10 Best Interact Intranet Alternatives for 2026

Meet Theo Booth, our solutions engineer based in Boston. Theo has been an integral part of Blink for nearly 3 years, leaving his mark not only through his impactful work but also by introducing everyone in the office to Tony’s Chocolate bars, now a beloved staple.

When asked what drew him to Blink initially, Theo emphasized the appeal of being part of a small, flexible team dedicated to making a difference in people’s everyday lives. Describing Blink as an environment that is exciting, challenging, and rewarding, Theo likes the dynamic opportunities that Blink offers.

Now, let's dive deeper into Theo's journey at Blink.

Theo, what's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?

One of my proudest achievements at Blink has been my involvement in enhancing our payslip management system. We now have multiple ways of consuming, generating and making them easily accessible to our users at the click of a button.

It's incredibly rewarding to know that our efforts directly improve user experience and operational efficiency.

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

I'm particularly excited about Blink's growth trajectory. We're consistently taking on larger clients, which brings new complexities and challenges.

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

One initiative that stands out is "Blink for Everyone." This program underscores our commitment to making a positive impact beyond our immediate business objectives. It's great to see Blink contribute to initiatives that aim to make the world a better place.

Why Blink?

It’s fast paced, exciting and every day is different. With everyone moving towards the same goal and challenging each other at every step, it is an extremely interesting place to work and grow.

In conclusion, being part of Blink isn't just about a job—it's about being part of a community that values growth, impact, and collaboration. Theo is excited about the future and the opportunities ahead as we continue to evolve and innovate in the realm of technology solutions.

Join us in shaping the future of technology and impacting lives. Explore career opportunities at Blink today! https://www.joinblink.com/careers

Choosing a new internal communication platform is one of those decisions that feels simple — right up until it isn’t.

Because once it’s live, there’s no quiet rollback. No easy undo. If adoption stalls, messages get missed, or employees revert to workarounds, you’re stuck fixing the fallout — not just the tool.

Most teams start this process for the same reasons: a legacy intranet no one uses, too many disconnected comms tools, and a growing sense that important messages just aren’t landing. You want fewer channels, clearer communication, and a platform employees actually trust.

The problem? Every internal communication platform promises the same thing in a demo.

So how do you tell the difference between software that looks good — and a platform that actually works in the real world?

That’s what this guide is for.

Below are seven signs you’ve found an internal communication platform that won’t create more noise, more work, or more clean-up later — but will quietly become the backbone of how your organization communicates.

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Signs you’ve found the right internal communication platform

1. It reaches every employee (not just desk workers)

Features to look for: Mobile-first design; a user-friendly mobile employee app; the same features and functionality on both mobile and desktop sites

The best internal comms platforms are mobile-first by design. So what does that mean?

Instead of cramming desktop intranet software onto a small smartphone screen, developers work in reverse. They start by creating an exceptional mobile experience, then scale up.

The result? The same user experience and functionality across all devices. And an internal communication platform that’s accessible to everyone — frontline, remote, hybrid, and office-based teams.

There’s no need for shared logins, VPN gymnastics, or insecure workarounds. You don’t need to maintain different channels of communication for different segments of the workforce.

So keeping everyone on the same page, aligned behind company goals, and connected to each other gets a lot easier.   

✅ Blink

At Blink, mobile-first design is a pillar of our approach. From the very beginning, our platform was designed as a mobile internal communication app. Frontline employees weren’t an afterthought — they were the starting point.

With a mobile and desktop version — both equally feature-rich and functional — Blink improves frontline comms and streamlines internal communications across your whole organization.

2. It brings chat, content, and knowledge together

Features to look for: Real-time messaging tools, a content hub, and a news feed

One of the biggest problems with inherited comms stacks is fragmentation. Chat lives in one tool. Real-time updates in another. Policies are housed somewhere else entirely.

Employees are stuck on a digital scavenger hunt, piecing together information across platforms, tabs, and inboxes. And it’s exhausting.

The right employee experience platform brings everything together. Conversations, company updates, and essential updates all live in one place, as part of a single, coherent experience.

That way, an announcement doesn’t just tell employees what is changing. It links directly to a policy, form, or guide so it’s easy to take action. 

✅ Blink

With Blink, everything is accessible from one intuitive dashboard.

Employees can head to the company news feed for company updates, send an instant message to their manager using real-time chat tools, and access the content hub to view policies and FAQs. They can even hop on a video or voice call when text communication just won’t cut it.

They can do all this without switching platforms and without logging in repeatedly. So teams get a connected, friction-free user experience.

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3. It makes information easy to find (and trust)

Features to look for: User-friendly content management tools; strong search functionality

“Is this the latest version?”

If you hear that question a lot, your internal communication platform isn’t doing its job.

When employees have to hunt for information — or second guess whether what they’ve found is accurate — it wastes time and erodes trust. And when people stop trusting your systems? They stop using them.

When choosing a new platform, look for a clearly structured resource library. A place where employees can find all the documents and resources they need to do their jobs well.

To ensure this space is useful and always up-to-date, you should also look for strong search functions, defined content ownership, and user-friendly content management tools.

✅ Blink

Blink’s content hub acts as a single source of truth. It’s built to house policies, handbooks, standard operating procedures, digital forms — all in one structured, searchable place.

With content management tools, it’s easy to keep hub content updated and relevant. And because Blink is a mobile-first platform, employees can access resources on the go, whenever and wherever they need them.

4. It supports two-way communication

Features to look for: An interactive news feed; employee surveys and polls; consumer-grade chat tools; other real-time collaboration tools

Internal communication isn’t a broadcast — or at least, it shouldn’t be.

If a shortlisted platform only allows leadership to push messages out, without letting employees respond, it’s a big red flag. Because two-way employee communication is essential for a strong culture and employee engagement.

The best platforms support top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer communication. They do this with features like surveys, chat tools, a social media-style news feed, and spaces for employee-generated content.

✅ Blink

Blink is built for conversation. Features like news feed comments and emoji reactions invite participation, while audience targeting ensures spaces never get too noisy. You can create an internal creator culture with the help of moderation and content approval tools — and gather employee feedback using polls and surveys.

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5. It’s secure without being a headache

Features to look for: End-to-end encryption; automated user management; a streamlined login process

Platform security is non-negotiable — particularly when employees are accessing internal communication tools on their own devices. But it’s all about finding the right balance.

If security makes a platform clunky, slow, or frustrating, employees will stop using it. Worse, they’ll find workarounds — WhatsApp groups, personal email, spaces with zero comms team oversight.

The right internal communication software offers enterprise-grade security without killing usability. That includes end-to-end encryption, clear admin controls, and automated user management.

✅ Blink

Blink is secure by design. IT teams get the controls and compliance they need, while employees get an experience that feels intuitive and enjoyable.

Blink also provides secure digital access to other workplace systems. With deep integrations and single sign-on, employees can access all workplace software — without taking risky shortcuts or resorting to shadow IT.

6. It doesn’t just push messages — it helps build culture

Features to look for: Employee recognition tools; co-worker communities; social media-style content tools

If a platform feels cold, corporate, or transactional, it won’t do much for company culture. Today’s dispersed employees are craving recognition, real stories, and moments of connection.

So the right platform makes space for appreciation and informal moments. It acts as a hub for employee experience and employee engagement. It feels less like a corporate noticeboard and more like the apps your employees already enjoy using away from work.

The best internal communication platforms act as a digital water cooler, bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging.   

✅ Blink

Blink makes culture visible. It has all the consumer-grade tools you need to build company culture and improve employee engagement.

Recognition tools weave appreciation into every day. Stories (short-form video reels) capture authentic moments. Communities are a space for employees to connect over shared roles and interests. And the news feed, packed with multi-media content, brings it all together.

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7. It proves its value with real data

Features to look for: Analytics tools; data segmentation; user-friendly reports

Is your internal comms strategy a success? What should you be doing to improve employee communications? When answering these questions, you shouldn’t have to rely on gut feeling.   

The right platform gives you data you can act on and it doesn’t distract you with vanity metrics. It lets you track key internal comms metrics like these:

• Platform usage rates
• Content performance
• Employee sentiment
• Employee advocacy score

✅ Blink

Blink’s analytics and easy-to-action reports show you what’s working and why. You can segment insights by team or location, identify disengaged teams, and identify your best-performing content.

You also have the data you need to demonstrate comms ROI and find ways to make internal comms an even more effective part of your organization.

The right platform = comms without the chaos

The best internal communication platforms bring clarity and connection, while cutting friction and noise. They make it easier for everyone to do their jobs — and feel part of something bigger.

Use the signs we’ve outlined above to guide your decision. Find a solution that ticks all the boxes, and you’ll see a difference from the moment you launch.  

Adoption that comes naturally. Fewer messages missed. Employees who know exactly where to go for information. And internal communications that make a much bigger impact on employee behaviors and organizational goals.   

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‘As leaders, we should be measuring engagement in everything we do’ 

– Simon White, VP People at Blink

Frontline leaders have long been searching for the most effective way to engage their deskless workforce. From Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Learning & Development initiatives, to intranets and Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), they've tried a variety of approaches with varying levels of success.

This has led to a Frontline Gap, an issue that many organizations, especially those with deskless employees, face. It is a void where initiatives fail to have their intended impact due to a lack of engagement from workers. 

To bridge this gap, employers must look beyond traditional methods such as ERGs and ESNs, and instead focus on using employee engagement surveys to connect directly with the needs of their deskless staff.

Frontline workers are looking for a faster, more efficient, and more useful way to do their jobs, while leaders want to bridge the Frontline Gap and connect with their deskless staff. To be able to achieve these goals, employee engagement surveys can help employers achieve direct conversations with frontline workers and understand the needs of their employees.

By taking a proactive approach to employee engagement and using pulse surveys to directly and regularly connect with deskless employees, organizations can begin to close the Frontline Gap, identify engagement challenges and create a more productive, cohesive, and engaged workforce.

Employee engagement surveys can provide valuable insights into how employees feel about their work environment, job satisfaction, team dynamics and so much more. In this guide, we'll take a brief look at why frontline leaders should conduct employee engagement surveys as a regular practice, before diving into our step-by-step guide on how to conduct your first employee engagement survey the right way.

Why employee engagement surveys are important

The solution to bridging the Frontline Gap lies in approaching frontline engagement as something that is earned, rather than simply expecting it from employees. Instead of relying on traditional methods such as ERGs and ESNs to increase engagement, employers must focus on creating an environment where workers feel truly valued and respected.

The first step towards this lies within employee engagement surveys.

Employee engagement surveys are an important tool for frontline leaders to measure engagement and understand the feelings of their deskless employees. While ERGs and ESNs can provide a good foundation for engagement, taking proactive steps to directly connect with your team is essential in order to create a productive and cohesive environment.

As businesses today are operating in an increasingly competitive hiring market, salaries and benefits are becoming more expensive and difficult to manage. With no visibility into what is going right or wrong, employers are left in the dark as to why their staff turnover rate is on the rise and morale is low.

This lack of insight into employee engagement can lead to disengaged employees, decreased productivity, and high turnover rates, alongside a weaker Employer Value Proposition (EVP) as talent is lost. 

Employee engagement surveys can help employers gain the insights they need to effectively measure and address employee satisfaction, team dynamics, and much more. Collecting and actioning this feedback is one of the key employee engagement drivers, and is considered an employee engagement best practice.

So, how exactly can employee surveys support your workforce and drive success in your goals?

Enable

By regularly understanding what they need, leaders can better enable their workforce to succeed. Engagement surveys can help identify key areas that employees are struggling in and provide valuable feedback to address these issues.

One of the main pain points for organizations, especially those with deskless employees, is the lack of resources and support needed to ensure their workforce can work effectively. Without the necessary engagement tools, communication channels and access to information needed to do their job efficiently, deskless workers are often left feeling frustrated and under-valued.

Frequent employee surveys help employers find out what their employees need to do their jobs better. It also helps the employer know if their employees feel respected and valued. The information gained helps them ensure they have the tools and resources needed for workers to do their job well, so that companies can keep a good reputation and meet their hiring targets.

Understand

It can also be hard to collect data from the frontline, as depending on the industry and environment they work in, traditional methods such as paper surveys or iPads may not be practical. For example, if they are working outdoors or in an extreme environment where digital devices cannot operate, it can be difficult to get real time feedback from them.

Additionally, it's crucial to have something that's easy to use, in every frontline worker's pocket. By giving managers what they need to measure employee engagement and continuously improve the employee experience, employee surveys can fill this gap and directly benefit the organization.

One of the most prominent pain points faced by organizations is a lack of understanding of what engaged employees need to be successful, especially in the frontline. Leaders that are out of touch with their workforce can cause real issues, including low morale, decreased productivity and high turnover rates.

To truly understand what engaged employees require, employers must conduct employee engagement surveys, aiding them in identifying key pain points and areas that need improvement.

Engage

Another key objective of employee pulse surveys is to improve and measure employee engagement. It is crucial to engage employees in order to create a positive and productive workplace. Employee engagement surveys measure levels of employee satisfaction, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of policies, programs, goals and objectives within an organization.

By understanding where leadership or productivity are weaker, employers can effectively engage their workers through real-time critical information and structured interventions tailored to improve engagement.

This is a pain leaders are facing: the frontline isn't sharing feedback because they don't want to. Gaining the engagement of the frontline by first earning their trust is key to boosting future engagement levels and increasing employee retention.

 How to successfully conduct an employee engagement survey

As we have looked at above, conducting employee engagement surveys can encourage employees to speak up, give them a voice, and help employers to create a more productive environment.

If you're planning to conduct an employee engagement survey, keep this in mind.

The purpose of an employee engagement survey is not to measure employee engagement, it's to improve it.

Employee engagement surveys should not be done out of curiosity or to "check in" with your employees, they take too much time to be done this way.

Simply having an employee survey is not enough - the way in which you conduct your surveys can make all the difference between success and failure.

LeadershipIQ surveyed over 3,000 HR executives to see "how good" their employee engagement survey was, and only 22% said they were getting good results.

So how can you conduct employee surveys so they are actually meaningful? Looking at industry leaders, we see the following behaviors taking place to launch successful surveys:

1. Get rid of annual surveys

Gone are the days of the bog-standard annual engagement survey that provides little useful information, leaving employees disengaged and uninterested.

Instead of a singular survey at one point in the year, organizations should instead be taking a more agile approach to employee engagement surveys by conducting regular pulse surveys with smaller sample sizes.

If you already have an annual survey procedure in place, the first thing you should do is look at your current process and consider whether some parts of it can be scaled back or done more frequently.

2. Define a clear, attainable goal

You'll have to really think about what information you want to get out of this survey, sometimes it's not just a simple case of finding out how your frontline employees are feeling. This is an opportunity to encourage your team to share feedback on every aspect of their role, your role, and even the CEO's right at the top.

For example, if you have a low retention rate that you want to try and improve, what questions need to be asked? What data will help you put together a plan?

Your employee engagement survey questions should be strategically planned in a way that shows the leadership team genuinely cares about their frontline workers and how their careers can be developed. This should be made visible from the start to the end of your survey.

3. Plan ahead

Once you've figured out what information you wish to gain from your survey, it's time to plan ahead and get everything into place. Here are some of the main points you should consider when you're ready to plan your survey:

• Have you got the right technologies in place to be able to conduct your survey?
• What do you really want to find out?
• Do you need to align with CIO or get buy-in?
• When is the right time to conduct your survey? You'll need to give your employees an adequate amount of time to finish it.
• Are you targeting all of your employees or just a specific group?

4. Let the frontline know! 

Once your survey is ready to go, you need to get the message out there.

Reiterate the importance of the survey to your frontline staff and how it can positively affect their role at work and the environment in which they work. It's a way to show them they are going to be heard and listened to (you need to actually follow through as well, but more on that later).

Communications leaders should be well briefed in plenty of time and should be tasked with sending out reminders to all who are involved in taking the survey.

One way you can reiterate the importance of your employee engagement survey is to release it with a message from the CEO, or another senior leader. 

5. Act and restart

Once you've received your survey results, you need to come up with a plan stating how you plan to act on your responses. This is a key aspect you can't shy away from.

This is also another chance to acknowledge employee contribution and shows that the right people have seen the results and will take action. Below is a recent example from John J. Herman, CEO of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.

He acknowledges and thanks staff for taking the time to do the survey, reiterates their feedback is important, and lays out in clear bullet points what their next action points are. You can view the full message here.

This should be an ongoing effort and you should keep your frontline workers informed of your processes and decision making, as a way of letting them know you are serious about improving your workplace.

If you fail to truly act on the feedback they have taken the time to give you, you risk devaluing future surveys and decreasing response rates.

You should repeat your survey at regular points throughout the year, to see if the employees are satisfied with the measures you have taken and tweak different aspects of your strategies to raise levels of employee engagement.

Considerations for conducting your first employee engagement survey

Plan

As we highlighted above, surveys should not be done out of curiosity, you need a real plan.

So when you're thinking about surveying employees take the below into account:

Who's your audience?: Whether it's teams or departments, segment your stakeholders into groups.

What do you want to measure?: What do you need to find out to improve the employee experience? Set goals, and measurable KPIs.

What are you asking?: Once you know what to measure, what questions do you need to ask to get actionable insights?

What type of survey?: Once you have your audience and goals, what type of survey are you going to run? There are different types such as, benefit surveys to measure how satisfied your frontline is with their benefits and rewards or you could even run onboarding surveys for new hires to see how well they’ve been introduced to the business.

What format?: How will the survey be received? Via email, via an app? What format will the questions be? Multiple choice or free text? Take into consideration your audience and goals and use these to guide the format you choose.

Timing: When's the best time to send your survey to your audience? How long will you leave the survey open for? How many follow up emails will you send to those that don't respond?

There's a lot that goes into planning an employee survey, but you need to do this to set you up for the best chance of it being a success. 

Platform

Do you have a way to easily and efficiently collect and analyze data? Depending on your organization you'll need to make sure you use a platform that meets your requirements.

Think about who you are going to survey, are they desk based or deskless? Do they work from home? Are they on the frontline? Do you need the survey to work on desktop and mobile?

For example, our employee survey feature is used by organizations whose employees are on the frontline, this puts more importance on the mobile functionality of our survey feature to allow for quick and easy responses wherever employees are.

If your employees feel disengaged from their colleagues and management team it's time to introduce a platform that can meet your team's needs whatever their job role. 

Trust

Employee surveys are a great opportunity to establish trust with your employees that you will listen and understand their feedback, as well as make an effort to act on how they are feeling.

But, they also pose a risk of doing the opposite if you don't do them properly.

A recent campaign undertaken by Blink found that 50% of employees wanted to leave their current position as they didn't feel like management took their complaints seriously. One third didn’t even think their organization would act on their feedback.

This again highlights why employee surveys shouldn't be done out of curiosity. If you run the survey, get the results, and don't act. What do you think will happen to the figure above?

But, if you act and communicate changes made off the back of feedback, not only could these go a long way with improving employee engagement, but build a lot of trust with your employees. 

From an employee perspective, it will also be important if the survey is anonymous. This in turn will increase trust and eagerness to take part in the survey. Anonymity is important if you want to get real honest feedback from staff, they will feel more comfortable sharing the truth if they know it won’t come back to haunt them.

Communication

Raise awareness around your survey going live! Involve your communications leader in using as many formats as possible to get the message to the frontline. 

This could involve emails, printed posters, and using an employee engagement mobile app.

These communication points need to explain the importance of taking part in the survey and why employee feedback is so important to improving the work culture.

Content

When you're planning out your employee engagement questionnaire, don't be afraid to ask difficult questions. You need to ensure you're set up to get the most out of it.

For example, Facebook found that simply asking employees how long they intend to stay was more than twice as accurate at foretelling their future turnover than machine-learning forecasts.

What's even more telling is that they found when people don’t participate in their two annual surveys they are 2.6 times more likely to leave in the next six months.

The content within your survey needs to be clear, concise, and engaging. There's no need to overcomplicate your questions or try to hide behind big words. Ask the questions in a way that will get a truthful response.

How Blink employee surveys can help you meet your goals

Most employee survey tools are designed for desk-based workers, not the frontline - Blink's Employee Surveys make it easy for you and your teams to quickly and easily conduct employee surveys.

We make it easy for frontline organizations to get the data that matters.

Triple your response rate

Get your survey seen and responded to in an app designed for everyday frontline use. Instantly transition away from paper surveys to having surveys appear seamlessly on every frontline team member’s device.

This gets rid of friction caused by having to use other platforms, with different passwords and make it easier for staff to respond as everything is in one place. From paystubs to scheduling and even critical documents - your surveys are in an app that gets opened an average of seven times a day.

Launch in 90 seconds

Ask questions fast, get answers faster. Our mobile app makes creating and sending surveys easy. From selecting your audience to selecting questions you’ll be done in minutes.

Science-backed questions

We offer a set of science backed Qs which are great if leaders don't know what to ask, you also get the option to add in your own. 

Get action-ready insights

Easy-to-use reports to make impactful decisions. Merge this with Frontline Intelligence - together with engagement stats and you’ll have an overall view of the health of your organization.

Launch your first survey

Employee recognition programs can be one of your top tools in the war for talent. Done right, they increase employee retention, build workplace morale and have a major impact on productivity.

If you’re new to employee recognition, don’t worry – the principles are simple. Ultimately, your employees like to be thanked for all the work they put in. If you do this, they will be happier and work more productively. 

You might have some form of employee recognition in place already, such as bonus schemes. Right now, however, it pays to go a little deeper with your employee recognition processes. Here’s what you need to know about recognition and rewards in the workplace. 

Employee recognition programs: what are they? 

There are quite a few definitions of ‘employee recognition’ floating around right now. We like Perkbox’s for its simplicity: 

“Employee recognition is when a company acknowledges its staff for great work.”

It’s that easy. An employee recognition program is any set of processes you have in place to facilitate this. This could be: 

• Peer to peer gifting schemes
• Employee award ceremonies
• Formalized career pathways and regular salary review schemes
• Target-based financial bonus schemes

Why do you need employee recognition programs? 

‘Underappreciation’ has always been a key driver of high employee turnover and low employee engagement. If you take your employees for granted, they are more likely to leave and less likely to perform well at work. 

On the other hand, a simple ‘thank you’ just once per month to your employees doubles employee engagement, halves risk of them leaving and triples the likelihood of them sticking with you in the long term. 

And if that’s the impact of one ‘thank you’, imagine how much positivity a fully thought-out employee recognition program can do!

When you make the effort to thank your employees for their hard work, you: 

• Create a positive work environment where everyone feels valued 
• Incentivize staff to go the extra mile and boost their performance
• Reduce absenteeism – and, just as importantly, reduce presenteeism
• Increase employee engagement, job satisfaction and productivity

Why employee recognition programs are so important now

Recognizing your employees keeps them with you. And that’s more important than ever. 

‘Lack of appreciation’ has consistently been named as a major reason behind so many people quitting their jobs right now. In fact, a recent survey found it to be the second most popular reason for quitting, behind inadequate pay. 

With a record number of open vacancies in the US right now and major competition to fill them, you can’t afford to be letting talent go – particularly when employee recognition programs are so effective for relatively little input. 

It’s the small things that make a difference, now more than ever. 

Ideas for employee recognition programs 

Different types of recognition are appropriate for different occasions. Only recognizing employees at key workplace milestones (e.g. anniversaries, promotions) isn’t enough. 

Instead, aim to create a staff recognition program that works as well for everyday acts of recognition as it does for those big occasions. You could try: 

• Monetary rewards: this doesn’t have to be a big end of year bonus or salary increase! Smaller, more everyday options include extra days of PTO and meals on the company or a personalized t-shirt with your logo design.
• Public recognition: shout outs on the company app, wall of fame, on social media or at a company award ceremony are all good options here
• Private recognition: creating a peer to peer gifting system builds camaraderie and good feeling. Keep a stock of vouchers, chocolates and bottles of wine that employees can send to their colleagues to thank them
• Celebration of lifetime events: show you care about your employees as people by celebrating their life milestones – cakes and collections for weddings, birthdays and new family additions are always appreciated

Use these ideas as a foundation to build on. Add in the big work milestones – the salary increases, the bonuses, the promotions – and you’ve got a program that makes your employees feel appreciated every day, not just on special occasions. 

How to create an employee recognition program 

According to Gartner, a well designed employee recognition program can increase productivity by around 11%.

To achieve this, it’s worth spending a little time establishing what your (and your employees’) needs are here. Gathering requirements early will help ensure the effort you spend on your employee recognition program pays off in the long term. Flawed requirements trigger 70% of project failures, so it’s worth spending the time here. 

Here’s a quick five step plan for doing this: 

1. Survey your employees

Different things work best for different workforces. For example, a stable, long-term workforce might appreciate recognition of birthdays, marriages and kids, but a workforce made up of short-term contractors might be less invested. Create a survey to gauge opinion on how your employees want to be recognized. 

2. Find the tools that would work for you

For remote and mobile workforces, an employee app with recognition features might hold the key to success. Take that survey info on how your employees want to be recognized, and get started on figuring out which tools you need to do that in your specific environment. 

3. Identify your stakeholders

This shouldn’t be difficult – every department in your organization has an interest in retaining top talent and improving productivity. Put together a committee with representatives from each of these groups to guide the implementation, perhaps headed by your HR/People Team experts.  

4. Define your budget for employee recognition

In an ideal world, you’d have an infinite amount of cash to show your employees just how brilliant they are – an HR manager can dream, eh? 

Unfortunately, we live in the real world and this might not be – no, definitely won’t be – achievable. Resources are finite, so you really need to make your case — finding a senior sponsor will help you maximize your chances of a decent budget. Remember: senior execs are broadly numbers people. Show them the real, tangible difference employee recognition programs have on productivity, retention and engagement for best results. 

5. Identify your metrics for success

Once implemented, how can you tell your employee recognition program is working? 

Identify some changes you’d like to see, and set some progress targets around these. You might want to see fewer people leave, for example, or fewer ‘lack of appreciation’ answers on those all important exit interviews. Keep tabs on your progress towards these and tweak your approach as necessary. 

The best employee recognition apps

Here are some of the best employee reward and recognition apps out there right now. 

Blink

Our Colleague Recognition feature is an easy way to make your employees feel valued in a meaningful, personalized way. Anything worth remembering, recognizing or celebrating can be posted to your company news feed in seconds! 

Nectar

Nectar is an all-in-one employee rewards platform that incorporates social recognition, awards, challenges, milestones, discounts, and other kinds of perks.

Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway’s employee recognition features are part of a wider employee engagement suite. With a focus on continuous recognition and celebrating daily success, there’s plenty of scope to build out your program.

Bonusly

Bonusly is simple. You give out points for good performance. Your employees can redeem these for a reward of their choosing – or hard cash, if that’s what they prefer. 

Motivosity

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. 

Kazoo

Kazoo’s employee recognition features sit nicely with the app’s overall employee engagement focus, and emphasizes a diverse rewards scheme that works for each employee – choose from experiences, custom swag, gift cards, charity donations and more.

Final thoughts on employee recognition programs 

‘Recognition all day every day’ should be your goal here. It’s about the atmosphere it creates as much as the award certificate or gift voucher your employees go home with at the end of the day. 

Keep your employee reward recognition program simple, meaningful and relevant. It’s not always about the big gestures. Remembering a birthday, putting in a good word with the boss or simply taking the team out for dinner after a difficult deadline can have a huge effect on morale – don’t dismiss their importance. 

Blink makes it easy to recognize great performance. Book your free demo today!

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

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

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

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

Happy employees are more productive

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

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

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

How employee mobile apps can boost happiness

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

Reach employees where they are

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

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

Help you show workers you appreciate them

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

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

Stop the endless email flood

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

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

Provide opportunities for growth

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

Remove communications roadblocks

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

Empower telecommuting

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

Support a culture of fun

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

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

Give employees a voice

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

Cut down on mandatory meetings

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

Serve as a platform for peer-to-peer recognition

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

Facilitate collaboration within and between teams

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

Enable flexible work

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

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

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

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

One of the top barriers to business success? According to 1 in 4 professionals surveyed by Gallagher, it’s internal communication channels that aren’t fit for purpose.

Having the right mix of communication channels supports effective internal communication and employee engagement. It helps you build a culture of connection and belonging.

But it’s easy to get it wrong. Usually, problems occur when:

• You have too many communication channels
• You don’t have a communication framework — designating specific channels for different types of content
• You have channels that are inaccessible to certain segments of the workforce
• You don’t ask employees what they want from your internal comms channels

Here, we explore 15 of the most popular and effective internal communication channels for 2025. We also look at the questions you should ask when deciding which channels are best suited to your organization and your internal comms strategy.

Common internal communication channels and why they are not enough

Internal communication channels are the tools, platforms, or methods you use to connect employees to your organization — and each other. These channels support the sharing of information, the amplification of company culture, and the building of coworker connections.

Most organizations use a combination of communication channels to reach their workforce. They may use internal communication software to provide some or all channels — and they tend to use different channels for different types of communication.

For example, a company may use email, a social news feed, in-person meetings, project management software, and survey tools. Each of these channels performs a different internal comms function.

Together, these channels support formal and informal, face-to-face and digital interaction. They also ensure that information moves in all directions across the organization.

Types of internal communication channels

We can categorize internal communication channels by the type of communication they facilitate.

Top-down

Top-down internal communication channels allow leaders to share company updates with employees. You can use these channels to speak to the entire workforce but they’re not as interactive as other options on this list.

Examples: Town hall meetings, intranet announcements, content hub resources

Bottom-up

Bottom-up employee communication channels allow workers to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns with managers and the C-suite. These channels help employees to feel heard and valued — and they’re an essential part of your communication channel mix.

Examples: Employee surveys and polls, leadership Q&A sessions, digital forms

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer internal communication channels are another essential. These channels allow coworkers to communicate with one another and help to create a culture of belonging and collaboration.

Examples: Instant messaging tools, co-worker communities, news feed stories

Questions to ask when choosing internal comms channels for your organization

Most organizations use a mix of comms channels. When devising your internal communication channel strategy — and when assessing the usefulness of the channels we’ve listed below — consider the following questions.

What types of communication channels do we currently use and are they effective?

Before updating your internal channels of communication, assess the effectiveness of your current setup. Consider whether existing tools help you meet communication goals, like fostering engagement or enabling collaboration.

Ask whether each channel has a defined purpose. Is it fulfilling a vital function or is it simply adding to the noise? And consider whether your channels are helping you keep pace with internal communication trends and employee expectations.

What do our employees think of current internal communication channels?

Organizations that ask employees about their communication channel preferences report higher channel effectiveness. So get feedback on the things workers do and don’t like about your current channel mix.

The accessibility of your employee communication channels is another key consideration. Find out whether employees from all parts of the organization — in the office, at home, and in frontline roles — can access your primary communication channels with ease. Language barriers, time zone challenges, shift patterns, and access to tech are all things to think about.

What types of internal communication do we want to share?

Your internal communications should be informative and engaging. So you need varied comms channels that offer real-time updates — and that fit naturally into every employee workflow.

Consider the types of content you want to share — whether mandatory reads, deep-dive resources, social posts, or messages from the leadership team. Then, decide which communication channels you need to deliver each of those content types.

How do we give employees a voice?

Internal communications are more effective and engaging when employees get to contribute. The C-suite gets access to valuable insights that can drive business success. Workers feel valued when it’s clear that leadership is interested in their ideas and concerns.

So determine whether your current channels support two-way communications. If not, you need to add some interactive communication channels into the mix.

How do we prevent channel overload?

Bombarding employees with too many messages across too many channels can lead to information fatigue and channel disengagement. So look for tools that provide multiple channels via one dashboard — and allow you to segment your audience, ensuring only relevant messages reach each employee.

Also, consider the admin experience. To avoid overloading your comms team, channels that provide in-built AI support are useful. You can automate routine internal communication tasks, freeing your team up to focus on more meaningful interactions.

15 internal communication channels to use in 2025

The best internal communication channels to use for your organization include:

• Instant messaging
• Employee surveys
• Content hub
• Internal news feed
• Coworker communities
• Face-to-face meetings
• Project management tools
• Digital forms
• Bulletin board
• Internal videos
• Email
• Recognition platforms
• Video conferencing
• Modern intranet
• Employee app

You probably already use some of these channels to communicate with employees. But you may spot some alternatives that will help streamline and upgrade your internal communications.

Just remember: To avoid overwhelming employees, you should look for tools that bring channels together into one user-friendly, digital interface.

Instant messaging

Instant messaging tools support the real-time sharing of information between teams. Unlike email communication, employees don’t have to wait for a response.

The best solutions allow you to create both one-to-one and group chats. They allow you to share images, gifs, videos, and documents — and launch video meetings straight from a chat thread.

Search functionality is another important consideration. It should be easy for employees to search the messaging tool, finding and referencing older chats and resources.

Employee surveys

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Employee surveys are one of the most popular employee listening channels. They provide a ton of data about the employee experience — and they promote a positive company culture by ensuring employees feel valued and listened to.

You get the best results when you go beyond the traditional annual survey, using a mix of quarterly surveys and quick pulse surveys to assess employee sentiment on issues like:

• Employee satisfaction
• Employee engagement
• Your internal communication strategy
• Upcoming organizational changes

You can use supporting communication channels to close the feedback loop. Share your findings with employees and inform them how you plan to act upon the insights you’ve uncovered.

Content hub

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A content hub is a library of self-serve resources — and another valuable internal communication channel.

A hub contains things like policy documents, FAQs, and training manuals. By making these resources available to employees, you reduce the number of questions directed at managers and your HR team. You also give employees quick and easy access to the information they need.

To ensure this communication channel works effectively, you need to regularly update or archive old content. Employees then know that they can trust the information on your content hub is reliable and relevant.

Internal news feed

A social-media-style news feed is another essential internal communication channel for a modern workforce. A user-friendly news feed is familiar to employees — and with rich, multimedia content and interactivity, it’s an excellent tool for employee engagement.

Your news feed is a place to:

• Promote company culture
• Encourage employee interaction, with the platform and each other
• Share essential information
• Recognize employee achievements

The best tools mirror the experience employees get on social media platforms away from work. Employees can like and comment on posts — and create their own content using features like Stories.

Key features to look for include segmentation and controls. To ensure high levels of engagement, you should be able to personalize the news feed to employee roles, locations, departments, and interests. And admins should be able to fine-tune the experience, limiting posting rights to prevent information overload.   

Coworker communities

In remote and frontline work environments, employees miss out on water cooler moments. So they can end up feeling disconnected from their coworkers. This is leading to an epidemic of loneliness.

Over half of employees feel lonely all or most of the time. And with more than 8 in 10 employees saying a sense of community helps them perform better at work, finding ways to combat that loneliness is key to employee productivity and satisfaction.

Include coworker communities in your communication channel mix and you provide a digital space where employees can come together.

Employees can create coworker groups based on shared interests, hobbies, or work-related topics. They can chat, network, connect, and collaborate, developing a sense of community that improves their workplace experience.  

Face-to-face meetings

Most of the channels of internal communication on this list are digital. But face-to-face meetings are still an important part of any internal comms strategy and can include:

• Manager one-to-ones
• Team and town hall meetings
• Coaching sessions, workshops, and lunch and learns
• Social events

These face-to-face sessions are useful for communicating complex messages and for building better workplace relationships.

However, there are some considerations to bear in mind. Face-to-face meetings aren’t always the most inclusive option if you have employees working in different locations across different shift patterns.

If you have frontline employees, you may like to limit the number of face-to-face meetings you schedule — or vary dates and times. You can also record meetings. Then post a video to your intranet or employee app, so everyone can access the information shared.

Project management tools 

Many desk-based teams are using project management software as a communication channel. This brings project management tools and team chat into a single location and helps teams to plan, organize, and execute projects efficiently, even when they’re working remotely.

While useful for project teams, these tools don’t have the full range of features you need for effective internal communication. So they’re best used as part of a more comprehensive communication tool, either built-in or as an integration.

Digital forms

Digital forms reduce your reliance on paper processes. They’re an easy way for employees to communicate with managers and the HR team, without having to send an email or schedule a meeting. As such, they’re another incredibly useful internal communication channel.

You can create digital forms relating to any topic — leave requests, safety reports, shift swaps, employee suggestions. Then, make these forms available via your organization’s primary communication platform.

Bulletin board

If you don’t have a mobile-friendly digital tool that frontline employees can access easily, paper notices may still form a key part of your communication channel strategy.

You may be sharing messages on the bulletin board or via digital signage. We know of transit companies where posters were left on every bus driver’s seat. Needs must. But bear in mind that these methods of internal communication have their limitations:

• There’s no interactivity, which means low levels of engagement
• You can’t be sure that employees are seeing and reading your messages
• Information quickly becomes outdated and irrelevant if older notices aren’t reliably taken down

If frontline and office-based staff are getting their information from different sources, you also run the risk of misalignment and misunderstandings.

Internal videos

Internal videos are another useful communication channel when you want to explain complex concepts. They’re also great for humanizing your leaders and improving workplace trust.

While videos don’t support two-way communication, the combination of audio and visuals catches an audience’s attention, making them good for engagement and knowledge retention.

And — for a more interactive experience — you can use live streaming tools, which allow employees to send reactions and comments during your video event.

Email

Email continues to be a popular channel of internal communication for desk-based workers. It’s a way for coworkers to collaborate with one another — and for leaders to send company-wide updates.

But frontline employees don’t always have a company email address or easy access to their emails during work hours. And even for desk-based employees, email has its drawbacks.

It’s asynchronous and doesn’t support real-time communication. It’s primarily text-based so doesn’t offer great levels of engagement. It’s also easy for workers to become overwhelmed by the number of emails in their inbox.

Recognition platforms

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Recognition tools and platforms are an internal communication channel designed to improve employee morale and motivation.

These tools make it easy for managers and coworkers to recognize employee achievements. Some platforms allow managers to assign points, which employees can spend on real-life rewards.

While an increasingly popular part of the channel mix, recognition platforms are unlikely to provide you with all the tools you need for effective workplace communication. So you need to integrate them with your primary communication tools — or find a platform with recognition features built-in.

Video conferencing

When employees can’t meet face-to-face, a video meeting is an excellent alternative. Linking workers across locations and time zones, this is another popular communication channel for desk-based teams.

However, as with email, you can have too much of a good thing. A high volume of video meetings can cause stress and fatigue. And this format isn’t great for frontline workers, whose work environments and patterns aren’t suited to a scheduled video call.

A modern intranet

The traditional intranet has a bad reputation because it fails to meet the communication needs of today’s organizations. A modern intranet is a whole new ballgame.  

The best modern intranet platforms combine many of the internal comms channels listed above. They incorporate a company news feed, content hub, instant messaging, recognition tools, and surveys.

For everything else, there are handy integrations. Employees can access all workplace software from the same user-friendly interface, preventing tech tool overwhelm.

With in-built analytics and a consumer-grade user experience, the modern intranet is an all-in-one solution for internal communications, HR processes, and employee engagement.

An employee app

Like the modern intranet, an employee app combines many of the comms channels above — and provides deep integrations for the other tech tools your teams use.

The key point of difference here is mobile accessibility. An employee app is available on every employee smartphone. Your teams don’t need a company email address to access the app and single sign-on capabilities give them secure access to all workplace tools, with just one set of login details.  

The employee app is a particularly useful internal communication channel for a frontline workforce. They can access your comms — and contribute to the company conversation — at a time, at a place, and with a device that suits them.

Creating the right mix of employee communication channels for your organization

Looking through the channels of internal communication above, you may feel spoilt for choice. There are lots of excellent ways to share messages and facilitate connection across your organization.

When deciding which channels best support your internal communication goals, consider these two key principles:

• Employee input is essential. You achieve more with your communication channels when you have employee buy-in. Find out what employees want from your channel mix to figure out which of the above tools deserves a place within it.
  
  
• Less is often more. Create more communication channels without a clear strategy and you’re likely to overwhelm employees. So aim to streamline communication channels into a single internal communications tool, accessible to your entire workforce.  

With the right combination of communication channels, you’ll find it easy to share essential information, create an inclusive company culture, and improve employee engagement — without adding unnecessary noise.

Blink. And streamline internal communications channels with an all-in-one comms and engagement solution.