Food for thought: A front of house to greet your frontline

MJ Moore has been paving the way at Blink for over three years, bringing her Workday consulting background to build our entire Implementation function from the ground up. Now, as VP of Implementation in our London office, she’s led lightning-fast launches and established a team that customers can’t stop raving about.

We chatted with MJ about what drew her to Blink in the first place, the culture she thrives in, and why she’s more energized than ever to keep driving innovative solutions for frontline workers around the globe.

What is your position at Blink?

I’m the VP of Implementation.

How long have you been at Blink?

Just over three years. I celebrated my three-year anniversary in February.

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

I think I simply loved the technology. I came from a Workday background, doing Workday consulting, and was looking for that early-stage buzz again — something I felt Blink had in spades. The technology was at an exciting point in the market, and I wanted to be part of a company that had tons of potential for growth. 

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

That’s a tough question because there are so many highlights! One of the biggest is building the Implementation team from scratch. When I first joined, there wasn’t an official Implementation function at all. Now, we’ve got a robust team of people working together with clear processes, methodologies, templates — everything we need. They’re incredibly self-sufficient, and our customers love them, which is such an awesome feeling.

Another standout moment was launching Blink to 6,000 users in Mexico in under eight days. We were a lot smaller at the time, so I ended up running almost the entire project on my own. The client was facing serious union issues and worried about potential factory closures, so they needed Blink ASAP to keep everyone informed and hopefully avoid a strike. It was crazy stressful, but we pulled it off, and in the end, they were able to communicate everything in time. They actually avoided the strike altogether, which was a huge relief for them — and for us, knowing we helped make that possible.

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

Energetic, challenging, and supportive: There’s a lot of energy in the team; we set high expectations for ourselves; and everyone is there to help each other succeed.

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

Honestly, it’s thrilling to think about how much opportunity lies ahead. We’re in an industry where Blink could become essential to so many different sectors — frontline workers, office-based teams, you name it. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do, and each new market or customer segment opens up possibilities we haven’t even explored yet. That level of untapped growth is exactly what makes Blink so exciting to be part of. It’s the kind of momentum that drives you to keep innovating, knowing there’s still so much room to make a real impact.

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

I really love the “Adopt a Customer” program because it encourages everyone in the company — even those who don’t usually interact with customers — to take a deeper interest in who we serve. Our biggest goal is driving customer happiness, and this initiative pushes each person to learn about one specific customer’s journey, challenges, and needs. When you have to present your findings at an All Hands meeting, you naturally dive into researching their background, business goals, and how they use Blink. That extra effort is not only fun, but it also fosters empathy and understanding. It’s awesome to see colleagues who haven’t had much customer exposure suddenly become champions for “their” customer, sharing insights that might otherwise go overlooked.

Why do you work for Blink?

I’m here because Blink’s mission speaks to me on a really personal level. There’s something powerful about the tools we provide — especially for frontline workers who haven’t had anything like Blink before. It has the potential to fundamentally change how they do their jobs, and that’s exciting to be a part of.

I’ve also been given a lot of responsibility and freedom to make an impact, which is something I really value. In previous roles, I sometimes felt disconnected from the end users, but here, I get to see real reactions to our tech — people lighting up because it makes their work lives easier. That’s a genuine thrill and it reminds me why I do what I do every day.

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It’s no secret that when employees are happy at work, they tend to perform better. While happiness isn’t necessarily causing employees to go above and beyond the call of duty, there’s no denying that happiness, productivity, and teamwork are all inexorably interconnected. One factor that can influence all of these things is your employee mobile apps.

The mobile apps for employees that you choose can have a big impact on how people work at your company because it involves employee engagement. Remember, an engaged and satisfied workforce will work harder, faster, and more efficiently. This means that every employee mobile app (check out our mobile worker app) you ask people to use during the average workday should contribute to engagement and reduce frustration.

The good news is that there are so many great mobile apps for employees designed to prioritize, enhance focus, streamline tasks, and improve communications. However, choosing between them can be tough, so we put together this post to help you better understand how mobile employee apps can boost happiness at your workplace and why less may actually be more when you’re looking for tech solutions.

Before we dive into those topics, let’s take a look at why happiness in the workplace matters.

Happy employees are more productive

Company culture matters a lot to a business's bottom line because research has shown time and time again that happy, engaged employees are better employees. One recent study conducted by Professor Andrew Oswald, Dr Eugenio Proto, and Dr Daniel Sgroi from the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick found that happy employees are 12% more productive than unhappy employees. In another study, companies that made it onto the Fortune Top 100 Companies to Work For list (which you don’t do with disgruntled employees) saw their stocks rise much faster over time than the competition. And companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20%!

What’s the connection between employee happiness and productivity — and eventually profits? That’s simple. Employees are happiest when they’re in a low-frustration workplace. This includes that they can see how what they’re doing matters, they get plenty of recognition, they have opportunities to collaborate and grow, and they feel they have a voice. These workers are less likely to give up when the going gets tough, better able to persevere when selling, more loyal, less likely to call in sick, and driven to meet not only their own goals, but the goals of the organizations they work for.

Every company wants to attract employees like that, and the good news is that you can if you promote a culture of happiness at your workplace. It’s not about Aloha Fridays and cool swag (though that kind of thing is nice), but rather about making it easier and more rewarding for your employees to do what they were hired to do.

How employee mobile apps can boost happiness

The best intranet software apps for your employees will depend on the nature of your business, but there are some common factors that make certain apps for employees stand out. To get the biggest happiness boost with technology, you should always look for employee mobile apps that:

Reach employees where they are

Connected employees are happier. Whether you’re looking at corporate communications apps, bookkeeping platforms, or mobile HR solutions, the business management software you choose needs to be accessible from anywhere. Deskless, frontline, and customer-facing workers should be able to use any apps you choose in the field instead of having to sit down at a computer, which can interrupt the flow of the day or take up time that could have been spent doing something more productive.

This is especially important when you’re looking at communications apps and full employee intranets. Your workers should be able to access and share information, find the resources they need in the field, and work collaboratively with their in-office colleagues without encountering frustrating barriers.

Help you show workers you appreciate them

One of the easiest but most powerful ways to increase employee happiness and productivity is by showing your appreciation. A Work.com study found that 69% of people worked harder when they felt their efforts were appreciated, while nearly as many would be quick to quit if they were working at businesses that showed no appreciation at all. This is especially important when it comes to your deskless and frontline employees who aren’t regularly in the office and may not be exposed to the same praise.

An employee recognition or award program is one way to say thank you to those workers who consistently do their best. Rewards and bonuses can work wonders, provided you’re giving them out fairly and regularly. You can also choose a communications app like Blink that gives you a platform from which to showcase the accomplishments of your top talent. A simple shout-out can go a long way, so don’t hesitate to applaud great employees and to tell them how what they do matters.

Stop the endless email flood

The average office worker receives more than 200 emails each day and spends roughly two and a half hours managing them. It's not a particularly productive way to spend working hours, and all of that email doesn't do a thing to increase an employee’s happiness. Quite the opposite, in fact. Email is a constant distraction, and the feeling that one needs to be “always on” can lead to big-time burnout.

The daily email influx is an unavoidable reality, but there are apps like Blink that can automate email to some degree (when paired with Zapier) and apps that make it easier to communicate without using email much at all.

Provide opportunities for growth

Employees are happiest when they feel not only challenged but also that there's room to grow. The problem is that providing opportunities for growth can be tough. Even if you find great classes, conferences, and continuing ed programs, there may not be the resources or the manpower available to encourage and then manage employee enrollment. There are employee mobile apps that help you share learning opportunities with more employees and promote these valuable programs to more people. Blink is one of them.

Remove communications roadblocks

Many of the biggest happiness-draining frustrations workers face revolve around internal communications. These range from time wasted spent trying to find missing resources to being unable to get company updates while on the frontline. Here's why smooth internal comms translates into productivity: When people communicate more efficiently, they have more time to get their core work done and to innovate. There are lots of apps out there designed to make organizational communication easier. Blink was created to address multiple comms challenges. It makes everything findable with a unified search feature and archives everything that has been posted, shared, or mentioned in chat. Even photos. It also makes communication a two-way street, giving employees a louder voice.

Empower telecommuting

Not every role lends itself to telecommuting and some workers thrive on mobile devices using facetime but there are good reasons to allow it for employees (especially talented introverted employees) who can reasonably do their work from anywhere. A study by FlexJobs found that half of workers were more productive when they were outside of the office and would be willing to take a new position for less pay if telecommuting was an available perk. The typical barriers to effective telecommuting are manifold (e.g., lack of communication, lack of access to resources, feelings of disconnect or disengagement) but there are apps for employees like Blink that can nullify these issues by ensuring that employees can stay connected no matter where they are.

Support a culture of fun

Some apps for employees (in particular, intranet apps) will support your efforts to create a culture of fun at your workplace. This is important because creating opportunities for play inside and outside of the workplace has numerous benefits. Employees who spend time together doing fun activities like cooking or playing with each other’s puppies on bring your dog to work days are less stressed, better at collaboration, quicker to resolve interpersonal conflicts, and more motivated.

There are employee apps (including Blink) that allow employees to create after-work events, create interest-based online communities, invite colleagues to see them in performances or go to their sports games, and otherwise get to know their coworkers better. Fun can also foster feelings of cohesion among teams, even when the members of those teams are located thousands of miles apart from one another.

Give employees a voice

Giving your workforce a way to share ideas and communicate (and not just to receive information from up above) lets you learn a lot about how happy or frustrated employees are. Why do you need an app for that? Most workplace surveys aren’t anonymous and many employees who feel unhappy don't want to say as much for fear that they'll be seen as less loyal. In an app like Blink, however, you can create anonymous polls and surveys that make finding and then creating solutions to employee pain points easier. Employees also have the means to reach out to their supervisors to share their ideas about how to optimize workflows, make customers happier, and get more done.

Cut down on mandatory meetings

Pointless meetings are at the root of so much lost productivity, and we all know from experience that sitting in long, boring meetings doesn't make anyone happy. Apps for employees can make most meetings unnecessary. Instead of gathering twenty-five people in a conference room for a quick project update, you can shoot out an update in an app like Blink and confirm that everyone has read it.

Serve as a platform for peer-to-peer recognition

Employee appreciation can go a long way to increasing happiness at your company, but you can take it even further by giving workers a way to recognize and reward each other's accomplishments. Formal recognition often takes a long time, whereas peer-to-peer recognition may be almost instantaneous. The apps that facilitate this type of recognition can help you boost morale, engagement, and happiness among your employees.

Facilitate collaboration within and between teams

The most successful companies with the happiest and most engaged employees think regularly about how to encourage collaboration. Teamwork is, after all, the foundation of business success. Two heads are better than one when it comes to idea generation, and what’s even better than that are entire teams. When employees work together, they bring diverse skill sets, backgrounds, and more to the table. Make sure that any employee apps you’re using allow your employees to work together toward their common goals.

Enable flexible work

In one study, more than a third of small-business employees reported that more flexible work schedules can increase happiness and minimize burnout. You don’t need to create complicated flex-time policies to take advantage of this happiness boost. Choosing employee apps that give your employees the freedom to work flexible hours or remotely when the alternative would be taking a day off is a super smart move.

Your company will benefit from the fact that employees are productive on days they might otherwise have been absent (e.g., on the day of the a.m. kindergarten concert or when someone has car troubles), and employees will love the fact that they work for an organization that respects that they have lives and obligations outside of the office. Apps that enable flexible work are especially useful for employees with young kids, those caring for ageing relatives, and anyone with health issues.

There are a lot of employee apps out there, but remember that not all of them are worth investing in. You may be tempted to invite your workers to try every new app under the sun, but most of the time, less is more. If you can find a single employee app that does of all the above and is easy to use for less technically minded workers, your teams and your tech budget will thank you.

Blink is an all-in-one employee experience app designed to reduce frustration and boost engagement across industries. Request free a demo.

Are your internal comms authentic… or anonymous?

Traditional internal communications usually focus on the latter. They’re often overly polished, overly formal, and 100% vanilla. So they’re doing next to nothing for comms engagement.

Employees today want to relate to each other and see personality. They want to hear from people, not just about them. They want honesty over polish. Real talk over corporate speak.

That’s where POV (point of view) content comes in. POV content is engaging, memorable, and well-suited to a world where everyone with a social media account is a content creator.

Here, we take a look at all the reasons POV content works — and how you can weave it into your internal communication strategy in 2025.

What is POV content — and why does it work?

POV content is authentic content created by people within your organization, not your comms team.

It’s a “day in the life” video from a depot manager. A behind-the-scenes look at the retail crew prepping for a Monday morning. Snaps from the latest marketing team lunch.

It’s first-person stories and unfiltered moments, personal and imperfect, created by everyone from your execs to frontline employees to hybrid work staff. And it’s one of the key internal comms trends we’ve seen companies embracing in 2025.

Here are all the reasons POV content deserves a place within your internal communication strategy.

It builds empathy across departments and roles

When someone shares their story — the highs, the struggles, the interesting little details of their day — it helps to build bridges.

Frontline employees get insight into the challenges of your scheduling team. Your HR department comes to understand how busy a day in the life of a frontline worker actually is. Your C-suite starts to feel like real, relatable human beings.

POV content helps teams understand each other — and that drives better cohesion and collaboration.

It helps people feel part of company culture

When you incorporate POV content into your internal comms, employees hear from a diverse range of voices. So they’re more likely to see themselves reflected in internal messaging.

This is great for culture building. Employees feel part of something bigger. They don’t just receive corporate updates and a monthly newsletter. They build an emotional connection with your organization and their peers.

It makes your comms content more engaging

When communication feels more human and less corporate, it’s more interesting. Employees are more likely to tune into your internal comms channels because the content they find there is fun, real, and relatable.

Improved comms engagement is linked to improved reach and recall. And when employees enjoy your internal content, they’re more likely to lean into the company conversation — making your comms platform an evermore vibrant place to hang out.

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Why POV content matters now more than ever

Wondering why now? In 2025, POV content deserves a place within your internal communication plan because it helps you overcome some of the comm team’s most pressing challenges.

Disconnection is real

Frontline employees can feel miles away from HQ — both physically and culturally. Hybrid teams are, likewise, often left out of the loop.

The old ways of communicating — think internal emails and town hall meetings — were designed with desk-based and office-based teams in mind. And they now fail to cut through for your entire workforce.

In contrast, POV content tends to be short-form and engaging. It’s a way to bring hard-to-reach employees back into the comms fold, where they’ll find lots of other culture-building and information-sharing comms.

Employees are less trusting

There’s a ton of research out there to show that younger employees are a lot less trusting of institutions and authority figures than the generations that came before them.

So that official-sounding memo? Employees are liable to view it with a huge dose of skepticism. 

People trust people. Not generic messages. Not the corporate voice. So if you want your internal comms to build trust, POV content can help.

It’s a way to build community

Community is something today’s employees are craving.

Employees who feel that they belong within your workplace report greater job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout. And companies that prioritize community-building report better rates of retention.

POV content helps you build a welcoming workplace community — a place that celebrates individual employees, their perspectives, and their journeys. And this content isn't just good for culture, it's good for your business goals, too — helping to improve communication, employee experience, and employee engagement.

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How to bring POV into your internal content

So how do you put POV content into practice? How do you encourage employees to become internal content creators? And how do you guide them to create the kind of content you know will hit the mark?

Here are some practical tips on how to develop a regular stream of POV content for your internal communication channels:

• Employee take-overs. Invite employees to “take over” your intranet or employee app for the day. Give them the mic. Let them show what the workplace looks like from their perspective.
  
  
• Use Stories and short-form video. Short-form videos are a prime example of Insta-worthy comms. They’re easy to create, authentic, and can convey lots of information in seconds. What’s more, they’re proving very popular with employees.
  
  
• Spotlight real moments. Go beyond the latest conference or your end-of-year social. Highlight those less glossy moments — the tricky shift, the lesson learned, a tough moment where company values shone through. Encourage people to capture big milestones and the messiness of day to day work.
  
  
• Normalize imperfection. POV content shouldn’t look like a brand campaign. So encourage smartphone-filmed videos and text written in an employee’s unedited words. Highlight and celebrate examples of imperfect content on your internal comms channels to encourage people to give content creation a go.

Tools and tips for making it sustainable

POV content is most effective when it becomes part of your comms rhythm — not a one-off campaign. Here’s how to embed it into your internal communication strategy.

Ask: “Who can tell this story best?”

Before creating any new internal comms message, consider whether the comms team are the best people to craft it.

Consider the following: 

• Would this message mean more coming from an employee, in their own, unpolished words?
• Will it resonate better?
• Will it feel more authentic?

Create templates or prompts to help employees get started

Give employees a structure to follow and you’re more likely to spark their creativity and get content that sits neatly alongside your other internal comms messaging.

Employees may need guidance on content formats — for example, the ideal video length or the need for paragraphs in their posts. Prompts can also prove useful. Here are a few ideas:

• Share your weekly wins
• Share the why behind what you do
• Favorite work hack. Go!
• One photo that sums up your week
• Three things you wish people knew about your job.
• “The best thing about working in my team is…”

Curate and amplify top content

You can’t expect a POV content campaign to sustain itself. It needs input from your internal comms team — and real-time insights from analytics tools and employee surveys — to build and maintain momentum.

So shine a light on great POV content. Create a “voices of the week” roundup. Pin top posts to the homepage. You’ll encourage first-wave content creators to continue doing what they do — and maybe inspire some budding creators to contribute too.

Mix in leadership POVs

Your leadership team can set an example for the kind of personal, unpolished POV content you want to see on your internal comms channels.

So humanize your leaders and bring them closer to employees by giving them opportunities to share their personalities, challenges, and workday experiences.

Some ideas?

• A selfie-style video answering an employee question
• A photo from their week with a personal reflection
• A note on what they’re learning right now
• A personal story or anecdote

Put a few guardrails in place

Encouraging POV content doesn’t mean giving employees free rein across your workplace communication channels.

To ensure content aligns with your company values and to hear from a range of employee voices:

• Set expectations around respectful content and inclusive language
• Provide support for those who are unsure how to share
• Review posts before they go live — but avoid the temptation to over-edit
• Experiment with a pilot content creation group to see what works and what doesn’t

You can have it all. Authenticity and content that fits your company’s tone of voice. You just need to put a few boundaries in place. 

The best internal communication tools will give you the permission settings you need to exert just the right level of control over employee-generated content.

Handing the mic to employees for maximum comms impact

People connect best with people. Not anonymous corporate entities. Not executives who keep them at arm’s length.

When you open the door for employees to share their real stories, you do more than boost comms engagement — you strengthen culture, build trust, and create a sense of belonging that translates into measurable results. Gallup says companies with highly engaged employees have up to 21% higher profits and lower turnover.

POV content is one of the simplest ways to make that happen.It shows real, relatable, and diverse views clearly. This helps employees see themselves in the company’s story. It also makes internal communication channels places they want to visit.

With Blink, you can make POV content second nature. Our platform makes it easy for employees to share moments on the go, for leaders to engage in real conversations, and for comms teams to keep everything aligned with company values. The result? A steady stream of authentic content that drives connection, trust, and business performance.

In 2025, your internal communication strategy isn’t complete without employee POVs. Give your people the mic — and watch your culture, engagement, and results grow.

‍Blink. And design an internal comms strategy that fosters real connection with real voices.

Culture isn’t built in annual town halls or values documents.

It’s built in the hundreds of micro-moments that employees experience every day.

The tiny, human interactions that tell employees what your company stands for and that forge your employee experience.

While you can write your values in a document that employees read during the onboarding process — and (shh!) probably never again — micro-moments are the daily, lived experience of your culture.

Micro-moments can support what’s written in that document — or they can write a completely different story. The best organizations make sure it’s the former. They understand the power of micro-moments. And they use them to create a joined-up understanding of company culture, where daily interactions reflect the kind of organization you want to be.

Here, we take a look at why micro-moments are so important and how to achieve more cultural impact with smaller but no less meaningful employee interactions.

Defining micro-moments in the workplace

So what do we actually mean by a micro-moment? It might help to start with a few examples:

• A shout-out to celebrate an employee's birthday in the news feed.
• A manager checking in to ask how you’re feeling this week over instant messaging.
• A quick story post from the CEO that gives a little insight into their day.

These micro-moments bridge the gap between corporate messaging and real workplace experience. They take that dusty company culture document and turn it into a living, breathing reality.

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Why micro-moments matter in today’s workplace

These small moments might not seem all that significant on their own. But together — with all the hundreds of other micro-moments employees experience — they form the foundations of your culture. They shape how employees feel, interact, and show up.

Here’s what they do for your workplace:

They keep the conversation flowing. Silence breeds uncertainty. Gaps in communication leave room for rumor, misunderstanding, and disengagement. But micro-moments, in the form of regular internal communication touchpoints, keep employees connected and informed.

The compounding effect. One “good job” message might seem insignificant — but repeated, positive micro-moments create trust and belonging. And each one builds on the last. A few words of encouragement today make it easier for someone else to speak up tomorrow.

Connection in a dispersed workplace. When your team is dispersed, micro-moments replace the hallway chat or the catch-up over coffee. They act as a digital water cooler, bringing frontline, remote, and office-based teams together, and keeping culture alive across time zones and shifts.

It’s what employees expect. Outside of work, we routinely connect over micro-moments. A video story. A WhatsApp message. A voice note. We’re used to short-form, snackable content. Which is why, in the workplace, a simple 10-second video can do more for morale and engagement than a 10-page strategy doc ever could.

They fit into your workflow. Employees — particularly those on the frontlines of your organization — are busy. So culture-building efforts shouldn’t pull them away from their day. Micro-moments integrate seamlessly into the flow of work, making connection quick and easy for everyone.

They signal care and attention. Finally, micro-moments show employees that leaders and peers are paying attention, noticing effort, and valuing contributions. They help to build a culture of open communication and recognition, where employees feel appreciated and encouraged to take part.

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How to achieve macro-impact with micro-moments

So how do you harness the potential of micro-moments for your organization? Here are a few practical ways to make the smallest of interactions deliver the biggest possible impact.

Empower managers to create daily connection rituals

Managers are the ones who bring your culture to life. But they’re also sandwiched between employees and the C-suite, juggling expectations and tasks from all sides. That’s why creating small, repeatable rituals is key to micro-moment success. Think:

• A quick message to ask “How’s your day going?”
• A public thank you when someone goes the extra mile
• A follow-up on feedback shared in last week’s meeting

These interactions take seconds but their impact is long-lasting. They show empathy and accountability, which helps managers (and by extension the organization) build trust with employees.

Even better? Make these micro-moments visible. Give recognition and conduct check-ins over shared digital channels to amplify their impact. You’ll spread positivity across the organization and reinforce the culture you want to build.

Balance top-down messages with peer-to-peer moments

The best cultures are built through connection and participation. And that means going beyond traditional top-down messaging to involve everyone in the company conversation. So encourage peer-to-peer connection. Let employees react to posts, respond to news feed questions, add their congratulations to co-worker recognition, and even create their own culture-building content.

By appointing employees as co-creators of your culture, you sprinkle micro-moments throughout the workday. And you ease the load for your comms team, too. Everyone helps keep the conversation going.

Another benefit of this approach? Peer-led moments feel lighter, more organic, and more genuine. They have an energy that draws people in, so they help to build a real sense of community within your organization.

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Encourage the C-suite to go beyond corporate comms

When the C-suite speaks, everyone tends to listen. So you can create truly impactful micro-moments by getting leaders involved. Of course, a lengthy email newsletter or a polished corporate video isn’t the kind of thing you’re looking for.

Instead, you want leaders to share short, relatable moments in real time. A selfie from a site visit. A post sharing what inspired them that week. A quick note to highlight customer success and the team behind it.

This content shows accessibility and warmth. It tells employees: I see you and I’m part of this too. It’s especially powerful for frontline teams who rarely see leaders face-to-face.

Leaders may need a little coaching in how to deliver these kinds of moments. And you may need to experiment with the formats they feel most comfortable with. But — with the right support from comms — the C-suite can create micro-moments that really resonate.  

Prioritize authenticity over polish

The beauty of micro-moments? They don’t need to be overly rehearsed or perfectly produced. In fact, working to get a piece of internal content “just right” can actually dilute its cultural impact.

Use micro-moments to respond to what’s happening right now — a big client win, a project milestone, or even the trending topic that’s on everyone’s lips. Quick, relevant interactions land far better than polished-but-stale content.

That’s because authentic micro-moments show employees that the company is human and that leaders notice what’s happening on the ground. Workers appreciate the authenticity — and they’re far more likely to believe the message.

And for your employee communications team? Removing the pressure to polish every post means content can go out fast, keeping conversations alive, building momentum, and weaving cultural values into every day.

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Create digital spaces for every kind of comms

You can only make a success of micro-moments when you have the right ecosystem in place. That means giving employees multiple, connected communication channels where they can share, react, and respond in real time.

Think recognition, polls, team chat, video updates, live streams — each touchpoint surfacing a different side of your company culture. When these channels are available across mobile-first tools, micro-moments reach every member of your workforce, including hard-to-reach frontline employees.

The result? A culture with the power to create positive employee experiences and better employee engagement across the board.

Use analytics to spot engagement opportunities

With intranet analytics, you can spot the times, places, and teams where micro-moments stand to make the most impact.

If participation on the employee intranet drops, if certain teams aren’t responding to updates, or if sentiment in comments starts to shift, these are the early warning signs you need to pay attention to.

By tracking engagement and feedback in real time, you can see what works, spot gaps, and fine-tune your micro-moment strategy. The data helps you step in at the right time — and keep doing more of what actually connects with employees.

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Incorporating micro-moments into your organization

The challenge for most organizations isn’t understanding the value of micro-moments.

It’s creating the environment where they happen naturally.

A check-in from a manager. A poll to gauge employee opinion. A quick live stream update. These micro-moments drive trust, belonging, and a sense of purpose. They show employees that yours is a place where open communication and connection are the norm.

So what next? To incorporate micro-moments into your comms strategy, go beyond polished, corporate messaging. And — to make your strategy sustainable — encourage people from across the company to share and amplify micro-moments.

Digital employee experience platforms like Blink makes it easy. You can send a recognition post, launch a poll, share a video story, and even go live with your audience, in just a couple of clicks.

And — because Blink is a mobile-first intranet platform — everyone can take part. From the comms team to the C-suite, your office team to your frontline workers, everyone has the tools they need to access and contribute to workplace culture.

Blink. And take your culture from boring to buzzing.

A paltry 36% of US employees are engaged in their work, as per data from Gallup. On top of that, 11.5 million workers left their jobs in the time period between April and June of 2021.  

It’s no secret that engaged employees are less likely to skip work and are much more productive. They are also more likely to stay with their organization. 

So with roughly 2% of the entire US workforce quitting on a monthly basis, you can’t afford to ignore the employee engagement challenges in your company. Identifying employee engagement barriers in the workplace and addressing them should be your top priority. 

But what should you look for? What might be the issues in your organization hurting employee experience and retention?

This post will help you understand what those barriers are, and what you can do about them.

Let’s begin.

Employee engagement challenges that can make or break your business

A study shows that a highly engaged workforce can reduce a company’s turnover rate by 25 to 59%. And it all starts with identifying the barriers to high employee engagement. These are:

1. Excessive red tape

How many procedures and rules should an employee follow to get basic tasks done in your workplace? If there are too many, it will negatively impact employee engagement. 

According to the Employee Outlook Survey from the CIPD, unnecessary rules and procedures are the biggest hurdles to employee productivity. 

Your work environment is supposed to provide a smooth work experience where employees can get things done easily with minimum stress. This will require simplifying your work processes wherever possible.

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• See which admin tasks are taking the most time for both the admins and workers. Then reduce the number of sign-offs required to approve these tasks.

• Implement a tool that can automate common workflows. With Blink’s micro apps, for instance, admins can create and share digital forms, collect data, and automate key workflows. 

2. Line managers and supervisors with poor communication skills

If there’s anyone in the ​​position to bring the skills and focus of team members into alignment with the goals of the organization, it’s the middle manager. 

In factories and other similar establishments, for example, line managers form a pivotal link between frontline staff and senior leaders. Yet they are often ill-equipped to engage their teams. 

The Management Empowerment Report reveals that just one-third of front-line managers received specific training to support employees. Most have been chosen for the role because they were good workers, not because they were good managers. 

Inspiration and transparency in communication are critical improvements a leader can make towards solving employee engagement challenges. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Open channels of two-way communication among the line managers and their teams. 

• Provide managers with resources and tools to collect staff input with methods such as internal surveys and quizzes.    

• Support with adequate employee engagement training for managers on how to engage and communicate with their teams. 

3. Lack of one-on-one time

Only 21% of millennials and 18% of non-millennials meet with managers on a weekly basis. Most say they meet less than once a month. 

One-on-ones are essential for managers to get to know employees on a personal level and discuss their needs, concerns, and growth opportunities. They could be considered a key driver of employee engagement.

Not just that.

Without frequent one-on-one meetings, a manager’s ability to communicate effectively with employees about projects and performance is limited. And what suffers as a result? Employee engagement.  

So, to avoid barriers to good employee relations, you must make sure that the managers in your company meet regularly with the staff. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Direct managers to schedule regular one-to-one meetings with their team members. And make it a key performance indicator that determines their progress in the managerial role.  

• Train managers to create an agenda in advance and approach these meetings as a consultant, not an authoritarian. Instead of just discussing technical details of the job, managers should help workers prioritize tasks and understand the big picture. 

4. Shortage of growth opportunities

A study by BlessingWhite found a lack of growth opportunities to be the most common reason employees leave their jobs. If you’re serious about removing employee engagement barriers, increasing development opportunities is a must.

Failing to consider workers’ career pro­gres­sion will trigger the feeling that they are stuck in a dead-end job. And sooner or later, they’ll jump ship to discover better oppor­tu­ni­ties.

In contrast, employers that encourage workers to learn new skills don’t just retain them longer, but also stand to gain from the new insights employees bring to the table. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Have a professional reinvestment budget. Allocate sufficient resources to invest in each employee’s professional growth plan. Case in point: Jake Goldman, from 10up. In his words: 

“We provide a dedicated budget accrued at $3,000 per worker per year. And we give managers and employees several ways to use these resources, from self-coaching and online classes to attending and speaking at professional events worldwide.” 

• Start by outlining a path for growth that will keep employees engaged and help you retain top talent. Plus, offer support and training in the form of stipends or bursaries to help employees get there. 

5. Not enough transparency

Research shows the majority of employees (75%) care about the performance of their employer, but only 23% feel they have insight into how well the business operates. 

Transparency in the workplace refers to a genuine, two-way openness of communication between the workers and the management. And lack of transparency is an employee engagement barrier that can undermine the trust between employees and managers. 

So it’s essential to show your employees the bigger picture — how their work is tied to the goals of the company as a whole. It leads to a high level of communication and trust, which in turn fuels employee productivity and engagement. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Make sure workers are being kept in the loop about small or large matters concerning the organization. 

• Regarding the decision for which the stakes are high, make it a point to explain the “why” behind them. This is a better approach than just laying down the new rules. 

• Regularly share business performance reports with the employees, regardless of whether it’s struggling or doing great.  

Lack of reward and recognition

According to an Indeed survey, 30% of people who quit their job within the first six months would have stayed longer if they were recognized more for their contributions.

Employee reward and recognition are at the heart of impactful employee engagement strategies and high levels of retention. On the other hand, not having an employ­ee recog­ni­tion pro­gram in place will leave workers demotivated and dissatisfied with the organization. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Recognizing your employees doesn’t have to cost the world. Often a simple (and free) thank you can have a massive impact on engagement. Other ways to recognize your employees without breaking the bank can include a free celebration lunch or a monetary bonus for the employee of the month.

• Make sure you celebrate big and small wins with your team, especially when they exceed expectations. Get creative and make the culture of encouragement and appreciation a central part of your organization. 

6. Employees feeling unheard

A study found that 82% of employees have ideas to boost business performance. But more than one-third of employees struggle to get these inputs to the upper management. 

This is one of the most critical employee engagement challenges because if employees are to be engaged with their work, they need to feel heard. 

A 2020 employee experience study found that organizations that act on feedback have double the engagement score of those that don’t. And this kind of engagement is possible only when senior managers listen to workers’ thoughts and opinions. 

How to overcome this employee engagement barrier?

• Transparent,  one-to-one meetings can help workers feel heard, along with anonymous question and answer sessions and employee feedback forms. 

• Adopt a communication or employee engagement tool that creates multiple channels between managers and workers. Blink, for instance, also lets managers create polls and surveys that can be used to find out what workers really think. 

Wrapping up: 6 little-known employee engagement challenges

High employee engagement is a big advantage that can help you stay ahead of the competition. But as you can see, accomplishing the same remains a challenge for many organizations. 

But that’s not to say it’s impossible.

Top workplaces have been successful at reducing employee engagement challenges with communication and alignment. And there’s no reason you can’t do the same.

These tips and best practices for employee engagement we have shared will go a long way in overcoming employee engagement barriers and creating a workplace where workers feel more included, engaged, and valued.

And while you work on implementing these strategies, an employee communication app can be a huge asset. Request a free Blink demo today!

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.

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.