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David Brown is a titan of the public transport industry. His star-studded career has taken him from a graduate with London Transport to CEO of Go-Ahead Group. He's been GM for CentreWest London Buses, Operations and Managing Director for London General and London Central.

#1. Always grasp opportunity.

The advice I give to graduates, young bus managers or other leadership groups is this: grasp opportunity whenever you can. Don't let them pass you by, because they won't come back again.

#2. Bring more young people in.

Privatization was a death knell for a lot of graduate schemes. It was an easy way to save money, to look at the bottom line. But we ended up with a generational hole of senior managers coming through.

One of the first things I did at Go-Ahead was reintroduce a graduate scheme. I'm very excited to see that cadre of talent come through.

#3. And promote them fast!

Now I want to help that young talent leap from junior management to senior or directorship roles. To bridge that generation gap, their career needs to accelerate.

We have a 93% retention rate. That's partly because people see a trajectory to the top of the organization. You need to give people real responsibility and accountability. It's a fantastic time to be in the transport industry as a young person. Because if you're good, there are infinite chances for you to stand out.

#4. (But don't force them to stay).

I'm relaxed about people leaving – because I know they'll come back. But they'll come back with another set of skills and experiences to help us. We need these people as part of transport. I'm passionate about that whole industry, not only the Go-Ahead version.

#5. Real progress happens when there's no time to plan.

I never worked harder than in lockdown. It was 24/7. We were trying to reconstruct our business. We needed lots of local leadership. So from day 1, nobody blinked. We just got on with it.

Desk-based and frontline stepped up massively. The frontline were in some scary situations in their day-to-day, and I'll always be proud of how they coped.

#6. Learn from your mistakes — even in a crisis.

After the first lockdown, we reviewed our actions and said, "What do we do well, and what could we do better?” Because that's what you should do, of course. But when there's a second wave, we also must be ready to remember what we instinctively did well.

The downside has been the public message about our business, that it's unsafe to travel by public transport, and demonizing public transport. That is a real big hurdle that we've got to overcome.

#7. There's a place for greater formal collaboration in transport today.

All the bus PRC companies have grown up in a siloed era: never collaborating, out of fear of the Competition Act, and the CMA.

Now the operators do talk to each other, but only in the context of the CPT, which is our trade body. We've got a huge amount in common, and we need to leverage that better.

We're going to have to be far more agile, far more responsive to an ever-changing situation. That feeds into our engagement with our colleagues’ representatives from the trade union. It's been more collaborative because we've realized it goes beyond the small issues or the legal aspects.

#8. Let's lose the bureaucracy.

When we went into lockdown, people said “Well, we've got to tell the traffic commissioner, we’ve got to check”. I said, “You just go do the right thing, and they're going to have to catch up with us. We’re going to have to do the right thing, and plead forgiveness afterwards.” Because we haven't got the time to wait 270 days to make decisions.

The industry needs more of that, not less of that. We need to be more flexible, more agile and more collaborative going forward.

#9. Technology will help us re-position ourselves.

Technology can automate a lot of aspects to make public transport jobs easier. That leaves the drivers extra time to do the bits we want more of, which is looking after customers. It's important to push that going forward, so passengers feel looked after as well as safe.

Technology will also help us stay relevant around the issues of air quality and climate change. I'm excited to see how that develops.

#10. The UK government must step in – before it’s too late.

At the beginning of this year, I saw a new dawn for public transport. I could see we were going to get good, generous funding from the government. We were helping the government see how transport fits into every single department – not just its own.

Now, we have to pick all that back up. We need the government to spend as much money as they did telling people to travel, as they did telling them not to. A sort of 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme on trains and buses. That level of commitment is imperative.

And if they don't? We'll be left with hollowed out cities. And no one wants that.

At Blink, we’re constantly evolving our employee experience platform to meet the dynamic needs of organizations and their employees.

As part of our commitment to empowering great employee experiences from the frontline to the front office, we’re excited to announce our latest suite of product features designed to improve the way employees engage with their organization and with each other.

From fostering deeper social connections and real-time interactions, to improving platform security and content protection, discover 6 new features designed to help you create an engaging, reliable, and thriving workplace.

#1. Stories: Share snapshots of your company culture

In today’s fast-paced world, the need for real-time connection and engagement has never been more important — and that includes at work. That’s why we’re excited to bring Stories, a first-of-its-kind feature, to Blink. With Stories, teams can easily share moments, celebrate wins, and keep the workplace experience fun and dynamic.

Much like Stories on the social media platforms we know and love, employees and team leaders can share temporary posts that live at the top of the Feed, keeping internal content relevant and up to date.

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Why you’ll love it:

• Instant sharing: Whether it’s celebrating team achievements, giving updates on project milestones, or sharing everyday moments, Stories offer a personal touch that helps foster a connected culture.
• Boost engagement: With the ability to share everyday moments and add a personal touch using image-editing tools, Stories make it easier for employees to connect and engage beyond formal communications.
• Keep content fresh: With a 72-hour shelf life, Stories are a great way to share timely messages and encourage frequent, social snapshots of your day.

With Stories, organizations can bring a fresh yet familiar approach to their internal communications strategy, engaging employees not just in critical communications but throughout their everyday work lives.

#2. Communities: Modernize your employee resource groups

As part of the reimagined Connect section, which brings Groups, Teams, and Contacts into one cohesive view, we’re excited to introduce Communities. This new feature allows employees to connect and collaborate over shared interests and hobbies.

With Communities, which are open for anyone to explore and join, employees have an intuitive and interactive digital space to foster deeper connections that go beyond day-to-day work tasks.

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Key benefits:

• Personalized experience: Employees can join Communities based on their interests, passions, or hobbies, creating a more inclusive and engaging workplace.
• A dedicated space: Each Community comes with its own unique Feed, Channels, and Resources, creating a dynamic virtual hub for content and communication.
• Cross-company connection: Communities provide an opportunity to engage with colleagues across the organization, helping to bridge the gap between teams, departments, and geographies.

From Parents at Work and Home Chefs, to Dog Lovers and LGBTQ+ Crew, Communities open up new opportunities for social connection, workplace collaboration, and community-building.

#3. Moderation: Enhance control over your digital spaces

In order to ensure organizations can create and maintain a positive digital environment, we’ve enhanced our platform moderation tools. Administrators can now better manage and control content in Blink through new reporting and moderation functionalities.

New capabilities:

• Report a comment: Users can now report individual comments, in addition to posts, making moderation more precise.
• Report reasons: Users can provide specific reasons for reporting content, enabling admins to make more informed decisions and take quick action.
• Streamlined admin workflow: Moderation tasks are now part of the admin task list, ensuring that no report goes unnoticed.

These improvements give admins more transparency and control, allowing them to better maintain a respectful and focused communication environment.

#4. Mobile version control: Improve security for frontline teams

We’ve added mobile version control as an additional security measure to help organizations protect sensitive content on Blink’s platform. With this new feature, admins now have the option to require that devices meet a minimum OS version requirement, across iOS and Android, to access specific content and resources.

Why it matters:

• Improved data security: By controlling OS versions, companies can add an additional layer of security to any sensitive resources housed in the Content Hub.
• Tailored policies: Admins can customize their security settings to include OS version requirements, helping to meet BYOD (bring your own device) policies and ensuring compliance.
• Prompted updates: As part of this feature, Blink will alert employees in-app whose devices don’t meet the minimum OS requirements and prompt them to update their device. Blink will let me know I need to update my device’s operating system.

This update is crucial for companies prioritizing security, especially those with frontline, hybrid, or remote workers who often use their personal devices.

#5. Custom profile fields: Tailor your employee inputs

In addition to our 15 out-of-the-box user profile fields like “Name” and “Location,” we’re excited to roll out customizable profile fields.

Admins can now set up custom profile fields to gather the data they need and expand Blink’s usability, paving the way for admins to design a truly tailored Blink experience for their organizations and employees alike.

A closer look:

• Customization: Admins can now create custom fields to collect and manage unique user data, offering more tailored experiences for employees.
• Scalability: Whether you’re managing teams in retail, healthcare, or any other industry, custom fields make it easy to track data points that matter most to your organization.
• Extensibility: This is just the first step! Soon, custom fields will be integrated across more Blink features, making it easier to manage employee information in a way that works for you.

With these customized fields, you can gain deeper insights, streamline processes, and capture workforce data that aligns with your organization’s unique operational needs.

#6. ServiceNow notification integration: Stay on top of IT updates

Lastly, but certainly not least, we’ve expanded our integration capabilities. Our seamless notification integration with ServiceNow enables employees to receive real-time updates on their IT tickets directly within Blink.

How it works:

• Real-time notifications: Whenever an IT ticket is updated or resolved in ServiceNow, employees receive instant notifications via the Feed.
• Improved efficiency: This integration reduces the need for employees to switch between platforms, keeping everything in one place and ensuring they stay informed about their requests.

Enhanced integrations like these ensure that Blink can continue to be the central hub for all of your employee communications and task management needs.

Bring your consumer-grade employee experience to life.

As workplaces continue to evolve, our goal remains the same: to provide the tools that foster connection, enhance productivity, and create a seamless and exceptional experience for every employee — no matter what they do and where they work.

These product enhancements are our next step in empowering organizations to meet — and exceed — the expectations of a modern and digitally savvy workforce.

‍Blink. And see how these new features can upgrade your employee experience.

Putting the human voice back into executive communications can transform employee engagement and company culture.

Executive communications often feel impersonal. In a bid to portray knowledge and professionalism, leadership messages can become dry and uninspiring.

This creates a disconnect between leaders and employees. It becomes harder to get your message across and to motivate your workforce. 

But leadership communications don’t have to be this way. You can adopt a more human and less corporate voice — a voice that shows a little personality and expresses care for employees — without losing your authority.

Here, we look at how you can humanize your corporate communications — and why this approach to internal communications supports workplace trust, employee engagement, and a more positive company culture.

We’ll be looking at:

• Why human-centered executive communications matter
• 3 key principles to humanize your internal communication strategy
• Channels that make executive communications more relatable
• Leadership communication: Pitfalls to avoid

Why human-centered executive communications matter

Human-centered executive communications can make a big difference to your organization. Here’s why they matter.

Building trust and transparency

We’re more likely to trust someone — and feel a connection with them — when we understand who they are as a person. The things that make them tick. Their personality, passions, and quirks.

This applies to the employee-executive relationship as much as any other. Employees trust leaders who speak in a human, relatable way. When they see an open communication style modeled by the C-suite, they’re also more likely to replicate it themselves in peer-to-peer communication.

This helps you develop a company culture where transparency is the norm. Everyone feels able to raise concerns and share ideas — which is good for collaboration, innovation, and productivity.

Boosting employee engagement

Relatable leadership communications can be inspiring for employees.

Take the example of Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. He shared the story of his son, who had cerebral palsy — and how this drove him to develop technology that was more inclusive for people with disabilities.

Nadella wasn’t just motivated by profit or growth. He was emotionally invested in his work. And by sharing his story — and painting a picture of the real-world difference Microsoft products can make — he highlighted the purpose of his employees’ work, too.

Human stories like this one boost employee engagement. They also create a sense of togetherness, which supports a positive employee experience.

Enhancing organizational resilience

Trust, high levels of employee engagement, and a culture of open communication are key features of organizational resilience. And when it comes to change management or crisis communication, a human tone is never more important. 

Executives who speak with an empathetic and authentic voice show employees that their anxieties are understood and will be addressed. They explain to employees what is expected of them and inspire them to rally around the organization.

Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, showed leaders how it’s done when he addressed Marriott employees via video message as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world.

He showed emotion, shared a personal update, and spoke transparently about the difficult decisions — like layoffs — that the company was having to take. The result was a relatable and somewhat reassuring message for employees during a time of extreme uncertainty.

3 key principles to humanize your internal communication strategy

So now we know what relatable executive communications can do for your organization. But what does a human voice actually sound like? While every leader should bring their own personality to their internal messages, the following three principles lie at the heart of any human-centered communication.

Empathy and understanding

Great leaders are empathetic. They demonstrate their empathy by:

• Acknowledging employee emotions, even when those emotions are negative
• Using inclusive language, like “we,” “us,” and “together”
• Actively listening to employees — and asking clarifying questions — to get to know them better

They also prioritize transparent and effective communication, so employees get the information they need when they need it.

Don’t do this: “The current reorganization is necessary for the company’s growth. The executive team will share more details soon.”

Do this: “I know many of you are worried about your roles. We’ll be holding several Q&A sessions this week to answer your questions about the reorganization.”

Clarity without jargon

Jargon and complex language can be confusing for employees and can lead to misunderstandings. In contrast, clear and simple language creates a sense of trust and approachability. It also helps employees to make better decisions.

To make your messages clear and easy to understand:

• Start by thinking about the key point you want to get across. Put this point at the start of your message. Also, pre-empt and answer the most pressing employee questions.
• Break complicated topics down into smaller parts. Then, explain each part step by step, using a relatable analogy if possible.
• Avoid complicated language. Use everyday terms, avoiding corporate buzzwords, industry terminology, and acronyms. Don’t use a long word when a short one will do.
• Adopt a conversational tone. If you wouldn’t say it when speaking to an employee face-to-face, don’t put it in a written message. It can help to read your messages out loud to find and replace overly formal words.

Don’t do this: “We need to leverage synergies to optimize workflows.”

Do this: “We need to work together to make our processes more efficient.”

Sharing and storytelling

Sharing your own personal experiences and anecdotes makes your messages more relatable and engaging. Likewise, you can use stories about real-life employees and customers to catch attention and convey a message more effectively.  

Weave stories into your employee communications and you also make your messages more memorable. That’s because stories engage both rational and emotional parts of the brain, which supports recall.

To make storytelling part of your executive communications:

• Focus on real people and their emotions. Use personal anecdotes, customer case studies, or employee stories in your internal communications, referencing people by name.
• Use metaphors and similes. Paint pictures with your words. Metaphors and similes can be particularly useful when you want to bring complicated or abstract concepts to life.
• Follow a story structure. When sharing stories, include a beginning (the context), a middle (the challenge), and an end (the resolution).

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Don’t do this: “Just the other day, an employee told me about how little things make a big difference to our clients. We want to see this ethos across every client interaction.”

Do this: “Just the other day, I was speaking to one of our care workers, Emma. She’d noticed that her client, Mrs Shah, seemed a little downhearted. Through conversation, Emma discovered that Mrs Shah, because of her reduced mobility, missed going into her beautiful garden.

So that day, Emma went beyond her usual duties, bringing some potted plants in from outside so she and Mrs. Shah could find a place for them in the living room. It made her client’s day. And that’s what our organization is all about.”

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Channels that make executive communications more relatable

Think beyond just in-person meetings: You probably have a variety of internal communication channels available to you! Some lend themselves to relatable leadership comms more than others. So — if you want to humanize your executive messages — spend some time on the following channels.

Interactive platforms

When we talk face to face, two-way communication is the norm. Explore ways you can transform your traditional top-down communication efforts into opportunities to inspire employee interaction and create a feedback loop.

Share company-wide news on interactive platforms that encourage employee responses. Enable employees to chat with each other via instant messaging. Post to the company news feed. Or run Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions via your company intranet or employee app.

Showing that you have the courage and openness to address employee questions in this kind of forum builds trust and connection.

Videos and live streams

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There’s a lot to be said for showing the face behind the name. Video and live streaming communication makes it easier for leaders to share their tone, body language, emotions, and intentions.

Bonus: Communicating urgent updates through short-form video content increases the likelihood that your on-the-go workers — especially frontline employees and remote teams — will receive critical messages.

Of course, not everyone is 100% comfortable in front of the camera. So if you could use a little direction before you film your first video, take a look at these tips:

• Know your script but don’t memorize it word for word. When you put things into your own words, your delivery is more natural and authentic.
• Watch your body language. Make eye contact with the camera and avoid crossing your arms. Use hand gestures and facial expressions as if you were in a face-to-face conversation with employees.
• Imagine you’re talking to one person. To bring emotion and connection to your video message, picture one employee. Then, deliver your message to that individual.

Employee-centric channels

Employee-centric communication channels, like the company news feed or modern employee intranets, can provide inspiration for your executive communications.

Here, you can find user-generated content (UGC) that you may like to share. You can also find stories of employees who have demonstrated company values and done great work.

By sharing these stories and recognizing employees by name via easy-to-access digital channels, you create a personal connection with employees. You also create a sense of belonging and appreciation.

Leadership communication: Pitfalls to avoid

Bringing a human voice to your employee communications requires empathy, authenticity, and the ability to listen to your workers. Even with the best of intentions, these things don’t always come naturally. 

So with that in mind, here are a few pitfalls to look out for as you adapt your style of communication.   

Over-sharing

Sharing too much personal information in your executive communications becomes counterproductive. It feels performative, dilutes the impact — and places the focus on you, rather than your audience of employees.

So before you share a personal anecdote, ensure it relates directly to your organizational goals and values. Keep any personal stories short and sweet. And balance things out. For every personal anecdote you tell, share two to three employee or customer stories.

Inconsistent messaging

Employees are quick to spot a leader who says one thing but does another. Your communication is unlikely to achieve the desired results if employees see it as inconsistent and inauthentic.

So back up your words with action. For example, if you show empathy for employee stress, you need to do something to alleviate it. If you share a belief that employees are the backbone of your organization, show you appreciate them with regular recognition and a competitive benefits package.

Ignoring employee input and feedback 

Meaningful conversations are two-way. So to maximize the impact of your human-centric communication style, you need to show that you’re listening to what employees say.

Respond directly to employee surveys, reactions, questions, and concerns — either in person or across your internal communication channels. And keep employee feedback in mind when developing your next executive message.

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Harness the power of human-centric communications for your entire organization.

When you humanize your executive communications, you make your messages more effective, memorable, and engaging. You show employees that there’s a real person behind the job title. This is great for building trust and promoting transparency across your organization.

To make your employee communications more human, consider implementing more storytelling, empathy, and everyday language in your internal communications strategy. And with the right internal communication tools that enable you to connect with employees in a less formal and corporate way, you can foster an organizational culture of transparency and authenticity.

‍Blink. And humanize your internal comms.

Engaged employees are more productive, more collaborative, and more likely to stay working for your company. And with 33% of hiring managers predicting that employee turnover will increase in 2024, there’s never been a better time to get the right employee engagement tech on your team.

Employee engagement apps are intuitive and easy to use. They enjoy high rates of adoption. And they offer a range of features that support employee engagement.

But which are the best of the many employee app options available? In this guide, we look at the seven best employee engagement apps for 2024 and explain a little more about why an app could benefit your business.  

Best employee engagement apps for 2026

The best employee engagement solution varies depending on your industry, the functionality you need, and the engagement metrics you want to improve. Here are our top picks for this year.

Blink: best employee app for frontline workers

Workleap Officevibe: best employee app for EX data

Engagement Multiplier: best employee engagement app for small businesses

Bonusly: best employee app for rewards and recognition

WeThrive: best employee app for mental health support

Culture Amp: best app for performance management

Workvivo: best employee app for large, multi-lingual organizations

1. Blink — best employee engagement app for frontline workers

Blink is an employee engagement app built specifically for frontline workers. It brings employee engagement tools to every employee smartphone.

Frontline workers don’t need a desktop computer or even a company email address to access the Blink app. Instead, a simple sign-on process gives them access to an intuitive, user-friendly dashboard.

Here, they can view employee communications, respond to surveys, read policy documents, and use the newsfeed to take part in the company conversation.

They can also use the Blink Hub to access the other workplace tools you use. With a couple of clicks, they can view their current training module, their pay stub, or their upcoming shifts.  

Managers get lots of useful engagement features too — like recognition and survey tools. They can also use Blink’s workforce analytics to measure engagement and make data-driven decisions.

All in all, the Blink employee app helps frontline teams to connect with each other and with leadership. It ensures they have access to the people, comms, and tools they need to do their jobs well.

Pricing

Pricing is available on request.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.6/5
• G2: 4.6/5

See Blink in action. Get your free demo.

2. Workleap Officevibe — best employee app for EX data

Performance management and recognition tools are part of the Workleap Officevibe employee app. But its most impressive features revolve around employee feedback. This app has a range of tools to help your HR team understand employee sentiment and make data-backed improvements.

Pulse surveys, onboarding surveys, eNPS scores — there are plenty of ways to find out what employees are thinking. You can also launch anonymous surveys so you know you’re getting honest, unfiltered feedback from employees.

Officevibe then helps you make sense of the feedback you’ve gathered. You can use reports to identify trending feedback topics. And use well-presented survey data to benchmark employee experience (EX) results and set targets. 

Pricing

Workleap Officevibe has a free version with limited functionality. Prices for paid plans start at $3.50 USD per user per month.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.6/5
• G2: 4.3/5

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3. Engagement Multiplier — best employee engagement app for small businesses 

Engagement Multiplier is a reasonably priced app aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. It’s not as in-depth as some of the other employee engagement software on this list. But it can be really useful for new companies and start-ups wanting to learn more about their engagement levels.

Features include benchmark assessments, anonymous data collection, recommended actions, and the ability to create custom employee engagement surveys.

Pricing

Prices start from $7.20 USD per user per month.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.3/5

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4. Bonusly — best employee app for rewards and recognition

Bonusly is all about motivating your teams with employee recognition and rewards. The app lets you give each employee an allowance of points. They allocate these points to co-workers, appreciating them for their support, for doing a great job, or just for being an awesome work friend.  

Recipients can then exchange their points for a variety of different rewards, choosing between big brand gift cards, company merchandise, and custom rewards chosen by your company. Employees can also convert their reward points into charitable donations.

Bonusly supports the kind of peer-to-peer recognition that engages employees. It also allows you to share recognition in a company-wide feed, so you improve motivation and amplify company culture to every member of every team.

Pricing

Bonusly offers new users a free trial. Paid plans start from $5 USD per user per month, plus the cost of employee rewards.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.8/5

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5. WeThrive — best employee app for mental health support 

WeThrive is an employee engagement platform focused on the mental health of your workers. It helps you create surveys to check on employee wellness and take action to safeguard it.

The app’s mental health and wellbeing survey helps you to identify the root causes of stress, burnout, and anxiety. An easy-to-use feedback dashboard segments results by team, location, department, tenure, and manager so it’s easy to see where improvements need to be made.

The app also uses feedback data to suggest wellbeing actions for your managers so it’s easy to decide the next steps.

Pricing

Pricing is available on request.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.7/5
• G2: 4.6/5

6. Culture Amp — best employee engagement app for performance management

Culture Amp is an employee platform built around employee feedback and analytics. It also has some excellent performance management tools.

You can use 360-degree feedback to find out how employees are doing. You can use goal-setting functions to align employee work with company strategy. And you can use 1-on-1s to encourage meaningful communication between managers and employees. 

With tools that support regular coaching and feedback, Culture Amp aims to provide organizations with everything they need to build a culture of continuous improvement and high employee engagement. 

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.7/5
• G2: 4.5/5

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7. Workvivo — best employee app for large, multi-lingual organizations

Workvivo is owned by Zoom. It’s a desktop intranet that comes with a user-friendly employee app.

There are lots of community and social features for employees to engage with. You have the option to live-stream company updates in real-time. And, with Spaces, users can create their own community groups

For large organizations with employees who speak a range of different languages, Workvivo has some particularly useful tools. The auto-translation feature allows you to easily translate posts into a user’s preferred language. There’s also the option to auto-translate video subtitles.

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request.

Reviews

• Capterra: 4.7/5
• G2: 4.8/5

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What are the advantages of an employee engagement app?

The best employee engagement software meets employees where they are. These days, that tends to be on their smartphones. And that’s why employee mobile apps are an increasingly popular choice.

Apps are inherently engaging and very easy to use. In fact, 53% of frontline workers already use messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for work-related conversations.

When you replace those apps with your own user-friendly employee app, you make communication more secure — and make it a key part of company culture, too.

Here are six other advantages of mobile-first employee engagement tools:

1. An employee app reduces costs and improves profitability

Construction giant Caterpillar found increasing engagement helped save $8.8 million at one of its European factories in just one year. The company also improved customer ratings and increased profits by $2 million.

Gallup research shows that Caterpillar’s cost savings aren’t an anomaly. They looked at thousands of teams and found that highly engaged businesses experience:

• A 43% decrease in employee turnover
• A 10% improvement in customer satisfaction
• An 18% uptick in sales
• A 23% increase in profitability

Employee engagement has a big impact on a company’s bottom line. So an employee engagement app tends to have a high return on investment.

2. An employee app improves communication without adding to the noise

An employee app streamlines company communication by putting everything in one, searchable location.

A social-style news feed. Employee surveys. Messages from management. With an app, teams know exactly where to go to get the information they need.

Managers also get the tools they need to highlight critical messages and ensure employees read them.

3. You connect every member of your workforce — including those on the frontline

To make a success of employee engagement, you need to take every member of the workforce with you. That includes those hard-to-reach employees working on the frontline of your organization.

Deskless workers get the raw end of the deal in terms of engagement tech. Only 10% of frontline workers say they have high access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in their workplace. 

But these workers are in greatest need of engagement intervention. Deskless employees are less trusting and engaged, and more likely to experience burnout than their desk-based peers.

An employee app ensures frontline workers aren’t excluded from company comms and culture. You take engagement beyond the office and a desktop computer and put it in the palm of every employee’s hand.

A good app is also easy and intuitive to use. It enjoys high rates of user adoption. So by using an employee app, you make engagement tech more accessible than ever to all employees.

4. You make work more engaging and efficient

The best employee engagement apps put the most effective engagement tools in one, single place. You give employees access to the things we know help to improve employee engagement:

• Training and development
• Recognition
• Two-way communication and collaboration
• Feedback opportunities

You also remove friction and frustration from the work day. Because employees can access all the comms, tools, and resources they need via your employee app, they become more efficient and productive.

Employees can get on with doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Managers save time thanks to improved communication channels and employee self-serve resources. That translates into increased levels of staff satisfaction.

5. Employee engagement apps support frontline safety

Employee engagement makes for better workplace safety and fewer workplace accidents. According to Gallup, companies with high engagement experience 64% fewer safety incidents than those with low levels of engagement.  

An employee app supports frontline safety because workers have all policy documents and safety procedures at their fingertips. They also have a direct line to managers, so it’s quick and easy to report safety or maintenance concerns.

6. Managers get access to data and analytics

When employees engage with your organization via an employee app, managers get access to valuable user data and analytics.

They get insight into how people are using the app and how they’re engaging with company communications. They get to know what engagement looks like for different teams, locations, and managers. Use an app with great integrations and you get insight into how employees are using other workplace tools, too.

The best employee engagement apps present this data in a way that is easy to understand and act upon. So your teams have everything they need to make employee engagement improvements going forward.

Does your company need an employee engagement app? 3 key questions

Staff engagement apps aren’t the best fit for every company. You can figure out if your organization would benefit from this by answering the following questions.

Do we have a communication channel that reaches everyone?

Effective internal communication is the foundation of engagement. So you need a reliable communication channel for all employees, particularly when there’s a time-sensitive update to share.

Email may not be a viable internal communication strategy if some workers don’t have email addresses. Getting managers to make phone calls and send text messages takes up a lot of time. Paper notices up on a board are easy to miss.

If you have a patchwork of different communication channels, an employee mobile app is a great streamlining tool. It saves your comms team time — because they have fewer comms channels to maintain. And it makes communication more efficient, relevant, and reliable.

Are employees treated equally?

Fairness is really important for employee engagement. If an employee feels like someone else is getting preferential treatment, it’s unlikely they’ll bring their A-game. So when it comes to opportunities for engagement, it has to be a level playing field.

Use surveys to find out if frontline staff and office workers enjoy the same level of engagement and the same access to company comms, culture, and connection.

If some workers are feeling overlooked, an app can help you treat employees equally. Ditching a two-tier engagement strategy means everyone feels valued and like they belong.

Do we need to lighten the load for managers and HR teams?

When there isn’t an easy way to share company policies, resources, and comms, managers and HR teams often end up acting as gatekeepers. Employees have to ask for the information they need, which adds to the HR and management workload.

An employee app removes this bottleneck by allowing employees to access relevant information for themselves. They can view their schedule and vacation time. They can read the most recent safety policy and get details of the next company social event.

HR and management spend less time answering the same questions. And employees — with resources in the palm of their hands — feel more engaged with the organization.

Final thoughts: The best employee engagement apps

An employee engagement app can be a game-changer when it comes to your employee engagement strategy.  Whether you’re a small office with a few dozen employees or a multinational corporation with hundreds of stores, the best employee engagement apps help your workers feel more connected.

At Blink, we’re passionate about helping companies connect with their frontline employees. And our frontline employee engagement solution will help your workforce thrive in 2026 and beyond.

Blink’s employee app offers the same great features across mobile and desktop. A company newsfeed, recognition, secure chat, surveys, analytics, and more. So your teams have everything they need to improve employee engagement — along with staff satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

If you want an all-in-one frontline employee engagement solution, get started with Blink today!

The average person will work 35 hours per week. That adds up to 84,365 hours over their lifetime. Yet just over one-third of employees (34%) are engaged, and 16% are actively disengaged in their work and workplace.

If you’re reading this, the chances are you want to make sure your employees don’t feel like they are wasting a large portion of their life at work. We’ll do our best to help you do just that.

In this handy guide, we’ll break down the key steps you need to take when creating an employee engagement strategy.

From understanding why your organization truly needs an employee engagement strategy, to the actionable steps you can take to create your own strategy, we’ll cover everything you need to know right here.

Why you need an employee engagement strategy

Creating an employee engagement strategy can seem daunting, but it’s important for any business. Having a strategic approach to your employees’ happiness and engagement will help you retain top talent, keep them motivated and productive, and ultimately grow your business.

Effective employee engagement strategies will outline exactly how you are going to improve employee engagement within your organization, allowing all team members to stay on the same page when it comes to their roles and responsibilities.

In short: by creating an employee engagement strategy, you can strategically work to improve your employee engagement. And with improved levels of engagement, come a number of organizational benefits, including: 

• Higher Productivity: Employee engagement is closely linked with productivity. Engaged employees are more motivated to do their best work and achieve their goals. In fact, research has shown that engaged employees are up to 202% more productive than disengaged employees.
• Reduced Staff Turnover: Low employee retention is costly and disruptive for any business, and one of the most decisive factors for employee retention is employee engagement. Engaged employees are less likely to leave their job, which reduces the need for costly and disruptive staff turnover.
• Improved Morale: A happy workforce is a productive workforce. When employees feel engaged and valued, they are more likely to be happy at work and less likely to experience stress or burnout. As such, a staff engagement strategy can motivate employees and improve morale, job satisfaction and overall company culture.
• Greater Loyalty: An engaged employee is more likely to be loyal to their company, in fact 90% of workers said they are more likely to stay at a company that takes and acts on feedback: AKA one that engages them. They are less likely to look for jobs elsewhere and are more likely to recommend their company to others. Therefore, the right employee engagement strategies can drive your staff retention rates and encourage employees to stay with your company for longer.

Employee engagement strategies & business types

What your employee engagement strategy needs to consist of will change depending on your business type. For example, a software company will need to focus on ways to motivate and engage product designers and developers in order to compete for top talent in a competitive Silicon Valley environment. A healthcare organization, on the other hand, will need to come up with innovative ways to engage their nursing and medical staff to combat physician burnout and the growing nursing shortage.

What's important is that you provide your workforce with strategies that are designed for them specifically. Ultimately, your strategy will depend on the type of employees you have, the unique challenges facing those teams in your market, their day-to-day tasks, and how your organization operates as a whole.

Employee engagement for the frontline

Creating an employee engagement strategy can be especially important for frontline organizations. With 80% of the global workforce working on the frontline, it’s important to have strategies in place that will help keep these workers engaged, productive and motivated.

Additionally, employees in frontline positions often have more direct contact with customers and are more likely to represent the company to the public. As such, it is important for these employees to be engaged and motivated, so they can provide positive customer service experiences.

Frontline staff engagement strategies might involve providing employees with accessible digital tools for employee engagement, offering transparent and frequent communication, or emphasizing the importance of customer feedback.

Remember: whatever strategies you use, it’s important to tailor them specifically to your industry, business type and workforce.

How to create your employee engagement strategy

In order to have engaged employees, you need a plan in place, outcomes in mind, a clear outline of responsibilities and a culture that takes participation seriously. You also need a toolset available that is able to execute your plan, close distances, track results and simplify operations. 

To make this a little easier to understand, we've broken the process down into 7 simple steps.

1. Define - Your purpose, values & mission

Defining your own purpose, company core values, and mission statement is a crucial step in creating your employee engagement strategy. In fact, when teams know your goals and expectations of them, they are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged in their roles, according to research from Quantum Workplace.

By clearly articulating what you stand for as an organization, you can align your staff with these values and give them a reason to be invested in the success of your business in the long-term.

To ensure that all employees are on the same page here, you should provide an easy-to-access Hub containing all company policy and procedure documents, along with a thorough onboarding process for new hires.

2. Listen - Conversations and research

Direct, two-way conversations and further research into your employees’ needs and wants will help you to create a more personalized engagement strategy, making this a core step in the strategic process. One way to do this is through pulse surveys.

Pulse Surveys are short, regular surveys that ask employees about their engagement levels and how they feel about their work. This can help you to identify any areas where your employees may be struggling, and can help to ensure that your employee engagement strategy is constantly evolving.

Whether it’s through surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews or anonymous staff feedback tools, gathering data and hearing directly from your employees can give you valuable insights into what they need from an engagement strategy, and help you identify your organisation's key engagement drivers, in order for staff to stay engaged at work.

3. Review - Analyze and plan

Once you have gathered data from your employees, it’s time to analyze this information and determine what action needs to be taken. You may find that certain areas of your workplace are in need of improvement, or perhaps a company-wide change is necessary to boost employee engagement.

Whatever the results of your employee research, it’s crucial to identify specific targets and actions that will make your plan a success. What’s working, what's not? Are there specific issues that need to be addressed? What are your engagement goals as a business leader?

Key goals for your employee engagement strategy could include:

• Lower staff absenteeism
• Better employee retention rates and lower turnover
• Improved productivity
• Enhanced employee motivation and happiness 
• Increased customer satisfaction 
• More positive organizational culture.

By reviewing and analyzing the data you have gathered, you can gain a clear understanding of how to better engage employees in order to achieve these goals. This will help you to build a more effective employee engagement strategy that your employees want to respond positively to.

4. Commit - Actions speak louder than words

Strategy is important, but actions always speak louder than words. Employee engagement strategies that work, only work if you plan to back them up with core actions, processes and real change.

Below, we have outlined some key ways to commit to your employee engagement strategy. By truly committing to all of these actions, you can bring your employee engagement strategy to life and start seeing real results.

Tools & technology

Digital tools are essential for any organization looking to boost engagement. By providing your employees with the right tools, you can make it easier for them to connect with each other and with your company. This can help to improve communication and collaboration within your team, leading to higher job satisfaction, and a more engaged workforce.

There are a variety of different digital tools that you can use to engage your employees, including great employee engagement apps, online chat software and team collaboration tools.

It’s also important to consider using technology with frontline-specific features in deskless organizations. With 52% of frontline workers claiming they would leave their job over tech tools, better digital commitments are clearly needed here. By providing your employees with tools fit-for-purpose on the frontline, you can ensure that your employees feel supported and engaged no matter where they are in the organization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV1_4ZdjPQ4&ab_channel=Blink

Recruitment 

Assuming that you have already begun the process of gathering data and analyzing it, you should now begin to take actions across the board in order to improve employee engagement. One way to do this is through better recruitment practices.

People who match your ideals and company culture, who will add value, and who are onboarding engagement are more likely to be engaged employees. Therefore, it is important to take care in the recruitment process, and to ensure that you are hiring people who will be a good fit for your company. You can use interviews, personality tests and job simulations to get to know a candidate better, and to see how they would fit into your team.

It is also important to provide a thorough onboarding process for new hires in order to establish a culture of engagement from day one. This can help them to feel welcome and comfortable in their new role, and can help them to learn about your company policies and procedures.

Communication

Regular communication is key to keeping employees engaged. Employees need to feel like they are part of the bigger picture, and that their voice is heard. By establishing a regular communication schedule – whether it be through Secure Chats, email, newsletters, team meetings or other methods – you can ensure that your employees are kept in the loop.

It’s also important to have a clear internal communications strategy in place. This should outline who is responsible for communicating with whom, and what methods will be used. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and that important messages don’t get missed.

It’s important to tailor communications to the needs of your employees. For example, if most of your employees are frontline workers who don’t have access to a computer, you may need to adjust your communications methods so that they can be accessed on mobile devices – think mobile employee engagement apps. You may also need to consider using different methods for different departments or locations within your company.

Surveys

Although surveys are important when drafting your strategy, it’s also important to gather feedback from your employees on a more regular basis if you want to walk the walk of employee engagement. By conducting regular Employee Surveys, you can get a sense of how your employees are feeling at any given time – and if things need to change.

An employee engagement survey can help you to gather valuable data and feedback from your employees, which you can use to improve your strategy. You may want to consider including questions about work-life balance, employee engagement initiatives, training and development, and other areas.

Frequent surveys are a great way to get ongoing feedback from your employees and to see how they feel about various aspects of their job or the company as a whole. You can also use surveys to measure the success of your employee engagement strategies, obtaining valuable insight into what is working and what needs to be changed or improved.

Managers

“Leadership has an important role to play when it comes to employee engagement, and this is especially important given nearly half (45%) of workers say leadership is “minimally” or “not at all” committed to improving company culture. In fact, 78% of employees confirmed that any change to culture needs to be driven by the CEO.” — Jeff Cates, CEO of Achievers.

For business leaders, mid-level management is often the first step towards employee engagement. By ensuring managers are supported from the top level, given the budget, training, tools and support they need, you can set them up for success as well as help to create a culture of engagement across your entire organization.

Effective managers have many important roles when it comes to employee engagement. They are responsible for setting expectations, holding people accountable, and providing feedback. They are also responsible for coaching and mentoring their team members, as well as helping to resolve any issues or conflicts that may arise.

5. Measure - Analyze and report

To measure the impact and see if their employee engagement activities and strategy is working, businesses should use employee engagement analytics via the right tools, at the right time.

It’s important to use analytics at different points throughout your engagement strategy, as this will help you to gain valuable insight and data that can be used to adjust what is working and improve the areas that need improvement. For example, you may want to analyze employee satisfaction levels before implementing a new training program, or track engagement levels over time to see if your initiatives are working.

There are many different types of analytics tools that you can use to analyze and report this data, for example Blink's Frontline Intelligence tool. Our powerful analytics offer insight into the people and relationships that make your organization tick. 

By analyzing data from people, places, and things on a regular basis, you can gain real-time intelligence into your employee engagement strategy that you can use to better support and understand your workforce.

6. Reward - recognition & progression

When used effectively, recognition can be an extremely powerful tool for improving employee engagement. Employees need to feel appreciated for their efforts, and recognition is one of the best ways to show your most engaged employees that you appreciate them.

However, simply giving employees a pat on the back isn’t enough – recognition needs to be meaningful, memorable and measurable. By taking the time to recognize employees in a meaningful way, you can show them that you truly value their contributions, and make them want to engage and contribute more.

There are many different ways to recognize employees, and it’s important to find what works best for your organization. Some popular methods of recognition include offering Kudos or Employee Recognition, awards ceremonies, Feed shout-outs, gift cards or vouchers, and thank-you notes.

It's also crucial that you back up recognition with opportunities for growth and career development. This may include promotions, opportunities to learn new skills, a stronger compensation and benefits package, or simply more responsibility. By providing employees with opportunities for growth and progression within the organization, you are helping them feel valued and motivated to continue performing well.

7. Repeat - Regular check-ins and adjustments

To truly maximize the impact of your employee engagement strategy, it’s important to take a regular and systematic approach. This means that you should regularly check in on key metrics, analyze the data you gather, and make any necessary adjustments based on what you find.

Stay on top of your engagement. Track key metrics such as employee satisfaction and engagement levels, and conduct regular check-ins to analyze the data you gather. This will help you make any necessary adjustments to your strategy in a timely and effective manner, ensuring that your employees are engaged and motivated at all times.

Final Thoughts

At Blink, we provide the all-in-one solution to employee engagement. Designed for the frontline, our easy-to-access, intuitive employee engagement app delivers real-time data and communications, actionable insights and intelligent recommendations.

Inspiring engagement in your employees has never been easier. With our powerful analytics tools and customizable recognition programs, you can gain valuable insight into your workforce and take the steps needed to boost engagement levels across the board.

Whether you’re looking for a way to track employee performance, improve communication and feedback, or simply create a more positive work environment, Blink has everything you need.

Get started today

The last few years brought a storm of change to the HR industry. Artificial Intelligence. The gig economy. And more recently, a global pandemic has altered our reality and redefined workflows. 

While Covid-19 has forced us to make many temporary adjustments to the way we live and work, not every new development is short-lived. There has been an influx of new trends that are here to stay.

These innovations have pushed us to view different areas of the HR function from a new perspective. And they have made us wonder: What’s in store for the future? What are the developments that will transform HR for good? Which trends will shape the new reality of work?

Read on for answers. In this post, we take a look at the top HR trends in 2021 for frontline business and HR leaders to take into account as they prepare for what’s to come. 

Top HR trends for 2022

Designing work for frontline employees’ well-being 

The line between work and home life has been blurring for some time, but the pandemic has all but erased it for many employees. In response, HR leaders have shifted from promoting work-life balance to pushing well-being into the work itself.

As per the 2020 Hartford’s Future of Benefits Study, workers are now demanding benefits like hospital indemnity insurance, additional paid time off, and employee assistance programs.

Companies, on their part, are focusing on online experiences that improve employees’ health. These include virtual team-building events, yoga and fitness sessions, and mindfulness classes, and so on. 

So organizations that thrive beyond 2021 are going to be those that integrate health-related initiatives into the design of work. This will be done at the individual, team, and organizational levels to create an environment in which employees are at peak health. 

Reskilling to unlock frontline worker potential 

During Covid, many organizations struggled to retain employees because of financial problems, sick leave, or losing workers to the virus. So managers called on remaining employees to expand their roles and fill the gaps left by their coworkers. And like the Spartans, employees rose to the challenge. 

Workers’ resourcefulness and agency in these hard times have shown that they can learn and contribute in unexpected ways. And in doing so, they have positioned their organizations to thrive in the long term.

So employee reskilling is another important trend to watch out for. According to a recent Udemy survey, the demand for building employee skills grew by 38% in 2020. The consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) illustrates this trend. It invested $3 billion in the learning and development of employees who have stayed with the business for at least 3 years. This suggests that reskilling is a lean and sustainable way to strengthen your workforce. 

Building 'Superteams' 

Organizations have been using ‘teaming’ (setting up a temporary team of people who aren’t familiar with each other) as a survival strategy to counter the impact of Covid-19. Many leaders have now begun to realize teaming as an opportunity to form “superteams.” 

Coined by Thomas Malone, the term ‘superteam’ refers to the pairing of people with technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, to rethink workflows and get faster outcomes. 

The strategy of turning teams into superteams is still in its infancy, as many companies still see technology from a limited viewpoint — more as a tool than a team member. 

According to Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends report, only 16% of executive-level leaders said that they plan to transform work by combining humans and machines.

But the trend is expected to accelerate, with organizations shifting to this new mindset and strategy in a strong position to realize the untapped potential it offers to drive growth and handle uncertainty. Making sure you have the right employee experience software, and the right tech stack is vital.

Rethinking governance of workforce strategies 

Covid-19 has opened our eyes to the fact that using data on your workforce’s current state to determine employee strategies is not enough. Relying solely on the metrics showing the workforce’s present situation is risky because it limits a company’s potential to survive drastic changes. This applies to all strategies, from staffing levels to employee retention. 

Some organizations are shifting their approach from strategizing for likely, minor events to planning for the unexpected. 17% of HR executives say that their companies plan to focus on the occurrence of unlikely, high-impact events, as opposed to 6% before the pandemic. 

Companies that want to handle change with confidence must address questions that force them to look into the future. It’s forward-looking insights that will help businesses accomplish new milestones. 

Shifting from managing employees to re-architecting work 

Covid-19 has positioned HR as a prominent part of surviving a crisis. And the good news is that HR has lived up to this new standard, gaining more credibility as a result. 

A survey by Deloitte has shown that both HR and business leaders are now more certain of HR’s ability to tackle future challenges. 

This creates an opportunity for HR departments to leverage their new position and transform their role from that of managing employees to re-architecting work. 

HR leaders can make the most of this by taking charge of reimagining both the workforce and the workplace to ensure future success.

The survey also found that 61% of business and HR executives are planning to reimagine work in the next one to three years. This would mean:

• Prioritizing outcomes over outputs 
• Focusing on building superteams that combine human and technological capabilities
• Managing the cultural and leadership changes that arise from the new approach to work

As a result, HR trends and goals will align better with business objectives. And HR will need to work closely with other departments to shape the new architecture of work. 

Conclusion

These HR trends show the future holds both big opportunities and tough challenges for HR and business leaders. All this is pushing HR professionals to search for and leverage innovative technologies to improve employee productivity and engagement.  

In the near future, AI-based predictive and automation technologies are likely to improve all the areas under the HR function, including talent acquisition, workforce analytics, and reskilling of employees. All these ultimately help HRs role in employee engagement.

So use these trends to anticipate new developments in the human resource field, and to inform your business processes moving forward. It will give you a solid foundation to not just survive but thrive in the face of upcoming changes.