Why 40 to 60 percent of hotel calls go unanswered, and what it costs you
Up to 60 percent of hotel calls go unanswered during peak hours. Here's why it's a communication problem, not just a staffing one, and how to fix it.
The Blink Team
Published:
September 10, 2026
Here's a statistic that should stop most hotel operators mid-scroll: up to 60 percent of hotel calls go unanswered during peak and after-hours periods. Not calls that get a slow response. Calls that never get answered at all.
It's tempting to read that as a staffing problem, and sometimes it is. But in a lot of hotels, it isn't about headcount. It's about a front desk that's already juggling three things at once, a call coming in at the exact moment a guest is checking in, and no reliable way to route that call to someone else on property who could actually take it.
What a missed call actually costs
A missed call from a guest already staying at the property is a maintenance request that doesn't get logged, or a guest who gives up and complains at checkout instead of getting the issue fixed in the moment. A missed call from a prospective guest is a booking that goes to a competitor who happened to pick up.
Either way, the pattern is the same: the front desk isn't understaffed so much as it's isolated. Housekeeping might have someone free two floors up. Maintenance might already know about the issue the guest is calling about. But without a fast way to communicate across departments, the front desk has no way to know that, and the call goes unanswered instead of getting routed to whoever's actually available.
Why this is a communication problem, not just a staffing one
Hotels run on departments that operate somewhat independently: front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, food and beverage, each with its own rhythm and its own pressures. That's normal and mostly fine, until something needs to move fast across departments, like a guest call that the front desk can't personally handle in the moment.
A hotel staff communication app fixes this by giving every department, not just the front desk, visibility into what's happening on property right now. A maintenance tech who's five minutes from the front desk and has a slow moment can pick up a routed call. A housekeeper who's already near a guest's floor can be the one who responds to a request, instead of the front desk trying to track someone down over a radio that may or may not be on.
What to do about it
Start by tracking how many calls actually go unanswered at your property during peak hours. Most hotels have never measured this precisely, which means the real number could be higher or lower than the industry figure, but it's rarely zero. Once you know your actual number, look at where those calls are coming from: guest room requests, front desk overflow, after-hours reservations, and build a specific routing plan for each.
The tool that makes routing actually work is one that reaches every department in real time, not just the front desk. That's the gap a hotel staff communication app is built to close, and it's covered in more detail on the Blink for hotels page.
The field of internal communications is changing fast. It’s already evolved beyond traditional intranets, top-down messages, and email-centric strategies.
Now, organizations are communicating with employees who are working at home and in the office. They’re looking for ways to engage and motivate frontline workers, who have traditionally had second-tier access to company comms.
They’re also trying to stand out from other employers by offering a stellar employee experience, giving employees the sense of purpose, wellbeing, and connection that they’re craving.
As new comms trends like these become the norm, you need to rethink your internal communications team. You need to develop a team structure that helps you achieve your communication and business goals. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to plan, deliver, and land the messages that employees need to hear.
So let’s see how you can build and scale your internal communications team in a way that maximizes your organization’s potential.
Responsibilities of an internal communications team
Before you decide on the roles and structure of your internal communications team, it’s helpful to review the kinds of tasks they are (or will be) responsible for.
Your internal communication department ensures that every piece of content is created and distributed in a way that supports company goals. But let’s get into the specifics.
Internal communication team responsibilities include the following. :
Developing an internal communications strategy
The internal comms team is responsible for devising and implementing an internal comms plan. This involves:
Defining what you want to achieve with your employee communications
Identifying the different segments within your audience
Aligning internal messaging with company mission, purpose, and goals
It all starts with assessing where you are right now. Your internal communications team will need to take stock of your communication channels and the effectiveness of your messaging, to decide how you’ll improve internal communications going forward.
Managing internal communication channels
There’s been a drive to move beyond email, which is great. It makes sense for desk-based workers, whose email inboxes were full to bursting. It also makes sense for frontline workers, who don’t always have a company email address.
But 73% of professionals say that the number of communication channels they use at work has increased over the past 12 months. And 1 in 4 workers say they experience miscommunication multiple times every day.
Having too many communication channels can be overwhelming and distracting for employees. There are lots of sets of login details to remember, lots of platforms to learn, and lots of notifications pinging.
So part of the internal communications team’s role is choosing the right communication channels, managing those channels, and ensuring employees don’t become overloaded.
Modern communication channels include instant messaging, social feeds, SMS, video conferencing, and a content hub. Your organization may benefit from some or all of these. It’s up to the internal comms team to consider the type of communications you want to share — and the best places to share them.
Implementing new technologies
For many organizations, a modern intranet or employee app now sits at the heart of their employee communication strategy. It provides the collaboration, communication, and social networking tools a modern workplace needs.
Finding and implementing the right internal communication tools is another job for your internal communication team. As part of this process, your team will look at existing comms technology, assessing how well it’s working for your company.
If improvements are needed, they’ll demo a selection of employee apps and intranets, looking for a solution that meets the needs of every employee, including those on the frontline.
They’ll then take responsibility for implementing a new employee communications tool, championing it across the organization, getting buy-in from stakeholders, and ensuring best practices when the tool is up and running.
Creating and curating content
Another key responsibility for your internal communication team is the creation and curation of content. It’s their job to keep your communication channels — particularly your news feed and content hub — active and engaging. And to ensure effective internal communication across the organization.
Depending on the size and needs of your organization, that might mean creating and managing an editorial calendar. It may involve seeking content from department heads. It may also mean creating an internal communication style guide that supports employees, managers, and leaders to write their own content.
Collaborating with other departments
An in-house internal communications team needs to collaborate across different departments. This prevents silos from developing and ensures that all teams communicate effectively with one another.
Your comms team members are responsible for supporting the leadership team, giving them insight into the best ways to share messages and build trust with employees.
The team may also work to surface or share engaging company stories. For example, they can seek positive employee stories to support the recruitment team — or share positive customer stories to support HR and their employee engagement work.
Their role may even involve delivering employee communication workshops to help managers communicate more effectively with their teams, especially during important projects or periods of change.
Tracking and improving staff engagement
As well as sharing essential updates and publishing a consistent schedule of content, an internal communications team is responsible for assessing content success.
They need to gauge the reach and engagement of their internal communications to determine what’s working — and what isn’t.
As part of your internal comms plan, your team needs to determine metrics and KPIs to track internal comms performance. The team should seek answers to questions like:
How often are workers logging onto the company intranet?
Are our messages successfully reaching employees?
Are messages reaching employees on time?
How many workers are taking the desired action after reading our messages?
By measuring and tracking staff engagement, the team can identify their best-performing content. They can also identify points of friction — or messages that are failing to get through.
This data gives your internal communications team the insight it needs to improve messaging and refine your employee communication strategy.
Roles needed for an internal communications team
So now we know what an in-house internal communications team does, let’s look at the essential roles you’ll need to fill. Just remember that every organization is different. So how you assign these roles and responsibilities will vary.
In a small and nimble internal comms team, you may have one team member wearing multiple hats. Larger organizations with more extensive internal communications needs are likely to have at least one person responsible for each of the following roles.
Internal communications head/lead/director
Every great team needs a great leader. Within your internal communications team structure, this person will be in charge of planning, implementing, and measuring the performance of your organizational communication strategy.
Internal communications business partner
Your internal communications business partner acts as a bridge between internal comms and other parts of the business.
They connect different locations and business units with your central messaging and communication strategy, empowering them to produce or share content and ensuring key messages are communicated consistently.
Internal communications channels coordinator
Your communication channels coordinator can be one person — or lots of people. It all depends on how many channels you’ll be using and how much content you’ll be producing.
The channels coordinator is responsible for managing communication channel strategy, ensuring channel standards are met, and creating a communication calendar. They’ll also distribute messages on the relevant channel to the relevant audience.
Internal communications multimedia executive
Visual content gets 94% more views than text-only content. So to ensure high levels of employee engagement on your communications platform, you should add visuals to your posts. To do this, you’ll need someone who can turn plain-text content into engaging infographics or videos.
How to build and scale your internal communications function
The following best practices will help you make the most of the resources you have as part of your internal communications team.
Step 1: Understand organizational goals
You can’t build or restructure your internal communication team without understanding business requirements first. So think it through.
How will your communication strategy support the overarching business strategy? What should internal communications do for your business? How does your comms strategy need to flex and change as you grow?
For example, if a part of your sales strategy is expanding to new locations, your communication practices, tools, and team structure should take this into account.
Step 2: Plan roles and responsibilities
Now that you’re clear on business goals, consider the different roles you’ll need to fill. Refer to the roles we shared above to decide which people you’ll need for your internal communication team.
Place these roles in an internal communication team org chart so it’s clear who reports to who. Also, assign responsibilities to each role so everyone knows and understands their remit.
Step 3: Invest in your internal communication team
To get the best from your internal communications team, you need to invest in their professional development. The better their skills and knowledge around workplace communications, the better for your company.
Even if you have a limited budget, there are plenty of free resources out there, created to help comms professionals get better at their jobs.
Step 4: Lead by example
If you’re the head of employee communications at your company, set the example you want your team to follow. Champion open communication, build trust, and recognize hard work.
As a comms leader you should, of course, ensure that communication within your own team is flawless. Establish protocols and a cadence for how you’ll communicate and collaborate with your internal communications team.
Step 5: Focus on efficiency
Internal communications teams often have to act fast. There are sometimes urgent situations that need to be addressed or communicated quickly. So your team needs to be ready to step up and hit the Send button.
Try to build a chain of command that isn’t hindered by bottlenecks. But, equally as important, put a review and approval process in place to ensure no misjudged messages go out to employees.
Building and scaling a successful internal communications team
Internal communications vary a lot from one company to another. The structure of your internal communications team will depend on your organizational goals and the size of your business.
But no matter how big or small, the purpose of an internal communications department remains the same. To craft engaging employee communications that reach the right audience at the right time.
The tips we’ve included above will help you build a team with the skills and expertise to achieve that purpose. The right internal communication tech will help, too.
To find out how Blink’s employee app supports internal communications within frontline organizations, schedule your free demo today.
As companies rethink how they connect with employees in a hybrid, mobile, and fast-moving world, many are looking beyond traditional intranet platforms like LumApps. While LumApps is a solid option for knowledge management and Microsoft/Google integrations, it can fall short when it comes to usability, real-time communication, and mobile performance.
Whether you’re rolling out internal comms globally, trying to unify systems into one employee app, or simply seeking a more flexible and modern intranet experience, there are better options out there.
What to look for in a LumApps alternative
When evaluating alternatives to LumApps, here are five key factors to consider:
#1. Mobile usability
Your employee experience platform should be just as powerful on mobile as it is on desktop — especially with today’s hybrid, frontline, and remote workforces.
#2. Ease of use
A modern intranet or communications tool must be intuitive for both admins and end users. Platforms with steep learning curves or clunky interfaces will see low adoption.
#3. Real-time communication
Timely communication is essential — whether it's leadership announcements, crisis updates, or team alerts. Look for platforms that offer native chat, push notifications, or news feeds.
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#4. Integration ecosystem
You shouldn’t have to cobble together multiple tools. The right platform integrates with your HRIS, LMS, scheduling, payroll, file storage, and more.
#5. Analytics & insights
Data matters. Choose a solution with actionable dashboards that help you measure what’s working, what’s being read, and where to improve.
The top 12 LumApps alternatives
Now that you know what to look for — and why LumApps might not be the best long-term fit — here are the best alternatives, starting with the standout:
#1. Blink – The #1 LumApps alternative for unified employee experience
Blink is an employee experience platform designed to bring communications, resources, and tools into a single, easy-to-access app. With a strong focus on usability, real-time engagement, and seamless integrations, Blink empowers companies to connect with their entire workforce—whether they’re on mobile, desktop, or a shared device.
Why Blink is the best LumApps alternative:
All-in-one communications hub: Combines chat, news, content, HR tools, recognition, and surveys into one streamlined platform.
Mobile + desktop parity: Offers full functionality on any device, with no reliance on corporate email.
Powerful analytics: Gives real-time insights into usage, engagement, and sentiment to help you optimize comms strategies.
Integrations-first approach: Blink integrates with HRIS, LMS, payroll, scheduling, and document systems to centralize everything your workforce needs.
Top-rated platform: 4.8★ average on Gartner Peer Insights and a leader in G2 for internal communications and employee apps.
Pros:
Unified digital workplace accessible from anywhere
Highly intuitive UI with rapid user adoption
Dedicated support and success teams for onboarding and beyond
Transparent pricing and strong ROI
Cons:
May require customization for highly complex intranet needs
Some advanced analytics features are part of higher-tier plans
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#2. Simpplr
Simpplr is an intranet platform designed to streamline internal communication, content distribution, and knowledge sharing. It includes personalization features, integrations with HR tools, and prebuilt templates to simplify setup. The platform is geared toward companies looking for a structured, branded experience.
Pros: Great personalization, modern interface Cons: Limited customization, costly at scale Pricing: Custom Gartner: 4.7★
#3. Staffbase
Staffbase supports internal communications across multiple channels, including email, mobile apps, and digital signage. It offers features for content scheduling, targeting, and employee surveys. Often used by global enterprises, the platform emphasizes scalability and branding consistency.
Pros: Email, mobile, signage comms; powerful targeting Cons: Less flexible for content management or smaller teams Pricing: Custom Gartner: 4.1★
#4. Interact Software
Interact Software delivers an intranet platform with features for content publishing, employee engagement, and search. It includes integrations with Microsoft products and offers tools like blogging, forums, and document sharing. The platform is designed for medium to large organizations.
Pros: Social features, easy setup Cons: Limited analytics and design flexibility Pricing: Custom Gartner: 4.6★
#5. Haiilo
Haiilo combines intranet functionality with features for social advocacy and personalized content delivery. The platform includes analytics, customizable pages, and AI-based search to help surface relevant information. It is commonly adopted by organizations prioritizing internal engagement and branding.
Unily provides a cloud-based intranet designed for enterprise use, with features for knowledge management, internal communications, and collaboration. It integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other enterprise tools. The platform is known for its flexible content management and multilingual support.
MangoApps offers a unified platform that combines intranet, collaboration, learning management, and document storage. It supports both desktop and mobile access and is used by a variety of industries. The platform is modular, allowing organizations to deploy only the tools they need.
Pros: Feature-rich; good for training-heavy orgs Cons: Dated interface; inconsistent UX Pricing: Custom Gartner: 4.4★
#8. Workvivo by Zoom
Workvivo is a social intranet platform that combines internal communications with engagement tools like activity feeds, shout-outs, and surveys. It offers a familiar social media-style experience and integrates with Zoom and Microsoft 365. The platform is primarily used by mid-size to large organizations.
Pros: Engaging UX, employee advocacy tools Cons: Lacks unified mobile-desktop parity and deep analytics Pricing: Custom pricing Gartner: 4.7★
#9. Firstup
Firstup is a communications platform focused on personalization, automation, and real-time analytics. It supports targeted messaging and integrates with a range of enterprise systems. Firstup is commonly used by large organizations with distributed workforces.
Pros: Powerful targeting, personalization, and analytics Cons: High cost; not ideal for smaller teams Pricing: Custom Gartner: 4.8★
#10. Connecteam
Connecteam is a mobile-first platform designed for managing non-desk workforces. It includes scheduling, task management, chat, and time tracking tools. The platform is often used in industries like retail, logistics, and hospitality.
Pros: Ideal for dispersed teams; affordable tiers Cons: Lacks deep intranet functionality Pricing: Free tier available; paid starts around $29/month Gartner: 4.7★
#11. ThoughtFarmer
ThoughtFarmer focuses on knowledge sharing and collaboration within hybrid and remote teams. It provides customizable intranet pages, wiki functionality, and employee directories. The platform is suited for organizations seeking structured documentation and internal search tools.
Pros: Excellent for documentation and wikis Cons: Setup can be time-intensive Pricing: Custom G2: 4.8★
#12. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a collaboration suite that includes intranet features alongside tools for CRM, task management, and chat. It offers free and paid tiers, making it accessible to a wide range of teams. The platform is modular but can be complex to navigate.
Pros: Wide feature set for budget-conscious teams Cons: Overwhelming interface; some tools feel outdated Pricing: Free plan available; paid starts ~$24/user/month G2: 4.2★
Final thoughts: Blink vs. LumApps
While LumApps remains a strong player — especially for companies tightly integrated with Google Workspace or Microsoft — Blink stands out for teams that value ease of use, real-time communication, data-driven insights, and a single place for everything work-related. It offers a more unified experience across devices, better analytics for employee engagement, and faster time to value.
If you’re looking for an employee experience platform that’s as intuitive as it is powerful, Blink is your best bet.
Why teams choose Blink over LumApps
LumApps is a strong enterprise intranet, particularly for Google Workspace-centric organizations, but it's built with desk-based collaboration as the default. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.
In the current landscape, remote workforce management is a vital skill for your business.
With more businesses moving towards remote and hybrid working – and remote work options becoming a strong pull for employee retention – there’s never been a better time to review how you manage remote employees.
Below, we run through exactly what you need to know to set up and manage a remote workforce effectively.
Remote workforce management
A remote workforce is any workforce that can complete its main duties away from a central place of work. Remote workforce management is the practice of leading and managing a remote workforce using a mixture of communication, processes and technology.
What’s the difference between mobile workforce and remote workforce?
Remote workers generally work in their own space, usually (though not exclusively) in some sort of home office. They are not obliged to stay here – they can work wherever they need to. This opens up a whole range of flexibility benefits – they can work on the train, whilst waiting to pick their kids up from school or in that cute cafe down the road which does the best flat whites.
A mobile workforce needs to move from location to location to complete its work. They might do this on a day-to-day basis, or be positioned in one location for weeks or months at a time. A few examples of mobile workforces include:
Drivers for bus, taxi, train or haulage fleets
Community healthcare teams
Consultants who work client side on long-term projects
On-the-move sales teams with numerous appointments each day
It’s easy to see why remote work is so appealing to employees – it’s flexible and great for work-life balance, whilst opening up a huge range of roles that would otherwise have been off-limits.
Because of remote work, the vacancies available to employees have increased significantly. An employee based in Atlanta doesn’t have to limit themselves to Atlanta-based roles – they could apply for roles previously based in New York, LA or even abroad.
What does that mean for you, as an employer?
Ultimately, you’re going to have to work harder to keep hold of your talent. March 2022 saw a record 4.5 million US workers quit their jobs, with common reasons for doing so including low pay, no career advancement opportunities and feeling disrespected at work.
This means that employee experience will play even more of a key role in employee retention than it does now, and is likely to become a key strategic focus for businesses in the coming years.
The benefits of a remote workforce
If there’s one thing the pandemic has proven, it’s that remote work can be a fantastic tool for both employee engagement and workforce productivity. Far from experiencing the chaos expected at the start of the pandemic, many businesses were immediately impressed by their employees’ ability to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and the productivity that accompanied that.
With a remote working policy, you can:
Access a wider pool of talent with no geographical limits – invaluable for hiring as open vacancies continue to hover around an all-time high.
Access a wider pool of talent that is often excluded from onsite jobs, for example, people with disabilitiesdisabled people, young parents and those without transport.
Improve employee work-life balance by removing commuting times and allowing your workforce control over when and where they work.
When managed well, remote work is a super effective way of expanding your talent pool whilst increasing employee productivity and retention. Equally, there are a few risks that you’ll need to be aware of – factor these into your remote employee management policy to minimize them.
Distractions and lack of direct supervision
Books, food, TV, hobbies…whatever your distraction of choice, your home has it, within seconds of your workstation. As a manager, it can be an uneasy feeling to have no direct oversight of your employees in this type of environment.
Isolation and fewer career advancement opportunities
In the Buffer State of Remote Work Report, 24% of respondents reported loneliness as a key difficulty of remote work – only ‘difficulty unplugging’ and ‘no reported struggles’ scored higher. Isolation can drain productivity and morale, so it’s important to invest in an inclusive digital workspace to combat this.
Communication and technology issues
Not being in the same physical space as your team can cause communication hiccups – make sure you have the right sort of software on hand to overcome this.
Security
If your employees aren’t in the office full time, it’s more difficult to make sure they’re completing their IT security training and using their work devices responsibly.
Bring your own device (or ‘BYOD’) workplaces are on a particularly slippery slope here. 83% of companies have some sort of BYOD policy for at least some of their employees, but only 32% require employees to register their devices with IT for software installation. If you are going down the BYOD route, make sure you have the right security procedures in place.
How do I create a remote workforce?
The answer that many businesses could give here is “get caught by an unprecedented global pandemic, send all of your employees home at once and figure things out from there.”
Now that the initial shockwave of COVID-19 has died down, however, you have the luxury of a controlled and managed shift to remote work. When you’re rolling out remote working, it’s important to give everyone time and space to adapt to new processes. This could include upgrading and monitoring your IT infrastructure to cope with remote working, buying in the right hardware or simply creating a suitable home workspace.
1. Give plenty of notice
If your employees plan their lives around being in the office during certain times each day, giving them space to adapt helps ease your workforce into the change. Aim for a month’s notice, ideally more if this decision has been a long time coming.
2. Roll out department by department, if needed
Going remote requires investment – and you may need to take a short term dip in productivity on the chin as everyone gets used to new arrangements. Rolling remote working out department by department might make this easier to manage, both cash flow-wise and for keeping key functions running as normal.
3. Plan for investment in software and office equipment
It’s a given that you’ll need to up your investment in cloud communication tools and product management tools. Equally, be prepared to spend on other amenities you offer your employees at the office – extra monitors, ergonomic chairs, laptop stands and more might all be useful.
4. Find the right people to oversee the process
A stakeholder panel is a great way to make sure all relevant voices are heard when planning your shift to remote work. Include managers, employees from teams who are going remote and representatives from any functions who might be impacted by this.
5. Allow for growth and adjustment
Is everything going to go swimmingly the instant you move out of the office? Probably not – expect slowdowns as everyone adjusts to their new normal. Keep monitoring progress and learning from your mistakes, and things will quickly start to pay off after this adjustment period.
How can I monitor employees working remotely?
Employees like remote work for the autonomy and responsibility it gives them – this is what contributes to the sky-high engagement and productivity rates at remote companies.
You should not be looking to monitor your remote employees 24/7. They won’t respond well to being micromanaged, and you’ll undo all the benefits remote work offers. Instead of monitoring, shift the focus onto building channels for effective two-way communication.
Start by:
Setting clear deadlines and expectations – are your employees expected to keep core hours, for example, or are you taking a more flexible approach?
Set up daily check ins – a quick ten-minute chat about the work day is reassuring for both manager and employee.
Regular feedback sessions ensure remote employees don’t feel ignored and can develop their skills at the same rate as an on-site employee would.
Use remote collaboration tools to keep in contact throughout the day. Instant messengers, employee apps and project management solutions all help here.
If you need visibility into how employees spend their day, consider an employee monitoring tool to track time usage.
Remote workforce management software
The secret to a great remote workforce management strategy? Finding the right software for the job.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ here – it’s all about weighing up what you need to meet your unique requirements as a business. You might need the basics only, or you might need remote versions of several different systems to replace the office working environment.
How can technology help remote workforce challenges?
Whilst remote work has been a mainstream working practice since the pandemic began, nearly a quarter of employees reported not having the right equipment (hardware or software) to do the job as recently as spring 2021.
Remote work hinges on having the right tech. Remote employees need software to communicate with their colleagues, share ideas, keep track of deadlines, perform data analysis and more.
You’re likely to have some of this software available in an office setting anyway – so it’s the communication tools that really make the difference. Having intuitive and accessible employee apps, instant messengers and video conferencing tools on hand ensures communication channels stay open, productivity remains high and employees don’t feel isolated.
Remote workforce management technology: the must-haves and the nice-to-haves
The must-have software below would be pretty tricky to go without If you’re starting an online business from scratch!
An employee experience app app: mobile internal comms tools like Blink allow employees to share and access important info instantly, from their smartphone. Social feeds and two-way publishing allow employees to expand their internal network, whilst push notifications ensure that important messages aren’t missed.
Video conferencing: why opt for crackly, awkward and generally unreliable phone conferencing solutions when you can use cloud-based video platforms like Zoom and Teams to meet and discuss ideas face to face?
Workplace instant messenger: faster and friendlier than email, workplace messengers like Slack can be used to make remote communication easier (or just for idle workplace chatter that builds workplace morale – pet pic channel, anyone?)
Project management tools: distributed teams need an effective way of keeping on top of tasks and deadlines. Project management tools like Trello, Basecamp and Monday.com use intuitive visual layouts to display and manage these processes.
Depending on your needs, you could also consider:
Employee productivity tools: time trackers, note-taking apps and site blockers can all contribute to your employees’ productivity levels.
Online whiteboard tools: whiteboard and ideation tools like Miro allow your workforce to take remote collaboration beyond a shared Google Doc or Slack channel.
Employee monitoring software: if you’re concerned about productivity, one way to ensure your employees are keeping their minds on the job is by using employee monitoring software to track time usage.
Final thoughts on remote workforce management
As a manager, the transition to remote work can be tough. How can you provide the right levels of support and oversight when your employees are scattered across the country – or maybe even beyond?
With the right technology and the right approach, however, it’s more than manageable.
It goes beyond ‘manageable’ to ‘super beneficial’ in many cases – remote work removes the stress and time pressures of office-based working so that your employees can thrive. If you manage this with the right processes and the right tech, you’ve got a recipe for success!
Every full-service restaurant runs some version of a pre-shift briefing. The team gathers, a manager runs through the specials, a table to watch, a policy update, maybe a quick shoutout for someone who did well last shift. It's a good habit. It's also, in most restaurants, structurally broken.
Here's the problem: a pre-shift briefing only reaches the people standing in the room at that exact moment. The server who's running five minutes late misses it. The line cook who started an hour earlier and is already deep into prep never heard it. Anyone on a split shift, anyone who called in and swapped with a coworker, anyone who simply wasn't close enough to hear over the kitchen noise, all of them are working the rest of the shift on outdated information.
Why this matters more than it seems
A missed pre-shift briefing doesn't usually cause a disaster. It causes something quieter and more corrosive: a server who doesn't know about the 86'd item until a guest orders it, a line cook who wasn't told about a modified recipe, a team member who feels one step behind their coworkers because information didn't reach them the way it reached everyone else. Over time, that gap chips away at restaurant employee engagement in a way that's hard to trace back to a single cause, because it never looks like one big failure. It looks like a dozen small ones.
Two direct competitors in this space, Yoobic and Shiftplatform, already rank for restaurant employee engagement content, which says something: operators are actively searching for a fix to exactly this kind of problem, not just abstractly interested in the topic.
What actually closes the gap
The fix isn't a longer briefing or a stricter attendance policy. It's making sure the content of the briefing exists somewhere every team member can catch up on it, whenever their shift actually starts. A few things make this work in practice:
A written or recorded version of the briefing that persists past the moment it's delivered, so a late arrival or a split-shift worker can catch up in under a minute.
Targeting by section or role, so the briefing content that matters to a bartender isn't buried under kitchen-specific notes meant for the line.
A way to confirm people actually saw it, not just a message sent into the void, but a lightweight way for managers to know who's caught up and who hasn't before service starts.
The connection to front-of-house and back-of-house
This problem sits right next to the front-of-house/back-of-house communication gap covered in a companion piece on this topic, and for good reason. A pre-shift briefing that only reaches half the floor is really just a smaller, more frequent version of the same underlying issue: information that depends on physical presence in a specific place at a specific time, in a job where nobody's schedule lines up perfectly. Blink's practical checklist for closing that broader gap, referenced on the Restaurants page, covers this in more detail.
A small change with a real payoff
You don't need to redesign your entire pre-shift routine to fix this. Start by writing down the two or three things every briefing needs to cover, no matter who's running it, and put those in a place every team member can check before they clock in, not just the ones who happened to be standing in the room. It's a small operational change that tends to show up in restaurant employee engagement scores faster than most bigger initiatives.
When executives at Nokia Bell Labs brought engineers and scientists together from separate teams, their experiments led to the invention that we know as the vacuum tube.
Since then, the product has transformed hundreds of industries and solidified Nokia’s place in the telecommunications technology space.
The global revenue of their network infrastructure has been increasing by 22% year after year, and for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, it was €1.7B.
That’s the power of cross-functional collaboration. Many of the problems organizations face today need not one, but multiple teams or departments to work with one another. And in a survey of more than 2000 professionals, LinkedIn has identified cross-functional collaboration as a key leadership skill.
That’s why in this post, we’ll take a look at the meaning of cross-functional collaboration, its advantages, and best practices to facilitate cross-functional collaboration at work.
What is cross-functional collaboration?
Cross-functional collaboration refers to the concept of employees from different operational areas of a company working together as a team to complete a project or solve a problem. For example:
Ecommerce website designers, developers, and copywriters may join forces to deliver a cohesive user experience.
Sales, customer support, and marketing teams may engage in cross-team collaboration to create a uniform customer journey.
Manufacturing floor staff and procurement managers may collaborate to reduce excess inventory and ensure stock availability.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Cross-functional collaboration has endless applications and possibilities depending on the business requirements.
Importance of cross-functional collaboration
So why would you want different departments to collaborate? The future belongs to cross-team collaboration. According to Deloitte, “We’re seeing a shift from hierarchies to cross-functional teams. Adopting team structures can improve organizational performance, while not doing so puts you at the risk of falling behind.”
We’ve covered some use cases above but the benefits of cross-functional collaboration go beyond that. These include:
Increased innovation
When you involve people from different parts of the business, you get different points of view. The combination of these unique perspectives can lead to creative ideas for solving problems and lifting production.
Better efficiency
Cross-functional collaboration can make your business operations more efficient. The more different departments collaborate, the more their workflows will evolve and improve.
For example, if a manufacturing company suddenly loses its regular supplier, sales representatives, the ordering department, and the warehouse manager can unite to find a new vendor.
With this cross-team collaboration, they have a high chance of quickly finding a new supplier that satisfies the criteria established by all three of them.
Faster acceptance and implementation of change
When you involve people from different spheres in a change initiative from the beginning, you also get their empathy, buy-in, and trust. And they spread this acceptance to other people in their respective teams.
The result? Everyone’s on the same page, and there are fewer delays in execution. For example, some companies have orientation programs where a new employee is required to spend some time in each department.
This leads to a better understanding of the challenges and decision-making processes in different parts of the business. So whatever team the employee ends up with, he’d still be able to welcome changes introduced by other teams.
Enhanced organizational knowledge
This one’s a pretty obvious benefit of cross-team collaboration. When you collaborate with other departments, you also get to know the tools, processes, and best practices they are using.
The inner workings of a different department help you learn lessons that you can implement in your own team. For example, they might be using a better tool for data visualization which is also cheaper than yours.
Plus, you get a better sense of how your work and the other team’s work fits into the bigger picture.
Ways to streamline cross-functional collaboration
As you can see, solving problems that affect multiple teams or departments goes a long way in giving you an edge against the competition.
You may think that bringing people together from different teams would be easy, since they’re all part of the same company. But that’s often not the case, especially in medium and large-sized businesses.
Different departments may have conflicting agendas, values, goals, and priorities. And these differences prevent them from progressing on cross-functional projects.
So let’s see the core steps you can take to improve cross-functional collaboration in your business.
Have a clear vision
30% of employees worldwide cite inadequate vision as the reason for the failure of projects in their companies.
If that’s the case for regular projects, you can imagine how high it would be for cross-functional projects.
When you don’t share a concrete reason for the existence of a cross-functional project, why would anyone prioritize it over the tasks within their own team?
Be transparent with the teams involved about why you started the project. Tell them why they were chosen for it. And clarify what’s the end goal.
For example, if you are launching an onboarding program with a mentor from each department, the vision could be to quickly transform new hires into long-term assets.
The more open your communication, the more invested different departments will be in the project’s success.
Gather the right team members
How you build your cross-functional team plays a big role in your project’s success.
For example, having a finance expert in the team will be crucial for a cross-functional project that involves cutting energy costs and becoming a more eco-friendly company. Plus, you’ll also need PR experts that can spread the story in news outlets and give the whole thing a positive spin.
When putting together a cross-functional team, also consider the diversity and influence exerted by every member within the organization. People who are well-liked and respected even outside their immediate departments make perfect candidates for cross-functional initiatives.
Clarify roles and responsibilities
Do any of these ring a bell?
“I thought he/she was going to do it.”
“I keep butting heads with someone in the other team doing my job.”
“I am reporting to two managers from different teams with different ideas on what my job is.”
If you don’t clear up the expectations from each cross-functional team member, your team will remain confused about what exactly they should do, and who will carry out each task.
Remember, employees with clarity on their roles report a high level of satisfaction (75%), effectiveness (86%), and productivity (83%).
So when engaging in cross-team collaboration, make sure to clearly organize both individual and collective tasks for your workers. Every employee should know what tasks they are supposed to do on their own, and what is to be done in collaboration with other team members.
Put up roles for everyone else to see
A study of American workers across many industries found that 20% end up duplicating the work of others. The reason? Not being able to reach the concerned coworker.
So while it’s good to clarify roles and responsibilities for each team member, they must also know what everyone else is doing and responsible for. This will help you in two ways:
There will be no repeat or duplicate work. If someone is already handling a task, another person will not take it up.
When a team member runs into a problem or needs some information, they’ll know who to reach out to.
The basic information you should openly display for each team member includes:
Full name
Department name and job title
Role within the cross-functional project
Contact information
A great way to streamline this process is to use an employee directory. Blink, for example, is an internal communication app that offers this feature.
It lets you create a directory where information about each worker can be displayed. Plus, employees can search or reach anyone in the directory via instant messaging.
Ensure clear and regular communication
The ability to communicate the goals, status, and outcome of your team's work is crucial for cross-functional collaboration. When cross-functional teams don’t discuss project updates and requirements with one another, they cannot realize their full potential.
But cross-functional communication can be tricky. People are occupied with projects within their immediate teams, and no one may be willing to go the extra mile to communicate with other departments.
A great way to make communication easy for everyone is by implementing simple communication channels. Even better if you can provide a designated space for employees to share updates, exchange messages, and share documents.
That way, you make it easy for different departments to share information without switching between multiple apps.
Another thing you should do is to create a concrete communication strategy for your cross-functional project. The communication strategy will clarify how and when to send updates, and set communication expectations for the teams involved.
Create comprehensive documentation
Cross-functional projects are usually big, and big projects are scary. There are many moving parts that can overwhelm the teams involved. They may not know where to begin, how to carry out a task, or whom to ask.
In such a situation, documenting every aspect of the project can be a huge help. It clarifies processes and boosts productivity in both the short and long term.
Documenting involves writing down details about the project goals, baseline measurements, ongoing tasks, expected results, and more. Then making all this information available to the departments that have a stake in the cross-functional project.
You can begin by creating a project timeline to set and communicate the main tasks and a schedule based on when they should be completed as well as establish a project baseline.
Take construction projects, for example. These are typically complex cross-functional ventures because they require the design, procurement, and construction teams to collaborate deeply with one another.
And they have many tasks and subtasks to be managed on a strict timeline, as delays can lead to increased costs. Here’s what a project timeline might look like for such a project.
This level of detail in your documentation goes a long way in showing both the big-picture view and small tasks associated with the project, making the project vision easy to digest for all the team members.
Conclusion: how to streamline cross-functional collaboration
Cross-functional collaboration can be daunting, but its potential for your business can’t be ignored. It’s an opportunity to leverage the leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills from all corners of your company and use them to drive powerful results.
So use these strategies to set a solid foundation for cross-functional success. As your teams start collaborating, encourage them to keep adjusting and learning from the experience. Because these lessons will help you improve your organization’s ability to facilitate cross-functional collaboration even further.
And if you’re looking for a tool that can help enhance cross-functional collaboration at work, look no further than Blink. Request a free demo today.
Digital tools are transforming the way organizations build and sustain employee engagement. Platforms like Blink, Workvivo, Staffbase, and Reward Gateway are helping teams stay connected, improve communication, and bring company culture to life — wherever employees work.
But with so many employee engagement tools on the market, choosing the right one can be tricky. The wrong platform can waste time, hurt adoption, and even reduce engagement.
Getting it right matters. Companies with highly engaged teams are more productive and see up to 23% higher profitability. The best employee engagement software goes beyond simple communication — it connects people, recognizes great work, and supports a shared sense of purpose.
Every organization is different. The tools that work for a remote or office-based workforce may not suit a frontline team. That’s why it’s important to align your engagement goals with the right platform.
You’ll find software built for:
Frontline employees — mobile-first apps like Blink that keep workers connected on the go
Remote teams — tools such as Asana and Slack that combine communication and project management
Office-based teams — platforms like Culture Amp and OfficeVibe that measure engagement and feedback
And others that specialize in areas such as:
Communication and collaboration
Feedback and performance
Wellbeing and productivity
Rewards and recognition
Choosing the right solution depends on your people and your priorities — because engagement software only works when it works for everyone.
For frontline organizations, this is especially true. Most engagement platforms are still built with desk-based employees in mind. Only 1 in 10 frontline workers says they have access to the tools and technology they need to connect and advance at work — even though they make up 82% of the global workforce.
Without easy access to company updates, communication, and recognition, frontline employees can quickly feel disconnected and undervalued.
That’s why your employee engagement solution needs to work for all employees — wherever and however they work.
In the next section, we’ll look at the best employee engagement software for 2026 — from all-in-one employee apps like Blink to specialized tools for communication, wellbeing, and recognition.
Let’s take a closer look.
Best employee engagement app for frontline organizations
Frontline employees are the backbone of many industries — from transportation and retail to healthcare and hospitality. But engaging this workforce comes with unique challenges. Many frontline employees don’t have regular access to company systems, email, or desktop devices, making it harder for them to stay informed and connected.
That’s why mobile-first employee engagement software has become essential. The best platforms for frontline teams combine communication, recognition, and real-time updates in one easy-to-use app.
These tools close the gap between head office and the field, helping every employee — regardless of location — feel included in company culture.
Below are some of the best employee engagement tools for frontline workers in 2026, starting with Blink, a leading all-in-one platform designed specifically for deskless and distributed teams.
Best employee engagement software for frontline workers
Blink
When it comes to engaging a dispersed, frontline workforce, few tools match what Blink delivers.
Blink is a mobile-first employee engagement platform built to help organizations connect with every worker — whether they’re in the field, on the factory floor, or on the move. Used by teams across industries such as transport, healthcare, logistics, and construction, Blink turns everyday communication into connection.
Employees can easily chat with colleagues, access company updates, view schedules, and complete essential tasks all in one place. The result: better communication, stronger engagement, and a more unified culture.
Managers benefit, too. Blink’s analytics dashboard helps leaders track engagement and performance trends, identify communication gaps, and celebrate wins through built-in recognition tools.
Key features include:
All-in-one communication: Peer-to-peer chat, team groups, and company-wide updates keep everyone aligned.
Employee recognition: Built-in recognition features highlight great work and reinforce culture.
Engagement surveys: Pulse surveys provide quick, actionable insights into morale and satisfaction.
Analytics and insights: Track usage, engagement, and content performance to inform strategy.
Seamless integrations: Connect scheduling, HR, and project management tools for a single digital workspace.
Mobile-first design: Works on any smartphone — no corporate email required.
With Blink, your entire workforce can access the same tools and information, creating a seamless digital experience that keeps everyone connected, informed, and motivated.
Request a demo today to see how Blink can transform engagement across your frontline teams.
Best employee engagement software for desk-based remote workers
If you're looking for employee engagement software platforms suited to desk-based remote workers, here are some excellent options.
Google Chat
Source: Google Chat Capterra Reviews
Google Chat is a communication platform that includes features like video and voice calls, and group chat. It's a great option for workplace communication and it's free to use.
As you’d expect, this tool integrates with the rest of the Google suite, including Google Calendar, Drive, Groups, and Gmail. But it lacks some of the advanced features you tend to get with paid tools.
Reviews from Capterra note that Google Chat is easy to use. It also provides good collaboration tools. However, the interface can be frustrating, message delivery can be an issue, and notifications can be challenging to navigate.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for Google Chat for business starts at $6 per user.
Discord
Discord is a chat app designed for gamers. But it’s recently been used for workplace communication, too. It includes features like voice and video chat, so you can easily connect and communicate with colleagues.
You can use Discord for free, making it a basic but cost-effective tool for internal communications, especially in a remote working environment.
Pricing: Many of Discord’s features are free to use. For businesses that want to invest in extra perks, Discord’s premium tier, “Nitro,” is available for $99 per year.
Asana
Asana is a popular project management tool that can also be used for employee engagement. With Asana, you can easily create and assign tasks, track task progress, and set team priorities. You can also use Asana to create custom projects for easy employee collaboration.
Source: Asana Capterra reviews
Asana makes a great option for remote teams, in part because it offers a mobile app for easy access to tasks and progress data. This helps to ensure that employees are working cohesively and effectively wherever they’re based.
Reviews from Capterra note that while Asana offers a clean, intuitive, and integrated interface, notifications are often missed, automatic opt-in to email notifications can be annoying, and the different projects and access features can be confusing.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for Asana starts at a basic free plan. A business plan costs $24.99 per user per month when billed annually.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool and it’s a good option for those looking to improve remote employee engagement.
Key features include task assignments and statuses, alerts, and a task toolbar. But while ClickUp does well in terms of task management, it doesn’t offer a full range of employee engagement tools.
This platform lacks features relating to real-time communication, employee recognition, and social interaction. So you’re likely to need additional software.
Pricing: ClickUp offers a free version. Monthly pricing for a Business plan costs $12 per user per month.
WorkTango
WorkTango is an employee experience platform with a number of solutions for employee engagement. It provides tools like employee surveys, real-time analytics, rewards, and recognition.
You can also see how your engagement scores rank against other WorkTango customers to get a better sense of how you’re doing.
On Capterra, users say that anonymous feedback and anonymous employee chat allow for truly honest conversations. Clients also praise recognition features. However, some users would like better reporting tools and easier platform navigation.
Leapsome is a good employee engagement tool for goal setting and employee development.
It’s designed to support organizations to create high-performing teams. You can use Leapsome to track and collaborate on goals, run 360-degree reviews, and create personalized learning pathways.
With lots of tools for remote teams, Leapsome helps maintain employee progress even when employees aren’t in the office. The software also offers video conferencing tools, which make it easy to collaborate on agendas and align action plans.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $8 per user per month, with the option to add on the extra features you need.
Slack
Source: Slack Capterra Reviews
Slack is a great productivity tool for remote office workers. It helps you to organize teams and their work, with the help of channels, huddles, and a workflow builder.
However, it's worth noting that Slack doesn't provide much in the way of scheduling, performance tracking, or survey features. If these tools are essential to your organization, you’ll need to use Slack plus another employee engagement platform.
Reviews from Capterra note that Slack’s user interface is easy to use. They like channel and plugin features. They also appreciate having all work conversations in one place.
However, reviews also note that it can be a confusing platform to use, with lots of channels across different teams. Adoption can also be difficult if people are not familiar with the software.
Pricing: For multiple employees, monthly pricing for Slack starts at $6.67 per user.
Best employee engagement software for desk-based office workers
Now, let’s take a look at the tech tools best suited to office worker engagement.
OfficeVibe
Source: OfficeVibe Capterra Reviews
OfficeVibe is a “people-first” employee experience platform, with a number of employee engagement features designed for the office.
It helps employers to assess and improve employee engagement levels with robust measurement tools. It also provides an app so you can track progress on the go if needed.
Reviews from Capterra note that OfficeVibe is an innovative tool that helps organizations better understand employee happiness. The company also provides strong customer service.
However, managers complain that survey questions can’t be customized and that insights don’t go deep enough. They also say that the Slack integration doesn’t work too well and that setup can be confusing.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for OfficeVibe ranges from a free version to a $5 per user Pro Plan.
SurveyMonkey
By using employee satisfaction survey tools like SurveyMonkey, you can collect regular feedback from employees on their engagement levels. This real-time feedback can help you to identify problem areas and take steps to improve employee engagement in your organization.
As well as survey templates, SurveyMonkey offers reporting and analytics features that help you spot data trends and insights. It also uses AI to reveal employee sentiment.
Pricing: For over three users, monthly pricing for SurveyMonkey starts at $31.83 per user.
Doodle
Employee polls are a quick and easy way to collect anonymous feedback from employees on a range of topics. You can use employee poll tools from Doodle to gather feedback on everything from engagement levels to job satisfaction.
But Doodle does more than polls. It also provides meeting, video conferencing, and scheduling tools. You can even poll meeting attendees to find a time that works for everyone and improve attendance.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for Doodle Professional starts at $6.95 per user.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a project management tool that can also be used for employee engagement.
With Monday.com, you can create and assign tasks, track progress, and more. You can also use it to create performance tracking templates for employees. This can help you to identify areas where employees need improvement and take steps to address them.
On Capterra, Monday.com users say that the platform’s project management tools are excellent. But others complain that the backend of the platform is complicated and involves a steep learning curve.
Pricing: For more than two employees, monthly pricing for Monday.com starts at $8 per user per month.
Culture Amp
Culture Amp’s employee engagement platform provides over 40 science-backed survey templates. You can use these surveys to find out how employees feel about engagement, belonging, inclusion, and more.
The platform also uses AI-powered insights to summarize employee engagement findings, supporting your business to make data-backed decisions.
Reviews from Capterra say that Culture Amp has a user-friendly user interface. They also praise the platform’s ready-to-go survey templates.
But users don’t like having to rely on the Culture Amp support team to update some parts of the platform. They also say that — while survey features are strong — features like the objective and key results (OKR) module aren’t as well-developed.
The following tools specialize in one area of employee engagement. As such, they make a great add-on to your chosen staff engagement tool.
At Blink, our App Marketplace integrates all the tools you need to manage your employee engagement in one place. If we don't already integrate with your app, just ask!
Kudos
Kudos is an add-on app that allows employees to give and receive recognition in real time. With Kudos, you can create a culture of recognition where employees feel appreciated for their hard work.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for Kudos starts at $3.25 per user.
Friday
Friday is an app that makes it easy to give employees recognition for a job well done. With Friday, you can give employees badges, points, and rewards to show your appreciation.
Pricing: Friday has a free version. Monthly pricing goes up to $100+ for company plans.
Bonusly
Bonusly is another dedicated employee recognition tool. Bonusly supports peer recognition, allowing employees to give each other bonuses in the form of points that can be redeemed for rewards. By using Bonusly, you can create a culture of appreciation and recognition throughout your workforce.
Pricing: Monthly pricing options for Bonusly starts at $2.70 per user.
Limeade Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing programs, like those on offer from Limeade, go hand in hand with employee engagement programs. Because when employees feel healthier, happier, and less stressed, they have the headspace they need to engage with their work.
Limeade provides customized employee wellness programs. These programs encourage participation and deliver essential wellbeing resources via one handy tool.
With this tool, you can also listen and respond to your workforce in real time through anonymous surveys, polls, and quizzes. All that’s really missing from this system is strong employee communication tools.
WeThrive is an employee engagement tool designed to support the mental health of desk-based workers. With this platform, you can create surveys to assess employee wellbeing and then take action to improve it.
WeThrive analytics allow you to segment survey results by team, tenure, location, department, and manager. This makes it easy to identify the root causes of poor wellbeing and identify areas for improvement.
Reward Gateway is an employee engagement solution that offers employee discounts, employee rewards and recognition, and tools for employee communications.
This combined platform is a great tool for office-based employers looking to boost employee recognition, with features such as discounts and rewards accessible in one place.
Reviews from Capterra note that Reward Gateway is flexible and easy to use. But it can be glitchy, with reporting features sometimes not running properly and some features failing to run as smoothly as others.
Pricing: Monthly pricing for Reward Gateway starts at $10.19 per user.
Weekdone
For structured goal setting, Weekdone is an excellent choice. It’s a top-rated OKR platform that allows you to track weekly plans and progress, provide feedback, and get everyone pulling in the same direction.
OKR software can also be used to ensure that remote employees have clear objectives, with performance reviews and goal tracking.
Pricing: For more than three employees, monthly pricing for Weekdone is $8 per user.
Awardco
Awardco is another bonus tool that makes recognizing and rewarding people easier and more effective.
With Awardco, employers can set up reward and recognition programs that their employees can access from any device. You can tailor incentives to your teams, ensuring the prizes on offer act as real motivation.
This tool is a good option for office-based companies of all sizes looking to increase employee satisfaction and engage with their workforce to boost productivity.
Pricing: Pricing for Awardco ranges from $2,500 to $4,000 per year.
QuizBreaker
QuizBreaker is a virtual team-building tool. It works well for both office-based and dispersed teams, bringing a bit of gamification to the work day.
Key features of QuizBreaker include:
a scheduled icebreaker quiz that helps employees get to know each other better
escape games and 1,000+ trivia quizzes for fun team-building events
employee profiles that reveal work style, unique strengths, and fun facts
pulse surveys to help you get regular feedback from employees
QuizBreaker isn’t an all-in-one employee engagement tool. But this platform helps teams to bond and brings a little fun to your workplace culture.
Capterra score: Not found in Capterra database. Pricing: Monthly pricing for QuizBreaker starts at $3 per user.
Motivosity
Motivosity is employee recognition software that makes it easy for managers to give recognition and rewards.
Motivosity’s “Thanks Matters” card is an innovative way of rewarding employees. Like Bonusly, you assign points for great performance. These points directly translate into cash, which employees can access via a special Visa debit card.
They can choose from hundreds of reward options. You can even add your own gifts such as branded swag or lunch with the CEO. Employees can also choose to forgo cash rewards in order to make charitable donations.
Key employee engagement software features to prioritize in 2026
When choosing the right employee engagement software for your organization, focus on the features that will help you overcome your biggest engagement challenges. The right combination of tools can improve communication, morale, and productivity across every level of your workforce.
Channels and chats
Communication is the foundation of engagement. Real-time chat features — including group channels, private messages, and announcements — ensure employees stay in the loop and can collaborate quickly, wherever they work.
Surveys, polls, and content analytics
Platforms with built-in surveys, polls, and analytics help you measure engagement levels, gather employee sentiment, and identify emerging issues before they become major problems. This data ensures every employee has a voice and helps leaders take action with confidence.
Employee recognition
Recognition tools — such as kudos, badges, or points systems — make it easy to celebrate achievements and highlight great work. This simple feature goes a long way toward strengthening motivation, morale, and a sense of belonging.
Analytics and dashboards
For organizations managing distributed or frontline teams, analytics functions are essential. They allow you to measure engagement, retention, and satisfaction while uncovering insights into how employees interact with leadership and one another. These insights drive continuous improvement in your employee experience strategy.
A main feed or hub
A centralized hub — or main company feed — brings all updates, videos, documents, and announcements together in one place. This consolidation creates a single source of truth, keeping employees informed and aligned with your company’s goals.
At Blink, our frontline employee app brings all of these features together. With tools for chat, recognition, surveys, analytics, and communication, Blink helps you overcome common engagement challenges and connect every employee — from the frontline to the office.
The business benefits of digital employee engagement tools
Digital engagement tools require an upfront investment — both financially and in time. But the return on that investment is substantial. The right software encourages participation, builds connection, and creates a culture employees want to be part of.
Below are the five key business benefits of using digital employee engagement software.
#1. Reduce employee turnover and save on recruitment costs
Engaged employees are more likely to stay with your organization, reducing the cost of recruitment and training. According to SHRM, hiring a new employee can cost three to four times the position’s salary, making engagement one of the most effective retention strategies available.
Digital tools strengthen this connection by amplifying company culture and ensuring all employees can participate fully — leading to a happier, more loyal workforce.
#2. Strengthen company culture through digital engagement platforms
In today’s competitive labor market, salary alone isn’t enough to retain top talent. Engaged employees are motivated by purpose, belonging, and appreciation.
Digital engagement tools help reinforce these pillars by improving communication, supporting growth, and enabling public recognition. The right platform makes culture tangible — connecting leadership, values, and everyday work.
#3. Improve internal communication with employee engagement software
Two-way communication is critical for engagement. Modern tools help you deliver the right message to the right people — whether through audience segmentation, targeted updates, or role-based notifications.
These platforms also make it easier to track the effectiveness of communication. With built-in analytics, you can see how employees interact with content and refine your messaging to increase engagement and clarity across the organization.
#4. Use analytics to understand and improve employee engagement
Feedback is the backbone of a strong employee engagement strategy. Without it, leaders can’t identify what’s working or where improvements are needed.
Employee engagement software with advanced reporting provides actionable insights. You can see how satisfied employees are, how frequently they engage with company updates, and where there are communication or experience gaps.
With Blink, for example, you can access detailed data on engagement, satisfaction, and retention — helping you identify frontline challenges early and respond faster.
#5. Boost productivity with connected employee engagement platforms
Disconnected tools slow teams down. Employees lose valuable time switching between apps, searching for information, and handling repetitive admin tasks.
A unified engagement platform streamlines these processes. By digitizing workflows, automating basic tasks, and connecting every workplace app in one place, you free up employees to focus on meaningful, high-impact work.
Blink’s connected platform helps teams stay organized and productive — from digitized HR processes to mobile-friendly task management — improving both individual and organizational performance.
