McDonald's Chooses Blink for Crew Comms

Nowadays, most organizations understand the importance of employee engagement. In fact, 75% of CHROs say that improving the employee experience and organizational culture is a top focus for 2024.

There’s plenty of research out there, outlining the benefits employee engagement brings to your business. Increased employee productivity and retention, better customer satisfaction rates, improved business profitability — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s clear. Businesses that prioritize employee engagement tend to be more successful than those that don’t. But one important question remains.

Whose responsibility is employee engagement? Who within an organization is tasked with devising an employee engagement strategy — and putting it into action? 

In this guide, we explain who should take ownership of employee engagement. We also look at the vital role HR teams play in establishing the strategies, tools, and behaviors that support better engagement in the workplace.

Why does employee engagement matter?

Engaged employees are happier. They’re more likely to interact with company communications and contribute to company culture.

Engaged employees are also more productive and more innovative. They come up with bright ideas, feel invested in their work, and are committed to your organization.

A focus on employee engagement benefits employees. It also has a significant impact on business results. By striving to improve employee engagement, you can:

• Increase productivity and profitability: Engaged workers outperform their less engaged peers. Gallup’s extensive research into employee engagement reveals that engaged organizations are 17% more productive. They also experience a 23% increase in profitability.
  
  
• Boost levels of innovation and creativity: An engaged workforce goes beyond the bare minimum. They’re more likely to collaborate — and more likely to demonstrate creative thinking — which spells greater business innovation.
  
  
• Improve customer experience: Engaged employees care about the customer experience and inspire customer loyalty. Whether they’re serving customers, manufacturing products, or working at HQ, your team is dedicated to customer satisfaction.
  
  

Minimize staff turnover: Higher employee engagement levels are linked to higher employee satisfaction. This boosts employee retention and minimizes turnover. In fact, organizations with high levels of engagement can reduce staff turnover by up to 51%.

Why avoid disengagement?

So, we’ve looked at how employee engagement benefits your business. But why is disengagement such a problem?

Disengaged employees are less productive and invested in your organization. They experience more stress, anger, and health problems than their more engaged co-workers — and are more likely to take time off sick.

These employees are also less loyal. They’re more likely to look for a job elsewhere, increasing your recruitment costs. Those who stick around can cause other problems for your organization.

According to McKinsey, quiet quitters account for between a fifth and two-fifths of an organization’s workforce. These workers fulfill minimum job requirements — but no more. Some also act to demoralize and disrupt other members of your team. 

It’s also worth bearing in mind that frontline employees are generally even less engaged than their desk-based peers. They’re more likely to feel burned out, three times more likely not to recommend their organization as a good place to work, and twice as likely to leave.

Whatever form it takes, disengagement is costly. According to Gallup’s estimate, low engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion in GDP. So finding ways to engage the whole workforce — including your remote, office-based, and frontline employees — is crucial.

Who is actually responsible for employee engagement?

IIt’s clear that high levels of employee engagement are good for an organization. But who within your organization makes that happen? Who’s responsible for employee engagement?

The most successful employee engagement strategies involve everyone within an organization. It’s simply not possible for HR to improve employee engagement significantly without company-wide buy-in.

You need all of the following parties on board:

• Leadership. Leadership is responsible for championing employee engagement. Their attitudes and behaviors filter down through an organization. So without C-suite support, employee engagement initiatives are unlikely to be effective.
• Management. Managers also play a crucial role. Because they have direct contact with employees, they’re well-placed to develop and sustain employee engagement, implementing the agreed engagement strategies.
• Employees. Workers also play a role in the success of employee engagement. They can help by supporting their teammates and by taking part in two-way dialogue with managers and leaders, providing constructive feedback. 
• HR. None of the above would be possible without HR. The people team is responsible for empowering the rest of the organization. They put in place the strategies, processes, tools, and coaching needed to build a more engaging and engaged workplace.

The HR team is uniquely positioned to drive employee engagement. As the custodians of talent, it’s HR's responsibility to manage employee recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention. For each of these key points in the employee life cycle, they can devise and implement strategies that ensure employees feel valued and engaged.

They can also support the wider organization so they understand what good engagement looks like — and the best ways to achieve it.

In a nutshell: HR and employee engagement go hand-in-hand. But they need buy-in from leadership and management if they’re to improve employee engagement and reap the associated benefits. 

The role of HR in employee engagement: 6 key responsibilities

As well as coaching leaders, managers, and employees to adopt effective employee engagement behaviors, HR is responsible for engagement in all the following ways.

1. Recruitment and onboarding

HR can support employee engagement from the very first contact a potential employee has with your organization.

By developing your employer brand and by crafting job descriptions that showcase this brand, you showcase company culture and attract candidates to apply. 

Once a new hire starts work, you can continue to engage them with tailored onboarding experiences. Support workers to find resources and forge relationships from day one and they’ll feel part of company culture more quickly.

2. Communication

Internal communications are critical to employee engagement. Relevant, personalized, and timely communications keep employees informed and engaged.

HR teams can use communication tools to regularly remind employees of workplace benefits, perks, and development opportunities. They can also encourage leaders and managers to send their own engagement-boosting comms.

Regular, two-way communication is also key to maintaining a positive relationship with employees. HR should make an effort to communicate with employees often, whether it be through secure chat, 1-2-1 meetings, or the company news feed. This helps employees to feel valued and connected to the company, boosting overall performance.

3. Recognition

Employees feel more engaged when they feel valued by their employer. So praise from a manager or co-workers, bonuses, and rewards programs should be a regular feature of the employee experience.

While it’s up to team leaders to show their appreciation, HR plays an important role in making recognition an integral part of company culture.

Your HR team can establish recognition and reward systems. They can determine which rewards are most appealing to your workforce. They can also implement user-friendly employee recognition tools, which make it quick and easy for managers to recognize the hard work and milestones of their employees.

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4. Retention

Another key responsibility for HR teams is talent retention. With employee surveys and exit interviews, you keep a finger on the pulse of your organization. You learn how employees are feeling and what could be done to improve employee engagement.  

This data can then be used to make changes that will improve employee engagement levels and drive employee retention, minimizing staff turnover and its costly consequences.

Development and progression are also key to retention. HR teams can keep employees engaged by clarifying progression opportunities and career goals. 

They can also ensure easy, online access to training and development programs — so all employees, whether they work on the frontline or in the office, can make progress in their careers.

5. Wellbeing and safety

Employees are more likely to enjoy high levels of engagement when they feel physically and psychologically safe at work.  

HR can support this aspect of employee engagement by ensuring good communication around safety. It should be easy for employees to report safety concerns and hazards. Workers should have access to a content hub that stores essential company policies and safety procedures.

For psychological safety, HR can take the lead, promoting transparent communication and an inclusive company culture across all employee touchpoints.

6. Tools and tech

The right tools and tech make employee engagement much easier. So another responsibility for HR is the implementation of tools — like employee engagement apps — which have the power to engage the workforce and amplify company culture.  

Via an employee app, employees can access an engaging news feed, employee surveys, training and development, and a content hub — everything they need to feel connected to their roles, co-workers, and the wider organization.

It’s important that these tools are available to all employees to ensure engagement initiatives reach every sector of the workforce.

So look for tech tools that are accessible via a mobile device and that don’t require a company email address. That way, frontline employees enjoy the same access as their desk-based peers.

Searching for the ultimate employee engagement tool? Here’s a quick intro to the Blink employee app.

What can HR do to improve employee engagement?

HR teams play a critical role in employee engagement — and there’s lots that HR can do to improve employee engagement within their organization.

It starts with the right foundations - here are five employee best engagement practices.

Understand BAU engagement

HR can support managers in understanding the 'baseline' or BAU (business as usual) engagement levels within an organization.

This means assessing and tracking metrics like turnover, productivity, and performance over time, as well as identifying any trends or patterns that may be affecting overall engagement levels.

With this information, HR can work with managers to identify the most suitable employee engagement activities. These are interventions that will improve engagement levels in both the short and the long term.

Learn how to measure engagement

When you measure employee engagement, you can make data-backed decisions — and don’t have to rely on guesswork. So HR teams should establish and track employee engagement key performance indicators (KPIs).

Some useful metrics include retention rate, absenteeism rate, and employee net promoter score (eNPS). You can also use employee surveys, exit interviews, and your employee intranet analytics to assess engagement levels within your organization.

Here's how we measure engagement at Blink:

• Retention: Disengaged employees are more likely to quit their jobs so employee retention is a good indicator of engagement. You need to understand why and when employees choose to leave your organization.
• Manager performance: Strong managerial support is a key driver of employee engagement, so it's important to assess and improve the performance of your managers. We drill down into the data to identify low-engagement teams and then provide those managers with extra coaching.‍
• Intranet engagement: What do your intranet engagement metrics tell you? By tracking how employees interact with our employee app, our HR team can identify disengagement and dissatisfaction.

Know how to manage for engagement

Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement and have a huge influence on employee wellbeing.

Ideally, mid-level management supports engagement by providing constructive feedback, giving recognition and rewards, and acknowledging individual strengths and contributions.

HR can support employee engagement by supporting managers. With the right employee engagement tools and guidance, managers are empowered to build happy and engaged teams.

Employee engagement training can also help managers better understand the important role they play in engaging the workforce.

Look for early signs of disengagement

Employees who are becoming disengaged may start to pull back from their work. They might make fewer contributions to the team, their output may decrease, and they might be less likely to speak up in 1-2-1s and meetings.

This disengagement isn’t always obvious to busy managers, particularly when they’re responsible for a dispersed frontline team. So HR can support them by using employee intranet analytics to identify employees who aren’t engaging with the platform.

By looking out for early signs of disengagement, HR and managers can take action to re-engage employees before they impact team morale or decide to leave the organization.

Talk about more than tasks during 1-2-1s

HR should encourage managers to focus more on fostering strong relationships during 1-2-1s.

Of course, they need to discuss work-related tasks and employee performance. But this is also an opportunity to learn about employees’ personal interests, goals, and challenges.

By creating a supportive and open environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns, HR can build the trust and connection that is critical for strong employee engagement.

In summary

Improve employee engagement at your organization and you stand to improve productivity, profitability, and employee retention.

HR teams are responsible for employee engagement throughout the employee life cycle. They play a critical role in devising and implementing employee engagement strategies.

But they can’t go it alone.

For employee engagement initiatives to be a success, you need company-wide buy-in. Leaders, managers, and employees — guided by HR — need to see the value in engagement and demonstrate a commitment to creating an engaging workplace culture together.

In today’s modern workplace, you also need the right tech tools. These tools make it easy for everyone to incorporate engagement activities into their every day.

Blink’s employee app provides all the tools you need to improve engagement within your organization:

• A personalized news feed: A place where you can build a welcoming company culture, encourage everyone to take part in two-way communication, and prioritize the most relevant information for each employee. 
• Recognition tools: Our Kudos tool makes it easy for managers to recognize employee milestones and achievements. It allows co-workers to share in the celebration, too
• Employee surveys and analytics: Gather employee feedback and view app analytics to understand, track, and make data-based improvements to employee engagement
• An integrated content and resource hub: Employees can access all tech tools and resources via a single, user-friendly interface. Just one set of login details and no company email address necessary. 

Whether you're looking for a new way to measure employee satisfaction or simply want to provide a more engaging employee experience, Blink has the tools to support and facilitate your success.

Book a personalized demo today to find out how Blink can support employee engagement at your organization.

What makes her awesome?

Chandi has been instrumental in representing the company and its bus drivers in cases related to traffic penalties. By thoroughly reviewing and addressing these cases, she has substantially reduced costs for both the business and individual drivers.

It is very common for bus drivers to face fines and prosecutions while doing their essential job for the communities of London. Chandi appears in Courts and Tribunals to represent the business and has successfully challenged almost 50% of the cases that come in. In years gone by the business was facing charges of up to £10k per month which have now been reduced by 70%. This is a massive saving both financially and reputationally to the business.

Most importantly, Chandi’s work provides crucial support to drivers, alleviating their stress and ensuring they feel valued. She is a quiet and meticulous professional who has created so much good in the department since her arrival in April 2024.

How has Blink helped in her role?

Blink has been used to advertise “money boxes” YBJ where fines are received. Chandi has also used the platform to share guidance and resources about observing traffic regulations, as well as demonstrating the team’s support for drivers. 

What does she want to do next?

Continuing to reduce penalties, with the ultimate goal of eliminating them, would be a massive achievement, maybe seen as impossible — but what Chandi has achieved would have been seen as impossible six months ago. Chandi is keen to communicate with drivers using Blink as well as garage roadshows to raise awareness and help bus drivers avoid fines and better serve the communities of London.

Nominated by: Phil Thornton, General Manager Central Operations

Why do traditional intranets feel so outdated?

At least, that’s how it feels sometimes.

The intranet we think of when we hear the word “intranet” has a bad reputation. For too long, intranets have been static, disorganized, and irrelevant. Clunky design, poor navigation, and buried links have long frustrated employees, turning these platforms into digital wastelands that are more of a hindrance than a help.

But modern intranets are changing the game. Today’s employee experience platforms are dynamic, user-friendly hubs that streamline internal comms, fuel collaboration, and boost engagement. They stand out in three key ways:

• Mobile first: Always accessible from a smartphone, no matter where or how your employees work (with an equally great desktop experience)
• Insta-grade: As seamlessly intuitive and visually engaging as the social apps (like Instagramnand TikTok) that we use every day in our personal lives
• Real-time insights: Built-in analytics, like engagement and sentiment, that empower leaders to optimize employee adoption and productivity

Ready to leave outdated intranets behind? Let’s explore seven steps to designing an intranet experience your employees will love.

How do you modernize your employee intranet?

Follow these seven steps to upgrade your company intranet as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Step 1: Take stock of what’s working (and what’s not)

The first step to improving your employee intranet is auditing the system you’re currently working with. Identify elements that you’d like to keep, as well as those that make sense to get rid of.

Intranet areas to audit include:

• Content quality: Assess your intranet content based on its quality, usefulness, and the level of engagement it receives from employees. This helps you determine which content should be kept or deleted. It may also give insight into the content formats you want to prioritize on your refreshed platform.
  
• Usability: To assess the usability of your employee intranet, you can create and trial a series of scenarios. Base these scenarios around tasks your employees typically try to complete on the intranet — like creating a user account on a business tool, enrolling in annual benefits, or referring someone for a job opening. You can also look at help desk requests and search logs to find out what employees are struggling with.
  
• Mobile access: Don’t forget to audit your intranet across all devices. Ask yourself how user-friendly the mobile version of your intranet is. Assess how easy it is to log in via mobile and whether you can access the same features and functionality across both mobile and desktop.

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Step 2: Find out what your team really needs

An audit gives insight into how your current intranet is working. Next, it’s time to dig deeper.

Seek feedback from employees across the whole of your organization. Include employees from different departments and levels of the company for a holistic view — and be sure to include frontline workers, who are often left behind when it comes to workplace tech.

Using employee surveys and focus groups, ask employees which elements of the current intranet they find useful. Find out where they experience friction. Also, get their opinion on the new intranet features and functionalities they’d like to see.

With a clear idea of user needs, you can build a comprehensive picture of what your modern employee intranet should look like. You can also establish the goals you want your intranet to achieve.

For example, you may want a news feed function to improve internal communication. Or a recognition feature to boost employee engagement. Maybe you want to find new ways to involve your frontline employees in company comms. Or need easy integration with the workplace software you already use.

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Whatever your platform needs and goals, get them down on paper before attempting the following step.

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Step 3: Choose mobile-first technology that works for everyone

Look at your list of intranet must-haves. It may be that your current platform can be updated or adapted to meet those needs.

Bear in mind that — at a minimum — a modern intranet platform is mobile-friendly and scalable. It integrates with existing systems, providing a seamless digital employee experience. To meet all of these needs, it also tends to be a cloud-based system, with collaboration tools and advanced search functionality.

A modern employee intranet should also provide all the tools you need for effective employee communications. It supports employee engagement and the digital employee experience — and it will make the work of your communications and HR teams much easier.

If your current platform isn’t measuring up, it’s time to look for alternative intranet software. Start by browsing the top intranet software providers. Look at software reviews. Create an intranet shortlist and sign up for platform demonstrations.

Step 4: Put the user experience (UX) front and center

Having chosen the intranet technology best suited to your organization, it’s time to ensure it provides the best possible user experience.

Good intranet UX is critical for employee adoption, engagement, and productivity. Best practices in UX design include:

• Easy-to-find content: Users should be able to complete common tasks and find resources in just a few clicks. To aid this process, categorize and present resources logically and with clear, descriptive labels.‍
• A user-friendly search bar: The intranet search bar should be instantly visible — and when an employee uses the search bar, it should lead to relevant resources.‍
• Customization options: Employees are more likely to engage with your intranet if it feels relevant to them and their roles. So put employees into segmented groups to ensure they get a tailored intranet experience.

Finally, keep in mind that your intranet should be visually appealing and intuitive to use, no matter which device an employee accesses it from. 

Step 5: Create an Instagram-grade experience for every employee

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Personalized experiences make your intranet more engaging for employees. So when updating your intranet, aim to give users control over their dashboard layout. Use role-based permissions to prevent employees from becoming overwhelmed by content they don’t need.

Also, segment employees based on their role, team, tenure, and where they work. That way, they only receive relevant employee communications. On Blink, platform admins can even create customized employee journeys so the right content is automatically served to employees at the right time.

We also provide a personalized company news feed. Using the “jump back in” feature, employees can head straight for content that is likely to be of interest, based on the content they engage with most.

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Step 6: Roll it out gradually — and with ample training

Even with the best UX, employees will need a little time to get used to a new intranet platform. So to ensure a successful launch — and high levels of adoption and usage — it serves to take this step slowly.

You might want to launch a pilot program, where you make your new intranet available to a select group of employees. These workers can test your platform and provide feedback.

Based on this feedback, you can identify and rectify issues before rolling out the platform to the rest of your workforce. Pilot-phase employees can also act as intranet ambassadors, encouraging their coworkers to give the platform a try.

Another approach is the phased rollout. You start by launching a pared-down version of the employee intranet platform. Employees learn how to use fundamental features first. You can then follow up by releasing new features — providing additional training as you go.

This prevents your IT team from being swamped with support and training requests. It also ensures a positive intranet experience from day one, which improves your chances of high user adoption and employee engagement.

Step 7: Keep improving with real-time insights

To ensure your modernized employee intranet is meeting the goals you’ve set, you need to measure its performance. Identify key performance indicators, including:

• Adoption rates
• Engagement levels
• Number of active users
• Message response rates

Also, collect user feedback. Find out what employees think of the new platform. Ask them if there are any points of friction and what improvements they’d like to see.

You can then use your data to make ongoing and targeted improvements. That may mean refining the platform, reorganizing content, providing additional training, or better marketing the benefits of your modernized intranet solution.

Modernize your intranet for today — and prepare for tomorrow

A modern employee intranet has the potential to transform your organization.

As the digital landscape evolves, so will the needs of your employees, and with the right platform, your intranet can adapt to meet those changes seamlessly. But having the right partner is just as crucial. A true partner will work alongside you — from planning and launch to long-term growth — ensuring your intranet not only fits your organization’s needs today but evolves with it for the future.

With the right platform, your intranet can be more than just a repository — it can become a powerful tool for engagement, productivity, and connection.

Future-proof your organization by creating an intranet that connects, empowers and inspires your entire workforce now and for the years ahead.

Blink. And upgrade your employee intranet to the 21st century.

Slack changed how office teams communicate.

But for the 80% of the global workforce who don’t sit at a desk, it was never designed to work.

Slack is a desktop-centric platform. It’s clunky (and sometimes completely inaccessible) for employees who are on their feet, moving between locations, and rarely sitting down at a desktop computer.

In 2026, this gap is impossible to ignore.

Frontline employees now expect workplace technology to feel as intuitive as the apps they use outside work. Fast, mobile, simple.

And they want to feel as connected to co-workers and company culture as their peers in the office.

So how do you get from here to there?

Follow in the footsteps of the many companies currently seeking Slack alternatives. Specifically, look for mobile-first employee communication tools and frontline messaging platforms.

Slack replacements for mobile-friendly team messaging are designed around the realities of deskless work. 

They meet frontline employees where they’re at with the help of intuitive comms tools, available on every employee smartphone. And they make a big difference to comms, culture, and connection in a frontline organization. 

In this guide, we’ll explore:

• Why Slack falls down for frontline organizations
• The internal comms shifts set to shape 2026
• Why mobile-first employee comms is now non-negotiable
• The features modern frontline messaging platforms must deliver
• How Blink supports mobile-friendly team messaging at scale

If your frontline teams currently rely on workarounds, WhatsApp groups, or word-of-mouth to stay informed — this one’s for you.

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The limitations of Slack for frontline teams

Slack is one of the most widely recognized internal communication tools in the world. But popularity doesn’t always equal suitability.

Slack was built for desk-based, knowledge worker collaboration. It has lots of great features — like desktop-first team chat, organized communication channels, and app integrations. But it doesn’t make sense for frontline workers.

Frontline workers are employees whose roles require them to work away from a desk or traditional computer. They’re the people working in manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, retail.

These employees often operate in time-sensitive, high-pressure environments. They need communication that is immediate, clear, and impossible to miss. Urgent updates. Relevant content. Highly intuitive messaging tools. And this is where Slack begins to struggle.

Here are some of the key limitations of Slack for frontline use:

• Noise and information overload from chat-based streams
• Inadequate support for push notifications, role-based broadcasts, and compliance features
• Lack of centralized, evergreen knowledge resources suited for easy mobile access
• A mismatch between desktop and mobile versions

Slack vs. frontline messaging platforms

Read more: 9 best team communication apps for 2026

The internal comms shifts driving the 2026 Slack replacement trend

Organizations are choosing to replace Slack because internal communication is changing.

In 2026, three major shifts are reshaping how organizations connect with frontline teams — and exposing the limitations of desktop-based chat platforms like Slack.

Here’s what’s happening.

Shift #1: Multi-channel strategies

Internal comms teams are adopting a multi-channel approach. This is a strategy that combines different communication types — like proactive push channels (emails, SMS) and passive pull channels (intranets, knowledge hubs).

It means sending the right part of the message through the right channel at the right time, adding links between messages where necessary. For example, an urgent update sent via SMS may link to a more detailed policy document on your content hub.

Key actions for frontline organizations:

• Implement mobile-first team communication tools
• Move permanently beyond paper memos and word-of-mouth comms for frontline workers
• Define the purpose of each comms channel to reduce noise

Shift #2: AI automation

In 2026, experts predict that HR and comms leaders will be evaluated on one key thing: how much time their tools give back.

AI is no longer about experimentation. It’s about execution. So there’s increasing demand for AI-powered engagement tools, continuous feedback, and automation in team messaging.

The aim? To drive productivity and smarter workflows. And to free up time for coaching, clarity, and connection.

Key actions for frontline organizations:

• Find productivity tools that allow you to automate routine admin
• Use AI to make sense of employee feedback, employee sentiment, and platform analytics
• Use AI to create and personalize comms platform content

Shift #3: Simplified tech stacks

App overload is real.

The average employee now uses more than 100 digital tools. And frontline workers feel that burden acutely because they’re managing all those logins and tabs on a small smartphone screen.

In 2026, organizations are seeking to simplify their tech stacks. They’re looking for unified platforms that save cost, reduce complexity, reduce cognitive overload, and improve compliance.

By moving from a patchwork of point solutions to an all-in-one mobile-first employee communication platform, see fewer missed messages and improved adoption — particularly among frontline teams.

Key actions for frontline organizations:

• Audit tools through a frontline lens
• Consolidate around a small number of multi-functional platforms
• Integrate a centralized platform with other workplace software

TL;DR: Slack is struggling to keep up with the pace of change in internal comms and the wider workplace — especially in organizations with a frontline workforce. This is why many companies are moving beyond Slack’s limitations to embrace a mobile-first employee communication solution.

The importance of mobile-first employee communication on the frontline

Mobile-first is a philosophy not a feature. A mobile-first employee communication platform is built from the ground up for smartphones. It’s not built for desktop, then adapted later as an afterthought.

For frontline teams, that difference matters. It helps to ensure simple, seamless, touch-friendly experiences for users without easy computer access.

Your retail team can catch up with company news on their lunch break. Carers can swap advice in the time between clients. Your bus drivers get urgent route updates as a smartphone notification.  

You get to ditch unreliable and inefficient methods of frontline communication — desktop tools like Slack, manager phone calls, paper memos, and unsecure WhatsApp chats.

You put company comms, culture, and connection, plus essential workplace tools, at the fingertips of every employee. So you can reach, engage, and empower your frontline workers, and the rest of your workforce, too.

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The key messaging features frontline platforms must deliver in 2026

If you’re replacing Slack this year — and seeking a better communication solution for your frontline workforce — there are a couple of non-negotiable features you should be looking for.  

The best apps for frontline workers feature the following:

Mobile-first experience

Some internal communication platforms come with a mobile app. But that doesn’t mean they’re mobile-first. Truly mobile-first employee communication tools are built with smartphone users as a priority. That means intuitive navigation, clear layouts, and simple interactions — a tool that is easy to use on the go, with minimal training and zero frustration.

Employee engagement tools

Modern frontline platforms do more than simply deliver direct messages. They actively foster employee engagement. Features like employee recognition, a culture-boosting news feed, and co-worker chat tools help employees feel connected and valued, even when they don’t sit at a desk.

Two-way, real-time messaging

Two-way communication is another non-negotiable when looking at Slack replacements. Because communication isn’t effective when it’s only top-down. Frontline messaging platforms enable instant conversations so employees can ask questions, provide feedback, and collaborate with teammates in real time.

Content tailored by role

Role-based segmentation allows you to send tailored and secure communications to specific departments, locations, or groups within an organization. It ensures relevance, reduces noise, and helps to drive platform adoption. Look for communication tools that allow you to send targeted messages to your frontline employees. That way, each time they log in, they see content that relates to them.

Searchable, evergreen knowledge spaces

Another key feature of a modern frontline messaging platform is a central hub for documentation, FAQs, and resources. This ensures employees always have access to reliable information — without having to quiz managers or co-workers. And it makes workforce alignment, onboarding, and collaboration much easier.  

Analytics and engagement tracking

Insights are critical if you want to understand the impact of your communications. The best platforms track message reach, engagement, and behavior patterns, giving managers the data they need to optimize communication strategies and fix gaps in understanding.

AI-based workflows

AI tools can streamline routine work. Automated reminders, shift notifications, approvals, and content summarization tools save time for managers and staff, letting them focus on higher-value work rather than repetitive tasks.

Integrations and compliance

Frontline communication tools should integrate smoothly with other workplace tools, creating a joined-up system that is easy for deskless workers to navigate — even in the middle of a busy shift. Integrations also help you maintain regulatory compliance. With features like HIPAA readiness for healthcare, secure single sign-on, and audit trails, you can stay efficient and protected while connecting teams across platforms.

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How Blink supports mobile-friendly team messaging for frontline workers

Blink is a mobile-first, social media-inspired employee experience platform, designed around the needs of frontline workers. It streamlines communication, engagement, and operational workflows with the help of:

A multimedia news feed

Real-time messaging tools

Content hub

Employee surveys

Employee recognition

Co-worker communities

Live streams and video calling

Push notifications

AI-powered automation tools

Analytics dashboard

Built-in compliance support

Integrations

Going way beyond the capabilities of Slack (and of a standard team messaging app), Blink gives you the tools you need to transform frontline communication, employee engagement, and company culture.

And don’t take our word for it. We’ve been recognized as a Challenger in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions. That means we’re executing at a high level and pushing the market forward with a bold, differentiated vision.

Organizations like McDonald’s, JD Sports, Dollar Tree, and Domino’s use Blink to connect thousands of frontline employees across stores, warehouses, and healthcare settings. Through Blink, they deliver updates instantly, reduce reliance on WhatsApp or personal text groups, and bring communication, knowledge, and workflows into one mobile-first platform.

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The future of frontline communication starts now

Communication platforms are evolving fast — and 2026 marks a turning point.

This is the year mobile-first becomes the baseline for reaching a frontline workforce that’s short on time and always on the move.

It’s the year AI starts doing real work — cutting admin, surfacing insights, and giving managers more time to support their people.

It’s the year organizations get serious about simplifying bloated tech stacks.  

Organizations reviewing their frontline messaging tools in 2026 should be thinking beyond chat alone. Because the future belongs to platforms that inform, connect, and motivate your people — all from one streamlined, easy-to-use interface. 

Ready to start your search? Look for tools that provide an intuitive mobile experience, a range of comms channels, strong integrations, and clear insights into what’s actually working.

Do that, and you won’t just solve today’s communication challenges — you’ll also be ready for whatever comes next.  

Blink. And switch to a frontline messaging platform that connects your whole organization.

Pop quiz: Are your working parents set up for success?

Class is back in session for many students across the globe — and working parents are feeling the squeeze.

As kids rush back to their schools and classrooms, so do their parents for a variety of school-related events. School drop-offs and pick-ups. Meet-the-teacher nights and parent-teacher conferences. Kid sick days. Extended school vacations. The list is endless — and for working parents, finding a winning balance between work and family obligations can feel impossible.

Without the right support systems, parent employees are left in an unfair lurch. Half of working parents say that working makes it hard to be a good parent — with 1 in 4 feeling that they’ve been treated unfairly due to having children and half reporting that they’ve reduced their work hours to accommodate their children’s needs.

Just last week, the U.S. surgeon general named parent stress a public health challenge, issuing a public health advisory calling on businesses to put in place training programs for managers of working parents about stress management and work-life balance.

With parents making up nearly half of the workforce, creating a workplace culture where parent employees feel included and valued isn’t just a nice to have — it’s a necessity for personal well-being and long-term engagement and retention.

5 lessons for lightening the load on parents in the workplace

More than ever before, organizations have a moral imperative to support and engage their working parents.

Here are 5 strategies that internal communications leaders can use during this time of transition — and all year long — to support the parents who work at their organization.

#1. Create a parent-centric resource hub on your intranet

The modern company intranet should serve as the one-stop shop for all employee tools and resources — and your parent employees should be no exception.

A good partnership between internal comms, HR, and IT teams will be crucial in bringing a digital hub for working parents to life. By building a dedicated back-to-school section on the intranet, internal comms teams can point working parents to a content hub of resources like parenting guides, school-year planning tools, local childcare options, and educational materials.

To make sure this content gets in the hands of every employee, be sure to use a mobile-friendly hub so it’s easily accessible for employees who work on the frontline.

In addition to creating a digital hub for tools and resources, train and encourage managers to get more involved by empowering their teams with relevant content, from flexible work schedules to mental health resources. Consider why your parent employees would be visiting the intranet and tailor the content fit their needs. Think parenting resources, local school calendars, tips for balancing work and family, and even discounts on school supplies.

#2. Launch a back-to-school communication campaign

Following the quiet downtime of summer, many internal comms teams are now revisiting their communications calendar.

As part of the planning process, identify opportunities to create and distribute content that aligns with the school year and considers the needs of parent employees during the back-to-school season and beyond. Keep your communications engaging and reach every employee by sharing a combination of informative and inspirational content across different internal channels:

• Send weekly emails or messages with helpful guidance or company benefits relating to work-life balance, flexible working options, and time-off policies.
• Highlight stories from parents in the organization on your internal news feed to build a sense of community and shared experience.
• Share tips that parent employees can use at home, like handling back-to-school stress, navigating school events, or managing homework.

And don’t be afraid to get creative! The most important thing to keep in mind is the makeup and needs of your unique workforce. Consider developing interactive content like quizzes, polls, or Q&A sessions to address common challenges or concerns of working parents at your organization, and build personalized advice or resources based on their responses.

#3. Offer flexible work options that meet parents’ needs

Flexibility is the key to helping employees mitigate burnout and better balance their work and personal lives — especially for working parents who are juggling family obligations.

And it isn’t just good for culture, it’s good for business: When working parents are free from burnout, they are 35x more likely to recommend their employer and 20x more likely to intend to stay.

Company policies around flexible hours, remote work, and time off should be well-communicated and easily accessible. Hosting these documents on mobile-friendly work platforms, like employee apps and intranets, makes it easy for parents to review this information and request adjustments while on the go.

Making changes to these policies, such as rolling out a new scheduling platform or updating expectations around working hours? Have an open town hall to share the news and answer questions. Bonus points for hosting and posting the session on a virtual platform so employees can tune in from anywhere or watch later if they can’t attend it live.

Consider leveraging an employee communication platform that includes or integrates with existing digital scheduling tools. This can make it easier for parents to view and adjust their work day around school drop-offs, pick-ups, and other unexpected schedule changes.

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#4. Foster parent-to-parent social networking

For the broader parent community, social media isn’t just a networking tool — it’s a lifeline.

For parents who regularly use social media, 3 in 4 are getting support from their friends on these apps and more than a third rate social media as very useful for making them feel like they’re not alone.

Internal comms can harness the power of social media to create a digital workspace where their working parents feel supported and connected.

If you haven’t already, start by creating a “Company Parents” community or group, designed specifically for your parent employees. This can serve as a dedicated virtual space where parents can connect with each other, share their favorite parenting articles or resources, offer advice, and build their own internal support system.

Within this group, explore different social features — like specialized chat groups for parents with children in a certain age range or in a particular school system — to allow for more personalized and granular employee connection.

Additionally, internal workshops are a great way to facilitate interactive community-building. Host regular sessions on topics like “How to Finally Get Your Work-Life Balance Right” or “Managing Your Time as a Working Parent,” featuring guest speakers who are experts in these areas. Even better if these are recorded and made available as on-demand content.

#5. Recognize and celebrate work-life balance wins

Recognition isn’t just nice to have — it’s becoming a game-changer when it comes to engagement and retention.

Research shows that employees who regularly receive recognition are 2.2 times more likely to go above and beyond their regular duties, and 1 in 3 employees said that more personal recognition would encourage them to produce better work more often.

For working parents, many of whom struggle with burnout and disengagement, a small act of recognition can make a big difference.

Back-to-school season is the perfect time to refresh your approach to employee recognition. Take this opportunity to take a close look at the digital platforms in your virtual workspace and establish a recognition strategy that contributes to a culture of appreciation and support. Post virtual shout-outs on your internal news feed recognizing parents who are putting in the extra effort, particularly during this busy time of year.

By posting spotlights on digital platforms as an internal “Wall of Fame,” other team members and colleagues can interact with the posts and comment their own messages of appreciation — creating a ripple effect of recognition throughout the organization.

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Turn your workplace into an A+ environment for parents

Don’t let the back-to-school blues get your employees down.

By creating a parent-focused communications stream and creating social spaces for parents on digital workplace platforms, internal comms teams can support working parents during the back-to-school season and beyond.

Extra credit for employers who are proactive, empathetic, and inclusive in their internal communications strategies, ensuring that all employees — whether on the frontline or in the front office — feel supported during this time of transition.

Looking for remote employee engagement strategies that take your company culture to the next level? Here are our best tips to engage virtual teams.

Consultants, freelancers, frontline workers, and full-time staff across time zones – they all have one thing in common. And that thing is – no points for guessing – remote work. They're 'WFH' or at a client site. 

It’s no secret that remote work offers many benefits to both employees and employers. Employers get access to a global talent pool, and employees get the freedom to work from a convenient location.  

No wonder remote employees are happier than office-based workers. A recent PwC study found that only 8% of remote workers want to work from their employer’s office. On top of that, 83% of employers and 71% of employees view the shift to remote work as a success.

But remote work isn’t all a bed of roses. It has its own challenges, one of which is to engage remote employees. You want to ensure that your employees are dedicated and emotionally invested in your company. 

This is easier said than done, since remote teams are physically distant from the company’s main hub of activity. More often than not, they miss out on social events such as birthdays, small talks, and team lunches. Without these opportunities, remote employees can lose their sense of belonging and feel like something is amiss. The result?

Widespread disengagement. 

Now as a senior leader in your organization, you can’t afford to let that happen, can you? So in this post, we’ll show you several effective strategies you can use to boost remote employee engagement.

Engaging remote employees 101

Employee engagement: remote working challenges

When looking to engage remote workers and combat this issue, senior leaders must turn to innovative strategies for boosting engagement in the virtual world such as creating meaningful connections through various channels and gathering feedback consistently - something not always possible using traditional methods such as notice boards, phone notifications, and emails due to low reach and effectiveness.

Common blockers to engagement in remote employees include:

• Loss of information due to a mix of channels
• Noticeboards, letters, and other tools are inefficient
• Low reach and effectiveness
• No clear way or consistent way to gather feedback.

Why engage remote employees?

While employee engagement may feel like something that doesn't need to be a business priority, it can actually help to improve both employee morale and productivity. And in today’s competitive landscape, these two things are key to success.

In fact, research shows that highly engaged organizations achieve a 23% improvement in profitability, 10% higher customer ratings and 18% higher sales.

In fact, there are a number of reasons why it’s important to engage remote employees:

• Increased job satisfaction and employee retention
• Improved collaboration between teams
• Better productivity, thanks to improved communication and feedback loops
• Boosted innovation as a result of cross-functional initiatives
• Easier onboarding due to increased visibility into the culture and processes.

So, how can you keep remote employees engaged? Let’s take a look at some of the most effective employee engagement tactics for boosting engagement amongst your remote workers and direct reports.

12 practical tips to engage remote workers 

Keeping remote workers engaged should be one of your top priorities. Communication gaps in remote teams lead to disengagement, damaging productivity and morale in the long run. Failure to get your remote employees to work inclusively can also hurt your business’s bottom line.  

In contrast, employees who feel engaged are more loyal and motivated. Not to mention 87% less likely to leave their company than unengaged employees. Follow the below best practices to engage remote teams. 

1. Keep remote meetings as short as possible. 

Remote workers attend more meetings every week as compared to on-site employees. The 2019 State of Remote Work found that 14% of remote employees are giving time to over 10 meetings per week (vs. just 3% of those on-site).

While there’s no denying that team meetings are necessary and beneficial to keep employees aligned, too long and frequent meetings can be frustrating. So much so that this phenomenon has led to the coining of a new term - Zoom Fatigue.

Call a meeting only when it’s absolutely necessary, and try to keep it as short as possible. Consider that a best practice for employee engagement.

Have a clear agenda before every meeting and don’t let a team member prolong it with discussions outside of this agenda. 

Another way to reduce the frequency of your Zoom meetings is to provide instant, accessible company updates directly to your workers’ phones. Short, important messages can be delivered via an employee app to minimize wasted time on pointless meetings, which can help both remote and deskless teams stay in-the-know without eating up too much of their valuable time.

2. Make ‘social’ events structured. 

Since remote workers don’t have impromptu opportunities to connect with each other, providing those opportunities intentionally is crucial. And a great way to get started is hosting virtual social events that are not related to work. 

The social event could be a cocktail-making class, a virtual concert, or a biweekly trivia game. 

But here’s the biggest mistake with company-wide social activities — not structuring them. When you host a social event in a way that the talkers keep talking and the quieter ones stay quiet, it’s safe to say that the event has failed its objective.  

So make sure to have rules that encourage everyone to participate. For example, a cocktail-making class with a kit will get more engagement from everyone than a simple virtual drinks session. 

3. Host informal virtual all-hands. 

A transparent culture fosters trust throughout an organization. And since remote teams are physically disconnected from the workplace, they need even more transparency. 

To facilitate the same, you can conduct virtual all-hands from time to time. This event will encourage remote workers to showcase their projects across the company. 

The project could be a product update, a new marketing campaign, or a transition to a new business partner. A different team will demonstrate what they are working on each week, ensuring that everyone’s in the loop. Plus, the workers can ask questions and share their thoughts with the presenting team, igniting a sense of inclusiveness. 

We get it. Putting your work in front of the entire organization may not be easy. But this little discomfort is a small price to pay for virtual employee engagement, and a warm, better-connected workplace. 

4. Say goodbye to email. 

Email has its place for simple communication. But it’s not suitable for a lot of quick, back and forth conversations. Your organization should have a dedicated tool in place for real-time instant messaging (also known as live chat). 

An employee chat app allows you to facilitate flexible, informal communication that helps remote workers build relationships and get the information they need to do their jobs, wherever they are based.

Communication is a key driver of employee engagement. So whether you have remote teams, frontline employees or in-office workers, you can keep your staff connected and engaged.

Blink, for example, offers a world-class chat feature to bring your company together with groups and one-to-one chats. And it lets your employees share not just text, but also photos, documents, videos, spreadsheets, PDFs, and more without the hassle of email. 

5. Create a remote working resources library. 

49% of US workers face difficulty in finding documents, as per a Nintex survey. If employees can’t access crucial information at the right time, you can’t blame them for getting disengaged. While this is a key problem for remote workers, this issue is currently plaguing the frontline workforce, too. With workers constantly on the move, they need intuitive, easy-to-access resources that can move with them.

The solution is easy. All of your company’s key information should be saved and accessible from a central hub. This information would include your policies, process manuals, onboarding checklists, and other materials. 

The ability to publish content on this portal will not be limited to senior management or the IT department. Every department should be able to access, publish, and share knowledge through this hub.  

Sharing their knowledge will help employees feel empowered and realize the value they are adding to the organization. 

So by building such a knowledge base, you’ll be able to reduce silos between in-office, remote and deskless departments, improve information sharing, and improve collaboration. 

For example, with Hub as a central feature of Blink, remote workers can instantly access policies, procedures, and guides in a single convenient location — leading to a more engaged remote workforce.

On top of that, our built-in text editor gives every employee an effortless way to create, edit, and distribute articles.

6. Make all org-wide updates digital. 

Nearly 20% of remote workers feel disconnected from peers due to a lack of communication.

While communication is the key to better remote employee engagement, any type of communication will not solve the problem. It has to have the right channels and the right frequency. 

You can’t constantly bombard remote employees with emails, notice board announcements, unnecessary meetings, and expect them to stay engaged. 

The best way to conduct effective company-wide communication is to use a single, unobtrusive, digital communication tool. This will help establish expectations and norms without isolating or overwhelming remote workers. 

Even if you’re worried about whether key information is reaching your workers, sharing the information repeatedly using multiple channels isn’t the solution. Using the right technology is. 

For instance, you can use an employee app that allows you to ‘pin’ information to the top of people’s newsfeed, or has a ‘mandatory read’ option as Blink does. 

7. Record all (important) meetings.

When you have multiple remote team members across different time zones, web conferencing can go a long way in reducing geographic limitations and engaging workers virtually. 

But even a virtual meeting can’t solve all your problems. Employees can’t attend multiple meetings at the same time, for example. Getting the right folks together for a meeting can still prove to be a bottleneck for a project. 

With an increasingly varied workforce seeing a mixture of remote, in-office and frontline workers, the battle to keep everybody on the same page is on.

So a better solution is to conduct a meeting with the people who can attend, and record it for those who couldn’t. Then keep all these recordings in one place for anyone interested in catching up. 

Recording video of virtual meetings ensures that no one misses out on an important discussion, along with the visuals presented during the session.

8. Use polls and feed posts. 

Most company-wide communication is static, which means that workers simply consume the content by reading, listening, or watching.  

The opposite of that is interactive content. It’s a type of content that allows employees to engage and participate. 

Using interactive communication from time to time is another step you can take towards remote employee engagement by helping reduce the sense of isolation.

The interactive content could be as simple as a quick poll, a short employee survey, or social media type posts that allow workers to like, comment, and tag their team members. Luckily, all these features are an integral part of Blink.

9. Celebrate employee accomplishments. 

Employee Recognition can be implemented in many ways, but remote work makes it hard to carry them out. That’s why you need to put in the extra effort to celebrate contributions and achievements.  

An employee recognition program can increase remote employee engagement, productivity, and performance by 14%, according to Deloitte.

Here are some great ways to acknowledge and appreciate remote workers for their hard work:

• Giving regular greetings and check-ins on shared communication channels
• Conducting employee of the month programs
• Thanking workers during a web conferencing session 
• Acknowledging personal events such as birthdays and anniversaries
• Sending thoughtful notes or signed cards from managers and peers

All these activities help remote employee engagement by making workers feel valued. And contributing to everyone’s understanding of what’s happening in different teams and departments. This helps ensure the employee digital experience is a good one.

10. Understand feedback to make improvements. 

Most remote employees are hesitant to share feedback, because they’re worried about how it might be perceived. That’s why you need to invest in technology that will make it easier for your workers to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a safe environment. 

Digital tools like Blink offer anonymous feedback surveys, which help employees share their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment. You can use this feedback to modify processes and policies to ensure everyone is engaged and motivated. And this means productive employees.

By understanding the feedback, you’ll be able to make necessary improvements in areas like communication, collaboration, productivity, etc. By showing your virtual team that you value their input, you’ll be able to create a culture of engagement, trust and collaboration, fostering more engagement in future initiatives.

11. Make sure everyone is included in the conversation. 

Ensuring that everyone is included in the conversation is an important part of remote employee engagement. Since your workers don’t have the option to physically join meetings and work on projects, they can easily feel left out or ignored.

To make sure no one is ever excluded from a discussion, use employee engagement tools like Blink which come with features like audio-video conferencing, screen sharing and file/group chats.

These features allow your workers to interact with one another in a more meaningful way, making them feel included even when they’re not physically present. Employers should also take part in the conversation regularly, so that employees can understand their objectives and goals better as a team.

12. Provide ample opportunities for team members to network and connect remotely. 

When you’re working remotely or on the frontline, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your colleagues and the business in general. So it’s important that employers create the opportunity for employees to network with their peers - without the scrutiny of management’s presence.

Network building activities like virtual happy hours, ice breaker games and mini-conferences can help boost relationships between team members. Employee Resource Groups are also a great way to help the business towards ESG goals while fostering a safe place for under-represented employee groups. 

These activities will help your workers build relationships, foster trust, and empower the team to work better together, even when they’re not in the same physical space.

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A quick summary of best practices for remote employee engagement…

1. Keep remote meetings as short as possible. 
2. Make ‘social’ events structured. 
3. Host informal virtual all-hands. 
4. Say goodbye to email.
5. Create a remote working resources library. 
6. Make all org-wide updates digital.
7. Record all (important) meetings.
8. Use polls and feed posts.
9. Celebrate employee accomplishments.

Final thoughts

If you look at the above strategies carefully, you’ll realize that they all boil down to one simple thing — trying to give remote workers the same communication opportunities they would have had if they were working from an office. 

Remote or office-based – the best way to engage remote employees is by giving them a voice. After all, 46% of remote workers believe the best managers are the ones who check in – really frequently. 

Making time for employees’ thoughts and concerns, whether through informal small talk or structured feedback, is the golden thread that separates a good organization from a great one.

As long as you keep this basic principle in mind, you’ll not just find it easy to implement these remote employee engagement tactics, but also to generate your own ideas to engage remote workers. 

So, give them the opportunity to voice their needs without the added concern of reaching out at an inopportune moment, and see your remote employee engagement levels rise at a steady rate. 

And while you’re at it, remember that the right technology can make a world of difference. Blink is an internal communications tool that does everything your intranet does, but better. 

Request a free demo to get started.

Final thoughts: best practice for remote employee engagement

If you look at the above strategies carefully, you’ll realize that they all boil down to one simple thing — trying to give remote workers the same communication opportunities they would have had if they were working from an office. 

Remote or office-based – the best way to engage remote employees is by giving them a voice. After all, 46% of remote workers believe the best managers are the ones who check in – really frequently. 

Making time for employees’ thoughts and concerns, whether through informal small talk or structured feedback, is the golden thread that separates a good organization from a great one.

As long as you keep this basic principle in mind, you’ll not just find it easy to implement these remote employee engagement tactics, but also to generate your own ideas to engage remote workers. 

So, give them the opportunity to voice their needs without the added concern of reaching out at an inopportune moment, and see your remote employee engagement levels rise at a steady rate. 

And while you’re at it, remember that the right technology can make a world of difference. Blink is an internal communications tool that does everything your intranet does, but better. Request a free demo to get started.