Meet Dee Elsam

News broke recently that Meta would be discontinuing Workplace, the decade-old enterprise communications platform built on a version of Facebook. The platform will work until September 2025 and remain read-only until May 2026. 

In their statement, Meta announced that it would be focusing on “building AI and metaverse technologies” that they believe “will fundamentally reshape the way we work.” 

Though there is over a year until Workplace is no longer usable, sadly the disruption for many companies has already begun. The news left thousands of companies scrambling to find a long-term solution to the critical challenge of frontline communications for 7 million workers. Frontline workers already have difficult jobs and high turnover rates; frontline managers, HR leaders, and Communications teams should be gearing up to solve this challenge sooner, rather than later, and working to minimize the impact on frontline workers.

Undoubtedly, the question on many people’s minds right now is: what’s next for employee communications? Our CEO, Sean Nolan, shared his thoughts on the future of digital employee experience after Meta’s announcement, including his empathy for affected workers and his optimism that leaders will take the opportunity to upgrade to a modern employee app that will “make the experience of being employed a simple and fulfilling one.”

If you’re one of the many people frustrated with Meta forcing you to make such a big, unexpected change this year, we hope you’ll also be excited  to explore how employee communications technology has developed beyond Workplace’s platform. You can start by checking out some alternatives to Workvivo and a side-by-side comparison of Blink and Workvivo.

Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve evaluated your options and you’d like to hear how other companies are approaching their employee communications’ needs. In one of those weird, cosmic coincidences, Meta’s announcement happened at the same time that we hosted a webinar with our customer, Dee Set, who shared how they evaluated  their employees’ needs by comparing email, Workplace, and Blink as the long-term communications solution.

You can watch the webinar, Beyond email: how turning off employee email can transform the employee experience, here. Or, keep reading for the highlights of the story from Dee Set’s Joseph Peers, Head of Activity Planning & Data, and Quinton Hayter, Group Information Security Officer. 

Why email wasn’t working for Dee Set

Dee Set is one of the UK’s leading retail suppliers. In 2019, Dee Set recognized that they were spending a lot of money on email without much to show for it. 

Email was especially challenging as the primary communication tool for frontline workers. Some of the challenges included:

• Communication was transactional and one-way
• It was hard to build engagement and culture through email
• The tech infrastructure to support it was complex
• Little insight into the impact of emails
• Analog channels like word of mouth and digital signage did a lot of heavy lifting

Email was so ineffectual that they made the decision to cut off support for email within 3 weeks—without having the next solution nailed down even. (Spoiler alert: they chose and deployed Blink in that time.)

What they learned during the Workplace trial

One solution Peers and Hayter helped evaluate for Dee Set was Meta’s Workplace. Right away, they ran into issues getting all of the company onto the social platform. As they dug deeper, the lack of two-way communications was surprisingly lacking, considering how vital it is to engaging on Facebook. The final straw was that Workplace required a workplace email—which would be a huge step backward in their effort to improve communications and cut down on wasteful spending on underutilized email accounts.

While their limited pilot of Workplace didn’t work out long term, the experience did surface some key insights that would help them make their ultimate choice. In particular, Dee Set liked the idea of a “digital front door” that provided a single place for everyone to communicate and find everything they needed. They also realized that they wanted a solution that was ready out of the box and simple for even the least-tech savvy worker to use on their own phone.

Even though Workplace provided more value than email as a frontline communications solution, Dee Set wanted to deliver an even better experience for their remote workforce.

Maximizing—and simplifying—the tech infrastructure for frontline workers

As the Group Information Security Officer, Hayter recognized the challenge that a complicated tech infrastructure presented to frontline workers. Their frontline workers weren’t just relying on their personal smartphones and email as the main communication channel—they had to manage logins for HR systems, timesheets, learning platforms, and communication tools to retrieve documents. It was complex, costly, and frustrating for frontline workers and the IT team.

Blink’s “digital front door” approach transformed this process thanks to deep integrations with so many systems. By giving access to HR, payroll, and other systems directly within Blink, Dee Set was able to maximize the usage of their tech infrastructure among frontline workers. 

What happened when Dee Set started with Blink

After a rapid deployment while email was being shut down, Dee Set’s frontline employees quickly took to the Blink app. In fact, according to Peers, they were a victim of their own success in those initial months. 

There were large employee chat groups and lots of content being shared in the News Feed—while the engagement was exciting and new, Dee Set’s leaders had to educate people on communication best practices to improve the experience. They also used the flexibility of Blink to create refined groups and roles, which made it easier to target communications.

After those initial hiccups, Dee Set has continued to make Blink into the best solution for their unique workforce. As a result, they’ve seen a huge rise in engagement in frontline workers. 

• 91% of users are active every month
• 72% of users respond to surveys
• 152k chat messages
• 1.3k feed posts

With more engaged frontline workers, new hire turnover has gone down, productivity has gone up, and helped create a community amongst the remote workforce thanks to secure chat groups.  

There’s so much more to hear from Peers and Hayter we haven’t covered here. For the full story, be sure to check out the webinar and hear more about how Blink helped them navigate the challenges of the pandemic, how they rolled out the platform so fast, how they created a better onboarding experience for new starters, and more frontline communications and IT best practices they’ve adopted with Blink.

‍Learn more about Blink for your frontline communications

Whether you’re looking to move away from email or exploring alternatives to Workplace and Workvivo for frontline communications, it’s a great time to check out Blink’s employee super app.

If you want to see what a mobile-first, all-in-one solution can do for your organization, book a demo to chat with an expert today.

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Microsoft Teams dominates the modern office. But the shop floor, the warehouse, the care home is different territory. Teams handles meetings, files, and chat for desk-based knowledge workers with a depth that's hard to match. Frontline and deskless workers need something else, and most organizations now run both. Here's how the two compare on the things that actually drive frontline adoption.

The short answer

Pick Microsoft Teams if your entire workforce sits at a desk, you're standardized on Microsoft 365, and your priority is meetings and file collaboration.

Pick Blink if your workforce is primarily frontline, you have high turnover, and you need adoption above 80% on mobile.

Who this comparison is for

Most companies searching "Blink vs Microsoft Teams" are already running Teams for their desk-based employees. That's the right call. Teams is excellent for knowledge workers.

The real question isn't which platform is better. It's which platform is right for which workers.

Frontline and deskless workers, the people in your stores, warehouses, hospitals, factories, and delivery fleets, have fundamentally different needs than someone sitting in front of a laptop all day. They often don't have a corporate email address. They check their phones between shifts, not Outlook. Their workplace is loud, physical, and fast-moving, and the tools they'll actually use need to match that reality.

This page breaks down the differences for frontline teams and explains why the two platforms are increasingly deployed together rather than in competition. For broader context on choosing the right stack, see our guide to internal communication tools for distributed workforces.

Quick comparison

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Pricing as of April 2026. Microsoft F1 and F3 pricing is subject to increase effective July 1, 2026, per Microsoft's published pricing.

Does Microsoft Teams work for frontline workers?

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Technically, yes. Microsoft offers frontline-specific licensing through its F1 and F3 plans, and Teams includes a Shifts feature for scheduling and a set of targeted frontline capabilities under its Frontline Hub. Source: Microsoft Teams for Frontline Workers. For a wider view of options, see our roundup of Microsoft Teams alternatives for frontline teams.

There's a gap between what's technically available and what actually gets used.

Teams was designed for knowledge workers. Its interface reflects that. Channels, threads, tabs, and a navigation model that assumes someone familiar with Microsoft Office. For a warehouse operative or a retail associate checking their phone between customers, that interface creates friction. As one CIO in manufacturing put it: "Microsoft Teams is not a great experience for manufacturing employees. They do not want it on their phone."

There are structural barriers too. Frontline workers often don't have corporate email accounts, and Teams requires a Microsoft account to function. The F1 license, Microsoft's lowest-cost frontline option at $2.25 per user per month, restricts Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to read-only mode and provides only a limited mailbox. The F3 license at $8.00 per user per month unlocks more, but both are due for price increases in July 2026. Source: Microsoft 365 frontline pricing.

None of this is a flaw in Microsoft's strategy. Teams wasn't designed for the frontline. It was designed for the office. That's a different brief, and Blink. exists to fill the gap Teams wasn't built to close.

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What Blink is built for

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Blink is a mobile-first employee experience platform built specifically for frontline and deskless workers. Every design decision starts from the same premise: most frontline workers don't sit at a desk, don't have a company email, and need something that works the way their personal apps do. For more on why this matters, see our piece on frontline digital inclusion.

Onboarding takes minutes. Workers join via QR code with no email address or IT account required, which matters in high-turnover environments like retail, hospitality, and logistics.

The core of the platform is a social-style news feed that frontline workers actually read and respond to. Blink customers consistently reach 90%+ workforce adoption. JD Sports hit 87% adoption in 10 days. easyJet runs Blink. across more than 20,000 employees. McDonald's, the NHS, Domino's, Stagecoach, and Chick-fil-A are on the platform. Source: Blink customer stories.

Beyond communication, Blink. handles digital forms, surveys, document access, recognition, and single sign-on to the tools workers actually need, all from one app that fits in a pocket.

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Blink vs Microsoft Teams: key differences for frontline teams

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1. Onboarding and IT overhead

Rolling out Microsoft Teams to frontline workers means provisioning a Microsoft account for every person. That requires IT involvement, takes time, and creates ongoing work as frontline turnover happens. When 30% of your warehouse staff turns over in a year, that's a real IT overhead.

Blink flips this. Workers join via QR code. No email address, no Microsoft account, no IT ticket. A new hire can be on the platform in minutes on day one. For high-turnover industries, this isn't a nice-to-have. It's what makes adoption sustainable.

2. Mobile experience for non-tech workers

Teams' mobile app was built to complement a desktop experience. Its architecture (channels, threads, tabs, calendar, file explorer) is a direct translation of the desktop interface onto a smaller screen. For someone who uses Teams every day at a desk, that's fine. For someone who's never opened Outlook and uses their phone primarily for social media, it's a different experience.

Blink's interface starts and ends with mobile. The design is deliberately close to what frontline workers already know: a scrolling feed, direct messaging, simple navigation. No training required. One retail manager described it as "the app our store staff actually open."

3. Adoption rates

Adoption is the metric that matters most in frontline communications. A platform a third of your workforce uses isn't a communication platform. It's a channel for the minority who are already digitally engaged.

Blink customers reach 90%+ workforce adoption consistently. Teams frontline rollouts typically land much lower. That gap exists for structural reasons: onboarding friction, interface complexity, and the absence of a corporate email for many frontline workers. For more on the engagement levers behind those numbers, see our guide to deskless worker communication.

4. Communication formats

Teams communicates through channels and threads. For knowledge workers who follow specific projects, that structure works. For a frontline worker who needs to know about a shift change, a new store policy, or a shoutout from their manager, a news feed they scroll through works better.

Blink's social-style feed surfaces what matters without requiring workers to know which channel to look in. It's the difference between broadcasting to the right audience and hoping people find the right thread.

5. Kiosk and shared device support

In warehouses, factories, and some healthcare settings, workers share devices rather than owning them. Microsoft offers a Teams Shared Devices add-on, but it's an additional configuration layer and requires its own licensing. Blink supports kiosk mode and shared devices as standard, with no additional setup overhead. That matters in environments where individual device ownership isn't the norm.

6. Cost at scale

At face value, Microsoft's F1 license at $2.25 per user per month looks affordable. The reality is more complicated. F1 restricts Office apps to read-only, provides only a shadow mailbox rather than a real inbox, and often proves insufficient once organizations try to do more than basic messaging. That forces upgrades to F3 at $8.00 per user per month. Both price points are rising in July 2026.

For organizations with large frontline workforces, the total cost of Microsoft's frontline stack (licenses, IT provisioning overhead, ongoing license management for a churning workforce) adds up differently than it appears on a per-seat basis.

Blink pricing starts at $3.75 per user per month on the Core annual plan, with Pro at $5.00 per user per month and Enterprise pricing for larger workforces. Unlike the F1/F3 split, Blink. delivers a complete frontline experience at a single tier without read-only restrictions or shadow mailboxes. See Blink. pricing for the full breakdown.

7. Working offline and in low-connectivity environments

Factories, construction sites, hospital wards, and distribution centers aren't always well-connected. Blink. is built to work in low-connectivity environments and supports offline access. Workers can read content and use key features without a reliable signal. Teams has limited offline functionality, which can create gaps in environments where connectivity is patchy.

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Can Blink and Microsoft Teams work together?

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Yes. This is the model many organizations are moving toward.

The typical setup: Teams for headquarters and desk-based staff, Blink for the frontline. IT keeps the Microsoft 365 stack it already manages. The frontline gets a purpose-built tool they'll actually use. Neither side compromises.

Blink integrates with Microsoft 365, including single sign-on via Azure AD and ADFS. Frontline workers who do have Microsoft credentials can access Blink. without a separate login. SharePoint content can be surfaced through Blink's feed (if you've been looking at SharePoint alternatives for the frontline, this hybrid model is usually the better answer), and Blink. connects into the broader identity and access management infrastructure your IT team already runs. See Blink. integrations for the full list.

This isn't a zero-sum decision between two competing platforms. A retail organization running Teams for its buying team and Blink for its store staff is using both tools for exactly what they were designed for. Same for a healthcare trust running Teams for administrative staff and Blink. for clinical and care home workers, or a logistics company with a headquarters team on Teams and thousands of drivers on Blink.

The IT team doesn't need to choose. The frontline workers just need something that works.

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Which tool is right for your workforce?

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The third column is the most common scenario for organizations with 1,000+ employees across both office and frontline roles.

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Why the leading choice for frontline teams is Blink

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JD Sports hit 87% adoption in 10 days. easyJet runs Blink across more than 20,000 employees. McDonald's, Stagecoach, and the NHS use Blink. for frontline communication. You can read more of our customer stories across retail, healthcare, and logistics.

If you have frontline workers, Teams alone is a gap. Closing it doesn't mean replacing Microsoft. It means adding the right tool for the workers Teams wasn't built for.

At Blink, I am responsible for the ongoing success and happiness of our wonderful customers 🚀

I lead our brilliant global Customer Success and Customer Support teams. Together, we nurture our customers in every way possible. We work collaboratively with our customers and all the internal teams at Blink to ensure our users are getting the absolute best value out of our transformative SaaS platform.

I was born and raised in Camden Town, London. I left the capital to go to university but Camden is where my heart lives so I came straight back once I graduated!

I studied Anatomy & Physiology at the University of Manchester and my plan was to kick-off a career in Healthcare 🏥 After months of work experience at the MRI Hospital in the Oncology Gynaecology Department, I came to the realisation that a career in Healthcare sadly wasn’t for me. However, my respect, appreciation, and gratitude for how incredibly hard the nurses, technicians, doctors, surgeons, and supporting staff work on the frontline skyrocketed.

When I left University, I no longer had a career plan which was scary. All I knew was that I loved people – helping, communicating, and supporting people. So, I literally typed ‘jobs for people who love people’ into Google to see what opportunities came up! Recruitment was the top result and that’s how I fell into my first role 💙

My first job was a hybrid Business Development and Recruitment Consultant role within a large corporate company. I learned very quickly that a hardcore Sales role didn’t suit me and I wanted to have more of a positive and influential impact than I could within that corporate environment.

This is when my journey into working in start-ups began. I joined a small technology recruitment start-up whose mission was to change the way companies recruit for their product and engineering teams. I worked my way up from Talent Manager to Account Manager where I had my own portfolio of customers that I was responsible for. I worked with companies including Cazoo, MADE.com, dnata, Emirates Holidays, and many more to help them design, advertise, interview, and hire for their product and engineering teams.

When the opportunity arose to work for a company whose purpose is to make the work lives of the frontline easier, happier, and more connected, I leaped at the chance.

I joined Blink in November 2019 as the first-ever Customer Success Manager. I was responsible for all of our customers throughout their post-sales lifecycle. I single-handedly managed customer support, implementations, and customer success for all our customers.

Since then, we’ve grown from just me to three established global teams: Customer Success, Customer Support, and Implementation. I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to build my own teams, create our ways of working, take on increasing levels of responsibility and accountability, and achieve glowing success with our customers.

Now as Head of Customer Success, my role is much more strategic and focused on the leadership of my team.

There are three main reasons why I love what I do. The first is the people. I get to work with incredible people internally and externally every single day.

The second is the challenge. I’m learning, growing, and developing at a rate that I didn’t think was possible! And the best thing is that I get to share this with those around me, particularly my team.

The third is our mission. We’re all working together to make the working lives of the frontline easier, more efficient, more connected, but most importantly give them their voice and let it be heard.

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

When you think of board-level management metrics, most people think along the lines of growth, market share, profit and efficiency. For frontline organizations, there’s another that’s just as critical: safety.

Frontline safety is front-page news 

Where an organization’s success is built on distributed workers, there’s an inherent - and very human - vulnerability. The business’s success or failure hinges on these people and their ability (and will) to get to work - and so protecting their capacity to do so isn’t just a pastoral concern, but a fundamental one. 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought this into sharp relief and public consciousness in an unprecedented way. When the desk-based world was able to retreat to working from home, frontline workers in healthcare, transit and retail were suddenly facing considerable risk simply by showing up. The scramble to give these workers - who had quickly (and deservedly) acquired ‘hero’ status - adequate protection shone a spotlight on what a lack of preparedness can do. 

Although the pandemic is largely over, the key principle of frontline safety as a critical concern rightfully remains. Many frontline roles are intrinsically hazardous, involving operating dangerous equipment or working in environments such as construction sites where the potential for harm and injury is commonplace.

For anyone responsible for the performance of a frontline team, this article gives you some key principles to ensure that your people - and by extension, your organization - are protected. 

Poor safety risks more than injury 

The list of potential failures to deliver on frontline safety is long, including everything from trips and falls to crashes, cuts and even inhaling toxic fumes. These consequences should be reason enough to put frontline safety first, but it's worth talking about what else an organization risks by failing to do so. 

1. The legal risk  

As noted by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, workers have many rights, including the right to:

• Refuse dangerous work
• Training and protection from dangerous equipment
• Report and record injuries and receive treatment for those injuries
• Request an inspection

A failure to adhere to local, state, or federal laws can result in legal liability, major fines or a license suspension. In extreme cases, upper management can be personally held civilly or criminally liable.

2. The union risk 

Many organizations with large frontline workforces will have strong union representation, one of whose major responsibilities is to act if they perceive threats to the safety of their members. A failure to act quickly and visibly on any risks to safety could result in union action, causing disruption that invariably impacts the bottom line. 

3. The reputational risk 

Risks to frontline workers during COVID-19 were a public relations disaster for hundreds of organizations who fell behind on providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or failed to provide adequate protection. From workers in factories for brands like Boohoo to the reporting of 20,000 cases of COVID-19 among Amazon workers, media and consumers alike were quick to rally behind frontline workers. While these levels of scrutiny may be now less acute post-pandemic, they remain a key concern for any business. 

4. The performance risk 

COVID-19 showed the frightening impact that safety has on the ability for a frontline business to operate effectively. Some reports suggest that up to one-third of US job vacancies are caused by long COVID, and every industry from transit to retail struggled to deliver services at times of high rates of sickness-related absence. For organizations to perform - particularly during the Great Resignation - they need a healthy (and therefore stable) workforce. 

There’s also evidence that correlates perceptions of workplace safety with employee engagement, showing that safety is pivotal not just to basic operation, but to improving performance and retention.  

Four steps to create a culture of frontline safety 

Frontline safety is more than just a worker's orientation at the start of a job. It involves the creation of a culture that values safety as a core pillar. Here’s how you deliver on it.

1. Start with strategy 

COVID-19 showed us that a lack of planning can be devastating when it comes to safety. So review your frontline safety strategy - if it’s more reactive than proactive, it’s time to make a change. 

You’re aiming for a comprehensive safety strategy that addresses and minimizes risks and dangers to workers, including preparedness and response plans for emergencies and adherence to all local, state, and federal worker safety regulations.

This is a major undertaking that demands buy-in from the highest leadership level and should involve third-party experts to assist in conducting audits and validating proposed policies for their effectiveness.

This strategy should cover the key areas of training, equipment and environment, and reporting as a matter of course. But another important consideration for this strategy should be policies on sickness and injury pay. This was another area that was found under the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic, when lack of adequate provision saw some frontline workers left with a choice between financial difficulty and putting themselves (and others) at risk. 

Finally, a key - but often overlooked - aspect of building a safety strategy is to be highly demonstrative and communicative about it. Doing so allows team members to see that the organization is taking safety seriously and gives you the opportunity to start to build a safety-first culture.

2. Appropriate and ongoing training (for everyone) 

Less than half of global frontline workers (44%) say they have received workplace health and safety training in the past year. This is a vital component of delivering on frontline safety, that should start with onboarding but be consistently reinforced and refreshed at regular intervals. 

A critical concern here is to ensure that it’s not just the frontline worker who’s given high-quality, regular training - it’s also the manager. 

Frontline managers are the critical point of failure for a safety-first culture: if they succeed, a team can be well-trained, issues can be effectively escalated and policies implemented properly. If they fail, this can allow policies and processes to fall into disrepair and for a culture of silence to be created, resulting in a ticking time-bomb for a safety issue. It’s therefore essential that manager training regularly reinforces the organization’s safety strategy, and that manager performance metrics ensure their accountability for its delivery. 

3. Solicit safety-oriented feedback

Recent research by the Centre for People, Work and Organizational Practice at Nottingham Business School (NBS), in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), revealed that people who work on the frontline were less likely to have access to channels which allow them to speak up about issues and worries. This worrying state of affairs should be cause for immediate attention by any frontline leader.

The report determined that in many cases, the ‘command and control’ structure of many operational roles often led to a culture that made employees afraid to raise concerns without fear of repercussions. Critically, office-based staff were more likely to feel confident to speak out and had communications channels, such as computer systems, which enabled them to access information and communicate to others.

The first part of this solution is cultural - working with management and the frontline to remove inhibitions about speaking up and ensuring that whistleblowers are protected - but the second is more technical. Which leads to our last point…

4. Make communications a priority

We saw that office-workers feel more comfortable to whistleblow on safety because they have the technology to do so subtly and directly. This is where the frontline situation is also in urgent need of change. 

One of the perennial challenges for frontline teams is communication - many teams rely on paper memos, noticeboards and in-person briefings, all of which have obvious drawbacks in terms of effectiveness and scale. 

Some organizations have attempted to move over to more digital communications, often using email and WhatsApp for team communications or an intranet for company-wide messaging. While these are an improvement, they're still not a watertight solution for safety, because the frontline often struggles with adoption - email engagement rates are low and intranets often go unchecked as neither are seen as a critical part of the job. 

There’s also another problem - as a leader, you can never be sure that your message has been read and received. In the fast-moving and mission-critical world of safety communications, this should be a major concern. 

This is where employee communication apps, like Blink, can help. Installed on a frontline worker’s phone, Blink allows for constant communication, enabling every worker to read important information, reply to questions, and digitally sign appropriate files and forms. It also has a mandatory reads feature that requires employees to acknowledge that they have read something, solving the problem of knowing whether communications have been effective. 

While making leveling up how you deliver information to the frontline is mission-critical, there's another important communications consideration: how the frontline gets information back to you. As we've seen, this is where frontline workers are often disempowered. An app like Blink helps by enabling workers to report incidents with just a couple of clicks through digital forms, ensuring that important concerns and near-misses can be escalated quickly and efficiently.

Conclusions

Delivering on frontline safety is a make-or-break business issue, and should have equal priority with any other board-level discussion. As we’ve learned over the past two years, failure in safety can mean failure as a business - but for those teams that put in the work, it can be a critical support to a happy and therefore productive workforce. 

Frontline safety might be at its most visible in equipment and guidelines, but making it truly effective starts with making it part of a company’s culture. 

Many factors go into a business making it in today’s world, but one of the biggest make-or-break factors is the environment. Strong downtown districts tend to benefit from a range of factors, the main ones being population growth, local engagement, and economic activity. From retail to hospitality, mid-sized cities are a good sweet spot due to affordability and space.

For businesses, understanding where people spend time and engage with their communities is becoming increasingly important. That's why Blink helps brands better understand and connect with local audiences. By identifying the cities where residents are actively exploring, businesses can make more informed decisions about where to invest and grow.

A successful Main Street isn't just about the number of businesses operating there. It's also about whether people want to work, shop, eat, and spend time in the area. To determine the U.S. cities with the most booming downtown areas, we focused on retail and food/hospitality business density, small business births, and workforce growth, alongside search volume, population growth, and walkability score.

Not sure where your business falls? Find out what qualifies as a small business in high-growth U.S. cities.

The best U.S. cities for small business growth

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1. Orlando, Florida

Orlando takes the top spot with a score of 46.8, thanks to its blend of rapid growth, thriving tourism, and a steady stream of new businesses. The city added 7,464 residents in just one year and generated one of the highest small-business search volumes in the rankings, at 8,140. Retail and hospitality continue to flourish, with thousands of new businesses opening across both sectors. Orlando's appeal extends well beyond its theme parks, too, with 25,800 searches for things to do in the city. For entrepreneurs, that means access to a large, active audience of locals and visitors looking to shop, dine, and explore.

2. McKinney, Texas

McKinney may have one of the smaller populations in the top 10, but it's growing faster than almost anyone else. The city added 11,664 residents between 2023 and 2024—the largest population increase in the rankings—and continues to see strong growth in both retail and hospitality. That momentum is helping transform McKinney into one of the most exciting business destinations in North Texas. With more than 3,000 searches for both local businesses and things to do, it's clear that people are increasingly paying attention to what the city has to offer.

For entrepreneurs eyeing cities like McKinney, getting the foundations right matters from day one—starting with choosing the right business structure for a high-growth market. 

3. Frisco, Texas

Once overshadowed by neighboring Dallas, Frisco has quickly carved out a name for itself as one of Texas's fastest-growing business hubs. The city earned a score of 41.7 after adding more than 8,200 new businesses in a single year and posting strong employment growth across retail and hospitality. Interest in the city is growing alongside its business community, with searches for things to do in Frisco reaching 3,700. As more residents and visitors discover the city's shopping, dining, and entertainment options, Frisco continues to strengthen its appeal for entrepreneurs.

4. Tampa, Florida

Tampa combines the advantages of a large city with the energy of a growing small business scene. Home to more than 427,000 residents, the city welcomed nearly 4,800 new people in the past year while generating more than 7,000 searches for small businesses. Tampa's downtown also attracts plenty of attention, with nearly 16,000 searches for things to do. Supported by a healthy mix of population growth, tourism, and local engagement, Tampa remains one of Florida's strongest cities for retail and hospitality businesses.

5. Garland, Texas

Garland rounds out the top five with a score of 38.5, driven by strong business expansion and steady population growth. The city added more than 4,100 residents over the past year and achieved an impressive average employment growth rate of 10.3% across retail and hospitality. At the same time, thousands of searches for local businesses and downtown activities show that people are actively exploring what Garland has to offer. These trends suggest the city is becoming an increasingly attractive place for both business owners and customers.

6. Arlington, Texas

Arlington is best known for its sports, entertainment, and major attractions, but it is also proving to be a strong environment for small businesses. The city is home to more than 408,000 residents and recorded average employment growth of 10.3% across the retail and hospitality sectors. Interest in local attractions remains high, with more than 4,000 searches for things to do downtown and more than 3,300 searches related to small businesses. Combined with steady population growth, Arlington offers businesses a large audience and plenty of opportunities to stand out.

7. Boise, Idaho

Boise shows that a smaller city can still deliver big opportunities for entrepreneurs. With a population of just under 239,000, Boise recorded an average employment growth rate of 9.7% across retail and hospitality sectors, while also earning the highest walkability score among the top 10. More than 3,700 searches for small businesses and over 3,000 searches for things to do downtown reflect a community that actively supports its local economy. Combined with steady population growth, Boise continues to attract both new residents and new business ventures.

8. Glendale, Arizona

Glendale has quietly become one of the strongest markets for retail and hospitality businesses in the Southwest. The city added more than 3,100 residents over the past year and recorded some of the strongest workforce growth in the rankings, including a 15.3% increase in hospitality employment. Searches for local businesses and downtown activities also remain healthy, highlighting a city that is attracting attention from both residents and visitors. These factors helped Glendale secure a place among the top 10 booming main streets in America.

9. Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale pairs strong business growth with one of the most engaged audiences in the rankings. The city posted an average employment growth rate of 11.5% across retail and hospitality while generating 6,450 searches for things to do downtown—one of the highest totals in the study. Searches for small businesses also remained strong at 3,680, showing that people are actively seeking out local experiences. This combination of business activity and visitor appeal continues to make Scottsdale a standout destination for entrepreneurs.

10. Plano, Texas

Plano closes out the top 10 with a score of 37.0, demonstrating that a strong business community can thrive even during slower population growth. Despite a slight population decline, the city maintained an average employment growth rate of 10.3% across retail and hospitality and generated nearly 3,800 searches for small businesses. Interest in local attractions also remains high, with almost 4,500 searches for things to do downtown. Those figures suggest Plano's established business ecosystem continues to attract customers, helping the city remain competitive for new and growing businesses.

The top U.S. cities for job growth

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1. Lubbock, Texas

Taking the top spot is Lubbock, TX, with the highest average employment growth rate in the ranking at 13.1%. The city's labor market is being driven by strong expansion across both major industries analyzed. Retail employment grew by 11.3%, while employment in food and accommodation services climbed even higher at 14.9%, making Lubbock one of the few cities to post double-digit workforce growth in both sectors. This balanced growth suggests that job creation is occurring across a broad range of businesses rather than being concentrated in a single industry. With a population of 279,104 and an annual population growth of 4,033 residents, Lubbock's workforce momentum shows few signs of slowing.

For small businesses looking to compete in markets like this, offering the right employee benefits can be the difference between attracting top frontline talent and losing them to larger employers.

2. Huntsville, Alabama

Coming in at #2 is Huntsville, AL, with an average employment growth rate of 12%. The city recorded workforce growth of 10.6% in the retail sector and 13.4% in food and accommodation services, highlighting strong hiring demand across consumer-facing industries. Huntsville's ability to achieve double-digit employment growth in both sectors demonstrates a healthy local economy that is rapidly creating opportunities for workers. Supported by a growing population of 237,413 residents and an annual population growth of 1,305 people, Huntsville continues to establish itself as one of the strongest job markets in the country.

3. Glendale, Arizona

Rounding out the top three is Glendale, AZ, with an average employment growth rate of 11.45%. While retail employment increased by a solid 7.6%, the city's food and accommodation sector was the standout performer, recording workforce growth of 15.3%—the highest among the top three cities. This surge in hospitality hiring helped push Glendale's overall employment growth into double digits and reflects increasing demand from both residents and visitors. With a population of 262,745 and an annual population growth of 3,142 residents, Glendale's expanding workforce suggests a city where employers continue to invest and hire at a significant pace.

The fastest-growing U.S. cities

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1. Spring Valley, Nevada

Taking the top spot is Spring Valley, NV, which added an incredible 22,974 residents from 2023-2024, the largest population increase in the ranking. With a total population of 229,494, the city is experiencing rapid expansion, welcoming new residents at a pace that far exceeds that of many larger metropolitan areas. Spring Valley also maintains a substantial business presence with 6,500 retail businesses and 5,780 food and accommodation businesses. The area's continued population boom suggests growing demand for housing, services, and local businesses as more Americans choose to call this Nevada community home.

2. Port St. Lucie, Florida

Coming in at #2 is Port St. Lucie, FL, which welcomed 11,880 new residents in 2023-2024 alone. The city now has a population of 284,448 and remains one of Florida's fastest-growing destinations. Population gains have been accompanied by healthy economic growth, with average employment growth reaching 5.1% across the retail and hospitality industries. The city is home to 1,639 retail businesses and 1,011 food and accommodation businesses, helping support its expanding population. As more people relocate to Port St. Lucie, demand for local services, shopping, dining, and entertainment is likely to continue rising, further strengthening the local economy.

3. McKinney, Texas

Ranking third is McKinney, TX, which added 11,664 residents in 2023-2024, bringing its population to 242,534. The North Texas city continues to attract new residents thanks to its strong economy and growing business community. Employment growth averaged an impressive 10.3% across retail and hospitality sectors, one of the highest rates in the ranking, indicating that job creation is helping fuel population growth. McKinney also benefits from a sizable business base, with 21,680 retail businesses and 18,161 food and accommodation businesses supporting the local economy. With thousands of new residents arriving each year and employers continuing to expand their workforce, McKinney remains one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

The U.S. cities with the most walkable downtowns and main streets

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1. Boise, Idaho

Taking the top spot is Boise, ID, with an exceptional walkability score of 93, making it the most walkable downtown and main street destination in the ranking. For residents and visitors alike, this means many of the city's shops, restaurants, and attractions can be reached on foot, creating a vibrant environment for local businesses. Boise is home to 2,281 retail businesses and 1,732 food and accommodation businesses, while employment growth remains strong across both sectors, averaging 9.7%. People are also very interested to see what the city of trees has to offer, with 3,730 searches for small businesses, 500 for local shops, and 3,080 for things to do downtown. Combined with annual population growth of 1,530 residents, Boise's highly walkable downtown continues to support both economic activity and quality of life.

2. Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City, NJ, takes the second spot thanks to its highly walkable downtown and vibrant urban atmosphere. With a walkability score of 87, residents can easily access shops, restaurants, and local services without relying on a car, helping create a lively environment for small businesses. The city is also home to a substantial retail and hospitality sector, supported by strong interest in local attractions and businesses, with more than 4,000 searches for small businesses over the past year. While employment growth has slowed recently, Jersey City still added 4,609 residents, suggesting its mix of convenience, amenities, and proximity to New York City continues to attract new residents and support local commerce.

3. Newark, New Jersey

Newark, NJ, rounds out the top three thanks to its highly walkable downtown, growing population, and thriving business community. With a walkability score of 76, residents can easily access local shops, restaurants, and everyday services, helping create a bustling environment for businesses of all sizes. The city added 8,078 residents in the past year—one of the largest population increases among the top-ranked cities—while also generating nearly 4,800 searches for small businesses and more than 2,400 searches for things to do downtown. With its extensive retail and hospitality sectors, Newark continues to offer a mix of accessibility, activity, and growth that helps local businesses thrive.

Curious where your city ranks? Check out our interactive table below 

What America’s top main streets have in common

The results show that thriving main streets aren't limited to major metropolitan areas. While fast-growing cities in Texas and Florida performed especially well, the rankings highlight a broader trend: places with growing populations, active downtown districts, and strong retail and hospitality sectors tend to create the best conditions for small businesses. But the businesses that thrive long-term in these cities are the ones that also get the fundamentals right internally — from managing employees effectively to building teams that grow with the city around them.

Whether driven by tourism, new residents, or vibrant local communities, these cities are proving that a successful main street depends on more than just business density; it requires an environment where people want to live, work, shop, and spend time.

Methodology

To determine which U.S. cities have the most booming main streets, we analyzed the 200 most populous mid-sized cities (pop. 500,000 or less) using a weighted index combining four key indicators:

- Retail & Food/Hospitality business density — the total number of retail, food, and hospitality businesses (NAICS 44-45) (NAICS 72) operating in each city's surrounding metro area

- Retail, Food, and Hospitality workforce growth — the percentage change in retail, food, and hospitality sector employment between Q1 2019 and Q1 2025

- Retail, Food, and Hospitality small business births - The number of newly established retail, food, and hospitality small businesses within each city's surrounding metro area

- Search Volumes - The total search volume for each query (“Small businesses [city]”, “Local shops [city]”, “Things to do downtown [city]”) across each city listed 

- Population Growth (1-Year growth '23-'24) - The increase or decrease in population YoY from 2023-2024 (most recent data available) 

- Walkability Score - The total score determining how easy it is to walk around each city listed 

Establishment counts were sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 County Business Patterns. Employment growth figures were drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Workforce Indicators, accessed via the LED Extraction Tool. The MSA populations were sourced from the 2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

Cities sharing an MSA were assigned the same metro-level data, showcasing that retail and hospitality businesses serve regional economies rather than strictly city limits. Cities were then ranked from highest to lowest by total score to identify the metros where small-business activity and growth are strongest.

* Workforce growth was measured by comparing Q1 2019 to Q1 2025 employment data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). For four metros — Columbia, MO; Springfield, MO; Springfield, MA; and Worcester, MA — Q1 2024 was used as the endpoint due to the delayed Q1 2025 release; this represents a 5-year span instead of the standard 6-year span. For Anchorage, AK; St. Louis, MO-IL; Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI; and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI, workforce growth could not be calculated due to incomplete or unreleased state-level QWI data. These cities remain in the ranking based on their establishment density figures (Census 2023 County Business Patterns), with workforce growth treated as -100%. Data accurate as of May 15th, 2026.

Putting the human voice back into executive communications can transform employee engagement and company culture.

Executive communications often feel impersonal. In a bid to portray knowledge and professionalism, leadership messages can become dry and uninspiring.

This creates a disconnect between leaders and employees. It becomes harder to get your message across and to motivate your workforce. 

But leadership communications don’t have to be this way. You can adopt a more human and less corporate voice — a voice that shows a little personality and expresses care for employees — without losing your authority.

Here, we look at how you can humanize your corporate communications — and why this approach to internal communications supports workplace trust, employee engagement, and a more positive company culture.

We’ll be looking at:

• Why human-centered executive communications matter
• 3 key principles to humanize your internal communication strategy
• Channels that make executive communications more relatable
• Leadership communication: Pitfalls to avoid

Why human-centered executive communications matter

Human-centered executive communications can make a big difference to your organization. Here’s why they matter.

Building trust and transparency

We’re more likely to trust someone — and feel a connection with them — when we understand who they are as a person. The things that make them tick. Their personality, passions, and quirks.

This applies to the employee-executive relationship as much as any other. Employees trust leaders who speak in a human, relatable way. When they see an open communication style modeled by the C-suite, they’re also more likely to replicate it themselves in peer-to-peer communication.

This helps you develop a company culture where transparency is the norm. Everyone feels able to raise concerns and share ideas — which is good for collaboration, innovation, and productivity.

Boosting employee engagement

Relatable leadership communications can be inspiring for employees.

Take the example of Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. He shared the story of his son, who had cerebral palsy — and how this drove him to develop technology that was more inclusive for people with disabilities.

Nadella wasn’t just motivated by profit or growth. He was emotionally invested in his work. And by sharing his story — and painting a picture of the real-world difference Microsoft products can make — he highlighted the purpose of his employees’ work, too.

Human stories like this one boost employee engagement. They also create a sense of togetherness, which supports a positive employee experience.

Enhancing organizational resilience

Trust, high levels of employee engagement, and a culture of open communication are key features of organizational resilience. And when it comes to change management or crisis communication, a human tone is never more important. 

Executives who speak with an empathetic and authentic voice show employees that their anxieties are understood and will be addressed. They explain to employees what is expected of them and inspire them to rally around the organization.

Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, showed leaders how it’s done when he addressed Marriott employees via video message as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world.

He showed emotion, shared a personal update, and spoke transparently about the difficult decisions — like layoffs — that the company was having to take. The result was a relatable and somewhat reassuring message for employees during a time of extreme uncertainty.

3 key principles to humanize your internal communication strategy

So now we know what relatable executive communications can do for your organization. But what does a human voice actually sound like? While every leader should bring their own personality to their internal messages, the following three principles lie at the heart of any human-centered communication.

Empathy and understanding

Great leaders are empathetic. They demonstrate their empathy by:

• Acknowledging employee emotions, even when those emotions are negative
• Using inclusive language, like “we,” “us,” and “together”
• Actively listening to employees — and asking clarifying questions — to get to know them better

They also prioritize transparent and effective communication, so employees get the information they need when they need it.

Don’t do this: “The current reorganization is necessary for the company’s growth. The executive team will share more details soon.”

Do this: “I know many of you are worried about your roles. We’ll be holding several Q&A sessions this week to answer your questions about the reorganization.”

Clarity without jargon

Jargon and complex language can be confusing for employees and can lead to misunderstandings. In contrast, clear and simple language creates a sense of trust and approachability. It also helps employees to make better decisions.

To make your messages clear and easy to understand:

• Start by thinking about the key point you want to get across. Put this point at the start of your message. Also, pre-empt and answer the most pressing employee questions.
• Break complicated topics down into smaller parts. Then, explain each part step by step, using a relatable analogy if possible.
• Avoid complicated language. Use everyday terms, avoiding corporate buzzwords, industry terminology, and acronyms. Don’t use a long word when a short one will do.
• Adopt a conversational tone. If you wouldn’t say it when speaking to an employee face-to-face, don’t put it in a written message. It can help to read your messages out loud to find and replace overly formal words.

Don’t do this: “We need to leverage synergies to optimize workflows.”

Do this: “We need to work together to make our processes more efficient.”

Sharing and storytelling

Sharing your own personal experiences and anecdotes makes your messages more relatable and engaging. Likewise, you can use stories about real-life employees and customers to catch attention and convey a message more effectively.  

Weave stories into your employee communications and you also make your messages more memorable. That’s because stories engage both rational and emotional parts of the brain, which supports recall.

To make storytelling part of your executive communications:

• Focus on real people and their emotions. Use personal anecdotes, customer case studies, or employee stories in your internal communications, referencing people by name.
• Use metaphors and similes. Paint pictures with your words. Metaphors and similes can be particularly useful when you want to bring complicated or abstract concepts to life.
• Follow a story structure. When sharing stories, include a beginning (the context), a middle (the challenge), and an end (the resolution).

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Don’t do this: “Just the other day, an employee told me about how little things make a big difference to our clients. We want to see this ethos across every client interaction.”

Do this: “Just the other day, I was speaking to one of our care workers, Emma. She’d noticed that her client, Mrs Shah, seemed a little downhearted. Through conversation, Emma discovered that Mrs Shah, because of her reduced mobility, missed going into her beautiful garden.

So that day, Emma went beyond her usual duties, bringing some potted plants in from outside so she and Mrs. Shah could find a place for them in the living room. It made her client’s day. And that’s what our organization is all about.”

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Channels that make executive communications more relatable

Think beyond just in-person meetings: You probably have a variety of internal communication channels available to you! Some lend themselves to relatable leadership comms more than others. So — if you want to humanize your executive messages — spend some time on the following channels.

Interactive platforms

When we talk face to face, two-way communication is the norm. Explore ways you can transform your traditional top-down communication efforts into opportunities to inspire employee interaction and create a feedback loop.

Share company-wide news on interactive platforms that encourage employee responses. Enable employees to chat with each other via instant messaging. Post to the company news feed. Or run Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions via your company intranet or employee app.

Showing that you have the courage and openness to address employee questions in this kind of forum builds trust and connection.

Videos and live streams

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There’s a lot to be said for showing the face behind the name. Video and live streaming communication makes it easier for leaders to share their tone, body language, emotions, and intentions.

Bonus: Communicating urgent updates through short-form video content increases the likelihood that your on-the-go workers — especially frontline employees and remote teams — will receive critical messages.

Of course, not everyone is 100% comfortable in front of the camera. So if you could use a little direction before you film your first video, take a look at these tips:

• Know your script but don’t memorize it word for word. When you put things into your own words, your delivery is more natural and authentic.
• Watch your body language. Make eye contact with the camera and avoid crossing your arms. Use hand gestures and facial expressions as if you were in a face-to-face conversation with employees.
• Imagine you’re talking to one person. To bring emotion and connection to your video message, picture one employee. Then, deliver your message to that individual.

Employee-centric channels

Employee-centric communication channels, like the company news feed or modern employee intranets, can provide inspiration for your executive communications.

Here, you can find user-generated content (UGC) that you may like to share. You can also find stories of employees who have demonstrated company values and done great work.

By sharing these stories and recognizing employees by name via easy-to-access digital channels, you create a personal connection with employees. You also create a sense of belonging and appreciation.

Leadership communication: Pitfalls to avoid

Bringing a human voice to your employee communications requires empathy, authenticity, and the ability to listen to your workers. Even with the best of intentions, these things don’t always come naturally. 

So with that in mind, here are a few pitfalls to look out for as you adapt your style of communication.   

Over-sharing

Sharing too much personal information in your executive communications becomes counterproductive. It feels performative, dilutes the impact — and places the focus on you, rather than your audience of employees.

So before you share a personal anecdote, ensure it relates directly to your organizational goals and values. Keep any personal stories short and sweet. And balance things out. For every personal anecdote you tell, share two to three employee or customer stories.

Inconsistent messaging

Employees are quick to spot a leader who says one thing but does another. Your communication is unlikely to achieve the desired results if employees see it as inconsistent and inauthentic.

So back up your words with action. For example, if you show empathy for employee stress, you need to do something to alleviate it. If you share a belief that employees are the backbone of your organization, show you appreciate them with regular recognition and a competitive benefits package.

Ignoring employee input and feedback 

Meaningful conversations are two-way. So to maximize the impact of your human-centric communication style, you need to show that you’re listening to what employees say.

Respond directly to employee surveys, reactions, questions, and concerns — either in person or across your internal communication channels. And keep employee feedback in mind when developing your next executive message.

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Harness the power of human-centric communications for your entire organization.

When you humanize your executive communications, you make your messages more effective, memorable, and engaging. You show employees that there’s a real person behind the job title. This is great for building trust and promoting transparency across your organization.

To make your employee communications more human, consider implementing more storytelling, empathy, and everyday language in your internal communications strategy. And with the right internal communication tools that enable you to connect with employees in a less formal and corporate way, you can foster an organizational culture of transparency and authenticity.

‍Blink. And humanize your internal comms.