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
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
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Unmotivated workers do the bare minimum. They can drag other team members down with them. They’re also more likely to be looking for a job elsewhere.
Given that only 23% of global employees feel engaged at work, improving employee motivation is a critical business priority. You need to employ strategies known to boost motivation and inspire better employee productivity.
In this article, we list a range of employee motivation ideas that will help you get the most from your workforce. We’ll be looking at the following:
Why is employee motivation important?
Key factors in employee motivation
12 ways to motivate employees
Using an employee super-app to create a motivated workforce
Why is employee motivation important?
Motivated employees tend to enjoy work. They have a sense of purpose and accomplishment. They also approach work with energy and drive.
But employee motivation isn’t just good for employees. It benefits your business, too. Here’s how:
Increased employee productivity. Motivated employees work harder. They’re more efficient and focused. They’re also more likely to take the initiative, going beyond their basic responsibilities.
Better quality of work. A motivated workforce doesn’t just produce more work. It produces better work. Workers are committed to quality. This results in fewer errors, fewer missed deadlines, and fewer workplace safety incidents.
Higher retention rate. Engaged employees are loyal to your organization. So they’re less likely to look for another job. With a motivated workforce, your organization experiences higher levels of employee retention and less absenteeism.
More profit. Gallup research on employee engagement shows that employee morale impacts a range of business outcomes. It leads to a 23% increase in profitability and a 10% increase in customer loyalty.
Key factors in employee motivation
There are two types of motivation — extrinsic and intrinsic.
Extrinsic motivation is all about the carrot and the stick. You create extrinsic motivation with external rewards and penalties. Rewards might include an employee’s salary, bonuses, rewards, and praise. Penalties might include a poor performance review or a manager reprimand.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within. Employees are motivated to do their best work because they find it personally rewarding. This type of motivation relies on drivers like interest, purpose, pride, and curiosity.
When you have high levels of employee engagement within a workplace, you tend to get high levels of intrinsic motivation. Employees feel invested in their work and the company. So they’re driven to bring their A-game without needing constant carrot-and-stick encouragement.
As an employer, it may seem that you have more control over extrinsic motivation. You can raise someone’s salary, provide bonuses, and praise a job well done. All of these things help to motivate an employee.
But the fact is, you can influence levels of intrinsic motivation, too. Here are some of the things that prompt intrinsic motivation in your employees.
Feeling valued
When employees feel you care about them, their wellbeing, and their lives beyond work, they’re more likely to bring their all. That means giving employee recognition where it’s due, treating people fairly, and valuing their input, too.
Making progress
Employees like to know where they’re heading — and where they’re at right now. That requires regular, positive feedback and constructive criticism. Training, development, and clear career pathing are also important.
A sense of purpose
Every job has its boring bits — the tasks that an employee is never going to be excited about doing. But when employees understand how their work contributes to organizational success and wider society, finding that motivation gets easier.
A positive company culture
Motivation is contagious. And it spreads more easily in organizations where there’s good communication and a sense of belonging. When they’re part of an open and supportive company culture, employees are more invested in company success.
The ideas we’ve included below incorporate all of the above. They also provide ways to inspire both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in your workforce.
12 ways to motivate employees
To motivate your employees, you need to:
Highlight values and purpose
Communicate transparently
Give employees the resources they need
Use the right technology
Provide opportunities for professional development
Develop employee career paths
Support employee wellbeing
Encourage teamwork and collaboration
Support employees to build workplace friendships
Recognize employee contributions
Ask employees for their thoughts and feedback
Treat everyone equitably
Highlight values and purpose
According to Gartner research, shared purpose is one of five primary things motivating employees to stay in their jobs right now. It helps them feel invested in their work and your organization.
Shared purpose helps employees feel part of something bigger than themselves. So work becomes about more than just a paycheck.
You can support purpose in the workplace, by crafting clear company values and communicating these values regularly.
Start during onboarding. Introduce new hires to your company’s vision, mission, and values from day one. Explain how their role contributes to your goals and social impact.
Be consistent. Regularly reinforce your company's vision and mission in all employee communications. Make purpose a recurring theme in meetings, updates, and internal messaging.
Build a values-based culture: Create an environment where company values are lived and breathed daily. Take concrete action based on your values. That way, employees are more likely to believe in them.
Communicate transparently
Employee communication is another important element of employee motivation. Open and transparent communication builds trust. And employees who get enough information to do their jobs well are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged.
But while 87% of business leaders think their internal communications are “highly effective”, only 63% of employees agree. So what does effective communication look like?
Effective communication is a two-way conversation, where both leaders and employees get to share ideas, concerns, and feedback. It’s keeping employees up-to-date with key company developments, and it’s ensuring that you have clear channels of communication to reach all employees.
For remote and frontline teams, this means choosing streamlined, digital communication channels. You need internal communication tools you can use to relay messages quickly and reliably, bypassing paper memos and an employee’s already overflowing email inbox.
Give employees the resources they need
Imagine you’re setting out on a long hike. You’re excited and determined to reach the endpoint.
But you’re given a pair of ill-fitting hiking boots to wear. And a mile or so into the walk, you realize that the map you’re following isn’t 100% accurate. You decide to call the hike organizer for directions. But the number’s engaged and you fail to get through.
It’s likely that at this point in the hike, your motivation has started to dip. You feel thwarted and discouraged. You’re tempted to turn back. What felt like a promising journey now feels like an uphill struggle.
That’s why it’s important to give employees the resources they need. They need the right tech, training, support, and information to do their jobs well. Without it, morale takes a hit.
Use the right technology
Technology is increasingly important to the employee experience. Done right, it makes life easier for employees. Done wrong, it causes friction and frustration, which harms employee motivation.
A concerning 83% of HR leaders say they don’t have the right technology at work. This is contributing to stress, burnout, and low morale. Similarly, only 10% of frontline workers say they have access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in the workplace.
All workers — those in the office, those working remotely, and those on your company’s front lines — need access to high-quality, user-friendly tech that makes their jobs easier, not harder.
That might mean using a mobile-first employee app to give frontline employees the resources and co-worker connection they crave. Or it might mean implementing a social intranet that supports workplace communication and collaboration.
You can also use tech tools that have a direct impact on employee motivation. Employee engagement tools help organizations to improve and track staff morale.
Provide opportunities for professional development
According to O.C. Tanner research, organizations have five times greater odds of achieving employee fulfillment when they support professional development. A comprehensive training program improves your workplace retention rate, too.
O.C. Tanner also found that organizations are more likely to make a success of skills-building initiatives when they:
Empower employees to make their own training decisions. Supporting employees to choose training paths that align with their career goals and interests improves engagement with the learning process.
Give employees time during work to complete training. Allocate dedicated time for training so employees don’t experience stress, trying to juggle learning with daily tasks and out-of-work responsibilities.
Provide or reimburse hobby classes as well as work-related learning. Reimbursement for hobby classes improves the odds that a skill-building program will improve retention by 119%.
Develop employee career paths
Training is important. But unless employees can put those newfound skills to use within your organization, they’re going to become frustrated. That’s why every employee should have a clear progression path within your organization.
Sit down with employees to find out where their ambitions lie. And — as we mentioned above — personalize a training program to support their career goals.
Also, try to be realistic and open with workers about when a promotion is likely. This will depend on their current skill set and your organizational needs. If an upward move isn’t available for the foreseeable, there are other things you can do to keep staff motivated.
A lateral move helps employees to develop skills in another area of the business. You give them a new challenge and support them to become well-rounded members of your organization.
Similarly, stretch assignments are a great way to grow employee skills. They encourage workers to move beyond their comfort zone, take on new responsibilities, and prepare for higher-level roles.
Support employee wellbeing
In its State of the Global Workplace Report for 2024, Gallup talks a lot about employee wellbeing. It reveals that to improve employee lives and organizational performance, employers need to do the following:
Make support for employee wellbeing visible and consistent
Assign employee wellbeing counselors or coaches
Emphasize wellbeing at work and in life
Go beyond physical health to provide mental health and holistic support
Employee wellbeing goes beyond the odd mindfulness session. It requires a company-wide approach and a real understanding of what your employees might be struggling with.
Starbucks is a great example. They’ve been helping employees with the astronomical cost of housing. They offer a Tenancy Deposit Loan Scheme that they’ve named Home Sweet Loan. Employees can access an interest-free loan to pay the rental deposit when moving into a new home.
Starbucks is making it easier for employees to find and secure housing. This is good for their baristas. But it’s good for business, too. Because when employees aren’t worried about the roof over their heads, they’re more motivated and focused at work.
Encourage teamwork and collaboration
A 2022 Corel report reveals that 41% of employees have left their jobs or would consider leaving their jobs due to poor collaboration at work.
Collaboration is a great way to engage employees. It helps to create a sense of belonging. It makes work more efficient because teams share knowledge and resources freely. Plus, employees motivate one another when they work together.
You can support collaboration by supporting employees to build positive workplace relationships (more on this in a moment). Praising teams, rather than individuals, for their successes is also a good idea.
For teams who work disparately, the right intranet or app is an important part of the puzzle. You need tools that support employees to collaborate in real-time and access shared resources.
Water cooler chat may feel like an unnecessary part of the work day. But giving employees the time, space, and, in some cases, the tech they need to develop workplace friendships is incredibly important to engagement.
Employees who feel that they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. And those with a best friend at work are more productive, happier to innovate, and happier to share ideas.
So schedule social events. Allow time at the beginning or end of meetings for informal conversation. If your team works remotely or you have frontline workers, be intentional about creating these opportunities for connection.
That might mean letting employees create shared interest groups on the company intranet. How about a book club? Or a running club? Maintaining a news feed where employees can post, comment, and like, helps remote and frontline workers to build connections, too.
Recognize employee contributions
Employee recognition and rewards are another important pillar of employee morale. When employees feel their hard work is appreciated, they’re more likely to maintain their motivation.
They’re also more likely to stay working for your company. According to recent Gallup and Workhuman research, a 10,000-person organization can save up to $16.1 million a year in reduced employee turnover costs by making recognition an important part of company culture.
Timely and relevant recognition from managers is essential. But peer-to-peer recognition can be just as valuable and it has a surprising benefit. 75% of employees say that giving recognition makes them want to stay at their current organization longer.
Blink’s employee recognition feature makes it easy to give every employee the appreciation they deserve. You can create personalized recognition posts in seconds. Then, share praise with the individual or publish it on the company news feed for everyone to see and celebrate.
If you want to offer employee rewards as part of your recognition program, be sure to find out what employees are excited by. You may think that cash bonuses and company merchandise are great incentives. But it may be that employees would prefer something else, like extra paid time off.
Employees are more motivated when they feel listened to. When an employer seeks their input and insight, it makes them feel valued, which contributes to employee morale.
Ask for employee input on key decisions. Taking everyone’s opinions into account when implementing change helps to ensure buy-in.
Also, get employee feedback on a range of issues, on a regular basis. Use surveys to ask workers about the employee experience, workplace satisfaction, or workplace rewards. Their answers will help you to develop a more motivating environment for employees going forward.
Just remember that feedback is a multi-stage process that requires effective communication. You need to:
Ask for employee feedback
Thank employees for their feedback
Tell employees what their feedback has revealed and what you plan to do about it
Keep employees in the loop, informing them how your plans are going
Closing the feedback loop like this keeps employees invested in the feedback process. It shows them that you’re really listening to what they have to say.
Treat everyone fairly and equitably
Fairness is crucial to employee motivation. When employees feel that they aren’t being treated fairly or equitably, motivation takes a dive.
So all employees must be given equal access to training and career progression opportunities. Everyone should have the option to give feedback and build workplace friendships. They should get the resources and recognition they need to feel valued.
Pay also comes into the equation. You can prevent resentment and employee churn by offering employees a fair salary. Conduct a pay equity audit. Also, regularly check to see how your wages match up with market trends and the cost of living.
But bear in mind that engaged employees look for a 31% pay increase to consider taking a job with another organization. So you don’t necessarily have to match competitors like-for-like if you provide non-monetary benefits and a company culture employees enjoy being part of.
Using an employee super-app to create a motivated workforce
Having the right tech on your team makes it easier to boost employee motivation.
An employee super-app is particularly useful for remote and frontline employees who may feel disconnected from motivators like co-worker support, feedback opportunities, and company resources.
An employee app helps you to create an equitable experience for all members of staff, no matter where they work. It also allows you to put motivation-boosting features into the palm of every employee’s hand.
Take a look at these employee app features, sure to improve employee motivation.
Social features
Social features like a company news feed help to include everyone in your company culture and support workplace connections.
A resource library
A resource library gives all employees, no matter where they work, access to essential workplace resources. You can populate your library with how-to guides, company policies, and FAQs.
Recognition features
Built-in recognition features make it easy to show appreciation for employees and encourage peer-to-peer recognition, too.
Survey tools
The best employee super apps make it easy for managers to request feedback — and for employees to provide it.
A digital hub
By integrating with all of the digitals you use, you can give employees access to professional development, wellbeing, and collaboration tools, all in the same place.
Effective communication
With a news feed, group messaging, and 1:1 chats, it’s easy for every member of your organization to take part in the company conversation and for leaders to amplify company culture.
Analytics
Analytics help you to track motivation and engagement. This allows you to make data-backed improvements to your engagement initiatives.
In summary
Find ways to motivate your employees and you create a happier, more engaged, more productive workforce. You improve employee loyalty and talent retention. You also achieve better business results.
There are lots of different things you can do to motivate your workforce. But all actions center around four key pillars:
Help employees find meaning in their work
Show employees that you value them as people as well as workers
Support employees to make progress in their careers
Build a positive company culture
It’s easier to do all these things when you have the right tech tools. An employee super-app brings your organization together and helps you establish a positive company culture.
It also gives employees all the communication, resources, and digital tools they need to excel in their roles. They experience more flow and less friction, which makes for improved employee motivation.
KC has been with Arriva North West and Wales since 2023. A well-loved character at the Speke Bus Depot, he is an extrovert and gregarious. In his own words: “I love social interaction because it brings me enjoyment. I love meeting new people and feel energized at big social events.”
This is why bus driving matches him perfectly. Unsurprisingly, what he loves most about his role is meeting new passengers and learning something about them. He practices his faith as often as possible, and his gratitude and positive attitude is contagious: “I feel blessed and always like to give thanks.”
Alongside the people, he also enjoys discovering new routes and the challenge of learning them. Most of all, community is at his heart, saying that bus driving “makes me feel like I can make a difference in my local community… I just like driving buses as they make many people happy when you get it right.”
According to Mark Brack, the Site Manager: “He has been a breath of fresh air in our Speke depot and has thrown himself into a number of roles to help improve engagement and the performance of the depot, including being our Blink and Employee Survey Champion. It’s great to see him recognized.”
Nominated by: Lee Coleman, Head of Communications and Engagement
For many organizations, internal communication starts with email.
But for frontline workers — the people in stores, on factory floors, in hospitals, or behind the wheel — email often isn’t part of the job at all.
That creates a major challenge for internal communications teams trying to keep everyone informed, engaged, and aligned.
“When you’re trying to connect and engage your frontline workforce, email often isn’t an option. But that doesn’t mean those employees should be disconnected from your organization.”
The reality is that millions of frontline employees operate without a corporate email address or digital identity. But organizations that successfully close this communication gap unlock better engagement, stronger culture, and more efficient operations.
Here are five practical ways to make it happen.
#1. Start by reframing the problem
Before implementing any new technology, it’s important to understand the underlying challenge.
For many organizations, the issue isn’t simply a lack of email accounts — it’s the absence of a digital connection to the frontline workforce.
That disconnect creates real operational challenges, from missed updates to fragmented communication channels.
“You’re trying to connect your frontline employees to the organization’s culture, engage them in two-way communication, and support them in their day-to-day work. But in order to do that, you first have to solve the connection problem.”
When employees aren’t digitally connected, organizations often rely on patchwork solutions like:
Posters or printed memos
Bulletin boards
Informal messaging apps
Word-of-mouth communication
The result? Messages don’t reach everyone — and leadership has little visibility into what employees actually see.
#2. Focus on connection first — engagement comes next
Organizations often jump straight to engagement initiatives. But without a reliable way to reach employees digitally, engagement efforts struggle.
The first step is establishing a simple, scalable way for frontline workers to access company communications and tools.
Once that digital connection exists, organizations can begin delivering real value — such as:
Real-time updates
Feedback channels
Self-service tools
Access to knowledge and resources
That foundation enables frontline teams to become part of the broader employee experience rather than operating outside of it.
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#3. Meet employees where they already are: mobile
Frontline employees may not have email — but most do have smartphones.
That’s why many organizations are shifting toward mobile-first communication strategies.
Instead of requiring workers to log into shared desktops or check bulletin boards, mobile platforms deliver information directly to the devices employees already use every day.
Mobile-first communication enables teams to:
Send targeted updates to specific locations or roles
Deliver push notifications for urgent updates
Share short-form content employees actually engage with
Enable quick feedback or responses
For frontline workers, this often feels far more intuitive than traditional intranet systems.
“When we look to modernize the frontline experience, we want to deliver it where employees are, when they’re there. For most organizations, that means mobile.”
#4. Make communication simple and familiar
Another key lesson from organizations successfully connecting their frontline workforce: Simplicity drives adoption.
If a communication platform feels overly complex or corporate, employees are far less likely to use it.
Instead, many companies are embracing experiences that feel closer to the social platforms employees already use in their personal lives.
Features that drive engagement include:
Social-style feeds
Short updates or “stories”
Peer recognition
Comments and reactions
Simple polls or surveys
When communication tools feel familiar, adoption often follows naturally.
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#5. Solve identity and access challenges creatively
One of the biggest concerns for IT teams is authentication.
If employees don’t have corporate email accounts, how do they securely access workplace tools?
Modern employee experience platforms increasingly support alternative authentication methods, such as:
SMS-based login codes
QR-code onboarding
One-time passcodes
Mobile-number authentication
These approaches make it possible to provide secure access without requiring full corporate email provisioning.
Even when employees don’t have email addresses or corporate identities, modern communication platforms like Blink offer multiple ways for employees to securely access the platform — from one-time passcodes to QR-based activation.
This flexibility helps IT teams maintain security while still reaching every employee.
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The bigger opportunity: A digital front door for the frontline
Once organizations establish a digital connection with frontline workers, the possibilities expand quickly.
Communication platforms can evolve into a centralized access point for workplace tools and information — what many organizations now refer to as a digital front door.
This approach allows employees to access:
HR systems like Workday or SAP SuccessFactors
Learning and training platforms
Schedules and shift tools
Policies and operational guidance
Secure team messaging
By deploying a digital front door for the organization, leaders can bring together tools that might otherwise be fragmented into one seamless experience.
For IT teams, that consolidation reduces tool sprawl.
For employees, it dramatically simplifies their day-to-day experience.
“The first step is setting the intention. Why is it important to connect these employees — and what value will it bring to the organization?”
Closing the frontline communication gap
Organizations across industries are realizing that frontline workers can’t be an afterthought in the digital workplace.
But connecting these employees requires different strategies than traditional office-based communication.
From there, success often comes down to three things:
Solving the connection challenge
Involving HR, IT, operations, and communications early
Building a clear business case for the investment
When done right, connecting the frontline doesn’t just improve communication — it strengthens culture, boosts engagement, and unlocks better business outcomes.
Exploring alternatives to Beekeeper? You’re not alone.
Since Beekeeper was acquired by LumApps last year, there’s been uncertainty over the future of the platform.
The stated intention? To blend the features of Beekeeper and LumApps tools. But what this means for users during the transformation process (and beyond) is still to be seen.
That’s why some organizations are viewing this as the perfect opportunity to move away from Beekeeper and find a new employee communication app. A more intuitive and scalable platform — a solution with more customization options, better search functionality, and an improved backend experience for admins.
We’re here to help — with a shortlist of 11 Beekeeper alternatives for 2026.
From modern intranets to all-in-one employee experience (EX) platforms, these software tools can help you improve internal comms, unify dispersed teams, and upgrade digital employee experience.
Features include real-time messaging, content management, social news feeds, and analytics. You can also expect robust integrations that ensure a streamlined and productivity-boosting experience for employees.
Ready to find your Beekeeper alternative? Take a look at the best employee communication platforms for 2026, along with their pros and cons.
Best for: Companies with frontline and desk-based workers looking for unified communication, engagement, and operations.
Blink is the leading alternative to Beekeeper. It’s an employee experience platform that combines communication, engagement, and productivity tools in one easy-to-use app.
These tools are available via one unified dashboard, which — crucially — contains exactly the same features and functionality across both desktop and mobile devices.
As a joined-up solution, Blink drives engagement and transparency while reducing noise and tool overwhelm. Its intuitive UX, rapid deployment, deep integrations, and enterprise-grade security make it ideal for large-scale organizations across industries.
And you don’t need to take our word for it. Blink customers — including McDonald’s, JD Group, Children’s of Alabama, and Go North West — report high app adoption rates and measurable improvements in employee engagement, retention, and operational efficiency.
Pros:
All-in-one platform for two-way communication, resources, and operations
A social-style news feed, co-worker communities, surveys, and recognition tools
Intuitive mobile-first design with high employee adoption
Integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Workday, ADP, and more
Includes analytics, AI automation, and broadcast tools
Trusted by global brands including McDonald’s, JD Group, and Domino’s
Cons:
Enterprise plan required for advanced customizations
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#2. Staffbase
Best for: Large or global enterprises with formal comms teams
Staffbase is a popular internal communication platform that caters primarily to enterprise businesses — those with complex communication needs across multiple regions. It provides branded employee apps, newsletters, and intranet tools and places a strong emphasis on content distribution and corporate messaging.
While its visual editor and content scheduling features are a plus, some users find the platform content-heavy. Its pricing model is geared towards larger organizations, and the platform may take a while to configure and fully roll out.
Pros: Strong branded experiences
Cons: More focused on top-down messaging than interactivity
#3. Workvivo
Best for: Large, multilingual organizations
Workvivo blends communication features with a social media-style interface. It allows employees to post updates, engage with leadership, and access key resources in one space. Workvivo excels at driving culture and engagement, especially in hybrid or dispersed workplaces.
The platform is backed by Zoom and integrates with major HR and collaboration tools. But there are a few downsides to bear in mind. Workvivo can be hard to customize when it comes to operational use cases like task management or process automation.
Pros: Highly engaging UI, good for culture-building
Cons: Limited operational features compared to all-in-one platforms
#4. Simpplr
Best for: Companies looking for a modern intranet and a centralized knowledge hub
Simpplr positions itself as a modern intranet with a focus on employee communications and engagement. It provides a clean UI, AI-powered content recommendations, and analytics to help internal comms teams measure impact.
It’s especially effective in large enterprises with a high proportion of knowledge workers. Smaller organizations may find that some features are unnecessary and that prices are higher than budgets allow.
Pros: Streamlined UI and good customer support
Cons: Limited customization options
#5. Firstup
Best for: Global enterprises looking for advanced audience targeting and automated message delivery
Firstup is a digital employee experience platform designed to deliver personalized content at scale. It focuses on intelligent content delivery, helping large enterprises reach the right people with the right message at the right time.
With AI-powered targeting, automated employee journeys, and email tools, Firstup works well for complex internal comms strategies. However, the platform is heavily focused on broadcast and campaign-style messaging, with limited collaboration features.
Best for: Large and complex organizations looking for an AI-native intranet
Unily is a platform that combines intranet functionality with employee experience tools. It supports rich content creation, content translation, and broadcast email across a user-friendly interface.
Unily is often praised for its design flexibility and advanced features, but it takes time and developer expertise to set up. This Beekeeper alternative is best suited to companies with dedicated IT and comms teams.
Pros: Powerful and customizable
Cons: A steep learning curve; a time-consuming setup process
#7. Microsoft Viva
Best for: Microsoft-centric organizations looking to improve employee experience
Microsoft Viva is a suite of employee experience tools within Microsoft 365. It includes modules for insights, learning, and communications, and it’s a strong choice for knowledge-worker companies already using the Microsoft ecosystem.
As you’d expect, Microsoft Viva integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, including Outlook and SharePoint. But it can be overly complex — and overly corporate for those wanting to develop a dynamic company culture.
Pros: Deep integration with Microsoft 365
Cons: Can feel fragmented; requires additional configuration
#8. Haiilo
Best for: Culture building, employee advocacy, and brand amplification
Haiilo is another Beekeeper alternative that provides employee communication and intranet capabilities. It features multiple communication channels, plus tools to amplify employer branding and build a more connected culture.
Despite the platform’s strengths, some users state that it’s overly complex, particularly for smaller businesses and less tech-savvy teams.
Pros: Great for advocacy and culture building
Cons: A complex tool with a steep learning curve; expensive for smaller companies
#9. Happeo
Best for: Google-centric organizations
Happeo is a Google-based, AI-powered intranet that acts as a centralized hub for all internal comms. It puts company news, documents, and collaboration tools in one easy-access location.
Key features include pages, channels, a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, and an intuitive user interface. But this platform lacks several useful communication tools — like direct messages, audio and video messages, and @mentions.
Pros: Easy and intuitive interface; easy integration with Google Workspace
Cons: Limited integrations beyond the Google suite; limited search functionality
#10. MangoApps
Best for: Mid-sized businesses seeking to connect dispersed teams
MangoApps provides a unified platform for communication, collaboration, and HR workflows. Key features include instant messaging, file sharing, task tracking, and employee recognition.
Users praise the platform’s ease of use but complain that the user interface — particularly on the platform’s mobile app — feels outdated compared to more modern tech tools.
Pros: Comprehensive comms features in one place
Cons: Less intuitive UI compared to newer competitors; integrations are limited
#11. Speakap
Best for: Frontline-only teams
Speakap is a communication app built for non-desk workers. It focuses on reaching employees who don’t have a corporate email or regular access to company systems. The app supports secure messaging, announcements, and integrations with payroll or scheduling tools.
Speakap is a good fit for retail or hospitality environments but offers fewer features for knowledge-based collaboration or enterprise-scale analytics.
Pros: Tailored for frontline teams
Cons: Limited scalability for enterprise-level requirements; limited team messaging functionality
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Which Beekeeper alternative is right for your organization?
The right Beekeeper alternative will depend on your organization's size, structure, and goals. But if you're looking for a platform that goes beyond messaging to deliver a truly unified employee experience, Blink stands out as a top choice.
Blink meets the needs of both frontline and desk-based teams, by bringing communication, collaboration, and productivity tools into a centralized, mobile-first hub.
With social-media-style comms tools, a consumer-grade smartphone app, and proven impact on employee engagement, it has everything you need to improve internal comms and employee experience.
Other tools on this list each offer value in specific areas — from top-down communication to culture-building to knowledge management — but Blink leads the way as a complete, scalable solution for internal comms and employee experience in 2026.
Most frontline workers who quit don’t do it on day one.
And they don’t do it at the one-year mark, either. They do it somewhere around Day 90.
When you look at what’s happening — or not happening — between weeks two and twelve, it’s not hard to see why.
Frontline employees are caught in a hinterland. A place after induction and before real engagement kicks in, where the comms, connection, and support they need are nowhere to be found.
So what can you do to reduce employee churn once and for all? How do you persuade this group of employees to stick with you for the long haul?
Here, we take a look at why the 90-day milestone matters so much in frontline retention — and what a better frontline onboarding strategy can do for your organization.
The data behind the 90-day cliff edge
The figures are stark. A third of the HR pros responding to Enboarder’s 2025 HR Leader survey said that 25% of new employees leave during their first 90 days.
For frontline organizations, the picture is even more acute.
Turnover rates in frontline industries are consistently among the highest across all employment sectors — and 56% of organizations are currently experiencing frontline worker turnover at a higher rate than the historical average.
This frontline churn comes at a considerable cost. If we look at the example of grocery retail, frontline turnover absorbs as much as 10-20% of profits.
High frontline turnover results in lower service levels, lower productivity, higher training costs, and increased demands on management. It also keeps recruitment at the top of the strategic agenda, crowding out other priorities.
Why is Day 90 such a precarious time?
Day 90 is when new hire energy wears off and the reality of the role sets in. It’s when the gap between what was promised during recruitment and what’s actually experienced becomes impossible to ignore.
It’s also — critically — the point at which most organizations have stopped formally onboarding but haven’t yet started actively retaining. So frontline employee engagement takes a hit that it can be hard to recover from.
What frontline workers are telling us
Wondering why frontline employees quit? When frontline workers leave around the three-month mark, the reasons they give cluster around the same themes.
A two-tier culture
Almost half of frontline workers report that there are two separate cultures at play within their organizations — one for the frontline and one for everyone else.
That perception is compounded by a clear digital gap. Frontline workers receive just 1% of their companies’ total technology budget, leaving them with ineffective paper-based processes or software that doesn’t work on a smartphone.
The divide between desk-based and frontline experience is very real, very visible, and — for many — a deciding factor in whether to stay.
Feeling invisible
Only 43% of deskless workers feel seen and appreciated at work, compared with 61% of desk-based employees. A lack of recognition hits hard in the early months, when new hires are most in need of reassurance.
Frontline workers also struggle to make their voices heard. 38% say they have feedback for leadership or management, but no way of communicating it.
Feeling out of the loop
When new frontline workers don’t have reliable access to company updates, policy changes, or operational information, they feel disconnected from the organization and unable to do their jobs well.
Employees with strong workplace relationships are 51% more likely to be engaged. But shift-based work can be isolating.
New starters may work alongside different colleagues every day, have limited face time with their manager, and no easy channel to build relationships beyond their immediate shift.
Without deliberate effort to create connection, the social fabric that makes work worth showing up for simply doesn’t form.
Yet 64% of frontline employees say they would stay with their organizations for six years or more if they had access to better career development and training.
The appetite for growth is there, right from the start, but the pathway often isn’t.
The onboarding illusion: What companies are getting wrong
You’ve invested time and money in your frontline onboarding strategy. So why isn’t this moving the needle on new hire turnover?
The answer may lie not in the quality of your employee onboarding program, but in the length. In most frontline organizations, structured onboarding takes place in the first week or two. It’s thorough, well-intentioned. But it ends far too early.
A strong first week doesn’t prevent an exit at the three-month mark. That’s because there’s a significant gap between structured onboarding and what actually happens when a new worker hits the floor solo.
By week three or four, new-hire support has often evaporated. The questions keep coming — but now there’s no clear channel for asking them. Connection to the wider organization fades. The sense of momentum and progress, so strong in week one, starts to plateau.
That’s when employees start to question things. Is this worth it? Does this organization actually care whether I stay? Maybe there’s something better out there…
What the 90-day window actually needs: How to reduce employee churn
That means creating an onboarding strategy that doesn't end at week two, but continues to inform, connect, and support new workers long after they hit their stride.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Consistent communications
New frontline workers need to feel like they’re part of something bigger. That means regular, relevant updates that keep them informed about what’s happening in the organization — delivered to their smartphone, not to a desktop intranet they’ll never log into.
The goal is to make a new hire feel like an insider, not an afterthought — and to give them the frontline communications that make their work easier.
Peer community
One of the most powerful retention boosters in frontline work is strong relationships and collaboration with co-workers.
When new workers have a channel to connect with their team — beyond whoever happens to be on the same shift — belonging develops faster. Internal communities, group chats, and shared spaces for non-work conversation all contribute to that vital social infrastructure.
A way to ask questions without feeling stupid
New starters have lots of questions. Many of them don’t ask, because they don’t want to look like they’re struggling or don’t know what they’re doing.
A searchable knowledge hub — policies, procedures, and FAQs findable in seconds from a smartphone — removes that barrier. So does self-serve access to shift swapping, payslips, and benefits enrolment.
Employees who can find answers independently feel more capable and confident.
Visibility into what comes next
New hires who can see a trajectory within the organization are significantly more likely to be there beyond 90 days.
Regular check-ins, clearly communicated development opportunities, and recognition of early progress all signal that the organization is invested in the individual, not just the role they’re filling.
The solution? A well-designed employee experience software platform makes all the above possible. It allows you to deliver structured onboarding content at the right moment in the employee lifecycle — and to fill the day with culture and community-building touchpoints.
Time to rethink your frontline onboarding strategy?
There’s a temptation in high-turnover environments to pull back on investment in the frontline employee experience. Why put significant resources into someone who might leave in three months?
It’s a reasonable question. But fail to consider frontline EX and you end up stuck in a cycle of attrition (and associated costs) that’s impossible to escape.
The frontline organizations reducing employee churn are those making the first 90 days — not just the first few weeks — feel like the beginning of something worth sticking around for.
That means extending the onboarding process beyond the induction checklist, giving new workers the tools to stay connected and informed, and building the peer relationships that make a job feel more than a job.
A mobile-first frontline platform like Blink keeps deskless workers connected from day one — through structured onboarding journeys, communications that reach every employee, recognition and survey tools, and co-worker communities.
With everything available from one user-friendly dashboard, new hires have everything they need to hit the ground running — and build a long-lasting connection to your organization.
HR and employee engagement conferences are more than educational forums for people management insights (although that’s absolutely one of the benefits of attending these events). They are also a gateway to exciting, lucrative networking opportunities — it’s no wonder that huge businesses are built on running conferences for HR and people leaders.
Which employee engagement and HR conferences are best for you to attend in 2023? We’ve put together a list of the events worth your time and the speakers you should be lining up to hear from.
The importance of employee engagement conferences
Every organization strives to engage its workforce, making employee engagement investments and running employee engagement programs. And yet, the latest surveys illustrate that 79% of employees don't feel engaged at work meaning that we’ve still got work to do.
Disengagement is widespread — particularly when it comes to frontline employee engagement — and every business can take bold steps to improve.
Employee engagement is about inspiring your staff to be the best version of themselves. It requires a proactive attitude, one that picks employees up and motivates them to find their feet and climb higher.
But the opportunity to engage employees can only be achieved by seeking out the tried and tested advice of experts. And that’s where employee engagement conferences come in.
What's the link between employee experience and employee engagement?
This is a topic we see come up a lot, but there’s an easy way to remember where employee engagement fits within employee experience.
Employee engagement is the target you're trying to hit and employee experience is the means to get you there.
Employee experience covers everything an individual sees, hears, feels, and believes while at work. It’s made up of countless interactions (or ‘moments that matter’) across the employee lifecycle, from the initial onboarding process to daily tools and responsibilities. Employee engagement, on the other hand, is how demonstrably committed a worker is to their role and your organization.
What are the 4 Cs and 3 Es of employee engagement?
Driving employee engagement is easier when you have a simple guide to follow. Here are the seven key points that will take center stage at employee engagement conferences in 2023:
Contribution - employees need to feel they have an active role to play in your company and that their work is making a notable impact
Connection - whether working remotely, on-site, or on the frontline, it's important to avoid working in silos by forging meaningful relationships with co-workers
Communication - having a management team that’s accessible and approachable offers employees the means by which to speak up and take part
Confidence - members of staff need certainty in their role, to allow them to perform to the highest of their abilities, without worrying about the health of the company or if their job is at risk
Empowerment - instilling employees with a sense of trust and authority gives them the motivation to go that extra mile
Enablement - in order to improve productivity, every employee needs to have the right tool for the job, so ensure their technology needs are met
The challenges and benefits of frontline employee engagement
Frontline employee engagement challenges
When it comes to frontline employees, there are several unique challenges to consider. And all too often courses, articles, and guides don't feel as relevant or relatable — as if they've been written with one (office-based) employee model in mind.
Frontline workers feel disengagement more acutely than most other professions. For one, there’s the disconnection inherent in their line of work, separating them from their co-workers and the wider organization. This deals a heavy blow to morale and productivity in the process.
The trick is to find an employee engagement solution that suits the frontline’s needs and requirements. It should speak to their inconsistent sense of belonging with the company and offer clear development to help employees build careers with your organization, rather than ‘just jobs’.
This goes beyond empty investments and initiatives. Frontline employees want to feel listened to, recognized, and included in strategies that directly affect them, rather than being an afterthought.
Frontline employee engagement benefits
The truth is, we all know the benefits of an increase in engagement. Employees that are committed, motivated, and engaged at work deliver more and perform better — and that means your bottom line improves across each and every level of your organization.
Absenteeism and health and safety incidents fall significantly and employee turnover plummets as staff engagement soars. With this, your competitiveness in the industry and attractiveness to prospective new hires is solidified. For CHROs, this is what makes the job feel great and it's understandable to see why employee engagement conferences are so appealing.
Learn more about how frontline organizations can improve employee experience and engagement through Blink’s customer case studies.
11 must-see HR and employee engagement conferences for 2023
Priding themselves on securing top industry names, you can expect to see representatives from Amazon, Deloitte, Capital One, UPS, Microsoft, and many others, all sharing their invaluable talent management insights.
With a strong focus on HR tech, UNLEASH is the ideal opportunity to explore how technology is changing the future of work across all industries — and the investments you can make to elevate efficiency. It's a must for those in HR and employee engagement.
This convention is not to be missed. One of the biggest of its kind, the CIPD Festival of Work boasts an impressive roster of guests. Organizations with frontline workers will be particularly interested in hearing from Danny Mortimer, CEO of NHS Employers, Tunde Agoro, Head of ESG at Hydrock, Fiona Brunskill, Chief People Officer of Transport for London, and Toby Culshaw, Global Head of Talent Intelligence at Amazon.
And for that specific focus on employee engagement, CIPD has two keynotes lined up: ‘Maintaining engagement through periods of change’ and ‘Employee listening — the key to retention and employee engagement’.
Energetic, vibrant, and fun — SHRM's annual conferences are well-known in the HR world. SHRM’s mission is to offer the widest possible reach with its events, covering ways to improve every facet of working life.
This gathering of industry professionals from all walks of life guarantees that every organization has something to gain from the expansive four-day HR conference.
HR Summit is the UK’s home for HR networking. Understanding that your time is precious, their goal is to pair you up with professionals that can answer the burning questions you have and provide the solutions you need.
They achieve this by organizing pre-arranged, face-to-face meetings between delegates and key industry suppliers. The event also features an array of cutting-edge technology, as well as HR products and services, all presented without a pushy hard sell.
Technology is a main talking point at many HR conferences. The tools we use to manage staff and improve business practices are growing exponentially — and HR Vision dives into the tech that’ll revolutionize your workflows.
The aim of this HR conference is to empower your workforce with the right HR technology and connect People leaders to an impressive set of speakers. Look out for Brady Pyle, Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer at NASA, Stephen Pierce, Deputy MD and CHRO of Hitachi Europe, and Cath Possamai, CEO of Recruiting Group, British Army, and other big names on the HR Vision agenda.
The idea of a sprawling event can feel overwhelming for those new to the employee engagement conference scene. Thankfully, there are more intimate options, such as Canada's Western Cities HR Conference 2023.
This event is made up of personal interactions with like-minded professionals and is designed to help managers gain a better understanding of their employees’ challenges. And with a focus on improving employee experience to drive employee engagement, this year's Western Cities HR Conference may be the best option for those looking to dip their toe into the HR conference experience.
Delivering the best HR tech on the market is what a lot of HR conferences pride themselves on. But for companies looking ahead to the horizon, they want to know what the next leap is, several years down the line — and how they can get in on the action early.
For those businesses, HR Technology Conference & Expo is where it's at. The organizers certainly know that having your finger on the pulse and investing in HR technology is a reliable way to improve your company’s HR standing.
Gartner ReimagineHR Conference
Date: September 11-12, 2023, October 23-25, 2023, and December 4-5, 2023
Location: London, UK, Orlando, USA, and Sydney, Australia
While still too far away for an agenda to have been published, we’re expecting more top-quality content from Gartner’s ReimagineHR Conference in 2023. Attendees of this employee engagement conference will learn how to tackle pressing issues within talent management, such as attrition, while keeping one eye on what’s coming further down the line.
What's more, this is a great opportunity to explore leadership development, culture building, and improved strategic decision-making — all to help your business operate at its highest possible level.
Date: September 26-29, 2023 and November 14-16, 2023
Location: San Francisco, USA and Barcelona, Spain
Ticket price: TBD
Workday’s online employee engagement content was available until April 2023 and it’s bringing the in-person experience to San Francisco and Barcelo towards the end of the year.
With a rallying cry of “It’s time to rise”, Workday Rising’s conference content is always inspiring — and helps deliver more than a few of those employee engagement 4 Cs and 3 Es. It’s energizing and empowering, designed to enable People leaders to excel in their roles. You’ll also connect with fellow leaders and gain greater confidence in the work that you do.
How to get the most from an employee engagement conference
With so many options in mind, having a clear game plan will result in the best takeaways and ROI from your experience. Here's what you should focus on:
Research and planning
What are the particular challenges your organization is facing? Will improving retention have the most impact or do you need to create a culture of communication? Understanding where you’re at today and where you want to be in the future is a great way to prepare for employee engagement conference season.
While it might not look like it on the surface, each HR conference will have its own niche angle. Research the speakers, investigate the talking points, and read reviews of how engaging and effective their output is. What you want to see are the success stories, so you can become one too.
Organize your time
HR conferences are designed to wow you. There are multiple stands, panels, and events that will draw your attention, but having a clear itinerary will keep you on track. Keep the exact timings and locations of must-see sessions marked down to avoid disappointment. But don't overload yourself either. Make sure you schedule breaks and allow for chance encounters, too.
Network before, during, and after
Speaking of encounters… The best thing about employee engagement conferences is that you’re with like-minded professionals. Hunt down the group chats or hashtags on sites like LinkedIn to build those connections in advance, then make time in your schedule to introduce yourself in person.
And, perhaps most importantly, keep the fire burning. Maintain momentum and keep in touch to convert that conference acquaintance into a strong business connection.
This is particularly important for HR leaders from frontline organizations. As we know, there are very few conferences that cater specifically to the frontline employee engagement challenges, so use the events listed above to find your allies. You can support each other from there!
Meet Blink at an employee engagement conference near you
Here at Blink, we don't just talk about HR conferences — we attend them too. Take a look at the exciting employee engagement conferences we'll be attending this year. And whether this is your first time or you're a seasoned pro, come and say hello.
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