How AI will reinvent the employee intranet (and why that’s a good thing)

The first days in a new job are always a little stressful. There are faces and names to remember, new systems to learn, and a ton of information to process.

A good onboarding program alleviates some of that stress. It gives employees the information and support they need to quickly acclimatize to their new role.

But onboarding programs aren’t as good as employees would like them to be. According to a survey by payroll company Paychex, only 52% of employees say they’re satisfied with the onboarding experience at their current job.

The research also revealed that poor onboarding can lead to:

• Disorientation
• Feeling undervalued
• Losing trust in the organization
• Losing interest in the role

An employee’s first few months at your organization are crucial to employee retention. We know that up to 20% of new hires quit within the first 45 days of employment and that, by 90 days, almost a third of new employees have chosen to leave.   

To prevent your newly hired talent from going the same way, it may be time to rethink onboarding.  

Good onboarding goes beyond orientation. It’s a program of employee engagement that starts before an employee arrives for their first day and continues for up to a year.

At this point, it blends seamlessly with your employee engagement strategy to sustain engagement and retention over the entire employee lifecycle.

In this post, we’ll be looking in detail at what you can do to engage employees — from recruitment to an employee’s first day to their annual review and beyond.

Ready to engage new employees from day one? 

An overview of the employee lifecycle

We can break the employee lifecycle down into five key stages. These are:

Attraction — The employer branding, recruitment marketing, and job ads that introduce potential applicants to your organization.

Recruitment — The process of shortlisting, interviewing, and hiring employees.

Onboarding — Assimilating new hires into your organization through a comprehensive training and coaching program.

Development — Giving employees the training and development opportunities they need to progress in their careers.

Separation — Parting on good terms so that ex-employees will continue to act as employer brand advocates.

At every stage of the employee lifecycle, you need to incorporate employee engagement and retention strategies. These will help to ensure employee satisfaction long term.

Some things should come as standard. A positive workplace culture. Co-worker connection. Open company-wide communication. Employees should also get the training, resources, and tech tools they need to succeed in their work.

These engagement essentials apply to every employee, at every lifecycle stage. But you can also tailor strategies to the tenure of each individual. Engagement and retention success requires a blend of broad, ongoing initiatives and targeted interventions at key points in the employee lifecycle.

The importance of employee engagement through onboarding and beyond

To keep employees invested in their work and your company, you need an engagement strategy that starts and ends strong. It should begin before a new hire’s first day — where it sets the scene for the employee experience — and continue beyond their last.

Get it right and here’s what you can expect for your organization.

Better productivity and performance

Engaged employees are invested in their work and your company. This means they’re more likely to work hard. They’re happy to collaborate and innovate. They’re committed to quality and make fewer mistakes.

Improved employee retention rates

When you make a success of employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle, workers are less likely to leave your organization. There are lots of benefits associated with employee retention. These include reduced recruitment costs, improved employee training, and improved customer relationships.

Stronger workplace culture

Engaged employees contribute to a strong workplace culture. They’re confident in their roles and resilient to stress. They demonstrate collaboration, trust, and motivation — helping to amplify workplace values.

Increased business profits

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report for 2024, sustained employee engagement helps organizations achieve their goals. Benefits include:

• a 23% increase in profitability
• a 17% increase in productivity
• a 10% increase in customer loyalty

You also reduce costs associated with recruitment.

How to engage workers at every stage of the employee lifecycle

So we’ve covered the employee lifecycle — and why employee engagement is important for your business. Now, let’s look at what you can do to improve engagement and retention at every lifecycle stage. 

Attraction

At this first stage of the employee lifecycle, it’s all about employer branding. You need to get clear on your brand — then, create engaging content, job ads, and job descriptions that showcase it. 

Just be sure that your branding accurately reflects who you are as an organization. It should create realistic expectations for prospective employees so there’s no confusion when a new hire starts work.

Work on employee engagement throughout the rest of the lifecycle and existing employees will do some of this hard work for you. If they feel engaged, they’re more likely to share their positive employee experience — in online employer reviews and via word of mouth. This makes it easier to attract talented candidates. 

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Clarify your employer brand
• Create content that showcases your employer brand
• Write detailed job descriptions

Recruitment

How you treat candidates during the recruitment process is important. It helps to establish your workplace culture in the minds of candidates. It also impacts employee engagement during this lifecycle phase and beyond.

So aim for a speedy recruitment process, punctuated with reliable and engaging communications. Show appreciation for the time candidates spend on their applications and try to reply to everyone who applies, even those who are unsuccessful.

Also, highlight your company values as often as possible. Make it clear what matters to your organization and how people achieve success there.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Streamline your recruitment process so candidates aren’t left waiting
• Highlight workplace culture in comms and interviews
• Use candidate communications to thank candidates for their time and effort

Pre-boarding

Once a candidate has accepted your job offer, you can start giving them the support and resources they need to hit the ground running.

So give them practical information, like where they should go and what they should wear on their first day. Send over a copy of the employee handbook and get them started on new hire paperwork.

Also, help them to build some early connections. Get their manager to send a friendly note and — if you have lots of new hires starting at the same time — put them in contact with each other via your company intranet or app. That way, they’ll know at least one familiar face.

You might like to send a small gift to your new hire, too. A welcome package, including items like cookies or a coffee mug, helps to create a sense of belonging before employees even step through the door.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Send a gift
• Give employees access to useful information
• Introduce employees to at least one manager or employee

Day one

First impressions are difficult to change and we know that 44% of new hires regret their decision after the first week.

But we also know that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years after a great onboarding experience. So start as you mean to go on. 

Before your new hire arrives, tell the relevant team to expect them and prep any essential devices, passwords, and resources. Set them up an account on the company intranet or app.

During the first day, give employees a clear point of contact. This could be a manager, buddy, or mentor — someone they can turn to with their questions or concerns. Also, give them clear information on their role and assign lots of time for relationship-building — with managers and co-workers.

The priorities for this first week are practicalities, culture, and connection. Focus on these areas and don’t overwhelm your new hires with too much information. 

Start by establishing the basics. For example, for frontline workers, you may like to begin by training them in essential health and safety protocols. You can then build on this foundation logically over the next weeks and months.

Also, make sure that new hires find it easy to access the information they need during these early days. In frontline organizations, a mobile-first digital solution — with all tools and resources available via one dashboard and one login — works best. 

That way, employees don’t have to track down a paper manual to read up on policies. Or go to a more experienced member of staff to get answers to their FAQs. They have essential onboarding resources at their fingertips. This speeds up their learning.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Ensure your new hire’s workstation, log in details, and passes are ready to go
• Introduce your employee to other members of the team
• Introduce your new hire to the employee app and its onboarding resources
  

Day 30

At this point in the employee lifecycle, your new hire is probably feeling more familiar with the basics of your organization. But onboarding is far from over. Employees are still learning the ropes and need ongoing support.  

So conduct regular check-ins. These meetings are an opportunity to find out what extra training your new hires might need. They’re a chance to highlight areas of achievement and to provide constructive criticism. 

Clear expectations are also important. Work together to set goals for the next couple of months and for the first year.   

Encourage employees to share their thoughts too, either in these face-to-face meetings or with the help of anonymous survey tools.

Find out what they think of the onboarding and employee experience so far. Ask about the quality of the information provided and the pace of delivery. Employee answers will help you improve your onboarding process for future hires.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Send out a survey to assess the initial onboarding experience
• Conduct regular check-ins
• Set goals for 90 days and the first year

Day 90

Three months in, your employee should now feel like a productive member of their team. They’re contributing in a meaningful way towards company objectives.

So now’s the time for another review. This is another chance to discuss progress, celebrate achievements, and review any goals you set in previous meetings.

You could also try to broaden an employee’s experience at this point. Perhaps there are new projects or responsibilities an employee could take on. Or useful connections they could build with other teams or departments.

It’s also helpful to outline what career paths are available within your organization. In frontline organizations, particularly. Here, it can be hard for new employees to visualize where they go from the shop floor or the warehouse.  

Mapping the opportunities available helps keep people engaged and invested in their work. It gets them thinking about a long-term future at your organization, too.  

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Review goals and progress toward them
• Recognize and praise success
• Discuss career paths along with learning and development needs

Day 180

Mid-way through an employee’s first year is another great point for engagement intervention. You should ensure that employees are getting training and development opportunities that align with their career goals.

Supporting employees to network is also important. Encourage them to take part in employee communities and company-wide committees. Keep planning social events that support team building and co-worker connection.

Also, remind employees of your open-door policy. They should know who to turn to — and feel comfortable raising their problems and questions.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Enroll employees in learning and development programs
• Plan social activities that widen an employee’s network
• Remind employees of your open-door policy

Day 365

After a year in the job, it’s time for a celebration. Recognize your employee for all they’ve achieved in their first 365 days by posting a message of appreciation on the company news feed. That way, co-workers can add their own congratulations, too.  

Now is also a great time to give and gather employee feedback. In the annual performance review, highlight employee successes and areas for improvement. Set new goals for the coming year.

To get honest employee feedback, use a mix of surveys and 1:1 meetings. Get employee satisfaction scores. Then, use them alongside other employee engagement KPIs to find out how your organization has performed over the first year of the employee lifecycle.  

Drill down into the data to find particular teams, managers, or departments that aren’t producing the employee retention and engagement you’d hope for. Then use your findings to make data-backed improvements.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Recognize this milestone!
• Conduct an annual performance review
• Look at surveys and analytics to assess your onboarding process

One year +

As we mentioned earlier, employee engagement and retention efforts don’t end after the first week, the first month, or even the first year of the employee lifecycle.  

A year in, you should strive to maintain a positive and inclusive workplace culture. You should prioritize clear and effective internal communication using dedicated employee communication tools. You should continue to recognize and reward good work.

Training is also still important. As well as offering learning and development opportunities, you may like to consider stretch assignments or lateral moves so employees continue to feel challenged and engaged in their work.

If an employee decides to leave, conduct timely exit interviews and surveys. Find out why employees are leaving and what would convince them to stay.

Supportive, two-way conversations at this point in the employee lifecycle can help you identify and rectify engagement issues, making your organization an even better place to work. They also increase your chance of ex-employees becoming loyal employer brand advocates.

Key employee engagement tasks:

• Continue to recognize and reward employee work
• Support employees to achieve their career goals
• When an employee leaves, conduct exit interviews and surveys

Using technology to boost engagement throughout the employee lifecycle

Improving employee engagement across the whole of the employee lifecycle improves retention, productivity, and business profits. But completing tasks in line with key lifecycle milestones inevitably adds to the workload of already stretched managers and HR teams. 

This is where the right technology — like a modern intranet or an employee app — makes things easier. By giving employees access to an intuitive, digital platform, you benefit from the following. 

Surveys. You can use an employee app or modern intranet to send surveys to employees. Because these surveys come in a user-friendly format, you get more responses and more useful data.

A centralized hub. You can give employees access to a digital hub. This contains useful onboarding information like policy documents, FAQs, and a people directory. It also provides easy access to other workplace tools, like learning and development software.

Recognition. With the help of an engaging company news feed, it’s easy to share recognition with employees and the wider company, too.

Automation. The right tech will send automated messages and surveys as employees reach each new milestone, taking the pressure off your managers and HR team.

Communication channels. Employee communication tools make it easier for you to conduct 1:1s and share company culture with all employees — including those who work remotely or at the frontlines of your organization.

Data. You can see how new and seasoned employees interact with your chosen platform, getting to know which content best engages your workers and spotting engagement issues early. 

Analytics. Analytics and reporting features help you understand survey responses and identify gaps in your engagement strategy.

Here at Blink, our employee super-app provides all of the above to every employee’s smartphone.

You can use Employee Journeys — along with features like surveys, recognition, and a content hub — to deliver a personalized content path for employees.

With our app, you can automate need-to-know messages and milestones from day one of the employee lifecycle, supporting a comprehensive and consistent onboarding, training, and feedback experience.

If you’d like to learn more about Blink and what it can do for employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle, schedule a personalized demo today.

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.  

Why look for a Staffbase alternative?

Staffbase has become a popular internal communications platform, particularly for large organizations looking to modernize their intranet. It offers personalization, branded employee apps, and strong publishing tools. But many companies — especially those with distributed or deskless workforces — are starting to feel the platform’s limitations.

If your goal is to engage every employee, not just those behind a desk, you may need more than what Staffbase can offer. Common reasons teams start exploring Staffbase alternatives include:

• Low adoption among frontline workers or non-desk employees
  
• Limited functionality beyond comms and content publishing
  
• Slow rollout times and high implementation costs
  
• Dependence on corporate emails or M365 environments
  
• Lack of integrated workflows, like scheduling, surveys, or task management
  

In short, if you're looking for more than just a modern intranet — if you need a platform that drives action, not just communication — it’s worth exploring alternatives built for today’s workforces.

What to look for in a Staffbase alternative

Not every internal comms platform is built the same. When searching for a Staffbase alternative, it’s important to evaluate tools that prioritize ease of use, adoption, and flexibility — not just content publishing.

Here are the key features and traits to look for:

#1. Mobile-first design

Choose a platform designed for mobile from the ground up — not just one that adapts desktop intranets into an app. This ensures frontline, field, and shift-based workers are truly included.

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#2. No email required

Many of today’s employees don’t have a company email. Platforms like Blink eliminate this barrier, allowing you to onboard and engage your entire workforce seamlessly.

#3. Unified employee experience

Look for more than just comms. The best platforms integrate communication with operational tools like schedules, task lists, surveys, HR links, and document access — all in one place.

#4. High adoption & engagement rates

Adoption is everything. A Staffbase alternative should show real-world data that proves high usage — not just licenses sold.

#5. Quick implementation

Complex rollouts kill momentum. Favor platforms that offer plug-and-play setups, pre-built templates, and fast deployment (especially for time-sensitive initiatives).

#6. Integrations with key systems

Ensure the platform integrates easily with your HRIS, payroll, scheduling tools, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and other core systems to avoid silos and duplicated work.

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#7. Analytics, insights & feedback loops

It’s not enough to send messages — you need to know who saw them, how they responded, and what’s working. Built-in analytics and pulse survey tools help you improve continuously.

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Top 10 Staffbase alternatives (ranked)

#1. Blink – Best overall alternative to Staffbase

Best for: Companies prioritizing adoption and utility.

Blink is the most comprehensive Staffbase alternative, designed to connect every employee — whether they work behind a desk, behind a counter, or out in the field. Unlike Staffbase, which often centers around publishing and personalization for office workers, Blink unifies communication, engagement, and productivity into one mobile-first app.

For organizations seeking a comprehensive and intuitive employee platform, Blink delivers. It offers rich features like content sharing, forms, chat, and analytics, all within an easy-to-use mobile and desktop experience that scales across departments.

Why organizations switch from Staffbase to Blink:

• No company email required — reach 100% of your people
• Combines communication and action: from news to tasks and HR tools
• Market-leading usage and adoption rates
• Quick rollout and self-serve administration
• Loved by global brands like McDonald’s, Shake Shack, Elara Caring, and Stagecoach

Pricing: Custom pricing
Gartner Rating: 4.8/5

Blink goes beyond engagement — it delivers true connection, across every role and region.

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#2. LumApps – Best for Google Workspace & Microsoft 365 integration

LumApps offers a personalized digital workplace experience and integrates well with Google and Microsoft ecosystems. It's strong in content delivery and social sharing, but its frontline functionality is limited.

Pros: Deep Google/Microsoft integrations, personalization
Cons: Less effective for non-desk workers
Pricing: Custom pricing
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5

#3. Connecteam – Best for operational frontline use cases

Connecteam is a mobile-first app that includes scheduling, time tracking, and forms — making it ideal for operations-heavy teams. However, it lacks richer communication or storytelling tools found in Blink or Staffbase.

Pros: Operations tools like checklists and timesheets
Cons: Basic internal comms capabilities
Pricing: Starts at $29/month for 30 users
Gartner Rating: 4.4/5

#4. Workvivo – Best for culture sharing

Workvivo focuses on building community and culture through its social intranet experience. With features like activity feeds and shout-outs, it helps employees stay connected and recognized.

Pros: Social feed, culture-first messaging
Cons: Limited in tasks, shift planning, or document handling
Pricing: Starts at $20k/year
Gartner Rating: 4.7/5

#5. Interact – Best for traditional intranet buyers

Interact enables top-down and bottom-up communication with its mix of content publishing, document management, and collaboration tools. It is designed to adapt to a wide range of industries and team structures.

Pros: Policy management, advanced intranet architecture
Cons: Less dynamic for mobile teams
Pricing: Contact for quote
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5

#6. Simpplr – Best for modern intranets

Simpplr offers an elegant, personalized intranet experience. It’s visually engaging and great for corporate comms, but may fall short on engaging field teams.

Pros: Sleek UX, solid integrations
Cons: Limited frontline experience
Pricing: Custom
Gartner Rating: 4.6/5

#7. Haiilo – Best for content planning & analytics

Haiilo excels in structured comms workflows — ideal for campaign-based content teams. It performs well in content scheduling and measurement, but lacks deeper interaction features.

Pros: Editorial planning, analytics, targeting
Cons: Feels like a CMS, not a people-first app
Pricing: Custom
Gartner Rating: 4.1/5

#8. Unily – Best for enterprise customization

Unily is a feature-rich platform best suited for global organizations needing tailored experiences. It comes with powerful multilingual support and personalization but requires more setup and resources.

Pros: Deep customization, localization
Cons: Slower implementation, high complexity
Pricing: Custom
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5

#9. Beekeeper – Best for shift-based comms

Beekeeper focuses on messaging, forms, and workflows for shift-based teams. While great for ops, it may lack strategic communication depth.

Pros: Real-time ops tools
Cons: Limited comms campaigns or culture-building tools
Pricing: Custom
Gartner Rating: 4.6/5

#10. MangoApps – Best for tool consolidation

MangoApps offers everything from messaging to LMS to file storage. It’s ideal for companies looking to replace several internal tools at once — but may require significant configuration.

Pros: Versatile, broad feature set
Cons: Can feel cluttered or complex
Pricing: Custom
Gartner Rating: 4.4/5

Final thoughts: Move beyond the intranet

The internal communications landscape is shifting — and fast. Traditional intranet-style platforms like Staffbase, while once a step forward, are struggling to meet the needs of today’s increasingly mobile, distributed, and deskless workforces. If your platform only reaches office-based employees or requires complex setup to stay relevant, it may be time to move on.

The best Staffbase alternatives go beyond publishing news and announcements. They connect your people to what matters — whether that’s critical updates, shift schedules, HR tools, or each other. They simplify access, streamline workflows, and actually get used every day.

Blink leads the way as the all-in-one employee experience platform built for real-world teams — from the breakroom to the boardroom. It delivers unmatched adoption, mobile-first utility, and a unified experience your entire workforce can rely on.

If you’re ready to:

• Replace your intranet with something employees actually use
• Reach 100% of your workforce — not just the ones with email
• Bring communication, tasks, schedules, and engagement into one platform

…then Blink is the best place to start.

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Why teams choose Blink over Staffbase

Staffbase is a capable intranet platform, but it comes at a high price point, with added costs once you need the full module set. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A — without the same layered pricing. See our full head-to-head comparison.

Today’s employees routinely use digital tools to manage their personal lives — for banking, shopping, fitness, and even dating — and now expect a similar level of convenience and connectivity in their professional environments.

Forward-thinking organizations are meeting these expectations through employee experience software platforms that transform how teams communicate and engage. Solutions such as Blink’s employee experience platform enable staff to feel more connected, motivated, and loyal to their company by simplifying communication and recognition.

Frontline teams, in particular, benefit from a unified employee experience solution. The “frontline connection gap” often leaves these employees isolated from leadership and peers, reducing both satisfaction and retention.

A mobile-first employee experience platform, such as Blink, bridges that gap by bringing everyone together wherever they work. It gives each employee a stronger sense of belonging, supports regular recognition, and creates continuous communication that makes work more fulfilling.

This guide from Blink outlines some of the best employee experience software platforms available today — helping you identify the right solution to connect your workforce and elevate engagement across your organization.

Whether your organization has frontline, desk-based, or hybrid teams, an employee experience software platform like Blink’s employee experience platform helps you meet and exceed modern employee expectations and deliver measurable improvements across engagement, operations, and culture. Here’s what effective employee experience software can help you achieve:

Enhanced employee engagement

Low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion, according to Gallup. Employee experience platforms like Blink enable two-way communication, recognition, and collaboration that increase loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity.

Streamlined HR processes

The best platforms automate repetitive and time-consuming HR tasks such as time tracking, performance appraisals, and routine communication. By handling these automatically, HR teams free up time for human-touch, value-add work that improves the overall employee experience.

Improved talent management

Around 65% of frontline employees are unsure how to progress in their careers. Employee experience software provides continuous feedback, coaching, and development tools that help managers identify high-potential talent and guide employees toward advancement.

Data-driven insights

Comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities enable organizations to measure engagement, sentiment, and performance. Blink’s platform, for example, supplies real-time insights that support better decisions, highlight trends, and surface issues early.

Employee recognition and empowerment

Employee appreciation and self-service tools make staff feel valued and informed. Access to essential information anytime, anywhere fosters a sense of support and connection across the organization.

A positive company culture

Transparent communication and meaningful connection — both core features of leading platforms like Blink — build positive company culture. When employees feel proud of where they work, satisfaction rises, churn decreases, and employer branding strengthens.

Key things to look for when choosing an employee experience software platform

Now that the benefits of an employee experience software platform are clear, it’s important to identify the key capabilities that define an effective solution. When choosing your platform, consider these essential features — many of which are core to Blink’s employee experience platform:

User-friendly interface

The best employee experience platforms minimize the learning curve. They should feel intuitive and familiar from day one, encouraging quick adoption across all teams.

Personalization and customization

Every organization is different. Choose a platform that lets you tailor tools and workflows to your company’s structure and employee needs.

Employee self-service

When employees can access the information and tools they need independently, HR teams spend less time handling routine requests and more time on strategic, people-focused initiatives.

Integration capabilities

For a seamless employee experience, ensure your platform integrates smoothly with existing business systems — from scheduling and payroll to communication tools. Blink, for example, integrates across multiple systems to provide a unified digital workplace.

Mobile accessibility

Frontline workers and remote employees often lack equal access to company tools. A mobile-first platform like Blink enables engagement and communication anywhere — whether on the shop floor, in the field, or during a commute.

Analytics and reporting

Select software that delivers robust analytics on engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Data-driven insight helps HR teams make informed decisions and address trends early.

Comprehensive feature set

To reduce the need for multiple apps, look for a platform that combines employee engagement, feedback, rewards, performance management, and learning and development. Blink’s platform consolidates these into one accessible hub, simplifying management and improving the overall employee experience.

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15 best employee experience software platforms

1. Blink

Blink is a leading employee experience app and communication platform purpose-built for frontline teams. As a mobile-first solution, Blink unifies dispersed workers and connects them with leadership through an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Users can quickly launch pre-loaded or custom employee surveys, add mandatory reads to a shared company news feed, recognize colleagues for outstanding work, and access real-time insights on engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Built around frontline accessibility, Blink’s Hub centralizes essential information, including pay stubs, schedules, and key documents. Its interface encourages high adoption and consistent daily use — ensuring every employee stays informed, valued, and connected.

Key features

• News feed
• Employee surveys
• Employee recognition
• Secure chat function
• Content hub (Blink Hub)
• Insights and analytics
• Integrations
• Mobile-friendly design
• Content translation

Even after identifying the right employee experience management software, securing senior leadership buy-in remains essential. Before presenting your case, gather evidence and insights in the following key areas — all central to the successful implementation of a platform like Blink.

Developed by the team at Blink, the platform brings together communication, engagement, and HR functionality in one secure space. It’s designed to strengthen connections and alignment across all levels of an organization while reducing the administrative burden on HR teams. The essential guide to executive buy-in for frontline employee experience

Scalability: Evaluate how your chosen platform will adapt to your company’s future needs, including long-term growth and an expanding workforce. Blink’s platform is designed to scale seamlessly as organizations expand, supporting larger teams without adding administrative complexity.

Implementation: Assess how straightforward it is to deploy your software and integrate it with existing systems. A solution such as Blink simplifies this step with pre-built integrations and guided onboarding.

User adoption: An employee experience platform only delivers value when employees actively use it. Confirm that your software has a proven record of adoption. For example, 97% of employees at Care Synergy now use the Blink app, demonstrating how intuitive design drives engagement.

Vendor reputation and support: Review customer testimonials and case studies to verify a provider’s reliability and service quality. Blink’s long-term partnerships and customer success programs help ensure ongoing performance and satisfaction across industries.

Case study: Elara Caring

Elara Caring employs more than 32,000 caregivers who provide in-home and hospice support to patients across the United States. The organization faced a significant communication and coordination challenge:

• Without company-issued phone numbers or email addresses, caregivers felt disconnected from both colleagues and headquarters.
• An outdated manual scheduling process left hundreds of shifts unfilled each week.
• The existing HR platform failed to meet employees' operational and engagement needs.
  

To close these gaps, Elara Caring implemented Blink’s employee experience platform, developed by joinblink.com. The mobile-first platform unified essential communication, scheduling, and feedback tools into a single, secure, accessible application. Managers and caregivers could now share updates through a company news feed, manage shifts in real time, and recognize great work — all from their smartphones.

The impact was immediate. Workforce efficiency improved, communication bottlenecks were eliminated, and employees felt more connected to both their teams and leadership. Ninety-five percent of employees now report stronger connections to Elara, and 96% would recommend Blink’s platform to others in their field.

Read the full Elara Caring case study on joinblink.com

2. Culture Amp

Culture Amp is an excellent choice if you want to improve your performance tracking process. You can set and track employee targets, create personalized L&D plans, and access historical conversation and 1:1 data so managers can provide actionable feedback.   

This employee experience management software also gives you access to a ton of data. This provides a great basis for analysis and insight. And the platform even does some of the hard work for you too, using employee engagement stats to predict staff turnover.

Key features

• Reporting and analytics
• Turnover prediction tool
• Performance reviews
• Goal tracking

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

3. Bonusly

Bonusly is a great option for employee recognition. Employees meet personalized targets and build up points, which they can then use to claim a selection of rewards,  all via the platform.

Whether you want your team to go above and beyond for customers, meet their sales quota, or simply engage with a request for employee feedback, Bonusly helps you to promote and recognize the employee behavior you most want to see.

Key features

• Peer-to-peer recognition
• Employee rewards
• Goal setting
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing

• Core: $3 per user/month
• Pro: $5 per user/month

Contact sales team for custom plans

4. Lattice

With Lattice, you’ll find it easy to launch employee surveys, celebrate employee wins, and get real-time experience data with the help of the platform’s Pulse feature and sentiment analysis. Lattice also supports employee development opportunities. It connects individual work to business outcomes so employees can view their progress easily.

Key features

• Reporting and analytics
• Employee surveys
• Employee recognition
• Goal management

Pricing

• Performance Management + OKRs and Goals: $11 per user/month
• Engagement: +$4 per user/month
• Grow: +$4 per user/month
• Compensation: $+6 per user/month

5.  Qualtrics XM

Qualtrics XM offers several products, one of which they’ve designed specifically for people teams. The employee experience platform uses AI and automation, so you can continually gather and assess employee feedback and get to know employee views at every point in the employee life cycle.

Data analytics tools help you to connect employee feedback to customer experience and business outcomes – so you can target employee experience improvements where they stand to make the most difference.  

Key features

• 24/7 technical support
• Automation tools
• Analytics and reporting
• Action plans

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

6. Workhuman

Workhuman is built around social recognition. Team-based social feeds support peer-to-peer appreciation. Employees gain recognition points, which they can exchange for personalized and locally sourced rewards. And an AI-powered Inclusion Advisor gives real-time feedback on recognition posts to prevent unconscious bias and promote a culture of belonging.

Key features

• Employee recognition
• Performance management
• Translation into 34+ languages
• Community building

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

7.  Mo

Mo is one of the best employee experience software platforms for team communication and appreciation. It allows you to share successes, recognize results, and reward good work.

Standout features include the Mo assistant, which helps people managers to remember work anniversaries and prompts them to appreciate employees who haven’t had a pat on the back in a while, and the social feed, where you can start conversations, prompt employees to start conversations, and ask for employee feedback.

Key features

• Team appreciation
• Social feed
• Employee feedback
• Insights

Pricing

• Starter: $3 per user/month
• Level Up: $5 per user/month

Contact sales team for custom plans

8. Motivosity

Motivosity provides tools for every stage of the employee journey. From recruitment to onboarding to development to career progression and even an employee’s company exit experience. The basic plan gives you access to a company social feed, great for important announcements and getting to know co-workers. Add-ons include Recognition and Rewards, Manager Development, and Employee Insights.

Key features

• Social feed
• Employee recognition
• Manager training
• Surveys and insights

Pricing

• Motivosity: $2 per user/month
• Recognition and Rewards: +$2 per user/month
• Manager Development: +$2 per user/month
• Employee Insights: +$2 per user/month

9.  WorkTango

WorkTango (formerly Kazoo) allows you to highlight the strengths and skills of peers and employees, while a points and rewards system incentivizes key behaviors. It’s one of the best employee engagement platforms for teams who want to make recognition an integral part of their company culture.

Key features

• Employee recognition
• Goal setting and feedback
• Surveys
• Analytics and reporting

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

10. 15Five

15Five is one of the best employee experience software options if you’re looking to connect employee work with business objectives. Managers and employees can create career paths that motivate performance. Employees can identify their strengths and how these align with their goals.

Key features

• Goal setting tools
• Feedback
• Employee recognition
• Manager coaching

Pricing

All of the following prices are billed annually:

• Engage: $4 per user/month
• Perform: $8 per user/month
• Focus: $8 per user/month
• Total Platform: $14 per user/month

11. Leapsome

Leapsome is a solid employee engagement software, particularly if you’re looking for a solution that can scale with your company. You can select the modules you need, adapting the software to the size and budget of your organization. With Leapsome, you can run meaningful, well-structured meetings. You can also congratulate co-workers publicly and share private feedback too.

Key features

• Employee feedback
• Learning and development
• Goal setting
• Employee competency framework

Pricing

Pricing starts at $8 per user/month with the option to add on the extra features you need

12. BambooHR

BambooHR provides a huge range of HR tools. Teams can use it to track payroll, hours worked, and paid time off. The platform offers recruitment and L&D tracking tools.

As well as making life easier for HR teams, BambooHR has a couple of features designed to improve the employee experience. Wellbeing and eNPS surveys help teams to understand the employee perspective, while performance tracking tools support employee progression. 

Key features

• Performance reviews
• Time tracking
• Payroll management
• Applicant tracking system (ATS)

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

13. Officevibe

If you’re looking for an easy and effective employee survey tool, Officevibe is an excellent choice. Officevibe is just one of the HR products available under the Workleap umbrella and this offering is laser-focused on employee experience.

The platform gives managers tools to become better leaders and build happier teams. Pulse and customized surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, and 1-1 meeting tools that guide meaningful and productive conversations are all at a manager’s disposal.

Key features

• Surveys
• Employee feedback
• Employee recognition
• Performance tracking

Pricing

• Free: $0 per user/month
• Essential: $5 per user/month
• Pro: $8 per user/month

14. Workvivo

Another good employee experience management software, Workvivo helps organizations streamline their communications and showcase their company culture, even when teams work remotely. When posting on the social feed, employees can link their posts to company values and goals. And with the Badge Feature, managers can recognize employee achievements publicly.

Key features

• Social feed
• Employee recognition
• Content hub
• Analytics & insights

Pricing

Contact sales team for prices

Read more: Workvivo alternatives

15. Jostle

An intuitive platform with a quick and easy setup process, Jostle is another popular employee engagement platform. It works to connect everyone within an organization, providing a social feed and a space for shared documents.

Managers can set tasks and then use built-in chat functions to track progress. They can also separate the social feed by location or team, ensuring that the right information reaches the right people.

Key features

• Social feed
• Surveys
• Peer-to-peer recognition
• Document and policy sharing

Pricing

Prices depend upon the number of employees you have. For an organization with 15-50 employees, prices are as follows:

• Bronze: $5 per user/month
• Silver: $9 per user/month
• Gold: $12 per user/month

Smaller organizations can expect to pay more per user. Larger organizations can expect to pay less. Prices for the Platinum plan are available from the sales team.

Additional considerations for HR teams

You may already be sold on a particular employee experience management software, but getting senior leadership buy-in is a vital next step. Before entering conversations about the type of tool you’d like to implement, be sure to gather information on all of the following:

Read more: The essential guide to executive buy-in for frontline employee experience

• Scalability – Find out if and how your chosen platform will respond to your company’s future needs, considering long-term company growth and an increase in the number of employees.
  
• Implementation – Determine how easy it is to implement your chosen software and whether it integrates with your other existing systems.
  
• User adoption – An employee experience platform provides very little value if employees don’t use it. Check whether your chosen platform has a user-friendly interface and a history of high adoption rates. We’re proud that 97% of employees at Care Synergy are now using the Blink app. Find out more by watching our on-demand webinar.
  
• Vendor reputation and support – Take a look at customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies to find out whether your software provider has a good track record in terms of product quality and client care.

Case Study: Elara Caring

Elara’s 32,000 carers spend their workdays caring for patients in their homes or in hospice settings. The company faced a million-dollar communication problem:

• Without company phone numbers or email addresses, carers felt disconnected from their co-workers and head office
• Carers wanted shift opportunities but an inefficient manual system meant hundreds of shifts went unfilled each week
• The company’s existing HR platform was failing to meet the needs of employees and the wider organization

Elara saw a solution in Blink. Our platform gathered all the information and tools that employees needed in one easy-to-use platform that everyone could access from their smartphones. Employees and managers had access to a social feed, shift scheduling, employee feedback and employee recognition tools.  

The result? Improved workforce efficiency and streamlined communications. Thanks to Blink, Elara has transformed the employee experience. 95% of employees now feel more connected to Elara and 96% would recommend the platform.

Read the full Elara case study.

If you’re exploring alternatives to All Gravy, you’re likely looking for a platform that offers more flexibility, deeper integrations, or broader functionality for workforce engagement and management. All Gravy is known for its financial wellness and shift management tools, but it may not provide the full set of capabilities needed for growing organizations.

This guide reviews the best All Gravy alternatives in 2025—starting with Blink, our top recommendation—and includes pricing, reviews, and pros and cons for each.

What to look for in an All Gravy alternative

Before making a decision, it’s important to assess which features matter most to your organization.

• Comprehensive Communication Tools – Look for platforms that combine messaging, news feeds, and surveys in one place to reduce tool fatigue.
• Integrations – Seamless connections to HRIS, payroll, scheduling, and collaboration tools save time and reduce manual work.
• Ease of Use – A clean, mobile-first design ensures both frontline and desk-based staff can use the platform without lengthy training.
• Scalability – Choose a solution that can grow with your business without requiring a platform switch in a few years.
• Analytics & Insights – Data-driven decision-making starts with robust reporting on engagement, adoption, and performance.

The 10 top All Gravy alternatives in 2025

#1. Blink – The #1 alternative to All Gravy

Blink is an all-in-one employee engagement, communication, and productivity platform designed for both frontline and office-based teams. It replaces multiple disconnected apps by bringing secure messaging, company news, task management, surveys, file access, and HR integrations together in one easy-to-use interface.

Its mobile-first design ensures high adoption rates, while advanced analytics give leaders actionable insights into engagement trends. Blink integrates with major tools like Workday, UKG, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace, meaning it fits seamlessly into existing workflows. Organizations praise Blink for its intuitive user experience, enterprise-grade security, and rapid onboarding process.

• Pricing: Custom pricing; free trial available.
• G2 Rating: 4.7/5
• Gartner Rating: 4.8/5
• Pros: Unified platform, strong integrations, excellent adoption rates.
• Cons: Requires initial change management for teams moving from multiple apps.

Start your free trial of Blink today.

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#2. Connecteam

Connecteam offers a modular platform that combines chat, scheduling, onboarding, task tracking, and time management. Its mobile app is designed for easy navigation, making it a good choice for organizations that want a straightforward, customizable tool. The built-in training and knowledge base features help teams onboard quickly, while its scheduling tools ensure shift coordination without external apps.

• Pricing: Free plan for up to 10 users; paid plans from $29/month for 30 users.
  
• G2 Rating: 4.4/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.5/5
  
• Pros: Affordable, modular design, strong scheduling features.
  
• Cons: Limited advanced analytics compared to enterprise-focused platforms.
  

#3. Workvivo

Workvivo focuses on employee connection and culture-building through a social-media-like interface. Employees can post updates, recognize peers, share wins, and engage with company news in a familiar, engaging way. Workvivo integrates with productivity tools like Slack, Zoom, and Teams, and offers a customizable interface for branding.

• Pricing: Custom pricing based on company size.
  
• G2 Rating: 4.7/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
  
• Pros: Strong focus on culture, intuitive social-style interface.
  
• Cons: Less suited for task or operations-heavy use cases.
  

#4. Leapsome

Leapsome blends engagement, performance management, and learning into a single platform. It enables continuous feedback loops, performance reviews, 1:1 meetings, and learning paths to help employees grow. While it’s less operations-focused than All Gravy, it’s a strong choice for organizations prioritizing employee development.

• Pricing: From $8/user/month.
  
• G2 Rating: 4.8/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
  
• Pros: Excellent for performance and development, customizable workflows.
  
• Cons: Not designed for frontline scheduling or shift management.
  

#5. Dayforce

Dayforce is a full HCM solution covering payroll, workforce management, benefits, and employee engagement. It goes far beyond All Gravy’s scope, offering compliance features and deep analytics. The unified approach makes it ideal for organizations wanting HR, scheduling, and payroll under one roof.

• Pricing: Custom pricing.
  
• G2 Rating: 4.2/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
  
• Pros: Comprehensive HCM suite, strong compliance features.
  
• Cons: Steeper learning curve for smaller teams.

#6. Staffbase

Staffbase is an internal communications platform that supports branded employee apps, intranets, and targeted messaging. It excels at reaching distributed teams with segmented communications and integrates with enterprise systems for analytics. While less focused on shift management, it offers superior content distribution capabilities compared to All Gravy.

• Pricing: Custom pricing
  
• G2 Rating: 4.6/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.5/5
  
• Pros: Strong branding/customization, segmented targeting
  
• Cons: Limited in task or HR management functions
  

#7. Beekeeper

Beekeeper is built for frontline workers, offering secure messaging, document sharing, and workflow automation. Its integrations with scheduling and HR platforms make it a practical alternative for shift-based teams. Compared to All Gravy, it offers broader communication features but fewer financial wellness tools.

• Pricing: Custom pricing
  
• G2 Rating: 4.4/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
  
• Pros: Designed for frontline teams, good integration options
  
• Cons: Smaller app marketplace than some competitors
  

#8. Monday.com

Monday.com is a highly flexible work management tool with modules for projects, tasks, CRM, and operations. It can be customized for shift management, though it’s not a native feature. The platform’s visual boards and automation features make it ideal for cross-functional visibility.

• Pricing: From $9/user/month
  
• G2 Rating: 4.7/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
  
• Pros: Highly customizable, broad use cases
  
• Cons: Requires setup to suit shift-based teams
  

#9. LumApps

LumApps is a digital workplace and intranet platform with strong personalization and knowledge management tools. It integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for seamless document access and collaboration. While not built for shift scheduling, its focus on personalized content delivery helps keep employees informed.

• Pricing: Custom pricing
  
• G2 Rating: 4.3/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
  
• Pros: Excellent personalization, robust content management
  
• Cons: No built-in shift management
  

#10. Zoho People

Zoho People offers HR management tools for leave, attendance, onboarding, and performance. It integrates with payroll systems and supports custom workflows. While less engagement-focused than Blink, it’s a cost-effective way to centralize HR operations.

• Pricing: From $1.50/user/month
  
• G2 Rating: 4.4/5
  
• Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
  
• Pros: Affordable, broad HR features
  
• Cons: Lacks rich employee engagement tools

Final thoughts

While All Gravy offers solid functionality for financial wellness and scheduling, it may not meet the full range of communication, engagement, and operational needs for every organization. Blink leads this list for its ability to centralize tools, improve adoption, and deliver measurable results—backed by excellent user reviews and enterprise-ready features.

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Why teams choose Blink over All Gravy

All Gravy is focused on flexible and gig-style workforce management, which is a narrower use case than full employee communication and engagement. Blink is built to be the single, mobile-first home for your entire frontline workforce — no corporate email required — and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.

The workplace is evolving — and so is the way we communicate.

Gone are the days when communication flowed in just one direction, from the boardroom to the break room. Today, the most successful organizations view internal communications as a conversation — not a broadcast.

Consider this: Companies with highly engaged employees are 21% more profitable. And what’s one of the biggest drivers of engagement? Employees who feel heard.

That’s where two-way communication comes in. It’s not just a strategy; it’s the key to creating a thriving, connected workplace. Let’s explore what two-way communication really means — and why it’s the backbone of modern employee engagement.

Shifting from a top-down broadcast model to a genuine dialogue is the key to engaging your frontline workers. However, before you start asking for feedback, it is incredibly helpful to review highly effective internal communications to see exactly how top organizations format their messages to invite a response.

What is two-way internal communications?

Traditionally, employee communications were one way. Leadership would put out a message, which would then be cascaded downward to managers and employees.

A top-down approach established the C-suite as the primary source of internal communication. It also made it difficult for employees to speak up and be heard.

Two-way communication is different. It incorporates three types of communication:

• Top-down communication
• Bottom-up communication
• Peer-to-peer communication

With channels that support these three types of communication, information moves in all directions. Leaders still share company updates — but this multi-pronged approach gives employees the chance to contribute to the company conversation, too.

They can respond to employee surveys, comment on posts in the company news feed, ask questions in town hall meetings, and send instant messages to peers and managers. Information is shared quickly and openly, just as it is on the social media platforms we’ve all grown accustomed to.

In a culture of two-way communication, employees are no longer just passive consumers of internal communications, but active participants in it. And the benefits this can bring to any organization are substantial.

Why does two-way communication matter?

Poor communication is bad for the employee experience: You’re unlikely to foster a positive employee experience without an effective internal communications strategy.

And poor communication isn’t just bad for culture — it’s bad for business, costing an estimated $15,000 per employee per year on loss of time, productivity, and profit.

Adopting two-way communication is a meaningful way to improve communications at your organization — and it comes with a host of business benefits. Here are all the reasons two-way communication lies at the foundation of any modern workplace.

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#1. Better engagement with internal communications

Imagine a conversation with the chattiest person you know. They’re talking nonstop and you struggle to get a word in edgeways. Because you don’t get a chance to speak, you disengage and stop really listening to what is being said.

It’s the same in company-wide conversations. When employees are allowed an active role in communications, they engage more with your message. They’re a lot less likely to ignore your internal content — and a lot more likely to read your comms and take the desired action.

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#2. Better overall employee engagement

Two-way communication doesn’t just improve engagement with internal messages. It enhances employee engagement across the board.

We know that highly engaged employees are 3x more likely to say they feel heard at their workplace than their highly disengaged counterparts. When employees know that their thoughts and opinions matter to leadership, you improve their satisfaction, motivation, and sense of belonging.

#3. Creating a feedback loop

When you facilitate two-way communication, you get constant feedback from employees. Employee comments, questions, and survey responses help you build a picture of what works — and what doesn’t — in regards to your internal communications.

You’ll develop a better understanding of which messages are cutting through and which are creating employee uncertainty. This knowledge helps you to craft better, more effective employee communications going forward.

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#4. Fostering a culture of transparency and trust

No matter the content controls you put in place, opening up your communications to employees requires transparency and trust on the part of your leadership team. 

Leaders must be willing to share information on company goals and challenges. They also need to be happy to field employee questions in response to that information.

When leaders demonstrate this level of transparency and trust, employees are more likely to follow suit. You create a company culture in which open communication is valued — and where employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions and concerns.

#5. Promoting inclusion

According to The Workforce Institute, 83% of UK employees say people at their organization are not heard fairly or equally — and 46% say that underrepresented voices are undervalued.

Adopting a policy of two-way communication gives space to previously unheard voices. With the right ethos — and the right internal communications platform — you ensure that all employees are empowered to speak up and be heard.

This leads to greater mutual understanding. It also helps you to create a more inclusive workplace, where everyone feels valued.

#6. Creating coworker connection

Peer-to-peer connection is another beneficial result of two-way communication in the workplace. Over internal communication channels, employees get the chance to build meaningful relationships with coworkers.

This is particularly important for remote and frontline employees, who may spend the majority of their days working alone. Two-way communication channels prevent isolation and disconnection and promote a sense of belonging.

#7. Boosting employee productivity

74% of employees say they are more effective at their jobs when they feel heard.

In a culture of two-way communication, employees get information on policies, tasks, and expectations. But they also get the chance to clarify any uncertainty. With a clear idea of their role and responsibilities, employees are more efficient and less likely to make mistakes.

It’s also easier for coworkers to collaborate with one another. Whether they’re based in the same office — or in completely different locations — employees can share their knowledge and insights, granting a further boost to workforce productivity.

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#8. Reducing employee churn

Research shows that 1 in 3 employees would rather quit or switch teams than voice their true concerns to management. This makes open, trusting, two-way communication channels a crucial part of employee retention.

When employees feel that they can voice their concerns with managers, managers get a chance to respond. They can make changes to the employee experience and encourage employees to stay.

How can you foster two-way communication in your workplace?

Two-way communication requires effective internal communication tools and channels — and this is where a modern employee experience platform (like Blink) can help.

Whether you’re reexamining your current employee communications platform and exploring alternatives, start by looking at solutions that give employees a voice.

A great way to power two-way communication is by starting to use interactive channels like:

• A news feed
• Instant messaging
• Employee surveys
• Digital forms
• Modern intranet

Your platform should make it easy for leadership to share company updates. And for employees to share their thoughts and questions with coworkers, managers, and the C-suite.

By embracing these technologies, internal comms teams can create an inclusive environment where every voice is heard and every employee feels connected.

Blink. And see how you can facilitate two-way communication in your workplace.