes the friction of figuring out who to contact for what.

Encourage employees to complete and maintain their profiles. The result is a searchable network of colleagues that makes cross-team collaboration faster and more natural, and helps new starters build relationships beyond their immediate team right from the start.

27. Make teamwork fun

Let’s finish with one of our favorite teamwork tips. Collaboration doesn’t have to be serious. Teams that enjoy working together collaborate more readily and recover more easily from the occasional friction that comes with shared work.

So use internal communication channels to mimic the experience employees enjoy on social media.

In the team chat, allow people to respond with reactions, GIFs, and short-form video updates. In communities, unite co-workers around shared interests. On the news feed, create informal, interactive, hyper-relevant content — think polls, hashtag challenges, and user-generated content.

You’ll bring the team together around a shared culture, boosting engagement and collaboration in the process.

Why workplace teamwork is so important 

Collaboration isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a core commercial advantage.

The strength of your teams — how well they communicate, share knowledge, and work toward shared goals — directly affects your business outcomes. And organizations that invest in improving teamwork see considerable ROI.

Here are a few of the benefits of collaboration and teamwork, and why you should be implementing the team improvement ideas above.

Boosted employee engagement. Effective team working leads to a 23% increase in employee engagement. When they’re supported, heard, and working toward something meaningful with others, employees feel more loyal to your organization and more invested in their work.

Innovation and creativity. Teams that work well together generate better ideas. Bringing together different backgrounds, experiences, strengths, knowledge, and perspectives creates the conditions for fresh thinking that individuals working in isolation rarely achieve.

Increased efficiency. When teams communicate well and roles are clearly defined, duplicated work drops and projects move faster. McKinsey research shows that trusting teams are 3.3 times more efficient.

Knowledge sharing. Employees who work closely together share their knowledge. Information moves more freely around your organization. Silos break down. People have all the info they need to do their best work.

Stronger employee development. Teammates transfer knowledge and skills to one another. So employees gain fresh perspectives and learn new ways of doing things. This improves employee engagement and the skill level of your organization.

Better decision-making. Diverse teams with strong communication make better decisions than individuals or homogenous groups. Different viewpoints surface risks and opportunities that a single perspective would miss.

Enhanced problem-solving. Two heads are better than one. And a whole team of heads is better than two. When your people work effectively as a team, it’s easier to find solutions to the problems facing your organization. 

Boosted productivity. The best teams communicate regularly. They know who’s doing what and when. That means less duplicated effort and a boost to organizational productivity. Companies with high levels of collaboration experience a 25% increase in productivity.

Improved retention. Team dynamics have a huge impact on employee satisfaction. When team relationships are strong and people feel connected to their colleagues, organizations see a 73% reduction in staff turnover.

Improved profitability. All the above translates to a higher-performing organization. And this has an impact on your bottom line. Research shows that high-collaboration organizations experience a 21% boost to profitability.

Improving teamwork in frontline teams vs office-based teams

The teamwork tips above apply across every type of workforce. But how you implement them depends on where your people work.

How to improve teamwork in office-based teams

With desk-based teams, the basic infrastructure of collaboration is already in place. People share a physical space. Informal conversations happen naturally between meetings. You find answers to your questions by turning to the person next to you.

That doesn’t make teamwork automatic. Unclear roles, poor communication, and lack of recognition damage collaboration in office environments just as much as anywhere else.

But the interventions are simpler to deliver. Training is easier to organize when everyone works the same 9 to 5. Managers can praise teams in person. Team leaders can see and spot blockers more easily because employees are working together in front of them.

How to improve teamwork in frontline teams

Improving frontline collaboration requires more deliberate effort. Frontline workers aren’t sat at screens all day. They’re spread across sites and shifts, often working alongside different colleagues or in complete isolation.

This means the informal connections, knowledge sharing, and recognition that occur naturally in offices don’t happen in frontline environments without the right digital channels to support them. That changes how you apply many of the team working tips on this list.

Keeping employees in the loop means a mobile-first news feed, not a desktop intranet update. Surveys have to be quick and accessible if you want workers to fill them out on a busy shift. Frontline workers need chat tools, resources, and recognition, all available on smartphones.   

In summary: The goal in both cases is the same. Teams that feel connected to each other, clear on what they’re working toward, and equipped with what they need to collaborate effectively. The path to that goal just looks a little different depending on where people work.

How can an employee app improve teamwork in the workplace?

If improving team performance is one of your priorities, tech tools are a sensible place to start.

Technology choices have a direct impact on how well your teams can collaborate. For remote and frontline workers, especially, tech tools are what make teamwork possible.

An employee app makes communication and collaboration tools available on every employee smartphone. Here’s what the best tools bring to your teams.

One place for everything

The most common collaboration failure isn’t a lack of tools — it’s too many tools that don’t connect.

When communication, updates, resources, operations, and scheduling all live in different, disconnected platforms, employees spend more time navigating systems than doing the work.

A single, consolidated app (or an app with deep integrations to your primary software) removes that busy work and keeps teams focused.

Communication that reaches everyone

80% of the global workforce is frontline — but the majority of traditional collaboration tools weren’t built with them in mind.

A mobile-first tool, like Blink, puts company updates, team communications, peer-to-peer messaging, surveys, and recognition into every employee’s pocket, without requiring a desktop login or a corporate email address.

Every worker, on every shift, at every site, gets the same information at the same time.

Real-time and asynchronous options

Different moments call for different communication formats. Urgent operational updates need to land immediately. Project discussions can happen asynchronously.

Blink supports both — with direct messaging, group chats, and video calling, all organized and searchable.

Visible recognition

Good teamwork is more likely to be repeated when it’s recognized. Blink’s built-in recognition tools make it easy for managers and peers to celebrate collaboration visibly, in seconds, from the same app employees use for everything else.

Feedback loops

Teams improve when they can share what’s working and what isn’t — quickly and without always having to request a formal meeting. In-app polls and surveys give every employee a direct way to provide feedback.

Analytics that surface collaboration gaps

Analytics provide visibility into how teams are interacting — who’s engaging with what, where conversations are happening, and where there are gaps. That data turns a guessing game into an actionable picture of where teamwork most needs support.

Better teamwork: where to start

Improving teamwork in the workplace doesn’t require a complete organizational overhaul. And you don’t need to act on all of these 27 tips at once.

The organizations that see the strongest results are the ones that recognize where teamwork is falling down and pick a few high-impact interventions, built around the specific needs of their workforce.

For frontline organizations, the issue of tools is usually the most pressing. Make communication, knowledge resources, and recognition systems available on smartphone, and better teamwork will follow.  

Blink. And get your teams working together with the right digital tools.

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!

Collaboration starts at the top

Picture an orchestra. The musicians are world-class. The music is tried and tested. The venue is sold out. But the conductor?

If the conductor doesn’t show up and lead the way, each musician does their own thing. The strings speed up. The brass drags. Percussion is having its own little party in the back.

The same thing happens in the workplace.

You can hire the best people, invest in the smartest collaboration tools, and launch a jam-packed schedule of team-building activities. But without a leader actively bringing people together — and modelling the kind of team collaboration you want to see — you fail to see the desired results.

Collaboration is a by-product of consistent leadership behaviors — along with the right systems and practices. Find out what you can do to encourage your people to work together and stop going it alone.

Leaders are a catalyst for collaboration

There’s a strong link between internal communication and collaboration. When workplace communication is open and effective, collaboration comes much easier.

The right comms tools take you part of the way. But it’s leaders who decide the style and tone of communication. They set the stage for how information is shared, decisions made, and conflicts resolved.

Most importantly, they shape psychological safety within your organization. This is the belief that it’s safe to speak up, challenge ideas, and share new perspectives — all of which are vital to effective collaboration.

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Common collaboration blockers: Where leaders are going wrong

Collaboration brings many benefits — including increased efficiency, productivity, and employee engagement. But you may be missing out on all the above if leadership is displaying the following collaboration-blocking behaviors.

Playing favorites

When leaders give certain people or teams special treatment, everyone sees it. Opportunities, information, and recognition flow toward the chosen few. Other employees stop bothering to contribute. Over time, trust erodes and people assume collaboration is shorthand for helping someone else to shine. 

A closed leadership style

When leaders are reluctant to share information or delegate tasks, when they struggle to admit mistakes or ask for help, they model a non-collaborative style of leadership and communication. Employees are likely to follow suit, gatekeeping workplace knowledge and keeping their guard up.

Siloing teams

Failing to encourage cross-department collaboration creates silos. Projects are contained within one team. This limits the sharing of ideas, causes duplicate work, and prevents teams from seeing the bigger picture. Collaboration becomes the exception, not the rule.

Leading only through email or announcements

Relying solely on email or one-way announcements leads to poor comms engagement. It’s then hard for leaders to convey information — on corporate strategy, common goals, and company culture — and to encourage the two-way communication you need for effective collaboration.  

Not inviting feedback from all levels

Leaders who only hear from their inner circle miss out on well-rounded insights. If you don’t proactively seek perspectives from every level, you risk building strategies in an echo chamber — and making it clear to certain groups of workers that their contribution isn’t valued.

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Leadership behaviors that encourage collaboration

We’ve looked at what could be going wrong. Now, let’s look at what leaders can do to get it right. To improve teamwork in the workplace, good leaders consistently demonstrate these collaborative behaviors.

Modelling open communication

Collaboration thrives when leaders share information openly and honestly — and when they create opportunities for employees to respond, ask questions, and contribute ideas. Acting on feedback is also important. It shows that employee input is valued. And that leadership isn’t afraid to adapt and admit mistakes.

Consistently demonstrate this style of communication and employees will adopt these behaviors as their own, helping you pave the way for effective collaboration across the organization.

Recognizing and celebrating cross-team wins

If a joint project succeeds, shout about it. Not just in the quarterly meeting, but in the moment. Share teamwork achievements in real time, and allow employees to add their congratulations, too.

When praise comes from the highest levels of your organization and is amplified across the organization, employees see that working together is valued and celebrated.

Showing up regularly and authentically

Only picking up the microphone when there’s big news to share? Then you’re missing out on opportunities to engage and align your workforce.

Show up regularly on the communication channels your employees like to use and — once you’re there — be yourself. Share an unpolished video message. Tell stories about real people.

By going beyond formal emails and announcements, you make yourself visible, approachable, and aligned with the day-to-day work of employees. Again, this is great for building psychological safety and setting norms around workplace communication.

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Embedding collaboration into company culture: 6 practical tips

Beyond individual leader behavior, the right systems, policies, and practices can bake collaboration into company culture. Here’s what leaders can do to make teamworking an expected and celebrated part of the workplace.

#1. Make cross-functional projects the norm

Cross-functional collaboration helps you solve problems faster and more effectively. When launching a new project, consider which teams should get a seat at the table. Then, give these teams the time, support, and tools they need to work together.  

#2. Providing tools and spaces (digital + physical) for collaboration

The right supportive environment makes all the difference. Breakout spaces encourage collaboration within your physical workplace. But you need digital collaboration tools too. That might mean creating a central hub of resources and information — where everyone, from remote teams to frontline crews, is kept in the loop.

#3. Set collaboration as a performance metric for managers

What gets measured gets managed. You can encourage managers to develop teamwork skills by evaluating them on collaboration outcomes. Recognize the joint projects and information sharing that goes on under their watch, and they’re more likely to encourage collaborative behaviors.

#4. Provide training

Collaboration relies on soft skills, like open communication, active listening, empathy, and negotiation. These skills don’t always come naturally, so it pays to provide training. With the right support, employees have a better understanding of collaborative behaviors, and managers know how to encourage them.

#5. Ask for employee feedback

Regularly seek feedback from employees and you show them that their opinions and ideas matter. To build trust and psychological safety even further, close the feedback loop. Whether you’re surveying employees on the state of internal communication, their engagement levels, or the latest shift swap policy, share survey results and the action you plan to take.

#6. Regularly revisit and refine collaboration rituals

The needs of your teams are liable to change. The collaboration tools that worked two years ago might feel clunky now. The teamwork strategies you put into play may no longer feel relevant to the makeup of your teams. Leaders should make it a habit to review and refresh the collaboration rituals they’ve established to ensure that teamwork remains effective.

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How the right collaboration tools can help

Leaders have a huge impact on workplace collaboration. They set the tone. But with all the will in the world, dispersed teams will find it hard to collaborate without the right digital communication tools. You need collaboration software for remote teams, frontline workers, and office-based staff to facilitate knowledge sharing and project management. Here’s what to look for.   

Centralized communication platforms

Updates, files, and conversations scattered across multiple apps? Then you’re creating friction and encouraging siloed working. A tool like Blink puts all internal communications and essential files in one centralized hub. As a mobile-first tool, these resources are available to any employee with a smartphone. So everyone is kept in the loop.

Real-time feeds, stories, and live updates

Leaders can use digital channels to reinforce collaborative behaviors daily, not just at once-in-a-blue-moon meetings. You can use a Story, a live update, or a recognition post to highlight teamwork lessons and wins. In doing so, you show that collaboration is happening — and that it’s valued.

Integration with existing systems

The best collaboration tools don’t expect people to drop what’s working. Instead, they connect the dots. Blink integrates with your other workplace software — so employee communications, collaboration, and project management can all live in one place. Teams don’t have to hop between apps — instead, they can focus on tackling the task at hand together.

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Lead the way: Make collaboration part of your day-to-day

If you’re committed to improving collaboration in the workplace, you can’t be the conductor who hides in the wings.

Leaders have to be visible and present. They need to use every update, recognition post, and meeting as a chance to model the teamwork strategies they want their workforce to follow.

Because collaboration is built by leaders who demonstrate collaborative behaviors themselves. By leaders who listen as much as they speak, who establish a culture of psychological safety, and who welcome the input of employees from all levels of the organization.

Combine a collaborative leadership style and the right teamworking tools and you give employees everything they need to achieve more, together.  

‍Blink. And use leadership comms to supercharge collaboration.