Employee messaging app for restaurant staff: 5 features that actually matter

Effective communication is the glue that holds all your employees together. It unites everyone, from the top management to the frontline and remote workers, towards a shared set of organizational goals and values.

Yet a recent study paints a grave picture of most working environments. 80% of professionals rate their business’ communication as poor or average.

And when kept unchecked, ineffective communication often leads to a snowball effect of disengagement and confusion. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. Implementing effective organizational communication strategies is the key to unlocking smooth coordination among your employees. And in this post, we’ll take a look at what those strategies are.

A successful organizational communication strategy is not just about sending out company updates or newsletters. The true goal is to build a culture of trust and foster open communication in the workplace. When your frontline workers feel heard and connected to leadership, your entire business thrives.

Building a robust organizational communication plan can feel overwhelming if you are starting from scratch. Before you outline your goals and channels, it is incredibly helpful to review real-world internal communication strategy examples to see how top organizations keep their frontline teams aligned and engaged.

Why is organizational communication important?

In a recent report called "Internal Communication in the Eyes of C-Suite Leaders", it was found that C-suite executives recognized the vital role internal communication plays in improving their bottom lines and driving business results. And rightly so.

Workers need to interact and exchange information and documents with one another frequently. Plus, they want the top management to listen to their concerns, suggestions, and feedback.

The same goes for senior leaders in the company. They want to make sure that internal marketing campaigns, critical company announcements, news about employee benefits, and other important messages are reaching each and every member of the workforce.

By fulfilling these needs for both parties, a good corporate communication strategy solidifies the bond among the workers and facilitates the sharing of information. The result? A big boost in employee engagement and productivity.

Now the question is, how can you level up your company’s communication? By following the most effective organizational communication strategies.

What are the best organizational communication strategies?

Without further ado, here are our best organizational communication strategies to help resolve workplace conflicts and facilitate a smooth exchange of information across your company.

1. Create a corporate communication plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail. If you don’t have an internal communication plan in place, drop everything else and build one first. Without a plan, you won’t have a clear roadmap to implement effective communication in your business.

A great communication strategy will help you answer vital questions like:

• How to make your messages more relevant and engaging?
• Which communications channels should you be using?
• How can you ensure the right content reaches the workers at the right time?
• What roles will your C-level executives play in workplace communication?
• How will you encourage employees to engage in two-way conversations?

The planning process starts with having a clear understanding of your communication goals and audience. And then conducting an audit of the current communication campaigns and channels you have in place.

This is followed by determining your communication schedule and channels for the next six or 12 months. To learn more, check out our in-depth guide on building an internal communication strategy.

2. Encourage one-to-one conversations

Not every concern can be appropriately discussed in a group setting. For example, you may want to address a personal grievance or performance issue. And in such cases, it’s much better to initiate a private chat.

A one-on-one meeting gives you the chance to read the worker’s body language, know their communication style, and get visual cues on how to proceed with the interaction.

Even when you don’t have a specific issue to discuss, setting aside one-to-one time with your employees on a regular basis is essential. Because it helps you understand and bond with them more effectively. So make sure to add this company communication strategy to your arsenal.

3. Sprinkle a little humor

Workplace communication is usually a serious endeavor. You often convey information that’s intense. Whether you’re discussing a problem or setting goals, laughing and cracking jokes may seem out of place.

But a series of serious interactions can put workers in a negative mindset. And it affects how they interpret and draw conclusions from the information shared with them. When a meeting gets too heated, people want to leave as soon as possible, which hinders the flow of information. 

Although it’s not always possible to avoid a stressful conversation, levity can help you a lot in pushing your company’s communication strategy forward. Lightening the mood is an important skill that helps you defuse tense situations and relax everyone involved in the communication.

So the next time you’re communicating something to your employees, try to make them laugh.

Also, if you’re worried that your jokes won’t be any good, then you’re focusing on the wrong thing. It’s not so much about making clever remarks as about trying to make people feel relaxed and comfortable. In fact, research shows that people welcome any kind of levity as long as it’s not offensive or hurtful.

4. Nurture two-way communication

Effective communication is supposed to be a two-way street. An organization cannot reach its full collaboration potential if information flows only in one direction — from top management to the rest of the workers.

If employees can’t ask questions or discuss the information conveyed, then you aren’t communicating. You’re commanding. You’re giving orders and expecting workers to follow them.  

Of course, some directives are absolute and non-negotiable. But you can’t rely on this approach all the time when working with today’s skilled, talented professionals who thrive in an environment of autonomy.

Instead, the right company communication strategy is to invest in creating a receptive space where workers can put forth their concerns, share suggestions, and feel heard. And make sure those inputs are acted on. Not brushed under the carpet.

Listening to feedback doesn’t just help your employees feel valued. It also helps you clarify your message. You may think your communication is crystal clear but still miss some aspects critical to help others understand the information. Two-way communication can fill those gaps.

Facilitating two-way communication in your organization is easier than you think. For example, Blink is a corporate communication app that comes with a social-media-style news feed visible to all employees.

Anyone in the company can post an update, on which others can like and comment. This helps the most relevant stories rise to the top. Plus, the admins can choose to amplify selected updates even further. 

5. Bring consistency in your communication

All your communication, whether written or verbal, and whether internal or external, should have the essence of your company’s brand and workplace culture.

Plus, it should have a unique, consistent voice that reduces any chance of ambiguity and unifies your workforce. Such a voice also helps you communicate in the right spirit, not to mention avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.

But the more people participate and contribute to your organization’s communication, especially from different locations and time zones, the harder it gets to keep the voice consistent.

So what you need is a set of shared guidelines, formats, and best practices that everyone can refer to when creating content. And you can prepare the same in the form of a communication style guide.

Once you’ve clearly laid out your communication guidelines, make sure to train your communication department, as well as other contributors, on how to put the instructions into practice for subsequent messages.

6. Make use of visual aids

Different people have different learning styles. Some are comfortable reading pages after pages of text, some want to listen on the go, while others need something to view, like a video.

Regardless, almost everyone gets enticed by imagery. Presentations and infographics help people wrap their heads around the given information. So using colorful posters, charts, and graphs to distill complicated ideas is one of the best ways to make your message clear and memorable.

There are many ways to use visual aids for workplace communication. For example, if you find yourself repeating certain messages to your staff, or answering the same questions again and again, you can save time and effort with a visual aid to share the corresponding content.  

Is someone in your ear every 10 minutes with questions about holidays? Design a holiday calendar workers can check on their own. Bombarded with requests about printer passwords? Print them in large letters and stick them near the machine.

You don’t need to be a master designer to do this. Tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Venngage come with drag-and-drop functionality and hundreds of ready-made templates designed by professionals. So all you need to do is pick a template and replace its contents with yours. 

7. Train your staff on effective communication

We have spent a good chunk of our lives communicating with others, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re good at it.

For example, many employees have such a logical, fact-based communication style that they often forget to take others’ emotions into account. Others often get carried away by feelings and miss key details. And the gaps in communication lead to conflict, ambiguity, and workplace politics.

So in any organization, effective communication should be proactively taught and encouraged. And it should be a vital part of the training programs you have in place for workers.

Great communication training helps teach your employees how to keep their emotions in check and present their ideas clearly and comprehensively.

8. Conduct more open sessions

Meetings are seen as a dull affair, especially when just one or two people are doing most of the talking. You’ve probably sat through many where you were just expected to attend and listen.

But that doesn’t mean all meetings are bad. A meeting is just a tool. And like any other tool, you can handle it effectively or poorly.

So every once in a while, you should conduct an open session with all the workers in your company or in specific departments. This meeting will have a set agenda, and every employee will be encouraged to speak up and talk about their work, their experiences, and any concerns or suggestions.

Scheduling such open sessions regularly will not just improve communication, but also help you get a pulse of different teams and your overall culture.

9. Leverage the right tools and technology

Remote work, dispersed teams, smartphones, and other advancements are shaping the new reality of work. But in many organizations, the communication systems and processes haven’t caught up to this change.

The good news is modern technology and employee engagement tools have made it easier than ever to streamline internal communication and include every employee in the process, from hiring to global HR services.

Frontline workers, for example, have largely been excluded from communication channels available to desk-based employees, such as email and instant messaging. With the rise of smartphones and mobile apps though, it is now possible to make them a crucial part of your ongoing communication.

With Blink, for example, workers can easily share documents, engage in live chat with one another, and resolve problems fast.

So it’s time for you to see if the technology you have in place is really enough to get the job done. If not, invest in the right tools to take your communication to the next level.

10. Cultivate the habit of active listening

No doubt, writing and talking clearly are crucial for proper communication, but managers and other employees should also know how to listen.

Poor listening undermines communication and defeats the purpose of effective collaboration. Without the right listening skills, messages are more likely to be misunderstood.

Now, you may think you listen, but good listening is more than identifying others’ words. As Stephen Covey says, “Most of us listen with the intent to respond, not to understand.”

So, cultivate a habit of listening among yourself and your employees. Encourage everyone to practice active listening methods. And teach your staff to reflect, summarize, and ask clarifying questions when listening to a customer or coworker.

When employees and customers feel heard and understood, they’re more likely to keep working with you and have a positive image of your brand.

How can you improve organizational communication in the workplace?

Follow these tips to help achieve effective communication in the workplace:

1. Use the right tools. Having the right tools to communicate, that everyone can access, and use is vital. Review your tech stack and make improvements where needed.
2. Get feedback. Employee surveys can help shed light on your current communication methods and where you can make improvements.
3. Use different communication formats. Images, emails, videos, the list goes on. Use different formats for the different types of communications you need to deliver.
4. Distribute through the right channels. What's the best way to deliver the message? Email, instant message, intranet, app notifcation? Make sure you pick the right channel.
5. Focus on employee engagement strategies. An engaged workforce is open to communication and sharing their voice.
6. Measure the outcomes. Keep a close eye on your metrics. How many people are reading your emails and communications? Is it enough or do you need to improve?

Wrapping up: effective organizational communication strategies

As you can see, good communication doesn’t happen by accident. You need to make sure that your messages successfully reach the intended audience, are interpreted clearly, and are understood empathetically.

It takes effort from both you and your staff. So the more confidently you apply the organizational communication strategies we have outlined in this guide, the more your team would also integrate them into their actions. So take time to develop and execute these concepts diligently to build a collaborative and efficient workplace.

And remember, using a communication solution like Blink can reduce your communication effort while increasing the penetration of your messages, even with a largely remote or dispersed workforce. Book a free demo today.

This article is part of Blink’s “frontline first” series: content created specifically for leaders of deskless or distributed teams. We know that the job of frontline leadership is entirely different from managing ‘desk-based’ teams, so this is for you and your unique set of challenges.

It's somehow nearly the end of 2022, which means it's high time to start looking ahead to the year ahead.

For leaders in frontline organizations, this can be more than a little daunting. After two years of challenges caused by the pandemic and the Great Resignation, the looming prospect of a recession promises yet more adapting and innovating in order to survive and thrive.

So we'd like to help.

After working with hundreds of frontline organizations, we've created a short guide that breaks down the core principles to building a stable and successful frontline workforce for 2023 and beyond.

You can download a copy for free here or by clicking on the image below - we hope you find it useful and inspirational as you look to the new year.

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.

What are the best Microsoft Teams alternatives in 2026?

Microsoft Teams is a powerful tool for messaging, meetings, and document collaboration—especially if you're already invested in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. But for many organizations, Teams is clunky, overcomplicated, and poorly adopted by employees who aren’t sitting at a desk.

It’s not built for frontline workers. It’s not intuitive for non-technical users. And it tries to do too much—without doing any one thing particularly well.

Whether you're looking for a cleaner UX, faster communication, mobile-first design, or just less frustration, here are the 12 best Microsoft Teams alternatives in 2026 to consider—ranked and reviewed for ease of use, collaboration, and adoption.

#1. Blink

Best for unifying internal communication across the entire workforce

Blink is an employee experience platform that offers real-time chat, announcements, document sharing, scheduling, and forms—all in one simple, mobile-first app. Unlike Teams, which struggles with adoption outside of office environments, Blink is designed for everyone, from corporate HQ to field teams and shift workers.

Why Blink is better than Teams:

• Intuitive UX—no training required
• Works seamlessly across desktop and mobile
• Built-in tools for messaging, alerts, surveys, and forms
• Designed for high engagement and daily usage

Ideal for: Companies that want all employees—desk-based, remote, and frontline—on the same page.

#2. Slack

Best for real-time team collaboration and integrations

Slack is the original team chat platform that changed how businesses communicate. It’s fast, intuitive, and integrates with almost every productivity tool you can name.

Why teams choose Slack:

• Channels for projects, teams, and topics
• Powerful third-party integrations
• Searchable message history
• Simple, user-friendly interface

Limitations: Can get noisy at scale; no built-in video calling beyond basic functionality.

#3. Zoom

Best for video-first collaboration

Zoom rose to prominence during the pandemic as the go-to platform for video meetings. While it lacks native chat and file management, it’s ideal for high-quality video calls, webinars, and virtual events.

Best features:

• Reliable, high-definition video
• Breakout rooms and whiteboarding
• Webinar hosting tools
• AI summaries and recordings

#4. Google Chat & Meet

Best for Google Workspace users

Google Chat and Google Meet are tightly integrated with Gmail and the broader Google Workspace ecosystem, making them a natural fit for organizations already using Google Docs, Calendar, and Drive.

Why it's better than Teams (for Google users):

• No need to switch platforms
• Simpler UI for messaging and meetings
• Seamless calendar and doc collaboration

#5. Cisco Webex

Best for secure video collaboration at the enterprise level

Webex offers a suite of tools including messaging, calling, meetings, and event hosting. It’s often favored by large enterprises in finance, healthcare, and government.

What sets it apart:

• Enterprise-grade security and compliance
• AI features for transcription and noise removal
• Contact center and webinar add-ons

#6. Discord

Best for informal, community-style collaboration

Originally designed for gamers, Discord has evolved into a powerful chat and voice platform for startups, education, and tech teams that value speed and informality.

Why it works:

• Always-on voice channels
• Threads, emojis, and community features
• Free for most use cases

Limitations: Not built for enterprise or regulated environments.

#7. Mattermost

Best open-source alternative to Teams and Slack

Mattermost is a secure, self-hosted messaging platform used by teams that need full data control, including developers and government agencies.

Key benefits:

• Open-source and customizable
• On-premise or cloud deployment
• DevOps and workflow integrations

#8. Flock

Best for small teams that want simplicity

Flock is a lightweight collaboration tool with messaging, video calls, and productivity tools baked in. It’s a simpler alternative to Teams, especially for startups and growing businesses.

Top features:

• Shared to-dos and reminders
• Notes and polls
• Lightweight video calling

#9. Rocket.Chat

Best for companies needing full control over data

Rocket.Chat is another open-source platform used by privacy-conscious organizations. It offers messaging, video conferencing, and multi-channel communication with full customizability.

Why it’s chosen over Teams:

• 100% data ownership
• Omnichannel support (email, WhatsApp, SMS)
• Developer-friendly APIs

#10. Chanty

Best for team chat with built-in task management

Chanty offers a focused chat experience with integrated task tracking. It's ideal for teams that want to combine communication and lightweight project management in one place.

Why it's appealing:

• Tasks and Kanban view
• Threaded conversations
• Budget-friendly pricing

#11. Zoho Cliq

Best for businesses already using Zoho

Cliq is part of the broader Zoho productivity suite and integrates seamlessly with other Zoho tools, offering team chat, calls, and app integrations.

Strengths:

• Role-based access
• Video calls and bots
• Custom workflows

#12. RingCentral MVP

Best for unified communications at enterprise scale

RingCentral MVP combines messaging, video, and phone in one solution. It’s ideal for enterprises looking for an all-in-one UCaaS platform with robust admin controls.

Key features:

• Cloud-based calling and messaging
• Enterprise security
• Integrated analytics and call routing

How do you choose the right Microsoft Teams alternative?

Microsoft Teams can be powerful—but for many companies, it’s simply not the right fit. Cluttered UX, low mobile adoption, and integration complexity make it a poor choice for fast-moving teams and distributed workforces.

The good news? There are plenty of modern alternatives—whether you need internal messaging, video conferencing, or an all-in-one platform.

Need one app for comms, docs, alerts, and tools—without the sprawl?
Blink delivers a beautifully simple platform that your whole workforce will actually use.

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Why teams choose Blink over Microsoft Teams

Teams works well if your whole organization already lives inside Microsoft 365 — but frontline and deskless workers rarely do. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. For a closer look at exactly how the two compare on adoption, pricing, and mobile experience, see our full breakdown.

Internal communication mistakes are eye-wateringly expensive. According to estimates, they cost US companies up to $1.2 trillion every year. Mistakes lead to lost business, missed deadlines, and lower employee productivity.

In frontline organizations, communication mistakes are often more pronounced — because it’s notoriously hard to reach employees who are on-the-go, working away from the office in demanding, hands-on roles.

Here, we look at how to avoid six common frontline communication mistakes, improving frontline comms in the process.

This is what we’re going to cover:

• The frontline employee communication challenge
• The link between communication and retention
• How to avoid six common frontline communication mistakes
• Frontline employee communication: essential considerations
• Frontline employee communications FAQs

The frontline employee communication challenge

Reaching your frontline employees with internal communications has never been easy. Unlike desk-based workers, they often spend work days on their feet, away from a computer and sometimes their coworkers.

Communication over a traditional intranet or via email is, therefore, unlikely to be effective. Frontline workers don’t always have a good Wi-Fi connection or access to an appropriate device. So it can be hard for them to perform basic tasks — like finding and downloading a policy document or an email attachment.

Varying shift patterns make it hard for comms teams to reach employees with real-time updates. And — unless you’re tailoring your content to frontline worker needs — the volume of information can easily feel overwhelming. Employees then end up missing critical messages.

For too long, frontline employee communication has been an afterthought. Organizations haven’t always had the strategy or technology they need to make frontline comms effective.

But now, with a renewed focus on employee engagement and retention — and with more tech tools on offer than ever before — many organizations are rethinking how they communicate with their frontline staff.

The link between communication and retention

In frontline industries, there continue to be high levels of staff churn. In transportation, annual turnover stands at 56.7%. In hospitality, the figure stands at 73.8%. This compares to a national average of 13%. 

One of the primary culprits behind these sky-high stats? Internal communication mistakes. 61% of employees considering switching jobs cite poor internal communication as a factor.

Good internal communication keeps employees in the loop. It helps them understand company values and goals. Effective communication channels support frontline employees to connect with coworkers and feel part of company culture.

Being empowered to do a good job. Strong workplace relationships. Feeling part of something bigger. These things boost frontline employee engagement and encourage loyalty.

But with just 40% of frontline employees saying they have a strong sense of connection to their direct leader and 43% saying they have a strong sense of connection to their organization, it’s clear that frontline companies have work to do.   

How to avoid 6 common frontline communication mistakes

Good frontline communication can be transformative for your organization. Here are the mistakes you need to avoid to keep your frontline workers informed and engaged.

Mistake #1: Sticking to the same ineffective frontline communication channels

Many frontline organizations still use paper methods of communication. They send out a newsletter or put memos up on an already crowded noticeboard.

These messages are easy to miss. The information can be outdated by the time it’s distributed. And communication only goes one way — there are limited opportunities for employee interaction.

Email is equally ineffective for frontline workers who don’t always have a corporate email address. And word-of-mouth messaging and phone calls are time-consuming for frontline managers.

Many workers are turning to the tech tools they use in their personal lives to bridge the communication gap. 55% of workers say that WhatsApp is their primary workplace communication tool.

But shadow IT platforms, like WhatsApp, are flawed, too. There are huge compliance and data security issues associated with shadow IT. It also lies outside the control of your comms team so there’s zero oversight. 

Making do with internal communication channels like these makes it hard for your comms team to communicate key messages. It also harms the frontline employee experience. 

How to solve it:

Move beyond this patchwork approach to frontline communication. Unify your messaging with the help of internal communication channels that frontline workers can access easily.  

A reliable way to reach employees is via an employee app, which employees can access on their smartphones. Here, you can bring together all strands of workplace communication and provide social-media-style tools that employees will enjoy using.

Common features include a dynamic company news feed, secure chat, and a content hub packed with essential policies and guides.

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This app becomes a go-to hub of communication and a single source of truth. Employees know they can use the app to quickly and easily find the information they need.

Mistake #2: Your frontline communication tech isn’t mobile-first

A frontline connection gap exists in almost every frontline organization. And it can make frontline employees feel like second-class citizens.

49% of frontline workers say that there are two separate cultures at play within their company: “one for the frontline and one for everyone else.” This unfairness can lead to division and disengagement. And too often, internal communication mistakes — and poor tech choices — are to blame.

Not all employee apps are created equal. And unless you choose a mobile-first solution, designed around the needs of mobile users, you’re likely to run into one (or all) of the following problems:

1. Your app offers an inferior user experience. It doesn’t support the features and functionality that your desk-based employees enjoy on the desktop version.
   
   
2. Your app is difficult for employees to access, either because it uses long-winded login methods or because it requires a corporate email address.
   
   
3. Employees don’t like using your app, either because it has a complicated interface or because it’s one of many digital tools they’re expected to use during the workday.

Problems like these create a two-tier system, with office-based employees getting better access to internal comms than their frontline coworkers. They also cause friction for employees, which means they’re much less likely to use the app.

How to solve it:

When choosing technology for frontline employees, get input from a wide range of stakeholders — including your frontline staff. They can tell you what features and functionality they’d like to see in an employee app.

Supplement this input with an understanding of best practice. The best apps for frontline workers provide the following as standard: 

• A mobile-first solution. This ensures the platform experience is equitable, with the same features and functionality available on both mobile and desktop versions of the software.
• A user-friendly interface. To ensure high levels of app adoption, it should be easy for frontline employees to learn and use the platform.
• Strong integrations. So frontline workers can access all workplace tech — not just your communication channels — from one dashboard.

Single sign-on technology. So employees only have to remember one set of login details to access all the tech tools they need.

Mistake #3: An HQ-centric approach to comms content

With the right technology, you can finally reach the frontline employees in your organization. But you can’t simply serve up the same content you’ve always delivered.

Long-winded corporate content is a no-no for busy frontline teams. You’re unlikely to engage them if you ask them to download a PDF policy document or scroll through long paragraphs of text. Remember: they’re consuming content on a small smartphone screen.

Likewise, if most of the content they see is geared toward office-based employees, frontline workers are likely to lose interest. Scrolling through lots of irrelevant information to reach frontline-specific content is a headache your frontline really doesn’t need.

How to solve it:

Long-winded, text-based comms are out. Short, snappy, visual content is in. 

Think of the kinds of messages that work well on social media platforms. Here, attention-grabbing headlines, multimedia posts, Stories, and straight-to-the-point text convey a lot of information very quickly and effectively.

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This is ideal for busy frontline workers who don’t have time to scroll through reams of text-heavy content. They get need-to-know information in bite-size form.

Personalization is also key. A home care worker doesn’t need to know about the faulty photocopier in the office. But elderly care updates? New incident reporting procedures? The latest shift availability? That’s all really useful and engaging stuff. 

Segment your audience so frontline workers only see information that relates to them, their location, role, and team.

Mistake #4: Too many corporate updates, not enough community

Your office employees can congratulate their coworkers on a successful sales pitch face-to-face. They can share ideas with a teammate on the way to lunch. Or chat about the latest binge-worthy series with their buddies while brewing a coffee in the office kitchen.

But it’s different for the frontline. Frontline workers don’t get the same opportunity for coworker camaraderie as their desk-based peers. There are few options for collaboration and only 30% feel seen and valued by their organization.

Corporate updates are an essential part of employee communications. But you can’t stop there.  Failing to focus on community across your communication channels leaves frontline workers feeling isolated from company culture — and each other.

How to solve it:

Becoming a connected organization is about more than passing news from HQ to the frontline. Effective communication goes both ways and — with the right tech tools — you can build a shared sense of culture and purpose.

To bring every member of staff into the conversation, ensure your platform supports employee interactions. Can they leave comments on news feed posts? React with emojis? Post their own content?

Also, look to launch the following:

• Fun, informal posts. Create polls, launch content challenges, and post event videos. This fun content encourages interaction and helps frontline employees to feel part of company culture.
• Shared interest groups. Communities are a great way to bring frontline employees together. They can find coworkers who share their interests and hobbies, and build meaningful workplace relationships.  
• Regular recognition. Organizations that make recognition an everyday part of the employee experience improve retention, employee engagement, and a sense of belonging. So encourage managers and coworkers to regularly create employee recognition posts.
• Group chat. Create group chats for each frontline team and location. When employees can easily connect with their coworkers, collaboration and connection improve.

Mistake #5: Communication is one-way

Top-down communications are important. You need to keep employees in the loop about company updates, safety announcements, and schedules. But if communication only flows one way, engagement will suffer.

Two-way internal communication shows employees you value them and their input. It demonstrates trust, which then gets repaid. You also get insights that drive smarter business decisions.  

Frontline workers interact with customers. They can spot supply chain bottlenecks and operational inefficiencies. They know which policies are causing frontline frustration — long before the C-suite does.

Without easy, two-way communication, leadership is left in the dark on issues that impact productivity, customer experience, and employee retention.

How to solve it:

Don’t settle for a digital bulletin board. Make your employee app a hive of interactivity by encouraging employees to join the conversation. Here’s how:

• Surveys. Launch regular employee surveys to gauge employee sentiment on everything from policy changes to break room design to internal communication strategy.
• Forms. Make it easy for employees to report safety concerns or suggest improvements using easy-access digital forms.
• Real-time chat. Give frontline workers a direct line to managers and coworkers with 1-to-1 chat functions.
• Interactive content. Craft content that encourages employee input: pose questions in news feed posts, create flash polls, or run a leadership Q&A.

By giving frontline employees a voice, you create a more engaged, informed, and empowered workforce — one that actively contributes to company success. 

Mistake #6: You don’t act on insights from employees and app analytics

If you’ve already rectified the other mistakes on this list, you’re now actively listening to employees and gathering a ton of useful internal communication data through your employee app.

But collecting feedback and analytics is only half the battle — it’s what you do with that information that really counts.  

Failing to act on employee insights weakens trust in the feedback process. When employees don’t see changes based on their input, they become disengaged and less likely to participate in future surveys or discussions.

Ignoring app analytics is equally costly. Unless you segment and analyze the data, you risk making internal comms decisions based on assumptions, not facts. This means missed opportunities to optimize content, improve reach, and create messages that resonate with employees.

The result? Internal communications stagnate, employee engagement declines, and your strategy fails to keep up with the evolving needs and expectations of your frontline employees.

How to solve it:

• Close the feedback loop. Every time you launch an employee survey or embark on a listening tour, tell employees about your findings and thank them for their contributions. Let them know what you plan to do next and keep them posted on any changes and improvements you make.
  
  
• Make proper use of analytics. Use app analytics to track internal communication KPIs. Look at metrics like platform adoption rate, leadership visibility, profile completion, and the number of responses, likes, and reactions your messages receive. Also, segment the data so you get a real sense of how frontline employees are using your internal communication tools. Then, make improvements based on your findings to make your internal communication platform work even better for frontline teams.

Frontline employee communication: essential considerations

Internal communication mistakes are costly. But can avoid them by remembering these guiding principles for frontline comms:

• Think mobile-first. Frontline workers spend all, or most, of their time away from a desk. They need communication systems that move with them.
• Provide short, engaging content. Busy frontline employees need information in an easy-to-digest format. So make like a social media marketer with succinct, visual, and highly engaging messages. 
• Connection, not just communication. Build an online company community by encouraging employee interaction and coworker conversations. 
• Commit to iteration. Continually evaluate your communication strategy and encourage regular feedback from your frontline employees. Then, make meaningful changes based on data, not instincts.

Is your frontline communication falling short?

You only avoid the communication mistakes we’ve looked at in this article if you have the right internal comms tech on your team. That’s where Blink comes in.

Blink is an employee app that offers the same great experience for frontline and desk-based employees.

With secure, single sign-on technology, a user-friendly interface, and deep integrations, it acts as a digital hub. It gives frontline employees access to the information, tools, and connection they need day to day — all via their smartphones.

Blink. And connect your frontline employees like never before.

Let’s be honest: Disengaged employees are expensive.

They’re less productive and more likely to leave. They tend to drag down team morale — so one disengaged employee can quickly turn into dozens.

If engagement at your organization isn’t what you’d like it to be, rest assured that you can change the story. You can improve employee engagement through intentional action, smart communication, and a genuine commitment to making work better.

Dealing with frontline employees who never sit down at a desk? Remote teams spread across time zones? A hybrid crew working between office and home?

Whatever your organization, these 67 employee engagement ideas will help you create a workplace where people choose to show up and do their best work.

67 employee engagement ideas

Make work matter

First up, let’s look at employee engagement ideas that connect your people to purpose and values.

1. Get clear on what you stand for

People are more invested when they understand the why behind their work, not just what they’re expected to do. So before you launch any other initiatives or campaigns, get crystal clear on your values and the bigger picture you’re working toward.

2. Bring values into the everyday

If values only live on a slide deck, they won’t make much impact. But bring them into everyday communication — into leadership messages, recognition posts, and team shout-outs — and they can transform your organization. When values become visible, they start to shape employee behaviors.

3. Build trust with leadership comms

Only 19% of employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization. But trust is the foundation of engagement. You can build trust by making your leaders more visible, with the help of video updates, behind-the-scenes selfies, and personal anecdotes. When leaders show up on your internal communication channels regularly, authentically, and transparently, organizational trust grows.

4. Show employees the impact of their work

Employees are more engaged when they understand the difference they make to your customers, coworkers, and the wider organization. So shine a light on outcomes — a customer story, a safety improvement, a project win. Help employees connect the dots between what they do and why it matters.

5. Prioritise sustainability initiatives

Sustainability — environmental, social, and ethical — plays an increasingly important role in how people feel about their employer. To make your employees feel proud to work for you, share your sustainability goals and progress regularly. Also, involve employees in initiatives and idea-sharing. 

6. Support volunteering

Volunteering improves employee well-being. Support volunteering — through paid time off, company-wide initiatives, or local partnerships — and you show you care about your employees and wider society. You also create shared experiences that strengthen connection and belonging.

7. Treat employees equitably

Unfairness is one of the fastest ways to disengage a workforce. So make a genuine, company-wide commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ensure everyone is paid fairly for their work. Also, ensure all employees — whether they’re office-based, home-based, or frontline workers — enjoy the same opportunities for connection, progression, and recognition.

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Communicate more effectively

Effective workplace communication is everything. These team engagement ideas are all about getting internal comms right.

8. Identify communication challenges

Employee engagement suffers when messages don’t land. Take a clear-eyed look at your internal communication. What’s being read, what’s ignored, and where are people getting confused or being left out? The goal isn’t more messages — it’s comms delivered in the right place at the right time.

9. Be transparent

Employees don’t want perfection — they want honesty. Share where the business is headed, what’s going well, and what’s proving tough. Open communication builds trust, puts rumors to bed, and helps people feel part of the journey your company is taking.

10. Create a conversation

Top-down messages are important. But so is giving employees a voice. Create low-friction ways for employees to get involved in the company conversation. For example, you can invite interaction on your news feed, encouraging employees to share ideas, ask questions, and celebrate wins together.

11. Cut the noise with one clear source of truth

When you use too many channels, you create confusion, not clarity. Important messages are missed and employees switch off. With a centralized platform like Blink, there’s just one source of truth. Employees know exactly where to go for essential documents, coworker connection, and company updates. And (with smart targeting) they only see comms that are relevant to them and their roles.

12. Keep comms bite-sized

If you’re still communicating using long walls of text, employee engagement is suffering. Try breaking updates into short, scannable chunks. Use visuals, video, and attention-grabbing headlines to get a point across quickly. This style of comms fits into busy work days and is much less likely to be ignored or overlooked.

13. Strengthen peer-to-peer connection

Both top-down and bottom-up communication are important. But is there enough peer-to-peer communication at your organization? Dispersed teams need digital spaces where they can talk, collaborate, and share knowledge with each other. So use chat tools for real-time conversations — in groups and 1-to-1, too. 

14. Give regular feedback

Feedback shouldn’t be saved for annual reviews. Regular, constructive feedback reassures employees that they’re on track and shows you’re invested in their growth. Done well, it builds confidence while reducing stress and anxiety. Encourage managers to schedule regular 1-to-1s — either face-to-face or over digital channels.

15. Ask for feedback — often

Go beyond the standard annual employee survey. Take the pulse of your organization more regularly with quarterly surveys and quick-fire polls. Find out how employees really feel about change, your comms strategy, and their day-to-day work. You’ll identify employee engagement issues early and prevent them from snowballing.

16. Close the feedback loop

Nothing disengages employees faster than being asked for input, then hearing nothing back. So when you ask for employee feedback, share what you learned, what’s changing, and why. Even when you can’t act on every suggestion, transparency shows respect and builds trust — both in your organization and the feedback process itself.

17. Run a listening tour

Head to the shop floor, the ward, the customer service centre — wherever work happens. Run listening tours, focus groups, and 1-to-1 interviews. When leaders spend time with employees, they get real insight into their successes and concerns, and the realities of their workday. So they can make meaningful improvements to employee engagement.

18. Bring people together with live moments

In a dispersed workplace, bringing everyone together for an all-hands meeting can prove tricky. But live stream your events, and employees don’t have to be in the office to take part. You can reach frontline, hybrid, and remote employees with digital town halls and Q&As, allowing them to watch, react, and participate in real time.

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Leverage technology

The digital tools you use have a big impact on employee experience and engagement. Implement these employee engagement ideas and get your tech stack up to scratch.

19. Use engagement tech

Get the right engagement tech on your team, and you’ll find it much easier to inspire your workforce. An employee engagement platform — like Blink’s modern intranet — provides tools for two-way communication, employee recognition, and surveys. It helps you understand employee engagement at your organization and implement engagement-boosting initiatives. 

20. Choose new tech wisely

The digital employee experience (DEX) has a huge impact on employee engagement. And any tech you choose has to work for all members of your workforce — office, remote, hybrid, and frontline employees. Start by finding out what employees want from workplace software. Involve them early, and you’re more likely to find tech tools that fit the needs of your organization.

21. Create a digital front door

Is tech sprawl hurting employee engagement? Instead of forcing employees to jump between tech tools, give them one simple starting point. A digital hub brings tools, resources, comms, and workflows together behind a single login and a unified dashboard. It reduces friction and saves time, so employees enjoy a more streamlined and satisfying workday.

22. Reduce interruptions

Constant pings drain focus and engagement. Choose technology that lets you control notifications. Better still, choose tech that gives employees the power to manage their own alerts. They should be able to decide how and when they’re notified, and to specify quiet days when they don’t want to be disturbed.

23. Make everything relevant

One size doesn’t fit all. To ensure your digital tools work well for employees, use personalization and segmentation features. A dashboard that shows an employee’s preferred tools. A news feed that shows content relevant to their team, location, and tenure. Training recommendations tailored to their roles. When the experience feels relevant, employees are more likely to engage with your tech stack.

24. Opt for social media-style communication

Another great employee engagement idea? Use communication tools that mirror the experience employees get on social media apps. A modern social platform comes with a news feed, reactions, comments, and short-form content. So communication feels intuitive, familiar, and incredibly engaging.

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25. Put engagement in the palm of every employee

Frontline workers don’t always have easy access to a desktop computer. A company app brings engagement-boosting comms, tools, and resources to every employee smartphone. So you get to improve employee engagement across the board.

26. Empower employees with self-service

Convenient online experiences have made us pretty impatient, and we don’t like to wait for answers. You can reduce workplace frustration by implementing self-service HR tools. Let employees check paystubs, update their details, request time off, or find policies — without chasing support teams. It means fewer bottlenecks, faster resolutions, and a better employee experience.

27. Use data to spot engagement dips early

Engagement shouldn’t be reactive. AI-powered insights and platform analytics help you track trends, flag potential issues, and act before problems escalate. Whether it’s nudging a manager to recognize a team or prompting a well-being check-in, smart data turns insight into noticeable employee engagement improvement.

Foster coworker connection

Strong social bonds at work boost engagement, collaboration, and morale. Here are some practical workplace engagement ideas to help employees connect.

28. Help employees develop social connections

Employees who feel connected to one another feel more connected to your company. Carve out time for water cooler chat, encourage coworker conversations on your employee engagement app, and schedule social events across the year. 

29. Take team photos

It might seem basic, but putting faces to names makes a big difference. Display team photos in the office — or online, as part of a searchable company directory. You make it easier for employees to make connections and find cross-functional collaborators.

30. Create communities within your company

Support employees to share their out-of-office interests — like reading, running, baking, or painting. Use coworker communities, forums, or even noticeboards to help people connect over shared hobbies.

31. Establish employee resource groups

Employee resource groups (ERGs) give marginalized groups a voice and a sense of belonging. Provide access to resources and communication channels so employees can share experiences, raise issues in a place of psychological safety, and feel part of a supportive community.

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32. Schedule virtual coffee breaks

Frontline and remote teams often miss out on informal chats. Scheduling virtual coffee breaks helps employees build relationships across your organization, even when they’re away from HQ. Pair employees up, encourage them to grab a brew, and maybe even give them a topic to get conversations flowing.

33. Organize team-building activities

Old school, but effective. Escape rooms, cook-offs, trivia challenges — shared experiences build stronger bonds and make workplace collaboration easier. So plan a calendar of in-person and virtual team-building events to bring your people together.

34. Create space for employee-generated content

Encourage an internal creator culture. Give employees the tools and encouragement they need to create a quick video, a post for the company feed, or a blog for your content hub. Let them share their stories and ideas — and behind-the-scenes insight into their work day. You’ll end up with authentic, engaging content and a better-connected workforce.

Help employees grow

Learning and development is one of the most powerful ways to boost engagement. Here are employee engagement ideas that help your people develop skills and progress on their career paths.

35. Share training opportunities

You may have incredible learning and development opportunities. But if half your workforce doesn’t know about them, they’re doing very little for employee engagement. Keep everyone in the L&D loop with regular company-wide comms that point people in the direction of relevant learning programs, ensuring hard-to-reach frontline workers are kept up to speed, too.

36. Make training easy to access

Remove any barriers to training. Give employees paid time off to attend courses. Make it clear that the company will cover training costs. Also, make it easy for employees to access training at a time and place that suits them with the help of mobile-first software.

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37. Offer internal coaching and mentoring

With access to internal coaching and mentoring sessions, employees can develop skills, knowledge, and confidence. They can get career guidance and build connections with new people within your company. Mentoring programs benefit mentors, too — because supporting others is also great for engagement.

38. Train your managers

70% of the variance in team engagement comes down to team leaders. Managers should understand what good employee engagement looks like, how to nurture it within their own teams, and how to spot engagement issues. Where necessary, give managers the training they need to deliver your employee engagement strategy.

39. Set clear goals

Clear goals and targets keep employees moving forward in their careers. Agree on objectives together. Then identify actions, milestones, and training to help employees succeed.

40. Encourage side projects

Give employees space to explore and innovate. Encourage passion projects that allow employees to think and act creatively. They may come up with an inspired new idea for your company. And, at the very least, they’ll feel more fulfilled and invested in their work.

41. Promote from within

A lack of progression leads employees to look for another job elsewhere. You can improve engagement and increase employee retention by promoting employees from within wherever possible. 

42. Let workers move laterally, too

Where a step up the career ladder isn’t possible, a step to the side can be just as motivating for employees. A lateral move helps them build new skills and develop their understanding of different departments.

43. Launch learning clubs

Less formal than training courses, learning clubs keep growth social and fun. Skill-sharing sessions and short courses give employees a chance to teach, learn, and get to know one another better. And it doesn’t have to be work-related. Employees can run a hobby-based workshop, sharing their insights into plant care, nutrition, photography — anything that sparks their interest.

Motivate, motivate, motivate

Motivation is about recognition and making work feel worthwhile. Here are a few employee engagement ideas to keep your team focused.

44. Increase salaries

54% of employees say a significant increase in income is very important to them when looking for a new job. So if their paycheck is already competitive? They’ve got much less reason to leave. Make salaries fair and market-aligned to keep your top talent invested in their work.

45. Tailor your benefits

The best benefits programs are tailored to the needs of your workforce. So survey your staff to find out what they’d most like help with — whether that’s childcare, health insurance, gym memberships, travel allowance, or education assistance. You can discover new ideas for your benefits program that really resonate with employees.  

46. Go beyond money and benefits

There’s no doubt that money and benefits motivate your teams. But company culture plays a big role, too. Recognition, work-life balance, training opportunities, and a sense of belonging are great at inspiring employee loyalty and engagement. So — if budgets are tight — prioritize these other areas of employee experience.

47. Recognize effort and success

Make employee recognition part of your everyday company culture. Spotlight employee and team achievements (big and small) on the company news feed. Encourage coworkers to add their words of congratulations to amplify the impact. (And bonus points for tying recognition back to company values.)

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48. Mark milestones

Birthdays. Work anniversaries. The end of a lengthy project. Celebrate milestones to show employees how much you value them. From office get-togethers to digital shout-outs, make these moments visible and meaningful.

49. Find out what motivates employees

If you’re running a rewards program, check in regularly to find out if employees are excited by your incentives. Surveys can reveal whether employees prefer cash, gift cards, charitable donations, or other perks. They make rewards personal and relevant — so they’re a lot more motivating.

50. Bring in motivational speakers

A fresh perspective can spark new energy in the workplace. Creativity workshops, industry talks, or motivational sessions — these types of events encourage employees to think differently. They can leave people feeling inspired and focused, ready to tackle their workload with an improved mindset.

51. Send out Monday motivation

Start the week on a high note. Use your comms platform to share quotes, videos, or fun content that energizes employees and banishes those Monday Blues.

52. Offer autonomy

Employees are more engaged and motivated when you trust in their judgment, abilities, and work ethic. So give them more autonomy over their work. Let them make decisions and take ownership of projects. You’ll create a culture of trust and accountability that boosts engagement.

53. Harness the power of gamification

Make work more fun with the help of gamification. You don’t need gimmicks, like badges and leaderboards. Instead, you can gamify the employee experience with playful little additions to the workday. A news feed challenge. An interactive poll. A countdown timer for your next event. These moments bring organic recognition and reward into an employee’s everyday workflow.

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Offer work-life balance

Helping employees balance work and life is essential for engagement, retention, and productivity. Here are a few employee engagement ideas that help you support your team.

54. Be more flexible

91% of employers now say they offer some kind of flexible working arrangement. Flexibility is helping organizations attract and retain talent. We get that company and employee needs don’t always align. But look at different types of flexible working and try to accommodate an employee’s preference for location and schedules wherever possible. 

55. Make it easier for employees to switch shifts

Frontline employees appreciate autonomy. Shift-swapping software lets them swap shifts without asking their manager or HR, giving them more control over their schedules.

56. Communicate shifts in advance

Another way to support frontline employees with work-life balance? Communicate shifts in advance. When you give workers plenty of notice, it’s easier for them to organize child care, social events, and other responsibilities.

57. Boost employee health and well-being

Engaged employees are healthy employees. Promote physical and mental well-being with initiatives like healthy snacks, lunchtime fitness sessions, and wellbeing apps that reach all employees, including remote and frontline workers. 

58. Don’t penalize sick time

Encourage employees to stay home when they’re sick. Compassionate policies build trust, reduce the spread of illness, and show employees they’re valued as people, not just workers.

59. Encourage PTO

They’ve earned it. So they should use it. Remind employees of remaining vacation days and be excited for them when they take time off. Employees feel more connected to your organization when they get to take a break from it.

60. Discourage an always-on mentality

Respect personal boundaries. Train managers to avoid after-hours emails or calls and to honor employee vacation time. Encourage your C-suite to lead by example by switching off at the end of the day. You signal to employees that rest is prioritized — and that it’s okay for them to switch off, too.

61. Respect employee schedules

Consider all employees (not just the 9-to-5 crew) when planning events, training, or meetings. If staff work different shift patterns — or work in different time zones — rotate timings and don’t expect attendance outside work hours.

Optimize onboarding and offboarding

Engagement starts the moment someone joins your organization — and doesn’t end until they leave. Smart onboarding and offboarding processes set the tone, build loyalty, and give you insights you need to improve team engagement at every life cycle stage.

62. Welcome new hires the right way

Give new hires all the tools and resources they need to hit the ground running. Create automated employee journeys that deliver the right content at the right time — and give them day-one access to the engagement-boosting tech tools your company uses, including your employee intranet or app.

63. Assign a buddy

Pair new employees with an experienced team member. Having someone to answer questions and introduce them to company culture helps reduce nerves and boost confidence during those early days.

64. Ask for feedback

Survey new employees at regular intervals (at two weeks, one month, 90 days, and six months), to better understand the onboarding experience — everything from IT access to initial orientation to manager support to team integration. You can then find ways to improve employee engagement and reduce new hire churn.

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65. Encourage social connections

Ask new hires to introduce themselves on the company intranet. A photograph, a post, or a short video encourages existing team members to say hello. It helps new employees build workplace connections and feel more at home.

66. Set early goals and give recognition

New employees like to know that they’re doing a good job. So — either face-to-face or over chat tools — set targets and recognize early achievements. You’ll show them that they’re on the right path and give engagement a boost.

67. Conduct exit interviews

Offboarding is just as important as onboarding. Exit interviews give you insights into engagement issues so you can make meaningful improvements. Treat departing employees with care and respect, and they’re also more likely to become brand advocates. 

How do you build these ideas into an employee engagement strategy?

Employee engagement isn’t built overnight. And it’s rarely fixed by a single initiative.

Real progress comes from a joined-up approach — a combination of the employee engagement ideas above and a commitment to a holistic, company-wide engagement strategy.

That means creating a culture where employees are valued, supported, and recognized. Where engagement programs are tailored to the needs of your workforce. And where the right tech tools are part of everyday workflows.

An employee app like Blink gives you everything you need:  

• An employee engagement platform, with recognition, live streaming, and employee survey tools
• A modern social experience, with an interactive news feed, video stories, and user profiles
• A content hub where employees can find workplace resources and automated employee journeys
• Integrations that streamline workflows by bringing your tech stack to every employee smartphone
• In-depth analytics that help you focus attention where it matters most

With a platform like Blink, you put company culture and connection into the pocket of every employee. So putting these employee engagement ideas into practice becomes easy.