Gen Z just became the majority of your frontline workforce. Are you ready?

Actimo vs. Blink – which is better? It's a question many buyers are asking. And of course, the answer depends on who's asking!

Blink and Actimo are both cloud-based internal communication platforms with a strong customer base and some overlap in features. Yet their primary focus varies. 

Actimo vs. Blink – quick facts

Actimo is ideal for teams who want a platform that enables e-learning but aren’t as concerned about real-time interaction. 

In contrast, Blink is a truly inclusive real-time communications platform for frontline workers, though it doesn’t have an integrated LMS system. 

Your organization’s technical resources may also determine which one is best for you. Blink is easier to use out-of-the-box, while Actimo requires a more thorough setup. 

Both apps place a heavy focus on mobile usability, but Actimo doesn’t offer a newsfeed and is best used as a static intranet. 

And while Actimo's designed for medium-sized organizations, Blink works best for extra-large enterprises with 25,000+ staff.

In this post, we'll break down the key differences and similarities between Blink and Actimo.

Let's dive into it.

Actimo vs. Blink How they're similar

Mobile-first content

On Blink and Actimo, all content is mobile-first. In other words, everything is optimized to be viewed on a small phone screen, not a desktop. This means both could be a solid option for organizations with mobile or frontline workers.

Customizability

Blink is customizable through third-party integrations and offers a wide variety of functionality through its micro-app function. While the starter platform is incredibly easy to set up, full end-to-end customization can take some work through micro-apps and necessary integrations.

Similarly, Actimo can be extensively configured with a fully customizable onboarding flow and plenty of in-app engagement data. Capterra users commented that it's 'easy to make presentations or apps for almost any purpose.'

Multi-lingual offering

Both platforms cater to multiple different languages. Blink even offers on-demand translation of content into the users language of choice.

Some users complained that Actimo switches text from English to Danish.

Actimo vs. Blink: How they're different

Integrations

Blink's integration capability is one of its strongest selling points. Through its dedicated app marketplace, users can shop for new integrations and mix and match to build their own 'super app'. Integrations are configured using Single Sign-On, so users can access different tools without leaving Blink.

By contrast, Actimo probably won't be the solution that replaces every one of your current internal communications tools. There are limited integrations with third-party business tools beyond HR systems.

Employee engagement

Taking a cue from the most popular social apps, Blink offers a live feed with company updates and user-generated text, images, and video. As a result, engagement with the app is remarkably high, with an average of 14 app opens per user per day.

On Actimo, it can be a lot of work to get set up and maintain engagement. Since the content isn’t primarily user-generated, admins will need to regularly create and schedule content to encourage use. That also means communications are more top-down than other platforms. 

e-Learning

Actimo is a fantastic application to facilitate training and learning. Users liked that 'training is fully self-paced and fits anywhere in employee schedules.'

Within the platform, micro-learning is detailed yet simple to use. There are also engaging learning paths with gamified achievements that users can access at their own pace. Data on the compliance with, and completion of, necessary training, is another plus.

On Blink, there is no native onboarding and training function. However, a function can be added with the micro-apps feature, or by adding an integration.

Peer-to-peer communication

Blink offers a searchable in-app database of employees, so it’s easy for users to find a coworker they want to connect with. When they find that co-worker, there are many different ways to communicate: 121 or group chat, through real-time feed posts and comments, or by creating Hub content.

For those looking for a platform with a People Directory, Actimo may also not be a good choice. Beyond group members, there is no way to see a complete list of employees at your organization. 

UX/UI

Blink developers design the app to mimic consumer apps like Uber and Facebook as closely as possible, so the user experience is familiar and fresh. Reviewers praised the platform's 'responsive, team-customizable features.'

While Actimo users appreciate they have 'full control of the layout', they were disappointed that the UI is 'clunky and outdated'.

Frontline focus

While users commented that the app works 'just as well for desktop as it does on mobile', Blink is unique in its laser focus on the frontline experience. And despite offering a highly usable mobile experience, there is also a surprising amount of depth to the content and features. 

While Actimo is optimized for the frontline experience, it doesn't focus on tailored features for specific industries (in Blink's case, transport and healthcare).

Targetting content

Blink's architecture is based on 'teams', which means all content is targetted is personalised to users depending on the groups they're in. Users can schedule campaigns months in advance, and 'pin' posts to ensure they're read, or tag them as 'mandatory reads'.

Actimo users complained the app is 'missing a way to micro-manage groups and send-outs', and requested 'more functionality for campaign planning.'

Actimo vs. Blink: systems and pricing

Unlike Actimo, Blink offers all of its features and capabilities through a single system with optional paid add-ons, which includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager. An all-in-one solution like Blink is attractive to many buyers since it provides seamless functionality and is priced as a single unit.

Blink also offers a number of pre-built integrations with popular business apps to allow for further customization.

The core product is priced in four according to scale:

• Essential
• Business
• Enterprise
• Enterprise Plus

Organizations can also take advantage of a 40% discount if they pay annually.

Overall, Blink is an affordable product, with users commenting on its 'excellent value for money'. While Actimo pricing is not available online, reviewers commented on the cost per user being 'hard to justify' for smaller organizations.

Actimo vs Blink: final thoughts

While Actimo is a strong choice for organizations focused on training and onboarding, it lacks the features to make it a true digital workplace.

To find out more about Actimo vs. Blink, request a free Blink demo today.

Twenty years ago, I was advising the government on transport. Our North Star was this: how do we get people out of cars, and onto public transport? We worked hard and made several huge breakthroughs. Public transport in the UK thrived and up until recently, was the mode of choice for many.

But over the past few months, things have changed – drastically so. Two decades of progress has been effectively undone in a matter of months. The government has actively discouraged people from using public transport. That’s never happened before, although I understand that it was necessary.

So: where do we go from here?

Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on the transport industry and its frontline workers. And it’s not over. We have a long road ahead, with many challenges looming.

Even so, I’m optimistic. Here's why.

The arguments for public transport are as strong as ever

Let me own up to my biggest fear first: an increase in car ownership. At the moment, many people are apprehensive about, or scared of, using public transport. That may make them rely more on their cars.

When you’ve got a car, you’ve got an enclosed space. You don't have to sit next to anyone. It's one of the reasons car shares hasn’t taken off. People don't like letting others into their personal space. Covid-19 has exacerbated all this. It might lead families without cars to buy one, or go from one to two-car households.

That might not sound like a big deal. But there's a direct correlation: as car ownership rises, bus passenger numbers fall. Or, put that in perspective: for every new car on Britain’s roads, there’s 365 fewer bus journeys per year.

My goal has always been to achieve a modal shift towards public transport. I've been working with governments for many years to make this happen. That momentum has now ground to a halt. Will that change be permanent?

I don’t think so. The argument for public transport – economic and environmental – remain strong. They will only get stronger. One pivotal reason is climate change. At the beginning of 2020, that conversation was at the heart of public consciousness. Once again, circumstances have sidelined that conversation, but it's more urgent than ever.

The facts remain: the car is an inefficient user of roads, it's wasteful, it's polluting.

But here's what gives me hope. During lockdown, many people have experienced good quality, clean air. Many of them for the first time ever. That's huge. That's compelling.

We caught a glimpse of what a life with less pollution could be like. A live demonstration of a world with less traffic and fewer planes. That’s something most of us want to hang on to; without losing the thrill and energy of vibrant, busy cities.

What's holding us back is public perception. Many people see buses as a main polluter, causing congestion and reducing air quality.

That's not true. One new bus produces less pollution than one new car. That's despite the fact that they can carry 50 times as many passengers, by the way. In fact, buses are a key part of the solution for clean air and sustainability.

What we need to do is shift ingrained mindsets and change misperceptions.

Even after disaster, people adjust

Covid-19 poses an extreme threat. But we have dealt with – and recovered from – extreme threats before.

Take the London bombings in 2005. We lost 35 people; it was all over the television. It was terrifying. People's lack of confidence in public transport was lower then than it is now. Even so, Transport for London got their systems running again the very next day.

Or take 9/11. One of the worst horrors of anyone's lifetime. Remember how nervous were people about flying? But the next day, thousands of planes still took off. Today, aviation has a fantastic track record of keeping people safe.

We've mitigated the risks associated with terror attacks as much as possible. But you'd need to be a fool to say that that terrorist threat has gone away completely.

We don’t know when, or if, Covid-19 will completely go away. We can never eliminate risk. But we can learn to live with new danger.

We adjusted to airport security measures. And we will adjust to facemasks and social distancing.

Human beings are born to adapt.

It will take time, of course. Some people will be nervous for the foreseeable future. But long-term, people’s behaviour will normalize again. Patterns of patronage will return. All the evidence shows this is what happens after a crisis.

We need a marketing exercise. To gradually build up public trust, to reassure passengers it's safe. A way of reassuring people about risk, hygiene, temperature checks and general safety.

Our key workers are resilient

Being a bus driver is one of the toughest jobs in the UK, especially in a busy city.As a driver in London, you have to navigate the busy streets, the traffic; and at the same time, you have to keep people safe, give directions, take their fares.

It's a demanding job at the best of times. Along came COVID-19, and bus drivers were even more exposed than healthcare professionals. Thirty-three of them died in the UK. And all the while they were delivering NHS staff and other key workers to their jobs. The role they play is enormous.

We should be clapping for our bus drivers.

We don't know what their job will look like when all this is over. But I have trust in the resilience of our key workers, and in their capacity to adapt.

One of the economic fears in this respect is about a potential increase in autonomous vehicles. I do expect those to play a big role in the future of transport. In the past year, the number of autonomous car trips was no more than a few thousand.

But there have been hundreds of millions of autonomous train journeys every day. Half of all trains in Asia are autonomous, and we're starting to see autonomous buses come to the fore. There are five different tests in European cities later this year. This looks like it will be an area of big growth.

But won’t that mean job losses for frontline workers?

I don’t think so. In my view, we can approach the issue of driverless vehicles in two ways.

We can say that we're not going to change people's jobs despite the fact that we've got new technologies. Then we will lose bus drivers in the long-term. That would be the wrong way.

Or, we can use technology to enhance people’s jobs. Frontline workers’ roles could shift to become more customer service-orientated. Our workers could be there as ambassadors, communicating with passengers. In the case of an emergency, they could mingle with customers, make sure they're okay. This could herald a new era for public transport, an 'excellent customer service phase'.

We've already seen the potential firsthand. If you've got a lively happy bus driver, the whole experience changes. But at the moment, it's difficult to achieve that. If we move towards an autonomous world, we could recruit more of the right people.

There could be a different mindset, a different approach, a different energy to it. We could reproduce the customer care that people expect in restaurants and shops.

So the role of frontline workers will change, but the prevalence of jobs won’t. Our frontline workers will be as relevant ever.

We can build strong collaborations

To produce a much better product, we need the help of our customers. When it comes to the bus system in particular, we tend not to know what our customers think or want. We don't communicate with them, or not enough.

We want to get to know our customers better. Learn about what matters to them, communicate better with the people who rely on us. Drop them text messages. “Sorry, I'm hacked off, we couldn't produce reliable journeys because of these roadblocks.” Reward them, thank them for their loyalty. That would mean learning about best practice in customer care.

We also want to form closer partnerships with the unions, local authorities and the highways authority. We need to get to know the local politician who's in charge of road space allocation well. To deliver, you need strong relationships like that.

We need to broaden our vision and build robust connections. With our customers, with relevant authorities.Look at best practice in other industries, think bigger, and focus on core competencies. Nail the areas that matter most, no matter the line of work.

That’s my vision for the frontline of the future, and that’s why I’m optimistic.

With a focus on communication, marketing and customer service, we can make the changes we need. Not just to recover – to thrive. It won't happen by itself; we need to set the right priorities and make the right decisions.

But we can do it. The future is bright.

If you’re like most people, you’d probably prefer not to imagine what happens in a worst-case scenario, or a situational crisis.

However, imagining what could go wrong — and how you’ll react to it — is one of the most important things you can do for your business. 

An effective crisis communications plan starts with your employees. With early, clear, and consistent messaging, your team can become advocates for your company during any crisis. 

By following these four straightforward crisis communication best practices, your stress levels will go from 100 to 10 (hopefully).

The 4 crisis communication best practices you need to remember

1. Make messaging consistent
2. Back up statements with action
3. Balance timeliness and precision
4. Practice empathy

Let’s have a more in-depth look at each of these practices. 

1. Make messaging consistent

Your internal communications during a crisis should convey the same stance and expectations to every member of your team, regardless of level. 

That is more effective if you already have an easy, direct line of communication with each member of your organization. 

While different roles may need to respond differently, it’s crucial t foster a sense of transparency rather than secrecy to ensure a better response across your organization. 

Communicate often to make sure everyone is on the same page, even with constantly changing information.

In a 2020 Edelman study on internal communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, 63% of employees wanted daily updates, and 23% wanted communications multiple times a day.  

2. Back up statements with action

It's important for your team to understand how to talk about a situation, but it's even more important for them to understand what's being done — and their role in the process. 

As soon as you have a response plan, communicate it to your team. That way, what's being done to resolve an issue is at the forefront of the conversation. Share what your organization's plan is to prevent situations from arising and use as many concrete steps as you can. 

Recruit those in your organization who can help with definite tasks. Perhaps the PR team needs to create an official statement, or the development team needs to redesign a product. Whatever it is, let everyone know how they can help to react to the crisis. 

3. Balance timeliness and precision

The moments immediately following an event are often the most critical for your internal communications during a crisis. 

You don’t want there to be a sudden vacuum of silence where others may be left to speculate. That is the time to get your initial response out quickly, to guide the narrative. 

It’s alright to let your employees know there are some things you still don’t know. It’s better to be upfront about how you’re addressing uncertainties than to wait to communicate at all. 

With that in mind, it’s also appropriate to take your time to craft a more thought-out response for the long term. Planning for crises means you’re prepared immediately in the event. 

While it can be impossible to plan out the details of your crisis response, it's vital to create crisis response documents that lay the groundwork processes for establishing more detailed responses with your team. 

4. Practice empathy

The crisis will undoubtedly affect your employees day-to-day, some certainly more than others. 

It’s critical to empathize with your employee’s struggles throughout the crisis and recognize where their duties have become more difficult.

A 2020 Catalyst survey on the effects of empathy in the workplace during COVID-19 found that empathetic leaders and managers increase productivity, innovation, and engagement. 

Although you don’t want to dwell on how the situation is causing setbacks or difficulties, you can still empathize with your workers while returning to the positive.

Communicate your gratitude for their continued hard work and outline plans to alleviate their stressors. 

The Catalyst study states empathetic leadership entails: 

• Respecting life circumstances
• Supporting both life and work needs
• Fostering inclusion

Open lines of communication to hear their input and experiences. Solicit feedback through forms, polls, and one-on-one interviews. Let your employees know that you want to listen to their thoughts on tackling the crisis from their point of view. 

Show up in more than just writing. Video messages and calls communicate more empathy than written statements. 

Final thoughts: 4 crisis communication best practices

Your internal communication during a situational crisis is just as important as your public communication — and perhaps even more so. 

That’s why it’s essential to lay the groundwork for a plan so you can react effectively if necessary. Your internal crisis communications should be consistent, actionable, timely, and empathetic. 

All the members of your organization deserve frequent, comprehensive, and accessible updates during a crisis. 

Psst – looking for crisis communication tools?

Blink’s employee communications app provides an efficient way for you to communicate with everyone in your organization. From company-wide status updates to policy changes through the intranet, the all-in-one app makes connecting with your employees simple. 

URGENT: Is email holding back your internal comms?

What’s that ping? Another email landing in an already overflowing inbox? 

If you still rely heavily on email for internal communication, it’s time to rethink. 

With a wealth of other digital tools available, email is no longer the de facto king of workplace comms. And if you have frontline employees working for your organization, there’s no doubt that email is falling short.

A retail assistant, a hospital nurse, a warehouse worker — these employees don’t have time to check their emails regularly. Some deskless workers don’t even have a company email address or corporate device, making them even harder to reach via traditional email communication.

So what’s the solution? Let’s take a closer look at why, in 2025, email can’t be your only internal communications strategy — and what makes for a standout alternative.

The pitfalls of email-only communication

Email-only communication is bad news for your business. Here’s why.

Information overload and inbox fatigue

Employees receive hundreds of emails every day, meaning it’s easy for important messages to get lost in the noise.

Critical updates compete with meeting invites, company newsletters, and automated system messages. There’s no clear message hierarchy and things can get pretty messy, pretty quickly.

The result? Employees end up missing essential communications so it’s hard for internal comms teams to keep everyone on the same page.

Poor engagement

Harsh but true: In a world of social media interactivity, emails are dull and uninspiring.

These text-based messages don’t tend to include eye-catching graphics, images, or videos. And they’re not particularly good at engaging employees.

This means workers have less incentive to check their inbox. And your internal communications do very little to boost employee engagement and the employee experience.

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The frontline connection gap

Frontline employees don’t have regular access to email. They work in hands-on roles that involve limited screen time, if any.

Unlike office-based staff, these workers aren’t sitting at a desktop computer being alerted to the latest inbox arrival. Instead, they rely on mobile devices and personal email accounts to check in with internal communications as and when they can.

This makes email a poor fit for real-time, relevant, on-the-go updates. Emails from HQ are lost among personal messages. Information can be outdated by the time workers see it.

You end up with a frontline connection gap that harms the employee experience and increases the risk of poor communication or miscommunication across your organization.

Delayed and one-way communication

A company-wide email is a monologue. You send it on behalf of senior management and everyone else (hopefully!) reads it. Employees are forced into a passive role — they don’t have the opportunity to reply, share their ideas, or ask questions. It’s the ultimate form of top-down communication.

Even one-to-one emails have their flaws. There’s often a delay between receipt of an email and a reply, which can make collaboration with remote workers challenging.

In a world that thrives on instant responses, interactivity, and two-way communication, email feels increasingly outdated. And it’s failing to deliver the employee engagement and culture-building benefits offered by modern internal communication tools.

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No analytics, no insights

When sending messages via email, you’re in the dark. There’s no way to track if employees have read or engaged with key messages. So it’s hard to know if emails serve as effective communications or if there's a better channel to use.

This makes it challenging to gauge employee feedback and make improvements. If you don’t know how your messages are landing, how can you make meaningful changes to your internal communication strategy?

The multigenerational workforce has different communication needs

Email was once a logical first choice for company communications. But times have changed.

Millennial and Gen Z workers — who now account for over 50% of the workforce — prefer mobile-first, instant communication. Think WhatsApp, Slack, and social media-style updates.

Gen X and Boomers may still be comfortable with email. They didn’t grow up with social media and the internet in the same way as younger generations. 

But now that they too use social media apps in their personal lives, they’ve grown accustomed to the instant messaging experience — and they appreciate fast, direct access to critical information, just like their younger coworkers.

When looking at alternatives to email, you need to pick an internal communication tool that is accessible, engaging, and inclusive for all generations within the workforce. A mobile-first employee app can help you cover all the bases.

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Why a mobile-first app is the answer

A mobile-first ‍employee experience platform brings internal communications to every employee smartphone. In just a couple of taps, they can access the latest company news, chat with coworkers, sign up for shifts, and track down that policy doc they’ve been meaning to reread.

An app beats email hands down. Let’s take a look at all the ways it can improve your internal communications.

Clearly defined communication channels

Over email, news about the latest company event, critical safety updates, and messages from coworkers are jumbled together.

You can flag important messages or write URGENT in dreaded capital letters. But as new messages still push emails down an employee’s inbox, there’s a good chance things will be missed.

An employee experience platform gives you defined internal communication channels. Depending on the needs of your company, this might include:

• Essential updates that have to be acknowledged by employees before they disappear from the dashboard
• A news feed, where employees can find company updates, culture, and connection
• Instant messaging tools for group and one-to-one chats
• A content hub, where you can keep documents like policies, FAQs, and safety guidelines
• Digital forms that make it easy for employees to contact HR about their next vacation or their shift availability
• Communities, where like-minded coworkers can connect over projects, interests, and hobbies

By putting everything in its place via a multi-channel approach, it’s easier for employees to see essential messages and find the information they need.

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Instant, real-time communication

Instant messaging tools are a standard feature of employee experience platforms. These social tools support real-time, remote conversations. And they can be used to replace emails and the unauthorized shadow IT, like WhatsApp, that frontline teams often resort to using.

In addition to real time chat, you can share fresh and relevant updates over the news feed, segmenting employees so they only see news that relates to them. You can also use push notifications to highlight time-sensitive information and ensure nothing is missed. 

Better reach and accessibility

Employees can log into an employee experience platform without a company email address. This — along with the fact that the app is available via smartphone and doesn’t require a desktop computer — means that all employees, even those working on your frontline, have access to vital employee communications.

Sharing critical messages — think crisis communications, or timely updates to business goals — with everyone gets easier. But there are other benefits to improving internal communications for frontline workers. You also improve frontline employee engagement, boosting satisfaction and loyalty among a traditionally hard-to-reach, hard-to-retain group of workers.

More interactivity and engagement

Employee apps are built to offer an interactive experience. You can launch polls and employee surveys. Employees can comment or leave emoji reactions on news feed posts. With your permission, workers can even post their own content. Peer communication has never been easier.

Multimedia content is also a must, meaning you can move beyond text-based email communication to embrace Insta-worthy internal comms. You can use infographics, videos, and photos to distill complex messages into digestible, engaging content.

Easy-to-access analytics

Over email, it’s hard to keep track of who has read and responded to your messages. And it’s near impossible to understand how you’re doing in terms of employee engagement.

With an employee experience platform, you get access to the effective tools you need to make meaningful changes to your internal communications strategy and the wider workplace experience.

You can use analytics to understand how employees use your app and consume internal comms. You can track engagement trends and drill down into the data to find teams or locations where messages just don’t seem to land.

Armed with this insight, you can identify areas for improvement, setting internal communication KPIs and using data to make more informed decisions regarding your internal communication plan.

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Is it time your organization moved beyond email?

Email alone is no longer enough to drive an informed and engaged workforce. For a truly successful internal communication strategy, you need an internal comms tool that is:

• Instant. Everyone gets messages when they matter most.
• Interactive. Employees can engage, react, and be part of the conversation.
• Inclusive. Deskless and office-based workers should get equal access to internal comms.
• Insightful. Analytics help you understand what’s working and what isn’t.

The best employee apps support a strong company culture of connection and are built on bottom-up communication. They help you keep pace with the latest internal comms trends and put all the internal communications tools you need in one place.

By relegating email and elevating an employee experience platform, you create a single source of truth, where everyone can instantly access company news, share peer-to-peer communication, and collaborate with each other — right from their smartphone.

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Blink. And replace outdated email comms with a modern employee experience platform.

Stress, strained relationships, and missed deadlines. According to Grammarly’s 2024 State of Business Communication report, poor internal communication causes all three of these things.

In contrast, good workplace communication leads to increased productivity and work satisfaction. Employees who get enough information to do their job well are also 2.8 times more likely to be engaged in their work.

There’s a strong link between internal communication and employee engagement.

Effective communication helps employees feel more connected to the organization, their work, and each other. These highly engaged employees then contribute to positive workplace communication.

It’s a virtuous circle that — according to Gallup research — leads to improvements in employee retention and wellbeing, as well as your business profits.

In this article, we look at how you can boost employee engagement through your internal communication strategy.

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The basics of a good internal communication plan

If you want to improve employee engagement, improving employee communication is a great place to start. To do that, you need a plan.

An internal communication plan helps you approach employee communications with strategy. You understand where you are now, where you want to get to, and which combination of activities is most likely to get you there.

We can boil an employee communication plan down into four key stages. You can create a successful internal communications strategy by:

1. Assessing your current situation

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current communication strategy? Are your comms successfully engaging employees? Are messages resonating in the way you want them to? Are some communication channels more effective than others? Listen to opinions and ideas from across the company to evaluate your current comms performance.

2. Choosing communication channels

Communication channels should be accessible to all employees, including those working remotely and on the frontlines of your organization. You need appropriate channels for company-wide updates, 1:1 meetings, and group chat. You also need channels that facilitate top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer communication.

3. Deciding on communication content

If one of your priorities is employee engagement, crafting engaging company messages is the next item on your list. Create an internal communication calendar, starting with the essential messages that help your organization function safely and efficiently. Next, decide on the types of content you’ll use to share company culture and foster a sense of belonging.

4. Assessing engagement

A good internal communication plan is fluid. It’s a constant work in progress. So once you’ve put your new strategy into action, it’s time to assess what works and what doesn’t. Using communication and engagement key performance indicators (KPIs), see how far you’ve come and make targeted improvements.

Read more: 13 ways to quickly improve your internal communications

11 engaging ideas for your internal communication plan

Approach your internal communication plan tactically and it will better support your employee engagement efforts. Here, we’ve put together a list of internal communication best practices to incorporate into your plan.  

Choose the right channels

Employee communications should reach every member of every team. In a world of remote working, this means using digital communication channels.

These digital communication channels need to be accessible on mobile devices because 80% of the world’s workforce doesn’t sit behind a desk — and because paper memos on a noticeboard are far too easy to miss.

If email is your first thought, bear in mind that it’s rarely the best solution. Many frontline workers don’t have a company email address and lots of desk-based workers are suffering from email overload. There’s a temptation to overlook company comms in your inbox when it’s already overflowing.   

Your internal communications engage employees more effectively if you create dedicated, digital channels with the help of a social intranet or employee app.

These platforms allow your teams to communicate over a news feed, group chats, and 1:1 messages. The best tools come with lots of engaging, social-media-style features and are available on every employee smartphone.

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Be clear and concise

Clear and concise internal communications are essential to engagement because:

• You get fewer misunderstandings — and when employees fully understand your message they’re more likely to respond to it quickly
• It makes messages easier to absorb and remember
• You show respect for your employees’ time, which means they’re more likely to read future messages

So when creating employee communications, try to use simple language, avoid industry jargon, and keep sentences short.

Before you put anything down on paper or into words, think about what you want your audience to do after reading or watching your content. Also, identify the most important information and put this at the start of your message.

Once you’ve written your content, edit it ruthlessly cutting unnecessary words and repetition. You can also use AI tools, like Hemingway. Hemingway highlights sentences that are difficult to read. You can then simplify these sentences to make your internal communications clearer and more concise. 

Foster two-way communication

Imagine you’re watching a presentation.

The speaker — let’s call him Steve — clicks through his well-designed slides. He talks through the content competently. But he doesn’t pause for input or questions.

Now, another speaker takes to the floor.

This speaker — let’s call her Maria — starts her presentation with an interactive poll. After speaking for a few minutes, she involves the whole room in a discussion so everyone gets to share their thoughts and ideas. She speaks some more, then invites you to ask questions.  

Which presentation is the most engaging?

It’s likely that if you had to sit through Steve’s presentation, your mind would wander. You’d start thinking about the workload waiting for you back at your desk — or what you fancied eating for lunch.

But by incorporating two-way communication, Maria grabbed everyone’s attention from the beginning. She sustained that attention by regularly involving everyone in the conversation.

When you involve people in a presentation — or in your internal communications — you make the experience more engaging.

There are lots of ways to create interactive, two-way employee communications. You can launch polls and surveys. You can run an online Q&A session with your CEO. You can also post content to the company news feed, where employees can interact by commenting, liking, and sharing.

Create open dialogue like this — where thoughts, opinions, and questions flow in all directions — and you’ll find it much easier to interest employees in your internal communications.

Collect feedback

As we’ve just mentioned, polls and surveys boost employee engagement. Employees like to feel that they have a voice — and that leadership takes their thoughts on board.

So collect feedback regularly. Ask employees about the employee experience, the latest company changes, or the next company social event. You can also ask them what they think about your internal communications.

According to Axios research, 36% of employees want to share feedback with leaders about the essential communications they’re receiving but they don’t feel they get the opportunity.

So ask your employees about their communication preferences and any pain points they experience with your current employee communication plan. Give workers the option to share feedback anonymously if they prefer.

Then, analyze your feedback results. Also, be sure to share the results of polls and surveys with your employees. Thank them for their input and tell them what you plan to do.

This type of feedback loop shows employees that feedback requests aren’t just empty attempts at engagement. You really care about their opinions and ideas — and are willing to take action on them. This helps to engage employees with these types of communications going forward.

Tailor your communications

If all employees get all internal communications, they start to switch off. When your audience knows that only a small proportion of employee communications apply to them, they stop taking the time to read them.

That’s why another internal communication best practice is personalization. Using digital internal communication tools you can segment your audience based on their role, department, location, and tenure. You can then tailor content to each segment of your audience so everything they receive is relevant.

Your warehouse team sees different messages to the staff in HQ. Managers receive different comms to new hires. Employees in each of the regions you cover only see content relevant to their location.

With an intranet or app, you can also personalize employee dashboards, making them applicable to different roles and departments, putting the most important content front and center.

Celebrate achievements and milestones

Recognition is an integral part of any good employee communication plan. That’s because praise makes employees feel valued — and because other employees love to get behind a co-worker who’s done a great job.

Whether you’re celebrating the completion of a project, a birthday, or a work anniversary, you’re engaging your workforce. You’re creating a sense of accomplishment, belonging, and motivation. This can make a huge difference to your business.

A recent Gallup and Workhuman recognition report revealed that, by making recognition an important part of company culture, a 10,000-person organization can save up to $16.1 million a year in reduced employee turnover costs.

The easiest way to give company-wide recognition is via a dedicated recognition program across your digital communication channels. This type of program helps you build recognition into the fabric of your organization.

It makes manager-employee and peer-to-peer recognition incredibly easy, so it becomes a regular occurrence. A digital solution also ensures that frontline employees — who don’t get a lot of face-to-face time with managers or co-workers — get the same level of appreciation as their office-based peers.

Be consistent

The best employee communications are consistent. They stick to a reliable schedule and they demonstrate a similar tone and style.

This consistency ensures that employees come to trust and rely on your internal communications. They know when and where to expect key messages and feel kept in the loop. So they’re more likely to engage with what you have to say.

Here’s how you can make your comms more consistent:

• Use an internal communications calendar. Plan your comms for each month, including a mix of formal and informal company content.
• Provide clear guidelines and templates. That way all members of staff can deliver communications with the same style and tone.
• Use automation tools. A feature like Blink’s Employee Journeys allows you to create automated content paths. This ensures that all employees receive essential comms at key milestones — for example, during onboarding or after a year of service. 

Create engaging content

We all know from browsing social media that multimedia content catches the eye. An original photograph, an infographic, or a video is much more likely to grab our attention than plain, old text. So make these multimedia elements part of your internal communication plan.

Also, include a variety of content on your communication channels. That means need-to-know company updates along with snaps from your latest social event. Informal content helps to amplify company culture and create a sense of belonging.

Stories are also engaging. So post a real-life story about a customer your company has helped — or about one of the causes your organization supports.

When planning internal communications, think about what matters to your employees, too. They might like a reminder of the training and development opportunities, wellbeing resources, or benefits you offer. FAQs come in handy for new hires. 

You could also take inspiration from the Tesco supermarket chain, by creating personalized videos to support employees with financial planning. 

Encourage leadership involvement

When leaders communicate transparently with their workforce, it creates trust and builds engagement. It also sets a great example. Employees are more likely to be active on communication channels if their leaders are showing up there, too.

Employees also care what their leaders have to say. 36% say that they’d like to hear from their leaders more often.

So encourage leaders to get involved on the company news feed. Schedule a bi-weekly post from the CEO. Or plan an online Q&A session, where employees can ask leaders their burning questions.

Create connection

Employees who feel that they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work.

So use your communication channels to reinforce a positive and inclusive company culture — and make peer-to-peer connection part of your employee communication plan.

Frontline employees — and those who work remotely — have much less opportunity to collaborate and build workplace friendships. So ensure that employees have company communication channels suited to informal conversation.

Salesforce has made peer-to-peer connection and inclusivity a priority. They’ve created equality groups where employees with a shared interest, background, or identity can come together to champion their needs in the workplace.

However you choose to do it, be sure to make connection part of your internal communication plan. By giving co-workers the tools they need to support one another, share useful insights, and build workplace friendships, you create a more engaging workplace.

Leverage technology                 

Internal communication tools make comms and employee engagement much easier. With the right all-in-one platform, you create a company hub, which becomes the go-to place for the latest company news.

Using this platform, you can post communications that are easy for employees to find and search. You can create multi-media content to engage employees. You can recognize hard work, launch polls, and automate content so it reaches the right people at the right time.

Through integrations, you support employee engagement beyond comms. Employees are only ever a click or tap away from learning and development programs, wellbeing resources, and self-serve HR tools — like vacation booking and shift scheduling.

Technology helps you measure the success of your internal communication plan, too. A communication tool with in-built analytics can tell you how employees are interacting with your comms.

Metrics like message open rates, post likes, response time, profile completion, and communication tool adoption build a picture of what is and isn’t working when it comes to your internal communication strategy.

You can then use your findings to make data-backed improvements, finding new and more effective ways to engage employees with your internal communications going forward.

Using an employee app for internal communication plan success

Creating and executing a successful internal communication plan is easier when you use the right technology. A great tech tool is essential if you have hard-to-reach employees working on the frontlines of your company.

Frontline employees don’t spend a lot of time in the office nor do they have easy access to a computer or company email account. That’s why — if even a small proportion of your employees work away from a desk — you need mobile-first internal communication tools, accessible via smartphone.

An employee app fits this description. It brings communication channels to the palm of every employee.

Workers can catch up with company news during a break or check their shift schedule from home. They get to chat with co-workers and feel part of company culture in a way that simply isn’t possible if your organization still relies on emails or a desktop-based intranet.

Here at Blink, our employee app comes with a company news feed, 1:1, and group chat. It has tools for surveys and employee recognition.

Your employees also get access to a content library and a digital hub — where it’s easy to access other workplace software. Your comms team gets automation and analytics features that help them hone your internal communication plan.

If you’d like to see what Blink can do for your employee communications, schedule a personalized demo today.  

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

Driving frontline employee engagement has never been easy - but as we head into 2023, it's never been more important.

In the wake of COVID-19 and in the midst of the ongoing Great Resignation, leaders of deskless organizations now have to contend with the added pressures that a recession may bring. All this means that keeping workforces engaged and stable is critical.

Based on working with hundreds of frontline organizations all over the world, we've identified the top trends to watch out for when planning your 2025 engagement strategies.

1. Turnover

Employee turnover continues to be high, and a survey earlier this year indicated that “57% of frontline workers are ready to move into another frontline role with better salary.”

While job trends may change over the coming year, expect abnormal turnover to be the new normal going forward - and all the plays you’ve made to combat it in the last year need to be redoubled. 

2. Technology empowerment

Many frontline workforces are still using the kinds of processes that desk-based workers would have scoffed at ten years ago, let alone today. But that’s all about to change.

There’s been a 300% year-on-year growth in demand for technology services that specifically support frontline workers.

This isn’t a top-down drive: “63% of frontline workers are excited about the job opportunities tech creates, and tech ranks third on the list of factors workers say could help reduce workplace stress.” 

These kinds of technology initiatives won’t be copy-and-paste versions of what desk-based workers are used to - for example, an app version of the employee intranet. The problem with these kinds of solutions is that they’re not designed to be useful to the frontline - they ask for a frontline worker’s precious time, rather than earn it. 

2023 is therefore going to see leadership recognizing that technology solutions need to not only provide a user experience built around (not tweaked for) the mobile, deskless workday that the frontline experiences, but that contain the kind of valuable support that makes it worth their time. 

This is where we’ll see a raft of organizations finally attempt to solve for frontline employee engagement in 2023. In doing so, they’ll reap the rewards of productivity and retention gains that come with it. 

3. Burnout 

Burnout was one of the buzzwords of the pandemic and it’s not going away any time soon. A survey of 2,500 frontline employees conducted by Axonify indicated that “50% of frontline workers are preparing to leave their current jobs, with 58% citing burnout as the top reason.” This burnout is attributed to their experiences at work, such as long work hours, stressful interactions with the public, and lack of management communication. 

In 2023, frontline organizations will need to increase their efforts to provide wellbeing support, remembering that this starts with being able to listen effectively as well as act.  

4. Progression and opportunity

Research from McKinsey earlier this year showed an important gap in what frontline employees want from their jobs versus what their employers think they want. Critical here was the fact that “the opportunity for job growth or promotion is an even higher priority for frontline employees than pay or benefits alone”.

This is where organizations are in line for a wake-up call: Gartner mentioned that “44% of employees believe their employer does not have compelling career paths.” Those who are acting swiftly to promise investment in a long-term career path - such as McDonald’s Archway to Opportunity program - will both attract and retain ambitious, committed workers. 

5. Flexibility 

Frontline workers have witnessed their desk-based counterparts suddenly become able to work from the comfort of their own homes (and pajamas). Unsurprisingly then, the expectations of what employers can deliver have therefore been raised - and some companies are meeting them. For employees who balance work with caring responsibilities, education or second jobs, the ability to deliver flexibility on when and how to work can be as much of a deal-breaker as salary. 

In 2023, expect more companies to find smarter ways to offer this while maintaining reliable productivity - for example, in the use of more efficient shift scheduling software.

6. Diversity, equity and inclusion

The gap between deskless and desk-based workers is particularly pronounced when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. 

According to Axonify, 86% of office workers are satisfied with their DEI support versus 67% of branch and frontline workers. Its findings also indicate that male workers feel more satisfied with their jobs than female workers based on compensation, how they’re treated by management, and the career development they’re offered. 

Considering that frontline industries show overrepresentation of many minority groups compared to desk-based work (nearly two-thirds are women, and just over 40% are people of color), this is a front-page engagement issue for leadership. 

7. Productivity 

This is the ‘new’ concern that comes with the specter of impending recession. For private sector industries in particular - such as manufacturing, hospitality, retail, and logistics - demand and therefore revenue may be volatile, so margins will not only be squeezed, but the agility needed to adapt to changing circumstances will be make-or-break. 

Employee engagement has a huge role to play in making this possible. In tough times, engaged workers stay; disengaged workers jump ship. Just as engaged workers go above and beyond to be more productive, disengaged workers can drag down a team. 

If in doubt, the numbers talk: the behaviors of highly engaged business units result in a 23% difference in profitability.

It’s at this point that delivering frontline employee engagement will be business-critical. Those that manage to communicate effectively and efficiently will be able to have shifts filled and services delivered on time - those that don’t will find that productivity becomes a debilitating challenge. 

8. People analytics and the evolving role of HR

Over the course of 2022, human resources has taken on an even more important role in organizations - and people analytics (aka collecting HR data and then transforming it into actionable insights) is a big reason for this.

The power of harnessing data is transformative, particularly since it can help impact every single one of the key trends mentioned above - but it’s far from easy, particularly for frontline organizations where ‘data’ can still often mean paper-based forms collected in a filing cabinet. But the successful companies will be the ones who try, and getting started is easier than many think. 

Want to learn more about frontline employee engagement?

This article is an excerpt from Blink's brand-new guide to frontline employee engagement in 2023, which includes six key strategies to help leaders face the challenges that we've set out here. Click here or the image below to download your free copy: