Employee journey maps: 5 expert tips

Meet Lewis Tran, London-based Senior Front-End Engineer and one of the creative forces bringing Blink’s user experience to life.

Just over two years ago, Lewis joined the team with a passion for building intuitive, impactful products. Since then, he’s been at the forefront of developing features that land directly in the hands of our users — shaping the way thousands of frontline employees connect, communicate, and get work done.

We sat down with Lewis to talk about innovation, problem-solving, and what it’s like to craft products that make a real difference every day. Let’s dive in.

#1. What is your Blink background?

I am a Senior Front-end Engineer working out of the London office. I have been at Blink just about over 2 years.

#2. What initially attracted you to join Blink?

Initially, I didn’t know much about Blink. But I’d worked at a startup before and knew I wanted to be in a fast-paced environment again. It wasn’t until I started interviewing that I got to learn more about what Blink does and get a taste of the product. It was easy to see the potential of Blink platform, and as a front-end engineer who loves building product, I was excited to explore those opportunities.

#3. What’s a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?

One project I’m especially proud of isn’t the biggest or flashiest, but it means a lot to me — an AI feature we built that started from an internal hackathon. About a year ago, we held an AI hackathon where people pitched ideas for using AI internally or in the product. I designed a prototype for a feed post summary tool, where you could select multiple posts and quickly generate summaries with links back to the originals. The idea was to make it easier to highlight key content in busy feeds.

The day after I presented it, Lauren reached out to ask if we could actually build it into the product. At that point, it was just a prototype, but we developed it further, integrated it into the app, and eventually launched it as part of our Blink Assist AI feature. Going from idea to a released product in just a few weeks was a great experience.

#4. How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?

Passionate, dynamic, and supportive.

Everyone here is excited about building a great product and solving real problems. There’s never a dull day, and while challenges come up, people are always ready to help each other out. That level of support makes Blink a really great place to work.

#5. What’s one thing you’re excited about for the future of Blink?

There’s still so much untapped potential in the employee communications space. Our customers face real challenges, and we have the opportunity to solve them in ways that make a genuine difference to employees’ lives. As an engineer, that’s incredibly exciting — designing solutions, speaking with customers, and creating tools that have a tangible impact on companies and their people.

#6. Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?

We have an internal initiative called Adopt a Customer, which has been running since the beginning of the year. Once a week, someone at Blink presents one of the companies using our platform. It’s a great way to see the variety of organizations we work with — from large logistics companies to small gyms — and to understand the broad impact Blink has.

I might be biased, but I’m especially excited to present my adopted customer. They’re a fantastic company, and I think everyone at Blink should hear about them and learn how they’re using the product.

#7. Why do you work for Blink?

For me, it’s about solving interesting problems every day — problems that have a real impact on people’s lives. That’s a unique and privileged position to be in. As an engineer, you don’t always get to work on something you believe in or feel passionate about, but at Blink, the mission and the product are perfectly aligned for me.

That combination makes me want to keep building the best product possible and finding solutions to the challenges our customers face. It’s exciting, meaningful work — and Blink is the perfect place for that.

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Every week is EMS Week at Blink — because we care, too

EMS Week may be over, but at Blink, our appreciation for emergency medical professionals doesn’t end with the calendar. For us, recognizing the lifesaving work of EMTs, paramedics, and staff isn’t a once-a-year gesture — it’s a year-round commitment grounded in care.

This year’s EMS Week theme, “We care for everyone,” says it best. EMS teams are there for all of us — and it’s our job to be there for them.

Behind every siren is a team that deserves support

The reality of working in emergency medical services is demanding on every level. Long hours, unpredictable situations, and high-stakes decisions are just part of the job. And for EMS professionals, that job never really stops — holidays, weekends, middle-of-the-night calls.

It’s a role that requires not just skill and courage, but constant coordination, communication, and clarity. And that’s where Blink comes in.

Caring for others starts with caring for your team. That’s why Blink is designed to meet the needs of EMS professionals — not just as employees, but as people.

At Blink, we’re proud to serve thousands of paramedics, EMTs, and staff across some of the country’s largest EMS organizations.

Assisting EMS behind the scenes

We’re proud to work with EMS organizations across the country — from city ambulance services to rural responder units — to help their teams stay connected, informed, and empowered, no matter where the job takes them.

Whether they’re responding to an emergency or prepping for the next shift, EMS workers need tools that work as hard as they do.

With Blink, EMS organizations can:

• Send real-time updates about protocols, routes, or equipment changes
• Deliver training resources straight to mobile devices
• Coordinate shifts and crews with better visibility and fewer delays
• Recognize outstanding work with peer-to-peer shoutouts and leadership messages
• Give employees a voice with surveys, feedback tools, and two-way communication
• Foster connection between teams that rarely see each other face-to-face

Poor communication is the #1 most common stressor for EMS workers (BMC Emergency Medicine)

Built for the field — not just the office

EMS professionals don’t spend their days behind a desk. So why rely on systems that expect them to?

Blink is a mobile-first employee experience platform, built for people whose work happens on the move. We make it easier for EMS leaders to reach every team member — from the newest trainee to the most experienced paramedic — and equip them with the information they need, when they need it.

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Our commitment: Always on

EMS professionals care for everyone with every call they answer. At Blink, we believe the same care should be extended to them — through tools that reduce friction, strengthen connection, and show that their work and well-being truly matter.

We believe EMS teams deserve more than recognition during one week of the year. They deserve better tools, better communication, and better connection — every week.

To all the EMS professionals working tirelessly behind the scenes and on the frontlines: thank you. We see you, we support you, and we’re committed to building technology that helps you do what you do best — saving lives.

Blink. And keep your EMS teams stay connected — every hour, every shift, every week.

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IM Flash Technologies, a semiconductor factory with a large frontline workforce, was struggling with its worst turnover in decades.

As a last resort, they turned to employee engagement surveys.

Senior leaders spent the next year collecting insights and making the changes their employees asked for.

By the next year, they'd reduced turnover by 50%.

Clear, actionable data is the key to making informed decisions about your workplace culture and internal communications: the good, the bad – and the ugly.

And what’s your best bet to get this data? Extract it straight from the source: your people.

Senior managers have been using the trusty annual employee engagement survey for the past 30+ to ask workers how they really feel.

And fair enough. When done right, an annual employee survey can get you some solid insights. But it’s not going to cut it in today’s world. At least not on its own.  

In this post, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of conducting an employee engagement survey, why it may or may not work for your company, and the employee survey alternatives you can start using right away. 

What is an employee engagement survey? 

An annual employee engagement survey is a set of questions shared with workers once a year. The answers help gauge employee sentiment, identify issues, and contribute to (possible) solutions. 

mployee engagement is crucial for any organization’s growth. Teams with highly engaged members sell over 20% more than groups with low engagement, according to a PeopleMetrics study. Engaged workers have the potential to get your company more customers, while disengaged workers increase expenses and reduce profits. 

So an annual employee engagement survey measures the extent to which workers feel valued at your organization. 

With that in mind, here’s a rundown of how you’d typically go about conducting a yearly employee engagement survey in an organization. 

How to run an employee engagement survey

Figure out your goal

Before creating and distributing a survey to your workers, you need a crystal clear idea of what you want to measure and why. This will help you generate the right questions and get data you can actually use. 

For example, your purpose for conducting an annual employee engagement survey could be:

• Help find ways to transform a toxic workplace culture
• Generate ideas to enhance the employee net promoter scorer (eNPS)
• Identify how to increase employee engagement throughout the company
• Come up with ways to improve employee retention
• Develop two-way communication between managers and workers

Plan your survey questions

Asking great questions is the key to getting to the heart of workplace issues. The right questions will get better answers from workers. And the better responses you get, the easier for your company to identify areas of improvement. 

Here are the best questions for an annual employee engagement survey. These are a baseline – but a solid one!

• What is your favorite thing about working at our company?
• What is your least favorite thing about working at our company?
• What’s the most important thing we should do to make things better at our company?
• Do you feel like a valued member of our company or just a number? Why?
• What can we do to foster better internal communication at our company?
• Do you get constructive feedback from your seniors on a regular basis?
• Do you see your career growing in this company?
• Is the number of tasks assigned to you reasonable?
• Are you satisfied with our rewards and recognition policies?

Don’t overwhelm your readers

If you conduct an employee engagement survey only once a year, it’s tempting to combine multiple surveys or ask a wide range of questions. 

Give in to this temptation, and you’ll likely end up with a survey that confuses workers and doesn’t generate actionable feedback. 

That’s not what you want, right? So keep it simple. Only include the most important and specific topics to keep your survey from turning into an SAT exam. And make sure to use plain language that all the employees can easily understand. 

Ideally, your survey should include around 30 questions. Go more than 40 and it’s overkill. 30-40 questions are just enough to cover all the key aspects as per your objective without putting too much burden on the workers.

Build and distribute your survey

The next step is execution. How will you create the survey and share it with the employees? The good news is there are many intuitive tools at your disposal. Take Blink for example.  

Our employee experience platform helps you share anonymous polls and surveys with your employees. These surveys get high completion rates and honest feedback. 

All you need to do is create your form with a 3rd-party application such as Google Forms, Survey Monkey, or Typeform. Once your form is ready, simply copy its URL and add it to the Hub.  

Promote, promote, promote!

Now comes the fun part — getting workers to fill the survey. Just like charity begins at home, survey advocacy begins with senior management. Here are the key steps that will help maximize the reach of your annual employee engagement survey. 

• Get the senior leaders and managers to complete the survey first. This way, you can get feedback on the overall experience of filling the survey. So you can make any amends, if needed, before sharing the survey with the whole workforce.
• Use an employee app to provide resources that may come in handy when a worker sits down to complete a survey. 
• Promote the survey at every opportunity. Boost participation by mentioning the survey in employee newsletters, posting flyers, announcing prizes, and reminding workers about the survey in meetings and conferences.

Are annual employee engagement surveys dead?

Now you know how to conduct surveys. But you should also know that an annual employee engagement survey has certain shortcomings. 

An annual employee engagement survey can help gauge your work culture only to some extent. So when used on its own, it’s not the best way to learn more about your employees. Often, it may not reveal any solid insights into your organization’s core issues.

Before you decide on planning a survey, also consider the drawbacks below.

It’s impersonal

An annual employee engagement survey, by its nature, is a cold way to get feedback. When you send a set of questions once a year to be answered by your workers, the unspoken message they may hear is: 

"We want your inputs, but only in a certain format and confined to the questions we have developed. We're not attempting to build or nurture a relationship or anything! Don’t think too much and just check a few boxes. No big deal!"

An annual employee engagement survey can make workers feel that their employer doesn’t take feedback seriously. So neither should they. 

It doesn’t provide valuable data

An annual employee engagement survey doesn’t encourage honest feedback. Many of the workers may not trust the system. They might think that being too honest in an annual employee engagement survey - like slamming their manager - can get them in trouble.

It relies on fluffy metrics 

HBR once reported in a case study that United Parcel Service faced a huge loss because its annual employee survey didn’t uncover problems associated with a surge in part-time jobs. So when workers went on strike, it cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most commonly-used questionnaires make use of “percent favourable” metrics. So the data you get consists of inflated scores and blind spots, giving you the illusion of high engagement when it’s the opposite in reality. 

It’s not regular enough

For anything that matters, measuring your progress just once a year is not enough. Whether it’s your personal health, financial investments, or employee engagement, you’ll be wise to keep tabs regularly.

An annual employee engagement survey is a snapshot in time. And the feedback you get from employees in a singular moment can’t accurately reflect their feelings for the whole year. 

Since organizations using annual surveys don’t get the data they need to act, they don’t. They finish conducting the survey like it was just a formality and move on, further tarnishing whatever trust workers had in the employer.

For these reasons, many HR leaders believe that annual employee engagement surveys are dead. While we won’t go as far, it’s evident that once-a-year surveys alone aren’t enough to get accurate and comprehensive insights, which brings us to the next part. 

Employee engagement survey alternatives 

Gone are the days when workers were happy just to have a job. And before you counter — Yes, even if it provides standard benefits like health insurance and retirement savings. The ingredients that make your employees engaged, satisfied, and happy are now more nuanced and sophisticated. 

To find out how successful your recipe is, you need comprehensive techniques that can capture worker sentiment in a timely and relevant manner. Let’s see what those are.

1. Tracking company-wide metrics

The tools and technologies that you use for employee management and collaboration can give you a ton of real-time and continuous feedback from the workforce. 

Most modern systems these days come with built-in analytics to drill down into worker behavior and identify areas of improvement. For example, you can view:

• Performance appraisal and evaluation ratings
• Number of discrimination complaints and legal claims
• Number of workers on a leave of absence
• Employees who have filed compensation claims
• Number of workers who resigned in the last 12 months
• Number of training hours workers attended voluntarily
• Average employee commute time (the shorter, the better)
• Number of workers on zero-hour contracts

By understanding such people trends, you can get an accurate sense of engagement across the organization. And you can do all this without directly involving your employees. 

2. Pulse surveys

Research shows that 77% of employees want to provide feedback more than once per year. And that most employees prefer to provide feedback four times a year.

That’s where Pulse surveys come in. Pulse surveys get employee feedback using short, frequent check-ins that are not confined to specific content or topics. When you ask quick questions at short intervals, the feedback you get will be more authentic and practical.

3. Town-hall meetings 

Townhalls are another viable alternative to annual surveys. If you manage a team that’s too large for a conference table, organize a Town Hall meeting to spark discussions and learn about team members’ concerns. 

Don’t want to put yourself on the spot? Easy. Ask employees to submit questions in advance so you can be better prepared to answer them. 

4. An open-door policy

Why wait for a formal process or tool to get feedback? You can create an environment in which spontaneous feedback is encouraged. 

Make your employees feel safe and comfortable with two-way communication mechanisms. When they can talk openly about their concerns, you’ll always have a string of things you can improve in your repository. So you won’t have to go hunt for good ideas once every year. 

Final thoughts 

If you really want to have a lasting impact on your culture, you must consult your employees regularly and consider alternatives to a once-a-year survey. By pairing surveys with alternative ways to get employee feedback, you’ll be on your way to shaping a work environment where workers feel more productive and content.

Managing frontline employees is an altogether different task than leading a desk-based team. 

For one, you’re usually working in shift patterns and you might have insufficient tooling to keep you all connected. This connection gap makes it all the harder to navigate the “Great attrition” risks and widespread disengagement that most first-line/frontline managers are faced with.

But we don’t need to linger on the reasons why managing the frontline can be hard. Let’s focus instead on how to do it more effectively.

Because if we can empower first-line managers to better manage their teams, we can help reduce attrition, increase engagement, and improve the employee experience for everyone.

In this guide, we'll discuss your role as a frontline manager, the challenges faced by frontline teams and their managers, and the best practice approaches you can adopt when managing frontline employees.

Understanding the first-line manager role

Frontline managers play a pivotal role in any deskless organization and account for roughly 60% of a company’s management ranks. They are responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of their teams and ensuring that their organization's frontline remains strong and efficient.

Ultimately, the role of a first-line leader is to enable frontline workers to do their jobs effectively. This might include setting objectives, delegating tasks, providing feedback on frontline employee performance, and ultimately driving organizational success. But it also means giving positive and constructive feedback: celebrating a job well done and stepping in to rectify when things aren’t going right.

And yet, first-line managers are often “accidental managers”, too. They might have been promoted to a managerial role because of their subject matter expertise and hands-on experience in the business — but they’ve yet to receive any dedicated management or employee engagement training to prepare them for the job. A large proportion (around 40% based on recent Harvard Business Review research) are first-time managers as well, in the very first year of their leadership journey.

Maybe that’s a description that resonates? And if it is, you’ll also be able to appreciate how that makes the role more difficult.

First-line managers: overworked and under-invested in?

First-line managers can be the hardest working and most undervalued level of management — under pressure from all angles and expected to pick up the slack caused by frontline labor shortages. 

When an organization propels someone into a leadership role with insufficient training and insufficient support, we can hardly be surprised if they struggle to perform. And many first-line managers do: 60% in fact, over their first two years.

Flipping that figure around and helping first-line managers to perform is relatively easy to achieve.

A frontline manager’s potential can be unlocked by:

• Providing them with tools for proper team-wide communication and workforce management
• Investing in management training (particularly around HR-related topics, such as redundancies and employee relations)
• Investing in employee engagement training to help manage and improve team morale
• Alleviating the strain of manual, repetitive tasks to free up their time to better manage their teams

Doing so is in everyone’s best interests. Frontline employees will receive a better and more fulfilling workplace experience which helps them deliver a better quality of service to customers. The impact of this will be felt on the organization’s bottom line, making frontline manager empowerment a business-critical mission for the C-Suite and other leaders.

If you’re a first-line manager, it’s good to know your worth. 

You are in a unique position within the organization — you’re frontline-facing and can act as a touchpoint between frontline workers and your desk-based peers. You can also be the catalyst for better frontline employee engagement and motivation.

Common challenges when managing frontline employees

If you’re facing challenges as a first-line manager, know that you’re not alone. 

There are a number of common issues impacting frontline teams, including:

• Poor communication and engagement
• Attrition and turnover
• Labor shortages
• Unstable service levels and disappointed customers
• Lack of useful tooling
• Lack of training for frontline teams
• Lack of training for first-line managers themselves

Attrition, turnover, and the unavoidable staff shortages that follow can seriously impact the quality of service provided by the frontline workforce. Frontline teams increasingly struggle to cover more tasks with fewer resources — and it’s often the first-line manager who is left racing to fill empty shifts, deliver on tasks, or explain the drop in productivity to other senior management.

High turnover rates can also have a detrimental effect on frontline team morale, as new employees come in and existing ones leave at a rapid rate. Open communication between you and your team — which also means providing fit-for-purpose employee engagement tools and solutions, and employee engagement activities — will be key in helping to build trust and loyalty within the organization.

Finally, frontline managers must effectively advocate for their teams when they are not getting adequate support from executives and training from the business. This may involve having difficult conversations with the C-Suite or presenting frontline engagement data that shows the value of investing in frontline teams.

7 best practices when managing frontline employees

1. Thorough onboarding

It’s important to provide all new team members with a detailed onboarding program. You want to create a sense of community for them and ensure that they know any responsibilities and KPI expectations for the role from the get-go.

All frontline employees should receive adequate training for their specific roles and ensure they understand the requirements of their job. This will be a compliance must-do in many frontline organizations, of course, but even if the role is light on health and safety or legal regulations, you’ll want to take the time to outline the responsibilities clearly. 

Onboarding can be a time-consuming process but it's an early driver of employee engagement, so explore the tools you have available to help lighten the load.

Again, the business case for doing so is easy to sell to decision-makers: the faster you can onboard new joiners, the sooner they can help move the business forward (and the less time and focus you’ll lose on your other essential tasks).

2. Active listening

Listening — and we mean really listening — to your frontline teams is essential for successful frontline management.

It can be difficult for frontline employees to feel heard, as they are often more spread out than desk-based colleagues and have less access to resources and support. As a frontline manager, it is important to ask for, actively listen to, and then share the concerns of your team.

3. Communicate across the board

Frontline teams have a unique brief when it comes to internal communications, and there aren’t too many tools that are really fit for purpose.

Having access to a mobile-first frontline employee app can help keep everyone in the organization connected. As a first-line manager, you can lead by example — posting and commenting on company updates, messaging frontline employees directly and within groups, as well as making sure that senior leaders are seeing what’s being shared.

By prioritizing communication with your frontline employees, you can ensure they always feel informed, appreciated, and engaged — no matter how infrequently you see them face to face.

4. Support and pastoral care

Management support is key for each team member to feel valued and to keep morale high knowing that their supervisor has their back. This can be done through regular check-ins, providing tailored resources for their development, and actively listening to — and actioning — their feedback for the business.

Empowering your frontline workforce with the support of intuitive scheduling solutions and the autonomy to manage their own workloads can also help them feel valued and give them a sense of responsibility.

Finally, providing instant access to mental health resources will enable employees to feel safer in the work environment, and more comfortable in approaching their manager with any issues they may have.

A TikTok video showing a restaurant manager comforting a tearful employee sparked a big conversation about pastoral care for frontline teams. You will find an approach that feels comfortable and beneficial for you and the people you work with every day.

5. Professional development

Many frontline workers feel that they do not receive the same access to career advancement opportunities as their desk-based colleagues. This can leave frontline staff feeling undervalued and, unsurprisingly, employee motivation starts to dwindle.

Professional development is key for frontline employees. Frontline managers know what is expected of them, and what it takes to be successful in the role. If you see those characteristics in someone else, develop them. This might mean connecting them with development opportunities, recommending them for promotion or training, as well as checking that your frontline staff are happy with their career development via ongoing employee surveys.

By investing in your frontline team’s growth, you can ensure that their skills are kept up to date, increasing their confidence and improving their job satisfaction.

6. Reward hard work and commitment

It’s essential to provide frontline employees with tangible rewards for their hard work and dedication, just as you would your desk-based staff. Not seeing your deskless employees every day doesn’t equal forgetting about their contributions to your company — that’s something you may need to remind desk-based senior leaders.

Rewarding your frontline can be done in a variety of ways: bonus pay, gift cards, lunch vouchers, or even just a public shoutout across the company. This helps to show appreciation for their efforts and encourages them to continue striving for excellence. It also allows you to boost employee morale and create a positive working environment.

While rewarding great work is important, in the current economic climate, businesses don't always have the funds to pay frontline workers more. That's why reward and recognition should always go hand-in-hand.

7. Recognize team and individual achievements

Employee recognition, small or large, is crucial for motivating and inspiring team members. 

Showing appreciation is a great way to boost morale and create a positive working environment. Recognizing employees can come in various forms such as verbal praise, recognition in meetings, and virtual employee recognition or Kudos.

If someone has dealt with a difficult customer or situation well, recognize this. If someone has worked extra hard to ensure quality of service, recognize this. Acknowledging great work can help empower employees and make them feel appreciated for their efforts. It’ll also make them more likely to perform that way again.

To retain a frontline worker and enable them to become a valuable asset to your organization, you need to ensure their efforts are recognized. By following this advice, you can show them that their hard work is appreciated and foster an environment of engagement and success.

Expert tips from frontline managers

Healthcare ops expert and former President of Administrative Operations at Elara Caring, Ian Gordon, has some key insights for us on the topic of engaging with frontline employees.

Here are just a few of his expert tips for navigating frontline management and engaging your deskless workforce:

• Create bi-directional communication: Communicating issues is a team effort. It starts with the CEO and runs the full way through to the frontline. Everybody has to own it
  
• Redeploy resources to the frontline: Increasing investments into the skills and capabilities of your frontline can be a true differentiator in the marketplace. It is also a good reason for your frontline to feel appreciated and invested in. Wondering where this extra budget will come from? If you can help retain employees with training and development, then you won’t need to spend so much on continuous recruitment
  
• The right tech: Being a frontline worker, you can’t spend a lot of time signing in and navigating complex tech. Having hub-based access to all-inclusive and easy-to-navigate information can really be a benefit to employees
  

Keeping frontline employees engaged is a key part of running a successful business.

Strategies for employee engagement and retention should cover the seven tips mentioned above. As well as providing accessible resources, frequent rewards and recognition, and implementing tailored technology solutions, you can foster an environment of engagement that will help to retain your frontline workers and enable them to become valuable assets for the organization.

Remember: investing in the growth of your frontline team is essential for success. With the right tools and support in place, you can create an environment of engagement in which everyone feels able to thrive.

Blink. And you’ve got a hotline to the frontline.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/723578311?h=c37bdbcb8b

Blink's industry-leading frontline app helps you take three simple steps to transform your frontline management.

1. Enable: Give your frontline the tools, information, and inspiration they need to go above and beyond.
2. Engage: Give your frontline instant access to the news, people, and information they need to feel part of the team.
3. Understand: Use data and insights you need to make the best decisions for your frontline team.

With our one-stop solution, you can get rid of complex and outdated processes that are blocking your frontline's satisfaction — and their success. With Blink, you can finally empower your frontline with the tools they need to succeed.

Get started today

In her 2+ years at Blink, Ai has been instrumental in driving innovation and efficiency through data, analytics, and strategy. Her passion for problem-solving and building from the ground up has left a lasting impact by supporting Blink's growth and empowering our customers to engage with their frontline teams more effectively.

Which Blink office do you work out of?

London.

What is your position at Blink?

I’m the Director of Revenue Operations at Blink, a role focused on empowering every team to work more efficiently and effectively by providing data, analytics, and strategic guidance while streamlining processes to eliminate friction.

At Blink, RevOps also oversees Business Intelligence. Recently, we launched an external analytics product that offers our customers valuable data and insights to enhance their engagement with frontline employees. Data is truly at the heart of the business, both internally and externally, and I’m proud and excited to be part of it. 

How long have you been at Blink?

Over 2 years!

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

At the start of my career, I worked in finance and business planning for a big company in Japan. Six years ago, I moved to the UK to join a portfolio company of the Japanese multinational I was working for at the time.

That experience marked my first exposure to the startup world, and I loved it. Working in London with a diverse team and encountering different ways of thinking was exhilarating. Since then, I’ve stayed in the startup ecosystem and made London my home. My career has spanned various areas, including finance, strategy, and data analytics, but my true passion lies in using data to identify and solve problems. RevOps has been the perfect fit, allowing me to take ownership of not only strategy and direction but also ensuring that great strategies are operationalised with the most effective cross-functional processes.

So, why Blink? Back then — and still today — two things stood out to me.

First, the business potential was, and remains, enormous. So many companies need effective tools for frontline communication. It’s a new and largely untapped market, which makes it challenging, but that’s exactly what excites me. Being part of a company with vast growth opportunities is incredibly motivating.

Second, especially after Covid, I wanted to do work that felt meaningful. We spend so much of our lives working, and I wanted to channel my energy into something I’m passionate about — something that makes a positive impact. Frontline workers often lack the tools to optimize their work, connect with colleagues, or access information from their employers. They’re too often left behind. I joined Blink because I believe it can change that, and I’m proud to contribute to a mission that benefits society in a tangible way.

What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?

I’m proud and excited that at Blink, you often need to create things from scratch — and have the opportunity to do so. As the first RevOps hire, I experienced the rewarding journey of building from zero to one. But the challenge doesn’t stop there; nothing is ever truly complete. Once you’ve accomplished one goal, you realize there are always more opportunities to explore and tackle.

I’m also incredibly proud of my team. It’s growing, and I’m surrounded by talented team members I respect. Although this is still the smallest team I’ve ever been part of or led, the impact we’re delivering to the business is the greatest I’ve achieved so far.

How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?

High-bar, customer-centric, and collaborative. 

I chose high-bar because we set high expectations for the quality of our work and the caliber of people we welcome to our team. With the current competitive industry landscape, we can’t succeed by doing ordinary work, and I believe we uphold excellent standards to bring out the best in ourselves.

We’re also customer-centric, with a mission to support not only our customers but also customers’ employees, frontline workers. 

Lastly, we’re collaborative. With limited resources, teamwork is how we achieve more. We’re a fun, intelligent team, and I love how we balance ambition with genuine support for one another at Blink.

What’s one thing you’re excited about for the future of Blink?

I’m excited about the possibility of creating a new market for ourselves. A great example is Slack — before it existed, we didn’t even realize we needed it, but now it’s become the norm, even a verb! “I’ll Slack you!” has become part of everyday language. I believe Blink has the potential to become just as indispensable for frontline companies and their users, setting a new standard in the industry.

Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?

Two things stand out to me. First is the continuous launch of new features such as Communities, Stories, Voice and Video, Live Streams, and more. It’s truly remarkable, especially given the relatively small size of our product and engineering team. I feel confident that we’re making a meaningful impact in our industry and delivering real value to our customers.

The second is the progress we’ve made with data initiatives. For example, the launch of Advanced Employee Intelligence in August has opened up significant opportunities for revenue expansion while providing tangible value to our customers. This combination of innovation and impact makes it an exciting time to be at Blink.

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56% of US companies have been increasing their level of remote work, according to a 2021 survey.

But as more and more workers operate from different locations, managers around the globe are facing the uncharted territory of managing remote teams. And that’s as if managing a team wasn’t hard enough already in person.

Regardless, the hardship of managing remote teams is a small price to pay for the benefits they offer. Plus, how you handle this new reality of work will shape your true potential as a leader. 

So consider this post as your go-to guide for managing remote teams. We’ll begin with some common challenges that plague virtual managers, followed by our best strategies to lead your remote team with confidence.

Challenges of managing remote teams

Working from home seems normal these days, but many organizations didn’t have remote work on their radar until the global pandemic forced them to.

Before we get to the remote management strategies, let’s see some key challenges faced by leaders and their team members when adapting to this new way of working.

Shifting to a new structure

Human beings are creatures of habit. From that morning commute to the evening snack, our daily work routines have probably been pretty consistent.

When you and your team members start working remotely, everything can get upside down. You are forced to establish a new routine, along with juggling your personal and professional duties outside the office, factory, or wherever you used to work before.

Plus, it doesn’t help that you are now supposed to deal with a lot of new virtual tools, communication methods, and remote work policies. No wonder managing remote teams seems overwhelming.

Adopting tech-based communication

Facing an issue, or need a second opinion on something? Just go to your nearest team member and sort it all out in a second.

This is possible in an office, but may feel like a distant dream in today’s remote working environment, too good to be true!

In fact, 45% of employees worry over not seeing their team members in person because of remote work, and 34% have doubts about their ability to collaborate virtually. Ensuring you're providing a good digital employe experience is key.

As communication moves to technologies such as email and instant messaging, managers and their team members are finding it hard to get the answers they need in time.

Juggling productive and personal time

Personal time at home. Work on site. It has been a simple rule to follow. When you work from an office, there’s a clear line between your professional and personal life, at least more straightforward than the boundaries set by remote work.

With remote work, the lines are blurred. It’s easy for the personal responsibilities to distract you from your work, or for your work to eat up your family time. So both managers and their employees are faced with the issue of striking a balance between the two.

Building trust and rapport

When managing remote teams, you want to keep your team members assured that you are available to lead and support them. And that you’re in touch with their concerns, needs, and suggestions.

But when everyone is struggling to communicate efficiently, it gets increasingly difficult to do that. And with no visible body language and non-verbal cues, you may not get an accurate sense of their level of engagement, feelings, and emotional well-being.

We don’t mean to scare you with a laundry list of challenges of leading remote teams. But rather to drill down the fact that you’ll need to really pull up your sleeves for the job. To truly manage and engage remote teams, you should be ready to work harder than ever, which brings us to the next section.

Best practices for managing remote teams

Ready to learn the tips and tricks to manage remote teams the right way? Here’s how to get the best results from your remote employees.

1. Establish clear expectations

34% of remote workers worldwide say that transparency from leadership triggers a deep sense of connectedness at work. And a big part of transparency is setting clear rules and regulations for your team members.

When managing remote teams, it’s important to set boundaries and expectations that your team members are supposed to work with. For example, random video meetings may get awkward for some employees if they weren’t expecting them.

So you need to let your team members know exactly how you plan to manage them from a distance. This includes communicating the following:

• Values and behaviors that shape the company culture
• Remote work procedures
• Guidelines specific to their project
• Communication style guides
• Expectations regarding workload and availability

The best way to start implementing work expectations when managing virtual teams is to have a kick-off meeting to introduce all the policies and procedures. Then keep reinforcing them in regular weekly and monthly meetings.

2. Implement the right communication channels

Email has its place. But there are many different types of communication, not all of which are best-suited for emails. These include:

• Status updates
• Frequently used resources for team members
• Project schedule and deadlines
• Troubleshooting guide for common problems

Because of this, picking the right communication channels is crucial for managing remote teams.

For example, depending on the nature of communication, you may also want to use channels like instant messaging, virtual meetings, or cloud sharing from time to time. And if you want to limit the use of random video calls, you can establish email and online chat as the main communication channels for your team.

Avoid having too many different tools and channels as they can overwhelm your team and allow important messages to slip through the cracks. It’s better to use a single communication platform or employee engagement tool that consists of multiple communication streams.

Blink, for example, is a mobile app that allows team members to communicate via a social-media-style feed, instant messaging, and cloud-based document sharing — all from one place.

3. Set regular check-in times

When your team is working from an office, it’s easy to check in regularly with the whole group as well as individual team members. But don’t think you can’t do the same with remote teams.

In fact, if your team has just started working remotely, you might need to schedule extra check-ins until the team members have adapted successfully to the new routine. Then scale back based on what works for your team and the given workload.  

For example, start with a daily meeting of 15-20 minutes. Go around in a circle and give each worker a chance to talk about their plan for the day, any issues they have, and what they need from other team members.

4. Invest in mental health and well-being

According to World Health Organization (WHO), anxiety and depression lead to productivity losses that cost the world $1 trillion annually.

Not just that. For every $1 that goes into workers’ mental health, there’s a return of $4 in terms of employee health and productivity.

When your team members are working remotely, their mental health should be an even higher priority for you than what it was in the office. Because with remote team management, you don’t have as many opportunities to identify what emotional challenges your workers are struggling with. 

For example, some employees may find it easier to adapt to remote working and maintain sound health than others. And for the ones that don’t, you’ll need to identify and support them as per their needs. Some ways to do that include:

• Offering employee benefits related to mental health
• Encouraging open communication among team members
• Appointing a psychotherapist the employees can talk to
• Sharing guidelines and resources for self-care
• Encouraging workers to take frequent breaks

5. Celebrate both small and big wins

Achieving milestones together is what makes your team, a team. So when managing virtual teams, don’t let the physical distance come in the way of celebrating and rewarding accomplishments.

Celebrating successes will encourage your remote employees and motivate them to keep doing their best work. For example, you can host virtual parties, get a gift delivered to a team member’s doorstep, or give a bonus day off. 

Also, don’t postpone a celebration in your wait for achieving something big. Even short-term successes count, especially when managing remote teams. Otherwise, your team members can easily feel discouraged.

6. Document everything

Managing remote teams can get real complicated, real fast. As you take your project activities from the physical world to a virtual environment, many key steps and tasks can slip through the cracks.

So for effective remote team management, it’s not enough to have the workflows, roles, and processes just in your head. The best way to retain and enhance team productivity is to document as much as possible and make the documentation easily accessible for all remote employees.

Create detailed documents that provide step-by-step breakdowns of all the things the team needs to get done, when to do them, and who is responsible for the work items. For example:

• Checklists and templates for routine tasks
• Playbooks that go deep into project protocols and procedures
• Flow charts showing what actions to take in dynamic circumstances
• Forms to record key information and instructions to fill them properly

To make sure your team can refer to these documents as needed, put them on a shared storage platform and set permissions for team members to access at any time. This will reduce bottlenecks and get the team members to complete their tasks efficiently.

7. Provide socializing opportunities

According to a Buffer survey, 20% of remote workers go through a heightened sense of loneliness, and another 20% find it difficult to collaborate and communicate.

So it’s vital to encourage social interactions among remote teams. You need to proactively create time and opportunities for employees to connect and socialize with one another.

Some of the best ways to do that include virtual hangouts, joint brainstorming sessions, morning coffee standups, online lunch and learns, and team-building games.  

Conclusion: managing remote teams like a pro

As you can see, managing remote teams is not a piece of cake. It requires you to keep a close eye on not just the progress of tasks and project goals, but also team members’ emotional well-being and their relationships with one another.

No doubt, you’ll need to step up as a leader in some big ways. Some of the remote team management strategies we have covered may already be familiar to you, while others will need you to go out of your comfort zone.

Regardless, if you’re serious enough to be reading this article, we’re confident that you can handle managing remote teams with flying colors. So start following these best practices today, and see the difference they make in your remote team’s performance.

Plus, as we said earlier, consider using an all-in-one communication app that can make collaboration easy and bring team members together despite the physical distance that comes with remote work. Book a free blink demo.