How to Calculate Employee Retention Rate (With Examples)
Learn how to calculate your employee retention rate with step-by-step formulas, worked examples, and benchmarks. Plus: retention vs turnover explained.
Retention rate is a ratio of the total current employees and the employees at a previous point in time in the same positions at your company. You can calculate it annually or quarterly.
It provides a snapshot of how satisfied your employees are at your company.
A high retention rate indicates your employees enjoy the work they’re doing, fit in with your culture, and receive fair pay.
Conversely, a low retention rate means that one or more of those elements are less than ideal. Since retention rate is inversely related to employee turnover rate, low retention means high turnover.
Knowing your employee retention rate’s status, you can evaluate and adjust your employee retention strategies. When your employee retention rate improves, you know your retention efforts are paying off.
Measuring employee retention rate
To find your organization’s employee retention rate, you need data on the total number of employees with your organization at the beginning of a period and the number of employees who remain at the end. From there, you can quickly calculate your retention rate.
How to calculate employee retention rate
Find how many employees left your company in a period. Subtract that number from your total headcount at the start of the period. Divide the remaining number of employees by the initial headcount. The result should be a decimal. Multiply that number by 100 to find the retention rate in percentage.
Here’s what that looks like in the employee retention formula:
For example, let’s say you want to calculate your annual retention rate.
You started the year with 56 employees and ended with 50 employees. Here’s how you can find the retention rate:
56 - 6 = 50
50/56 = 0.8928
0.89 x 100 = 89
So in this scenario, the retention rate is 89%
Employee retention rate vs. employee turnover rate
Whenever we talk about staff retention rate, it’s also common to hear staff turnover rate. We use them interchangeably because they’re two sides of the same coin.
While retention rate measures how many people stayed, turnover is the measure of how many people left.
Similarly, you might be confused about attrition rate and employee churn rate. They are just other names for turnover rate.
How to calculate employee turnover rate
You can do so by:
Sum the total employees at the beginning and end of the time interval.
Divide by two to get the average number of employees.
Divide the total number of separations for a given time by the average number of employees.
For monthly turnover, you will work with this:
Suppose a company begins the month with 32 employees. Four employees leave, and six new employees join. So the company ends the month with 34 employees.
The average number of employees is:
(32+34)/2 = 33
Next, we find the turnover:
4/33 = 0.1212
Multiplying by 100, the turnover rate is 12%.
What is a good employee retention rate?
A good employee retention rate varies from industry to industry.
Retail and restaurants tend to have lower industry average retention rates than other sectors, while government and federal sectors have the highest retention rates.
The overall market and economy also affect your retention rate. During times of high uncertainty or in a strong talent market, retention may decrease for every industry. For example, turnover in 2020 was 57.3%, making it 20% higher than the previous year.
According to Built In, average retention rates range from 70-90%.
Following this logic, a good retention rate is somewhere above 75%. But for frontline organizations that deal with restaurant and retail, a retention rate above 50% is also decent.
Final thoughts: how to find your employee retention rate
Calculating your employee retention is an important metric while running your business. It can tell you a lot about how your employees feel at your company.
The same is true for turnover rate as that lets you know where the fault lies.
Use both metrics to get a complete picture of your business and employ retention strategies to keep your top talent around.
If you’re looking for a new way to keep your employees engaged, Blink is an all-in-one employee communications app that can help you stay connected to your employees and boost retention.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good employee retention rate?
According to research, the average retention rates range from 70-90%. So anything above 90% can be considered good.
How do you measure employee retention?
You can measure employee retention by working out the percentage of employees who remain at a company for a fixed time period.
What is the formula for retention rate?
1. Find how many employees left your company in a period. 2. Take how many employees left your company in a set period. 3. Then subtract that number from your total headcount at the start of the period. 4. Divide the remaining number of employees by the initial headcount. 5. The result should be a decimal. 6. Multiply that number by 100 to find the retention rate in percentage.
Anytime a good employee leaves your company, you’re bound to feel sad. You may also start to get nervous.
While it’s upsetting to see them go, it’s normal: many employees leave a company each year.
But how do you differentiate a typical turnover from a severe turnover problem?
Retention rate is a ratio of the total current employees and the employees at a previous point in time in the same positions at your company. You can calculate it annually or quarterly.
It provides a snapshot of how satisfied your employees are at your company.
A high retention rate indicates your employees enjoy the work they’re doing, fit in with your culture, and receive fair pay.
Conversely, a low retention rate means that one or more of those elements are less than ideal. Since retention rate is inversely related to employee turnover rate, low retention means high turnover.
Knowing your employee retention rate’s status, you can evaluate and adjust your employee retention strategies. When your employee retention rate improves, you know your retention efforts are paying off.
Measuring employee retention rate
To find your organization’s employee retention rate, you need data on the total number of employees with your organization at the beginning of a period and the number of employees who remain at the end. From there, you can quickly calculate your retention rate.
How to calculate employee retention rate
Find how many employees left your company in a period. Subtract that number from your total headcount at the start of the period. Divide the remaining number of employees by the initial headcount. The result should be a decimal. Multiply that number by 100 to find the retention rate in percentage.
Here’s what that looks like in the employee retention formula:
For example, let’s say you want to calculate your annual retention rate.
You started the year with 56 employees and ended with 50 employees. Here’s how you can find the retention rate:
56 - 6 = 50
50/56 = 0.8928
0.89 x 100 = 89
So in this scenario, the retention rate is 89%
Employee retention rate vs. employee turnover rate
Whenever we talk about staff retention rate, it’s also common to hear staff turnover rate. We use them interchangeably because they’re two sides of the same coin.
While retention rate measures how many people stayed, turnover is the measure of how many people left.
Similarly, you might be confused about attrition rate and employee churn rate. They are just other names for turnover rate.
How to calculate employee turnover rate
You can do so by:
Sum the total employees at the beginning and end of the time interval.
Divide by two to get the average number of employees.
Divide the total number of separations for a given time by the average number of employees.
For monthly turnover, you will work with this:
Suppose a company begins the month with 32 employees. Four employees leave, and six new employees join. So the company ends the month with 34 employees.
The average number of employees is:
(32+34)/2 = 33
Next, we find the turnover:
4/33 = 0.1212
Multiplying by 100, the turnover rate is 12%.
What is a good employee retention rate?
A good employee retention rate varies from industry to industry.
Retail and restaurants tend to have lower industry average retention rates than other sectors, while government and federal sectors have the highest retention rates.
The overall market and economy also affect your retention rate. During times of high uncertainty or in a strong talent market, retention may decrease for every industry. For example, turnover in 2020 was 57.3%, making it 20% higher than the previous year.
According to Built In, average retention rates range from 70-90%.
Following this logic, a good retention rate is somewhere above 75%. But for frontline organizations that deal with restaurant and retail, a retention rate above 50% is also decent.
Final thoughts: how to find your employee retention rate
Calculating your employee retention is an important metric while running your business. It can tell you a lot about how your employees feel at your company.
The same is true for turnover rate as that lets you know where the fault lies.
Use both metrics to get a complete picture of your business and employ retention strategies to keep your top talent around.
If you’re looking for a new way to keep your employees engaged, Blink is an all-in-one employee communications app that can help you stay connected to your employees and boost retention.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good employee retention rate?
According to research, the average retention rates range from 70-90%. So anything above 90% can be considered good.
How do you measure employee retention?
You can measure employee retention by working out the percentage of employees who remain at a company for a fixed time period.
What is the formula for retention rate?
1. Find how many employees left your company in a period. 2. Take how many employees left your company in a set period. 3. Then subtract that number from your total headcount at the start of the period. 4. Divide the remaining number of employees by the initial headcount. 5. The result should be a decimal. 6. Multiply that number by 100 to find the retention rate in percentage.
AI isn’t exactly the new kid on the block, but 2024 was the year it truly hit its stride. Businesses that embraced it didn’t just dip their toes in — they’re already seeing big wins.
According to Boston Consulting Group, businesses that are leading the way with AI have achieved 1.5x the revenue growth than those that lag behind.
So could 2025 be the year when AI becomes commonplace in internal communications and HR? HR leaders seem to think so. 3 in 4 say that failing to adopt and implement AI in the next 12 to 24 months will harm organizational success.
AI is becoming a necessity rather than a nice-to-have — and the employee intranet is the perfect place to put it to use. AI has the power — not just to enhance intranets — but to reinvent them for the modern workforce.
Let's take a closer look at the essential features and benefits that an AI-powered intranet can bring to your employees and organization.
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Why employee intranets are stuck in the past
Traditional employee intranets — we’re talking those clunky, desktop-based platforms — rarely meet the needs of today’s modern workforce.
Typically used as a content management hub on a private network, they serve up static documents that tend to quickly go out of date, like company policies. Interfaces are usually hard to navigate. There are few (if any) employee engagement features built into the system.
The result? Employees actively avoid your intranet solution. Adoption and usage rates drop. It gets even harder to streamline workflows and share important employee communications.
In recent years, modern intranets and employee apps have been rectifying some of the problems created by traditional intranets — and AI is taking the digital workplace to a whole new level.
How AI is turning corporate intranets into must-have tools
The talk about AI isn’t just hype. Incorporate this tech into your intranet software and you can finally create a social intranet that serves as a single source of truth for your employees.
Imagine logging into your intranet and seeing everything you need in one central location — no digging, no guesswork. Thanks to AI, your intranet can serve up personalized internal communication, relevant content, and digital tools in a company news feed that’s designed to feel custom-built just for you.
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Enhanced search capabilities
Natural language processing (NLP) means we can speak to AI as we would a person — and it understands what we’re saying. This enables intuitive and conversational intranet search functions. Also, AI may soon be able to answer employee questions using its knowledge of intranet resources, rather than simply serving a list of resource links.
Proactive assistance
AI can be integrated into your employee intranet as a chatbot. It can answer employee FAQs and guide onboarding for new hires. It can help employees find the intranet content and tools they need. This frees your HR, IT, and comms teams to focus on higher-level tasks.
Real-time recommendations
Your intranet could become your employees’ personal assistant, predicting what they need before they even realize it. Need a document? It’s already highlighted. Looking for a collaborator? AI’s got a suggestion. It’s like having an intranet that reads minds.
Voice and chat integration
Employees can enjoy seamless intranet interactions through virtual assistants and voice commands. Employees don’t even need to type. They can get answers to questions like, “What are my tasks for the day?” or “show me the latest HR policy,” without having to navigate the intranet interface. This is great for accessibility and for employees who want to access your intranet on the go.
Task automation
AI can automate a wide range of routine tasks, including PTO requests, compliance training reminders, and IT support tickets. It can search for and flag outdated intranet content, automatically generate content tags, and launch pulse surveys as per your schedule. It can become the home for easy-to-find collaboration tools that help employees connect and work with one another. Managers and employees can also use AI to compose intranet content.
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Easy analytics
AI can help you make the most of your intranet by analyzing data on usage patterns, features that aren’t used very often, and your most popular content. You can also use AI to analyze employee sentiment and identify employee engagement red flags. This gives you time to make changes before dissatisfaction impacts productivity and retention.
Why an AI-powered intranet is a win-win
AI transformation can feel daunting. But the benefits it brings for both employees and organizations can’t be ignored.
Benefits for employees
An AI intranet improves the employee experience. Automation and proactive AI support make work quicker and easier, so employees can focus on more meaningful and strategic tasks. AI can optimize the collaborative parts of a unified platform — like enabling an easy-to-navigate employee directory, or quick-to-use instant messaging — that make or break a great experience on a daily basis.
An AI-powered intranet also reduces friction and frustration because employees are presented with relevant information at every turn. Every employee — from the desk-based employee to the frontline worker — gets a user-friendly, personalized intranet experience that improves their engagement and motivation.
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Benefits for organizations
AI improves your intranet solution, driving higher employee adoption rates and ensuring you get the best possible ROI from your intranet investment.
Your new and improved intranet can also become a key part of the company culture, supporting employee engagement, productivity, collaboration, and retention. And with easy data analysis, it’s much easier to track success relating to all these business objectives.
AI roadblocks — and how to power through them
An AI-powered intranet can transform your digital workplace, making it more engaging, efficient, and collaborative. But — as with any big change in the workplace — you need to give careful consideration to potential pitfalls.
Here are some of the challenges of incorporating AI into your intranet software and what you can do to overcome them.
Data privacy concerns
AI systems process vast amounts of personal and organizational data. So preventing data breaches and the associated loss of employee trust is imperative. You should only use encrypted intranet platforms and work to establish clear data privacy policies.
Change management
Introducing AI to your traditional intranet is like rolling out the red carpet for innovation — but not everyone might feel like a VIP right away. Some employees may hesitate, wondering, “How do I even use this?” That’s where effective communication and training come in to save the day.
Balancing AI and a human touch
Use AI to augment, rather than replace, human connection. AI can handle repetitive tasks and help with data analysis. But when it comes to tasks that require decision-making, emotional intelligence, creative collaboration, and relationship-building, ensure that employees — not bots — take the lead.
How to make AI intranet adoption seamless
If, like us, you’re convinced that AI is going to be an intranet game-changer, here’s what you need to do next.
#1. Conduct a needs assessment to determine what features matter most
To find an AI intranet that meets all your organizational needs, start with a needs assessment. Consult with stakeholders at all levels to find out which intranet and AI features they’d like to see. Then, put features in order of priority before you go vendor shopping.
#2. Partner with a tech vendor specializing in AI-powered intranets
There are lots of tech vendors out there — but not all of them specialize in AI-powered intranets. Work with an AI intranet specialist and your partner can guide you seamlessly through the intranet upgrade process. You can also count on platform reliability, time and cost efficiency, and access to the most advanced AI features. Check out our recommendations of top intranet software providers here.
#3. Prioritize mobile-first design to align with employee expectations
Like the rest of your modern employee intranet, any AI tools should be available to all employees across all devices. Employees — from your office-based knowledge workers to your remote workers and frontline workers in the field — should get the same great intranet experience. So prioritize user-friendly, mobile-first intranet software that meets employees’ high expectations.
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#4. Roll out AI capabilities in phases to avoid overwhelming users
When rolling out any new intranet feature, it’s best to do so in stages, getting employees used to one new feature at a time. This reduces staff overwhelm and helps you sustain intranet engagement. A phased approach also takes the pressure off your IT team, who are less likely to be swamped with training and support requests.
Incorporate AI and take your employee intranet to the next level
Let’s face it: AI isn’t just the future — it’s here. And it’s reshaping the company intranet into something your workforce will actually want to use. With the help of AI, organizations are enhancing the digital employee experience, boosting workplace productivity, and fostering corporate culture — ultimately improving outcomes across the entire company.
The question is: Are you ready to make the leap?
By making the shift to a modern intranet solution now and preparing your platform, employees, and organization for the future, you can stay ahead of the curve — and start to reap AI’s benefits sooner rather than later.
Blink. And discover how an AI-powered intranet can reimagine your organization.
Not every team is going to bring maximum energy every single day. That’s normal.
But if disengagement feels less like an occasional bad Monday and more like a permanent setting, something deeper is going on. For frontline workers especially, the gap between what they experience and what office-based employees take for granted is real — and it shows. The right employee experience platform (EXP) can close that gap in ways that matter.
An employee experience platform for frontline organizations gives every employee — frontline, remote, hybrid, and desk-based — access to communication, recognition, feedback, and connection. All in one simple, mobile-first space.
One login. One experience. One shared culture. And a big boost for employee morale.
Here, we explore what low morale really looks like — and how the right workplace culture platform can help turn it around.
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Understanding low employee morale
Employee morale is the attitude, satisfaction, and emotional well-being workers experience in relation to their job, team, and organization.
Employee morale is closely linked to employee engagement (the degree to which employees feel invested in their work and workplace) and employee motivation (the energy and enthusiasm employees bring to their work).
Causes of low morale
Causes of low morale in the workplace are varied. They include poor leadership, lack of recognition, unclear goals, unsustainable workloads, and limited growth opportunities.
57% of people who rate their organizational culture poorly say they are actively or soon will be looking for another job. And just 45% of those working in poor or terrible cultures are motivated to produce high-quality work.
Symptoms of low morale
Signs of workplace disengagement and low morale include:
Absenteeism
Avoiding collaboration
Missed deadlines
Negativity
Lower employee satisfaction metrics
Impact of low morale
Low morale can lead to disengagement, lower productivity, and increased turnover. Despite these risks, 3 in 4 employers fail to regularly check in on how motivated their workforce is feeling.
Bus company, Go North West, experienced a 26% reduction in employee turnover
More than 8 in 10 employees at Domino’s are using the platform every month to check in with updates and celebrate team wins
As a platform for workplace culture, Blink builds morale into daily work. It allows you to collect feedback, increase psychological safety, and deliver timely manager support.
As a mobile-first platform, Blink makes these collaboration tools and resources available on employee smartphones. So you can bring a better employee experience to every member of every team.
Key benefits of using a workplace culture platform
Thinking of launching employee experience software for frontline organizations? Here are the benefits you can expect:
Better business performance. According to Gallup, highly engaged teams have 17% better productivity, 23% higher profitability, and a 10% increase in customer loyalty.
Visibility into engagement metrics. With one centralized platform and a dashboard for employee sentiment, it’s easy to spot issues with morale and engagement, then prioritize interventions.
Less “busy work.” Centralized communication, recognition, and culture-building tools simplify work. So teams have more time for creative and value-add tasks.
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Addressing hybrid, remote, and frontline workforce challenges
For years, organizations unintentionally built workplace culture around office life. Town halls. Team lunches. Desk-side chats.
Effects on morale may once have been minimal. But things have changed.
A large proportion of employees are now working remotely or on a hybrid schedule. And frontline employees are simply fed up with being forgotten.
This is causing problems for frontline, remote, and hybrid workforce engagement:
21% of frontline employees in the UK are quiet quitting — they say a lack of recognition, ineffective communication, and poor relationships with co-workers and managers are to blame.
A centralized, mobile-first employee experience platform can change all that. It overcomes barriers of time and geography, giving every employee access to the company culture and connection they crave — straight from their smartphones.
Wondering how to welcome non-office workers onto your platform? Here are a few ways to use a culture-building tool for all employees.
Build connections
Support your teams to build connections and a sense of belonging with easy access to chat and company news feed tools.
Provide digital access to resources
Forms, shift swap tools, company policy docs, L&D, career progression, and operational tools — make everything available to all workers in just a few taps of the app.
Make frontline employees visible on the platform
Use employee-generated content and behind-the-scenes insights to make frontline, remote, and hybrid voices heard on your platform.
Personalize content
Use targeting tools to ensure each segment of your workforce sees personalized content and resources relevant to them and their roles.
Creating a virtuous employee lifecycle using data and feedback
Start using employee experience management software for your frontline organization, and you create a positive feedback loop.
You build a more positive company culture, ensuring every employee feels part of it. And you have the tools you need to measure the success of your morale-boosting initiatives — so you can become laser-focused in your approach.
The best workplace culture platforms provide platform usage data and employee feedback, plus actionable insights. Actionable insights are data-driven discoveries that prompt specific improvements to processes, policies, or engagement strategies.
To convert these insights into tangible improvements, you need to move from platform data and analytics and employee feedback to action. You have to close the loop with visible change.
For example:
A pulse survey reveals worrying levels of employee burnout in a particular team.
⬇️
You tell employees what you’ve found and what you plan to do about it (perhaps reallocating workloads or offering more flexibility).
⬇️
You make changes. Then, continue to report back, sharing results and progress transparently with employees.
By taking this approach to workplace sentiment analysis, you embed employee voice as an important part of company culture — and successfully use comms and HR analytics for engagement, satisfaction, and employee morale.
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Launching a workplace culture platform: tips for success
The way you approach culture platform implementation can make or break adoption. You need a good handle on change management in HR tech and a solid employee experience strategy.
As you roll out, you need to:
1. Define culture and engagement goals. What do you want your new platform to achieve? Develop SMART goals and take benchmark readings.
2. Get leaders on board. Ensure leadership buy-in. Emphasize the difference that C-suite input and interaction make. Then, develop ways for them to be visible on the platform.
3. Transparently communicate changes. Tell employees that a new platform is coming and how it benefits them. You may like to incentivize early adoption.
4. Train users. The best platforms have a minimal learning curve. But ensure everyone (particularly frontline and remote staff) is up to speed to ensure high platform adoption rates.
5. Integrate with your tech stack. When your culture platform plays nicely with other workplace tools (for example, HRIS system, shift booking tools, and learning platform), you encourage adoption and amplify impact.
6. Integrate communication tools into daily routines. Create a comms calendar that details when you’ll share recognition, employee surveys, and community updates, ensuring regular cultural touchpoints.
7. Use metrics to iterate and adjust. Keep an eye on platform analytics to find out which of your cultural initiatives are having the most impact and which need to be tweaked.
These adoption strategies will help you maximize return and avoid common pitfalls.
Workplace culture and technology: What’s next?
The right tech tools support a better, more inclusive, more inspiring workplace culture. But where are things headed next?
As ever in the world of tech, there are changes on the way. Here are the shifts in technology and employee expectations we expect to see over the coming months and years.
New platform features. Features like AI-powered content, hyper-personalized recognition, predictive workforce analytics, and mobile-first experiences will become the norm. AI in employee experience is here to stay.
Super-apps for workforce management. In response to app overwhelm, organizations will seek to simplify their tech stacks. They’ll avoid point solutions and, instead, choose tools that support every element of workforce management — with either in-built features or deep integrations.
The rise of employee voice. Organizations that really listen to their employees keep their finger on the pulse and can respond to engagement and morale challenges in real time. Soon, continuous listening will be the norm.
The future of digital workplace technology is already on its way. And it’s clear. Organizations are focusing on fewer tools and better experiences.
We’re already seeing the “platformization” of culture. Disparate tools are being brought together in unified, employee-centric apps, and organizations are realizing the power of tech to transform productivity and morale.
Since joining Blink’s London office less than a year ago, our Data Analyst, Nikita, has already made her mark — tackling data-driven projects, collaborating across teams, and fueling the mission to empower frontline workers. She loves the energy of a smaller startup and finds real purpose in crafting tech solutions that make a positive impact.
Read on to learn how Nikita dove into the world of advanced analytics at Blink, why she’s proud of her work on the AEI tool, and what keeps her excited about the future!
What initially attracted you to join Blink?
I was really inspired by Blink’s mission to empower frontline workers. It was great to see technology being used for such a positive cause. I’ve worked at startups before and really enjoy the energy of a smaller company. Before joining Blink, I was at a slightly bigger startup, but I love our size and find what we’re doing here incredibly exciting.
What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?
AEI! I’m particularly proud of the Advanced Employee Intelligence (AEI) tool. I’ve been working on it with Izzy for the past few months, and it’s been exciting to provide customers with insights they didn’t have before. This tool offers actionable metrics, and it’s gratifying to see how our data can truly help other organizations.
How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?
I would say supportive, vibrant and energetic.
What's one thing you're excited about for the future of Blink?
I’m really excited about the coming year at Blink. We have a lot of great new customers on board, which means there will be even more data to explore. I can’t wait to see the insights we uncover and how they’ll help us continue innovating.
Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
I found the recent Frontline Heroes holiday campaign especially meaningful. It highlighted real stories from frontline workers who use Blink every day, and hearing their experiences was incredibly heartwarming. It served as a powerful reminder of the impact Blink can have on people’s daily lives, and it gave me a renewed sense of purpose in supporting our users on the frontlines.
Why do you work for Blink?
I’m early in my career, and one of the biggest benefits of working at a smaller company like Blink is getting exposure to so many different areas — Marketing, Customer Success, Product — you name it. I love the variety and the fact that I can see the direct impact of my work. Plus, Blink’s mission really resonates with me, so it feels great to contribute to something I believe in every day.
I started here as an Operations Support Analyst under Ana (Mason), which was a fantastic learning experience. But as I took on more analytical tasks, especially around the development of AEI, I transitioned into my current role in Data RevOps. I’m finding it incredibly interesting, and being hands on with such an important product is really rewarding.
Given how much I’ve already learned and how the company is evolving, I see myself staying at Blink for the foreseeable future. It’s a prime opportunity to keep growing, and I don’t want to miss out while I’m still soaking up knowledge at this stage in my career. I’m excited to see what new challenges and opportunities will come as Blink continues to expand.
New employee journey maps can take time to develop. But when adding more smiley faces isn’t enough, how do you get an employee journey map to work better for your organization?
The concept of employee experience maps has been gaining traction as a way to boost employee engagement and improve your onboarding process.
The template follows a pretty straightforward path from hiring, through training, and eventually exiting, but it’s the way you use these maps that makes them valuable.
You know your workers will have training at a particular stage, but how helpful is it? Do you see an increase in turnover at any stage? These are the types of questions your employee journey maps should help you answer.
Why use an employee journey map?
An employee journey map can be a helpful tool for improving the employee lifecycle. This concept visualizes the entire employee experience through your organization, from onboarding until their last day.
There are a few different ways to name each stage of the journey, but every employee experience map follows the same basic flow:
Recruitment and hiring
Onboarding
Engaging and training
Development
Progress and performance
Exit or offboarding
These employee journey touchpoints describe the main stages a worker might be at within the company.
You can track the average time it takes to complete each step, assign different training and feedback for different stages, and look for patterns within your journey maps.
An employee journey map can help with engagement as you can better address the needs and concerns a worker will have by knowing where they stand in the organization.
Making the most of this tool will help you actually get some use from it.
How to make a better employee experience journey map
Don’t worry. Not all good employee experience journey maps lead to Manchester. They just have to lead to happier workers.
Whether you already use an employee journey map template or are just starting to look into the idea, there are some steps you can take to make your maps work better.
They are the following:
Create different maps for different roles. The map for a frontline manager will look different from a warehouse worker, with different training and onboarding for each position. Depending on your organization, you may need a few maps or a few dozen.
Analyze your employee journey maps and look for patterns. Do many employees have trouble at the same part of the training? That may become more obvious when you compare maps and visualize the issue at hand.
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an average tenure of 4.1 years, and 22% of workers had been with their current employer for a year or less.
Looking up industry-specific numbers can help you further pinpoint areas to focus on when planning out your journey maps.
Time feedback to the stage in the journey your employee is at. Look for onboarding feedback while the process is still fresh in their mind.
Provide appropriate feedback to your employees as well. Let them know how they’ve improved after training, or likewise what they could concentrate a bit more on.
Remember, journey maps are a tool that can help predict how an employee’s experience will look, but it’s not set in stone. There can be unexpected events that change their journey map.
Like a global pandemic that reduced working hours by 17.3% in 2020. Most of us are still trying to get back on track after that one.
Make sure your organization learns from the tool. These aren’t coloring book pages for employees to fill in while HR processes their paperwork. Learn from them.
Did you know only 12% of employees strongly agree their company did a good job at onboarding?
Using an employee journey map, you can analyze your new hires at this stage and see why they might feel that way.
Wrapping up — Making employee journey maps better for your workers
Employee journey mapping is one of those tools with lots of potential. It can help you improve different processes in your organization, increase employee engagement, and create an easy-to-follow workflow for various roles.
Or you can spend an entire quarter making everyone fill these in and then promptly lose them in a subfolder that was last opened three years ago.
Just keep in mind that creating an employee journey map is the first step. You also need to make it easy to access for employees and have them provide feedback.
Digital inclusion is the ability of individuals and communities to access, understand, and use technology in a safe and meaningful way. More often, we hear of digital inclusion and digital equity as social concepts — do citizens have equal access to health tech solutions, for example, and do they have access to the internet in order to participate in society?
But frontline digital inclusion and digital equity for employees are just as important.
Frontline digital inclusion is essential in order to bridge the connection gap between the frontline workforce and the rest of an organization.
By understanding frontline digital inclusion better, we can helpcreate a more equitable global workforce where everyone has access to the tools, resources, and people they need to succeed. In doing so, we encourage increased employee engagement, and unlock productivity and performance for the business, so everybody benefits.
What is digital inclusion?
Before we get into the specifics of frontline digital inclusion, let’s start with some definitions.
Digital inclusion is an important concept in the modern world as access to technology and digital services play an increasingly critical role in people’s lives. It refers to the ability of individuals and communities to access, understand, and use technology in order to take part in society, regardless of their social or economic backgrounds.
On a larger scale, digital inclusion projects serve to create equity where it isn’t already: between those who have access to digital resources and those that don’t. Frontline digital inclusion is one example of this concept in action, as it refers to providing equal opportunities for frontline workforce members to use technology in their daily activities.
Digital inclusion comprises three key areas:
Accessibility
Digital skills
Connectivity
Accessibility
Digital accessibility refers to the ability of all individuals to access digital content, tools, and services, including those with disabilities, sensory impairments, or neurodiversities.
On a global scale, improving digital access involves a wide range of considerations, such as providing alternative formats of content (such as audio or braille versions), designing websites and applications to be inclusive, and ensuring that digital services can be accessed in different languages or formats.
Digital skills refer to a range of abilities needed to use digital tools, devices, and communications applications effectively. Understanding their purpose and how they can be used to benefit the user also falls under this definition.
Digital education and training initiatives are important for helping people to develop the skills they need to be digitally included. Digital skills are an essential part of being digitally literate in today’s world, allowing individuals to take advantage of all that technology has to offer.
Connectivity
Digital connectivity refers to the ability of individuals to connect to the internet and online services, as well as the infrastructure and internet connection that supports this.
Enabling digital connectivity involved providing internet access in areas where there is none, or setting up public Wi-Fi networks in remote locations. This is particularly crucial in developing countries, where access to the internet can be a huge advantage.
What would digital inclusion look like for the frontline?
Frontline digital inclusion includes everything from having access to devices and software, understanding how they work and how to use them properly, and being able to take advantage of the same digital services as those in higher positions or working at HQ.
Accessibility
Workers should have access to the digital tools needed for their roles, whether their job is desk-based or not. When frontline employees have digital equity, they are able to better perform their daily work tasks using relevant software and mobile-optimized platforms.
Language is particularly important to consider here. Frontline environments like healthcare are becoming more divergent and employees are speaking a broader range of languages between themselves and with their patients. Any technology provided to them has to be easily translated to avoid crucial messages being missed.
Digital skills
Digital skills can be thought of in two ways when it comes to frontline digital inclusion.
One: is the tool intuitive for the frontline or has it been designed with desk-based workflows in mind?
And two: are frontline employees being offered relevant training, onboarding, and support for the digital tools provided?
You might need to create additional resources for improving digital skills, such as tutorials, videos, and webinars. You can also direct them to key employee engagement champions who can empower them to use their new tech effectively.
Connectivity
Connecting your organization from the C-Suite to the frontline brings about a huge wealth of benefits, from ‘soft’ benefits like belonging and inclusion, to ‘hard’ benefits like the effective flow of information and a faster time to response.
Mobile-first digital technologies — like accessible and engaging frontline employee apps — help ensure your teams stay connected in-field and are able to access everything they need.
The digital divide: understanding frontline digital exclusion
By now, you’re hopefully as sold on the idea of frontline digital inclusion as we are. It’s not only an ethical imperative, but a business one too.
So what’s currently stopping digital equity on the frontline? Why are so many frontline workers experiencing digital exclusion?
Frontline teams typically lack access to the digital resources needed to perform their roles. They may also be offered existing tools and services that fail to meet their needs. Digital inclusion barriers may come from a lack of familiarity or understanding of how to use the tools, a lack of technological infrastructure, or simply limited access to devices and software while working in the field.
To put the problem into numbers:
34% of frontline healthcare employees can’t easily access workplace systems on their mobile devices
Nearly 20% of frontline healthcare employees aren’t using their company intranet
… and two-thirds of that 20% don’t know how to
With a digital divide like this, it's no surprise that frontline organizations are seeing a drop in the usage of and engagement with their digital channels (more on this below).
In short: we have to combat digital exclusion in order to deliver digital inclusion. And at work, that starts with the frontline.
Frontline digital exclusion in action
Digital exclusion wastes time and money. It can also be a serious contributing factor to employee disengagement.
At home health provider Elara Caring, employees were choosing to drive up to an hour each way to collect their paystubs in person as it was too difficult to access this information online
For the same employees, a lack of communication between head office and the teams in the field left them feeling unsupported and disconnected
Transport provider Stagecoach hired a full-time role just to manage platform password reset requests from frontline employees
We know that bridging this digital divide adds value.
Organizations with the highest degrees of digital connectivity and empowerment are able to grow in ways that other businesses can’t. Here’s why…
Why is digital inclusion important for frontline teams?
How digital exclusion impacts frontline engagement
Feelings of exclusion negatively impact employee engagement and therefore care and commitment
It becomes difficult to understand frontline employee engagement. Paper-based employee engagement surveys go unanswered and unanalyzed — and if you can’t understand engagement, you can’t improve it either
How digital exclusion impacts frontline performance
Employees will naturally drift away from your business objectives and mission statement when kept at a digital distance
Frontline staff become less invested in their day-to-day activities and more burnt out, negatively impacting performance.
How digital exclusion impacts frontline profitability
Operations can easily become chaotic and ineffective without an efficient flow of information between co-workers and departments
Higher costs as recruitment and retention come under threat; the ‘leaky bucket’ of labor supply means that significant funds are deployed to the finding and training of a replacement workforce who might not stick around for long anyway
Fresh challenges arise around recruiting and retaining new employees as the business loses its reputation as a good place to work
Disengaged organizations see 23% lower profitability than highly engaged ones, and the longer employees remain in a disengaged state, the harder it is to turn around
How digital exclusion impacts frontline retention
Digital exclusion can result in rising frustrations, poor employee morale, and low satisfaction due to the lack of adequate tools and resources available
As 52% of frontline workers claimed they would leave their job over tech tools, it’s clear that these frustrations can have an impact on your employee turnover rate, too
The average annual employee turnover rate is estimated at 18%, yet some frontline industries and organizations are experiencing much higher turnover levels. US frontline retail employees, for example, have a historic turnover rate of over 60%
Three actionable tips to drive your frontline digital inclusion efforts
Now for the how: here are three actionable tips to consider when driving digital inclusion for your frontline employees.
1. Understand who’s responsible
First and foremost, you must understand who is responsible for driving digital inclusion in your organization. While traditionally this has been the job of the CIO or CTO, it's clear that others in the C-Suite such as Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) can have a major role to play.
“Given how technology has infiltrated the entire C-suite, it’s clear that while CTOs and CIOs are still in charge of which technologies to purchase and deploy, their collaboration across departments is expanding. They need input from the entire executive team to ensure their investments match and support the overarching goals of the business and leverage collaboration to have the greatest impact.”
Analysis by Deloitte (pictured below) also explores the role of the C-Suite in managing the hyper-connected workplace. Touching on how CHROs, CIOs, CROs, COOs, and individuals can adjust to the changing world of hyper-connected work, this analysis provides an excellent starting point for organizations to better understand the roles and responsibilities of each C-Suite member.
However, important to remember that true employee techquity requires buy-in and team effort from not just the entire exec team, but also heads of HR/People, Internal Comms, and that all-important first-line manager. In fact, it's crucial to leverage the first-line frontline manager if you are going to succeed with frontline digital inclusion.
A CEO might only spend 6% of their work hours with the frontline, despite these staff members representing up to 80% of their business. Conversely, frontline managers spend the most time with the frontline, yet are often overlooked and undervalued. With first-line knowledge, your inclusion efforts will be much more effective.
With all this in mind, placing responsibility for frontline digital inclusion squarely on the C-Suite is too limiting. It’s important to have a comprehensive strategy in place with clear roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders.
A digital inclusion strategy for the frontline should include a comprehensive assessment of existing technology access and resources available to frontline employees. This assessment should cover areas such as:
Device availability (i.e., laptops, tablets, and smartphones)
Internet connection speeds and access to data on your work sites
Availability of learning and training materials
Access to technical support
Any other resources necessary to ensure successful digital integration
Once a comprehensive assessment of existing resources has been completed, your frontline digital inclusion strategy can be created and regularly updated:
This strategy should include objectives, goals, action plans, and resource requirements necessary to achieve the desired outcomes. Improved employee engagement, enhanced customer service capabilities, and increased productivity are all in reach
Regular reviews and updates of the strategy are key to its success. Employee engagement KPIs and frontline analytics should be established in order to track progress made against the strategy
Finally, a successful digital inclusion strategy should include continuing education and training initiatives for frontline staff. These initiatives should focus on upskilling employees in areas such as data security protocols and best practices for the platform you choose.
Check out the digital inclusion checklist at the end of our guide for more strategic guidance.
3. Enable, engage, and understand your frontline
Achieving frontline digital inclusion requires enabling, engaging, and understanding your employees.
By combining the three, you can create an effective frontline digital inclusion strategy that puts your employees on the path to success.
Enable
Enabling your frontline with the right technology goes beyond simply providing them with a device and internet connection. It’s about equipping them with tools to succeed in a digitally-connected workplace.
For deskless workers, this might include:
Content Hub: A central hub that's accessible on the go, storing critical policies, procedures, schedules, and guides in one place
Digital Forms: Creating and distributing mobile-first digital forms, gathering data, and automating key processes. No hassle. No paper. No IT support tickets
Single Sign-On: Access to all applications from one single app, without the hassle of remembering usernames and passwords
Integrations: Integrate your existing tools and apps into new employee tech for intuitive and streamlined use
Engage
To receive engagement from your frontline, you have to earn it. This means providing digital tools that encourage engagement, as well as recognizing and rewarding input.
For example:
News Feed: Bring the whole company together with a News Feed that's fun, familiar, and easy to use — you might just reduce time spent on non-core tasks by up to 90%
Secure Chats: Create an intuitive, seamless communications experience for everyone with secure, mobile-first chats
Recognition: Provide instant, personalized recognition for every employee, directly to the palm of their hand
Understand
To truly understand the digital experience of your frontline staff, you have to take the time to get to know them. This means listening, empowering their voice, and understanding how their experience affects their job performance.
Analytics: Utilize powerful analytics for insight into the people and relationships that make your organization tick
Surveys: Ditch paper surveys, build trust with your frontline, and get more data with short, regular Pulse surveys designed for higher engagement
Your frontline digital inclusion checklist
Digital inclusion is an important factor in the success of any organization. To measure the success of a digital inclusion strategy, there are certain key points that should be checked:
Start with user experience: Understand the experience of your frontline staff by listening to and empowering their voice, and understanding how their experience affects job performance
Offer digital support: Make sure all employees have access to online services, regardless of their digital literacy
Utilize powerful analytics: Leverage analytics for insight into the people and relationships that make up your organization
Take surveys and measure engagement: Replace laborious paper surveys with short, regular, mobile-friendly Pulse surveys to gain more data and build trust with employees
Provide tailored digital tools: Choose tools that are tailored to the needs of your deskless employees, and ensure a seamless user experience
Offer recognition: Show appreciation for employee performance with rewards, badges, shout-outs, and leaderboards
Invest in collaboration: Connect employees with one-on-one conversations, secure chats, and team communication tools to foster a culture of collaboration
By following this checklist and leveraging the right digital solutions for your organization, you can make sure that no one is left behind as you strive for greater digital inclusion. With Blink, this is made easier than ever.
Blink. And you bridge the digital divide
Frontline digital inclusion is an important and essential program — and it’s not as complex as it sounds.
By understanding the unique experience of deskless workers, providing access to digital tools tailored to their needs, and listening to and recognizing employee feedback, organizations can ensure that no one is left behind in the digital world.
But remember: not all digital services are created equal. At Blink, we believe in providing a seamless, intuitive user experience for the frontline, which is why ourfrontline employee app was built with deskless employees in mind.
With features including Secure Chats to News Feeds, Pulse Surveys, and Recognition tools, our employee-first solutions empower organizations to make their frontline staff feel connected and engaged throughout their journey.
Let us help you drive digital inclusion within your organization – get started with Blink today.
Explore top platforms that deliver more than a SharePoint skin
Akumina positions itself as a digital workplace experience layer built on SharePoint—but for many organizations, it creates more complexity than it solves.
It’s highly customizable, yes—but that often comes with long implementation timelines, heavy IT lift, and limited employee engagement. If you're looking for a solution that’s easier to roll out, more intuitive to use, and built for actual adoption, you're not alone.
In this article, we break down the 12 best Akumina alternatives—modern intranet and employee experience platforms that go beyond SharePoint overlays to deliver real value for today’s hybrid, remote, and mobile workforces.
#1. Blink
Best all-in-one intranet and employee app
Blink is a modern employee platform that combines internal communications, essential tools, and content into one intuitive experience. Unlike Akumina, Blink doesn’t sit on top of SharePoint—it replaces it, offering native mobile and desktop apps that employees actually want to use.
Why Blink over Akumina:
Lightning-fast deployment (no dev work required)
Personalized, social-style feed
Messaging, surveys, forms, and files all in one place
Works beautifully on mobile and web
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#2. Interact
Best for structured intranets with strong comms features
Interact is a mature intranet platform that offers a blend of content governance and communication tools. It provides more flexibility and a better out-of-the-box experience than Akumina, especially for internal comms teams.
Key strengths:
Smart content targeting
Built-in comms features (surveys, likes, comments)
Page templates and drag-and-drop tools
#3. Simpplr
Best for AI-powered content personalization
Simpplr is a polished, AI-driven intranet focused on employee engagement. It’s known for lifecycle communication (e.g. onboarding, transitions), and offers more automation than Akumina without the same technical setup burden.
Why it stands out:
AI-powered content surfacing
Smart search and recommendations
Built-in templates for lifecycle moments
#4. Staffbase
Best for internal comms at enterprise scale
Staffbase shines when it comes to centralized, top-down communication. With a branded employee app and multi-channel messaging, it’s a better option than Akumina for organizations prioritizing reach and visibility.
Top features:
Newsletter builder
Campaign management
Native mobile app with notifications
#5. LumApps
Best for global enterprise deployments
LumApps offers a broad, customizable employee experience platform with deeper integrations and personalization than Akumina—without being tied to SharePoint. It supports global rollouts and multi-language content delivery.
Why it’s better:
Google & Microsoft integrations
AI personalization
Multilingual and regional content support
#6. Happeo
Best for Google Workspace users
If your organization uses Google Workspace, Happeo is a lightweight, user-friendly intranet that connects seamlessly with your tools. It’s far easier to deploy and use than Akumina, especially for remote teams.
Highlights:
Tight Google integrations
Social intranet features
Customizable layouts
#7. ThoughtFarmer
Best for easy-to-manage intranets
ThoughtFarmer focuses on simplicity and people-first design. Unlike Akumina’s complex configurations, it offers a quick setup and low learning curve—perfect for organizations without large IT departments.
Notable features:
People directory and profiles
Easy content editing
Micro-sites for teams and departments
#8. Igloo
Best for governance and compliance-heavy teams
Igloo is a solid Akumina alternative if your focus is structured content, document control, and knowledge management. It’s more rigid than Blink or Happeo, but ideal for finance, legal, and healthcare.
Strengths:
Document versioning
Access controls
Policy and procedure hubs
#9. Jive
Best for community collaboration
Jive is ideal for organizations that value social collaboration and peer-to-peer interaction. While Akumina layers content, Jive fosters real-time engagement and employee communities.
Features:
Social groups and forums
Peer recognition
Advanced analytics
#10. Haiilo (formerly Smarp)
Best for employee advocacy and engagement
Haiilo is a newer entry but a compelling Akumina alternative if you’re focused on culture, employee voice, and comms amplification. It goes beyond intranet basics into the territory of employee engagement and advocacy.
Why consider Haiilo:
Omnichannel comms
Employee-generated content
Engagement analytics
#11. Noodle
Best for small companies wanting a turnkey intranet
Noodle is a lesser-known but solid option for SMBs. It’s easy to set up and includes standard intranet features without the need for SharePoint or heavy integrations.
Pros:
Budget-friendly
Core intranet tools (news, docs, chat)
On-prem or cloud options
#12. Unily
Best for enterprise intranets with rich features
Unily is a well-known intranet solution with a robust feature set, polished UI, and strong Microsoft integrations. It’s a better alternative to Akumina if you want a full-featured, polished intranet with deep customization—without starting from scratch.
Why it’s a solid pick:
Beautiful UX
Strong multilingual and multi-brand support
Flexible integrations with Microsoft 365 and beyond
Final thoughts: Choosing the right Akumina alternative
Akumina can work well for highly customized intranet needs—but that flexibility often comes at the cost of complexity, budget, and adoption.
Whether you want something faster, simpler, or more engaging, the 12 alternatives above offer modern options that fit different use cases and team types.
Want a platform that people will actually use?
Blink replaces legacy intranet headaches with an all-in-one, beautifully simple platform for communication, tools, and culture.
