JD Group Launches JD Now with Blink

Today, most of your company’s vital documents live digitally. From benefits plan statements to the potluck sign-up — paper is a thing of the past. 

When you tally everything an employee accesses online, it’s easy to see how content can be a lot to manage. That’s why companies need a way to aggregate, manage, and share all of their internal information. 

They often use a combination of platforms to get the job done, but this can be confusing and inefficient. 

For that reason, more companies are moving towards a single unified intranet CMS software that can act as a single resource for content management. 

An intranet content management system boosts communication, improves productivity, and allows workplaces to function remotely. Plus, research shows that companies with strong internal social networks are 7% more productive.

If you’re in the market for the best CMS for intranet, take a look at our recommendations below.

The best CMS intranet for 2023 roundup:

1. Blink

Blink is an employee intranet with many features, making it a great choice for companies looking for an all-in-one solution for their internal communication needs. 

The content management hub is a sleek, mobile-first design, and the software is easy to set up and onboard without extensive IT or training teams. 

Features:

• CMS Hub for documents 
• Content feed 
• Business chat
• People directory
• Micro-app functionalities

Best intranet CMS software for: All-in-one frontline communication.

Price: Plans start at $3.40/user/month.

2. SharePoint

SharePoint is Microsoft’s intranet offering, making it a great choice for teams who already heavily rely on Office Suite tools. 

SharePoint leverages internal websites to host content pages and team resources. It’s a powerful content management tool that works well for large companies looking for a robust CMS but could be overly complex for smaller organizations. 

Features: 

• Document library
• Information rights management
• Project management server and timelines
• Team-based content websites
• Cloud or on-site data storage
• Company news page

Best intranet CMS software for: Enterprise content management.

Price: Plans start at $5/user/month.

3. Glasscubes

Glasscubes provides a cloud-based platform for employees to collaborate and share files. Users can send messages to others or attach files to messages for further collaboration. 

The lightweight system is engaging and easy to use, perfect for companies looking for a straightforward, high-value CMS intranet that improves engagement. 

Features:

• Secure online file storage 
• No limitation in file type or size
• Internal chat 
• Activity feed
• Task management and scheduling

Best intranet CMS software for: Team collaboration.

Price: Plans start at $35/month.

4. Simpplr

Simpplr is a CMS employee intranet that prioritizes usability and social engagement. 

Packed with features like an AI-driven social feed, events calendar, and a newsletter, Simpplr is the choice for companies looking for feature-rich software that improves culture, communication, and engagement. 

Features:

• Employee intranet
• Employee blogs
• Employee profiles
• AI smart feed
• Newsletters
• Events calendar
• Social websites for teams
• User analytics

Best intranet CMS software for:  Engaging social teams.

Price: Available upon request.

5. OnSemble

Building off a 15-year history in intranet, OnSemble offers a well-rounded intranet platform designed for customer-centred organizations. 

The content management tool, employee forums, and leadership blogs engage workers and provide them with the resources to do their best work. Drag-and-drop page builders mean OnSemble can be relatively easy to customize for small to midsize organizations.

Features:

• Employee directory
• Content management
• Document search
• Forums
• Cloud or on-site data storage

Best intranet CMS software for: Customer-oriented organizations.

Price: Plans start at $6/user/month.

Final thoughts: The 5 best intranet CMS software in 2023

A content management system is an essential feature of your company’s intranet. With so much of today’s work taking place remotely or on mobile, having everything accessible boosts your employee’s engagement, supports a positive company culture, and increases productivity. 

There are many great intranet platforms out there, and what you choose will come down to your company’s size and needs.

If you’re looking for a simple solution that packs tons of engaging features into one affordable platform, give Blink a try. The mobile-first platform and modern design will work well for any team. 

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

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

Frontline safety is front-page news 

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

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

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

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

Poor safety risks more than injury 

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

1. The legal risk  

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

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

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

2. The union risk 

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

3. The reputational risk 

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

4. The performance risk 

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

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

Four steps to create a culture of frontline safety 

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

1. Start with strategy 

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

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

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

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

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

2. Appropriate and ongoing training (for everyone) 

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

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

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

3. Solicit safety-oriented feedback

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

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

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

4. Make communications a priority

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusions

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

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

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel motivated and committed to your company. But in today’s organizations — especially in those with a frontline presence — employee engagement is too often overlooked.

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace for 2024, just 23% of people are engaged at work. And organizations with low levels of employee engagement are more likely to experience the following:

• High employee turnover
• Reduced productivity
• Poor team performance
• Poor customer experience

For frontline leaders, engagement is a particular challenge. It can be hard to even reach, let alone engage, employees who spend their days traveling, out in the field, or working across multiple sites. 

So what can a company do to motivate and inspire its workforce? As we’ll see in a moment, improving employee engagement requires a holistic approach — one that encompasses all areas of the employee experience.

Here, we look at employee engagement strategy — and the employee engagement best practices — that every company should adopt. 

Employee engagement: understanding the challenge

Employee disengagement is a widespread issue in both desk-based and frontline businesses. Employee engagement scores are low because of:

• Poor internal communication. A lack of transparency and communication within a business leaves employees feeling disconnected from their teams and leaders. Internal communication suffers when leaders and managers are overworked, when internal comms are not made a priority, and when the right communication tools aren’t in place.
  
• Inadequate tech. Technology plays a significant role in employee engagement. You can use it to keep employees engaged, by giving them access to the tools and connection opportunities they need to succeed in their roles. You can also use it to measure employee engagement. A lack of adequate technology tends to be a bigger problem in frontline businesses because most tools are designed around desk-based teams.
  
• Leaders not leading by example. Employee engagement is the outcome of a positive employee experience. And positive employee experience is the responsibility of every leader and manager in your organization. 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager. So team leaders need training and support to understand their role in boosting engagement. ‍
• Poor work-life balance. Stress is a huge issue in many industries. According to O.C. Tanner research, nearly a third of employees are living in survival mode. They’re on the verge of burnout with many of their basic needs unmet. When employees aren’t happy and healthy, they’re unlikely to be engaged in their work.

Employee engagement challenges in frontline organizations

Any business looking to get the most from its workforce has to stay up-to-date with employee engagement best practices. But for leaders in frontline organizations, the stakes are particularly high.

Frontline teams already experience a high rate of employee turnover. It’s fair to say that frontline employees are dissatisfied with their employee experience… and for several different reasons.

McKinsey’s EX Factor framework breaks this employee experience down into nine elements across three categories: social experience, work experience, and organization experience.

‍

• Organization experience. Technology is arguably the biggest challenge to resolve in the frontline organization experience. Frontline workers waste significant amounts of time jumping from one not-fit-for-purpose platform to another, and logging in and out of multiple systems in a single shift. It’s no surprise that 52% of frontline workers say they’d leave their jobs because of the poor quality tech tools provided.
• Social experience. Frontline workers don’t spend much time at HQ, if any. And the nature of their work means they spend their days in different locations, often working in isolation. This makes it hard to maintain a sense of community and engagement, and it risks frontline employees feeling on the margins of your organization, particularly in comparison to their desk-based peers.
  
• Work experience. The frontline work experience can be less flexible and rewarding compared to desk-based employees. Few frontline employees are given development opportunities (despite wanting them) and many fail to get the recognition they deserve. On a more practical level, basic tasks like swapping shifts are inefficient at best — and impossible at worst.
  
  

Employee disengagement can have serious consequences in frontline sectors. It can lead to health and safety risks, poor customer care, and compliance issues, as well as employee dissatisfaction and churn.

So how can frontline businesses turn it around? Let’s dive into the employee engagement best practices that will help you improve the employee experience at your organization.

6 best practices for employee engagement in 2025

Employee engagement is a priority in high-performing businesses. These employee engagement best practices are ingrained in company culture and operations. 

Five of the best practice recommendations we’ve included here are based on the 5 C’s of employee engagement:

• Care — show employees you care about their wellbeing as well as the company’s bottom line
• Connect — build relationships and foster a sense of togetherness
• Coach — guide your employees to be the best they can be
• Contribute — encourage employees to contribute their thoughts and ideas
• Congratulate — celebrate employees for the great work they do

We’ve also added a bonus best practice – analyze and optimize — as this is key to evaluating your performance and improving employee engagement going forward.  

So, read on to discover how to implement the 5 C’s and adopt these best practices for employee engagement within your organization.

1.    Care: create a supportive environment

When you show genuine care for your employees and their wellbeing, you foster loyalty and trust, and develop a positive work environment. This works wonders for your employee engagement metrics.

44% of employees experience a lot of stress at work. In supportive environments, employers know how to recognize and respond to stress and burnout in frontline workers. But they also do their best to prevent stress and burnout from occurring in the first place.

Supportive employers offer health and wellness programs, mental health support, and flexible work arrangements. They communicate empathetically and show employees that they value their work and input. Employees know who to turn to if they have a problem or need help.

In 2025, the way companies care for their employees is evolving. And digital tools are becoming a more important part of the picture. 

With an employee app like Blink, you can send important communications straight to every worker’s smartphone. You can point them in the direction of health and wellbeing resources — and reinforce company culture with clear and consistent communication.

You also reduce employee stress by improving the digital employee experience.

Today’s employees expect their workplace tech solutions to be of the same quality as the tools they use in their personal lives. Using technology at work should be as simple as sending a direct message or scrolling a news feed for company announcements.

When workplace systems aren’t intuitive and familiar, it can add stress to the working day and cause employees to feel burdened and disengaged.

So by adopting a digital approach, companies can use technology to ensure all workers — including those who don’t sit at a desk all day — feel cared for and supported by the company.

2.    Connect: foster meaningful relationships

Humans are naturally social. Neuroscientists have found that we crave social connection in the same way we crave food when we’re hungry.

The best workplaces satisfy this craving. They support employees to create a network of strong and meaningful workplace relationships.

Connections like these help employees feel like part of the company team. They bring business benefits too. Employees who feel that they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.

Other advantages? You improve team-building and collaboration. And employees are more connected to the wider aims of your organization, which makes it easier for you to get everyone pulling in the same direction.

Types of workplace connection

When adopting employee engagement best practices, you have to consider and facilitate two different types of connections within your workplace.

Employee–employee connection

What stops a worker from moving from one hospital to another? Or from one bus company to another? More often than not, a company’s values, culture, and sense of community play an important role in people choosing to stay — or to leave.

Dispersed workers need regular connection with their co-workers. They should be able to share their knowledge and connect with like-minded co-workers in workplace communities. Leaders need to provide tools that help team members from across the organization feel part of company culture.  

Employee–leader connection

Meaningful relationships are built on two-way communication and they involve people from all levels of an organization. Employees should hear from their leaders and vice versa.

For dispersed teams, achieving open communication across the company hierarchy requires a tailored approach. You need to find tools that allow the conversation to continue, even when a worker is on the road or based over multiple sites.

Tools for employee connection

In today’s modern workplace, reaching frontline, hybrid, and office-based employees is easier when you have the right communication tools.

A modern intranet

The traditional company intranet doesn’t facilitate the type of communication the modern workforce wants and needs. But upgrade to a modern intranet and you move beyond top-down news and one-way conversations.

With a modern intranet, you can develop internal communication channels that support top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer connections.

An employee app

A mobile-first employee app takes intranet features and puts them into the palm of every employee. It provides a user-friendly interface and integrations with lots of other workplace software.  

An app is particularly useful for organizations with a frontline workforce. These employees rarely have access to a desktop device, which means they can’t send and receive important workplace communications.

If you’re still sending paper pay stubs, posting out a paper newsletter, or pinning notices to memo boards, then going mobile could be the best thing you do for employee engagement.

An all-in-one platform

Emails from leadership. WhatsApp messages from co-workers. A noticeboard crowded with posters.  When employees have to look in lots of different places for company communications, things get confusing.

An all-in-one platform provides a range of communication channels, including private chat, a content hub, and a social-media-style news feed. These channels are available on desktop and mobile devices.

Pick a platform like Blink and you also get tools for employee recognition and feedback. You can even integrate the app with your other workplace tools, turning Blink into a digital front door for your organization.

With an all-in-one platform, you give employees the connection they need and streamline the communication process.

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3.    Coach: invest in employee development

According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report:

• 7 in 10 people say learning improves their sense of connection to their organization
• 8 in 10 people say learning adds purpose to their work

This is why employee development is another of our employee engagement best practices.

Employee development makes staff more invested in their work and loyal to your organization. And it’s not just for office-based teams. Frontline employees want the chance to learn new skills and earn promotions, too.

70% of frontline workers surveyed by McKinsey said they had applied for career advancement opportunities. But the McKinsey survey also revealed that 65% of frontline employees were unaware or unsure of how to achieve advancement.

To keep employees engaged, companies have to provide equal access to learning and career opportunities, such as training courses or mentorship programs. Again, this may mean using digital tools. 

Employee development case studies

Let’s take a look at two companies that are investing heavily in employee development for their frontline employees.

Amazon

Amazon is keeping a close eye on the future. Through courses and apprenticeships, the company is helping employees to develop technical expertise. New tech skills will benefit both employees and the company over the years to come.

But Amazon isn’t just offering L&D in areas closely linked to business goals. The company recently committed an incredible $1.2 billion to employee L&D. This fund covers all sorts of education.

Frontline employees can use it to pay for college tuition fees. They can use it to fund high school completion and English as a Second Language (ESL) certifications. 

While these courses may not provide direct benefit to Amazon, the employee loyalty and engagement it fosters are well worth the investment.

McDonald’s

Employee L&D is fun and digital at McDonald’s. The company created a cash register training program that looked and felt like a computer game.

Learners had to respond to customer orders under timed conditions. They could use lifelines and win bonuses as they did their best to keep customers happy.

This gamification was successful. A high proportion of employees engaged in the training. McDonald’s reduced the time it took to serve each customer by 7.9 seconds and increased customer spend by an average of £18,000 per restaurant.

4.    Contribute: make employee voices heard

Employees feel a greater sense of belonging and are more motivated to succeed when they’re empowered to contribute their ideas, skills, and expertise.

The company benefits, too. You avoid working in an echo chamber because you get to hear a wide variety of perspectives. You develop leadership skills among your workforce, which can help with succession planning. And you encourage employees to take greater ownership of their work and results.

A frontline business can encourage employee contributions by:

• Providing a dedicated platform for idea sharing. It’s not always easy for frontline workers to share their ideas. Dispersed shift work means they often have little access to office-based decision-makers. But you can use technology to recreate the ‘open door’ experience. With a dedicated employee voice platform, all staff can offer their contributions — and managers can give those valuable contributions the recognition they deserve.
  
  
• Seeking feedback from employees. Surveys are another great way to make employees feel heard. They’re an easy way for you to canvas employee opinion and discover the issues that matter most to your workforce. Regularly request employee feedback on topics like internal communications, employee satisfaction, and company culture to make meaningful improvements in these areas.
  
  
• Acting on employee input. However you receive employee input, be sure to act upon it. Employees only have faith in the process if they feel listened to. So keep employees in the loop. Tell them that you’ve received their contributions. Tell them what plan of action you’ve put in place, giving realistic timescales where possible. And once your plan has produced results, share these with employees, too.

5.    Celebrate: recognize employee achievements

Recognizing and celebrating employee achievements is another of our employee engagement best practices.

Research from Gallup shows that well-recognized employees are 45% less likely to leave their roles within two years — and employees who get valuable feedback are five times as likely to be engaged as those who don’t.

The first thing businesses tend to think of when they hear the word ‘recognition’ is monetary reward. And of course, employees want to be paid fairly for the work that they do. You can use pay raises and financial bonuses to recognize a job well done.

But, in good news for budget-holders, monetary rewards aren’t the only way to recognize employee achievement. McKinsey found that up to 55% of employee engagement is driven by non-monetary recognition. A simple “thank you” goes a surprisingly long way.

Other employee appreciation ideas include fun benefits like a catered lunch, a day of volunteering, or an employee ‘wall of fame’.

To get the most out of non-monetary benefits:

• Get to know employee recognition preferences — and then tailor rewards to teams and individuals wherever possible
• Make it equal — all employees, whether they work in the office or on the frontline, should have equal opportunity for praise and reward
• Encourage peer-to-peer employee recognition — 75% of employees say that giving recognition makes them want to stay at their current organization longer, so encourage co-workers to highlight and celebrate each other

With Blink’s recognition feature, you can shout out employee successes, congratulate someone on a promotion, celebrate team milestones, and even wish your coworkers a happy birthday, all within the company newsfeed.

You can decide who sees your recognition post and have the option to create personalized messages, too.

6.    Analyze and optimize: evaluate employee engagement performance

Once you’ve adopted the 5 C’s and associated employee engagement best practices, it’s time to analyze and optimize the process.

There are various metrics you can track to establish the success of your employee engagement program. These include statistics on employee retention, sick leave, satisfaction, and employee engagement tool usage. You can also gain insight from staff surveys. 

If you’re to make good use of the available data, you have to clarify two things:

1. Your metrics before you made changes to your employee engagement program
2. Your employee engagement goals

Using this information, you can set targets. For example, you may decide that you want to improve your employee retention rate from 60% to 80% within the next quarter. Or that you plan to outshine your competitors by beating the industry average for staff satisfaction within the next year.

By setting goals and regularly analyzing your employee engagement metrics, you learn where you’re making progress. You can also make strategy changes based on insight, rather than anecdotal evidence or gut instinct.

The end result is an employee engagement program that is continually improving, better meeting the needs of your frontline team and your business. 

This is another part of the employee engagement process that Blink can help with. Our app comes with powerful frontline analytics.

You get data on employee engagement, retention, and satisfaction. You can launch in-app surveys to find out how employees are feeling. And you can hone your communication style with insight into your most popular posts and topics.

Employee engagement best practices: key takeaways

extra thought and attention.

Finding ways to connect your team, offer training opportunities, get employee input, and show recognition can be tricky when your teams aren’t spending their days together in the same office environment.

But thinking about the 5 C’s can give you lots of employee engagement ideas. And when you incorporate the 5 C’s into your employee engagement best practice — and also take the time to analyze and optimize employee engagement — you can count on numerous benefits. 

These include:

• Better employee retention
• Improved productivity
• Streamlined operations
• Improved employee and customer satisfaction

Go North West, a transport company in the north of England, used Blink to improve communication between office-based staff and drivers. The app drove employee engagement and moved the company lightyears from the office noticeboard full of old news they’d been using previously.

Take a look at the full Go North West case study here.

Employee retention in healthcare has never been more important — or more difficult. We know that one in five healthcare workers left their jobs in 2023.

Healthcare work is demanding and, at times, emotionally exhausting. Violence against caregivers is on the rise. And with staff shortages a problem in many healthcare settings, stress and burnout are an ongoing concern.  

But we need more healthcare staff than ever. The global population is aging, increasing healthcare demand. Staff continuity also improves the patient experience and outcomes. Healthcare providers need to do all they can to hang onto employees. 

So what can you do to improve healthcare employee retention? Research shows that nearly one-third of healthcare employees are currently disengaged in their work. This is a worry — but it’s also an opportunity.

Disengagement is linked to high levels of attrition. So increase staff engagement and you reduce staff churn, too. It all starts with listening to, understanding, and acting on the needs of your frontline workers.

Effective employee retention strategies for healthcare providers

Healthcare retention is a challenge. But one that can be met with a combination of employee engagement, communication, and development.

The most effective staff retention strategies in healthcare include the following: 

1. Invest in employee development

2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication

3. Create an open and inclusive culture

4. Recognize and reward employee efforts

5. Offer competitive wages

6. Make schedules more flexible

7. Give employees a voice and act upon their feedback

Now, let’s take a closer look at these ideas.

1. Invest in employee development

Training, development, and career advancement are key to healthcare staff retention.

The 2024 NSI Nursing Solutions report reveals that career advancement was one of the top reasons for healthcare employees resigning from their jobs in 2024. 

And according to Press Ganey, nurses who don’t receive training and development opportunities are 1.4 to 1.5 times more likely to leave their roles than those who do.

Despite the importance of learning and career growth, only 60% of healthcare employees say skill building is offered by their organizations. So, to hang onto employees:

• Be transparent about your promotion policies and opportunities
• Find out where employees want to go in their careers
• Commit to a policy of continuous learning and development
• Make training more accessible with mobile learning tech

Beyond those early days of onboarding, offer mentoring and cross-training. Keep employees up-to-date with advancements in healthcare technology and practices.

Note this research from Gallup, which shows that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined by the manager. Ensure that your managers have the training they need to support employee motivation, engagement, and retention more effectively.

Time is another important factor. Busy healthcare staff on the frontlines of your organization don’t just need training opportunities. They need dedicated time in which to access them.

The takeaway: Invest in ongoing education and training programs suited to your employees’ needs. Also, facilitate learning by giving easy access to learning tech and building training time into employee schedules.

2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication

Healthcare organizations tend to use a variety of internal communication channels. These may include a noticeboard, staff pagers, and email.

But there are problems with these methods of communication. First, you can’t be sure that a message has been received and read. And second, these channels don’t inspire two-way communication, a key pillar of employee engagement.

To make internal communication at your healthcare organization more effective and less fragmented, you can create a communication hub using a mobile-first employee app or intranet.

Here, you can share mandatory reads that employees have to click to acknowledge. You can create open channels of communication between healthcare staff and their managers — and give employees easy access to documents and resources that support them in their roles.

You can also segment your workforce by role, department, tenure, and location so they only receive relevant communications. This helps to avoid unnecessary distractions and information overload for time-strapped healthcare workers.

When Elara Caring adopted Blink as their primary communication tool, they were struggling with high staff turnover and low levels of employee engagement. Since adopting Blink, the organization has transformed engagement, with 95% of employees feeling more connected to Elara and each other.

The takeaway: Use an employee app or mobile intranet to make work-life easier for frontline employees. Give workers unified access to internal communications. 

Read more: Closing the digital gap in healthcare for frontline workers

3. Create an open and inclusive culture

Next on our list of employee retention strategies is workplace culture. A positive, inclusive, and supportive culture makes your organization a happier place to be. This leads to better healthcare staff retention.

It also impacts patient outcomes. Because when healthcare staff feel supported and operate in a culture of psychological safety, they can ask questions and raise concerns without fear of repercussions.

To develop this type of culture you need open, two-way communication across the whole of your organization. A digital communication tool can help you achieve this. It allows everyone, including hard-to-reach frontline employees, to share news, ideas, and opinions.

You can create dedicated spaces for 1:1s, group chats, and organization-wide Q&As. This helps employees to feel heard and valued. It also helps them to build meaningful workplace connections.

Wellbeing is also paramount right now. With around half of all physicians and nurses experiencing symptoms of burnout, a positive workplace culture relies on adequate stress management and mental health support.

The takeaway: Take time to analyze your organizational culture and find areas for improvement. Prioritize open, two-way communication to support psychological safety at work. Also, provide stress and mental health support to address the symptoms of burnout.

4. Recognize and reward employee efforts

Gallup shares that when healthcare workers are recognized for their work, they’re four times more likely to be engaged and five times more likely to feel connected to company culture.

Employee appreciation also affects patient safety. Gallup found that employees recognized for good work in the last seven days experienced fewer patient safety incidents.

That said, only 18% of healthcare workers feel that employees are recognized and valued at their organization. That’s below the national average of 22% for US employees and much lower than other sectors — financial services stands at 34% and professional services stands at 28%.

Put simply, healthcare providers need to do more to recognize and reward their employees. The best recognition and rewards programs are tailored to your healthcare workers and their preferences — but here are a few ideas:

• Recognition via internal communications: You can publish achievements and recognize hard work publicly, on your communications platform. The rest of your workforce can then see praise and add their congratulations, too.
• Direct appreciation: Some workers may prefer to receive praise privately. Direct appreciation from managers is another way to make employees feel seen, heard, and valued.
• Appreciation gifts: Incentivize your healthcare team with gift cards, cash prizes, fun experiences, or benefits like extra paid time off. These are great ways to recognize your employees’ hard work and boost morale. 

The takeaway: Make employee recognition an integral part of your workplace culture. Learn about employee recognition and reward preferences. Then, ensure managers regularly offer praise for employee effort.

5. Offer competitive wages

Money isn’t everything. But when you’re working a demanding and emotionally draining job, a competitive salary makes it easier to sustain motivation during those tough days.   

Offering good salaries shows that you appreciate and value your employees. So keep an eye on what competitors — in and outside of healthcare — are offering. Also, consider polling your employees to learn if pay is one of their primary workplace frustrations. 

When deciding what you can afford to pay, bear in mind the cost of losing employees.

According to NSI Nursing Solutions, the average turnover cost for a bedside registered nurse (RN) stands at $56,300. And — when you factor in lost revenue, interview expenses, locum costs, and the inevitable dip in productivity — the cost of losing a physician can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The takeaway: Offer fair compensation. When your workers know they’re fairly paid, they’re more likely to stay working for your organization, which means you retain your best employees and their collective knowledge.

6. Make schedules more flexible

Advances in AI, virtual healthcare, and telemedicine, mean it’s easier than it used to be to support flexible employee schedules. And this is something employees are looking for.

According to O. C. Tanner, 80% of healthcare workers say having flexibility at work would influence their decision to stay at their organization.

So how do you make flexible working a reality for frontline healthcare employees? You can offer:

• Staggered hours
• Part-time hours and job shares
• Fixed or rotating shift patterns, depending on employee preference
• Advance warning of shift schedules

You can also give employees more autonomy over where and how they work. Start by finding out what employees want from flexible working. And try to harness the potential of virtual healthcare wherever possible.  

Digital tools, like an employee app, are useful here too. They can help you structure and track staff schedules — and give employees the tools they need to swap shifts independently.

The takeaway: Offer flexible scheduling to help your employees achieve work-life balance and keep them working in healthcare. Find out what flexible working means to your employees, then do your best to facilitate it.

7. Give employees a voice and act on their feedback

Keep your finger on the pulse and you prevent employee engagement and retention issues from sneaking up on you. An annual check-in with your healthcare employees is not enough. You need to regularly gather and analyze employee data and feedback.

So look at the analytics provided by any employee communication and engagement software you use. Discover how workers are interacting with the platform and your communications.

Also, run regular surveys to find out what workers think of the employee experience — or any other aspect of your organization and its operations. In doing so, you give employees a voice, which makes them feel valued and respected.

Just bear in mind that employee surveys and polls can damage the employee experience if you fail to act on the feedback your employees provide. In Blink’s survey of frontline health and social care employees, there was one standout message from an employee to senior management:

“Please listen to your staff and follow up on promises. Too many empty promises.”

So use employee feedback wisely. Identify ways you can improve the healthcare worker experience. Create and clearly communicate your plan of action. Then, keep employees in the loop as you progress toward your employee experience goals.  

The takeaway: Use analytics and employee feedback to inform healthcare retention strategies. Find out what employees like and dislike about working for your organization. Then keep them in the loop with survey results and your plan of action.

Boosting healthcare employee retention with Blink

Staff retention in healthcare is a challenge. But by implementing these employee retention strategies, you’ll find it easier to hang onto your existing staff — and attract new hires too.

As you implement these workforce retention strategies, keep the needs of your healthcare workers front of mind. Their needs differ from those of desk-based employees.

Healthcare workers spend their days caring for patients, so they have little free time. They don’t sit at a desktop computer — and they’re dealing with high stress and burnout.

So when putting any of these strategies into action, ensure that you make life as easy as possible for your healthcare team. Give them easy, mobile access to the information and resources they need. 

A tool like Blink is designed to support employee engagement and internal communication for busy frontline teams.

Blink’s secure employee app is a hub for two-way communication, feedback, and recognition. It gives employees easy access to workplace resources, development opportunities, shift swap tools, and wellbeing support.

Available via smartphone, Blink fits seamlessly into the work day of your frontline employees, improving their employee experience and encouraging them to stay with your organization.

Want to kick-start your healthcare staff retention strategy? Schedule your free Blink demo today.

So, you already know how digital transformation can improve your warehousing, docking and inventory processes, but are you paying enough attention to digitalization in your run-the-business systems? Here's why you need to. 

Digital technology is making huge advancements in the logistics sector, yet the frontline are still left feeling unsatisfied. By improving not only supply chain capabilities, but also your day-to-day employee management systems, businesses can enjoy a number of unexpected benefits, which we've put together for you in this handy guide.

We'll share some of our frontline employee engagement expertise with you here, as well as the latest research on how digital transformation can help in areas such as recruitment, training and tracking performance. This should help HR leaders see just how valuable digital tech can be when it comes to making their logistics workforce operate better and more efficiently across the board.

What is digital transformation (DX) in logistics?

Digital transformation (DX) in logistics is the use of digital technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of logistics systems in order to better meet the needs of customers and businesses.

While you may be familiar with the growing pressure to digitize your supply chain management and front-of-house systems, many logistics companies are just starting to realize the impact that digital transformation can have on their back-end operations as well.

In order to keep up with today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, HR leaders will need to look at how they leverage employee technology in order to better manage their workforce; recruit and retrain more effectively; and track employee performance and engagement over time. 

By creating a more streamlined, digital and integrated approach to these HR functions, businesses can streamline their operations and better meet the needs of both customers and employees alike.

So for any HR leader looking to get ahead of the competition, it is essential to embrace digital transformation in logistics and use it as a tool to improve operational efficiency, employee engagement, and overall business performance.

Core goals of logistics digital transformation

As business leaders, it's crucial to have clear goals in mind when looking to invest in or implement new digital tools. 

While common logistics and supply chain processes like docking, inventory, digital supply chains, and other front-of-house systems might not be your main focus, digital transformation in logistics can help you improve or manage your business in other important ways. Think project management, team communication, and business planning, just to name a few.

But what specific goals should you be looking to achieve with your run-the-biz logistics DX efforts? Core goals often include:

• Cost Reduction: For HR professionals, this may mean looking for ways to automate processes, reduce employee errors and minimize overhead costs related to hiring, training, and onboarding new employees.
• Improve Communication: One of the main goals of the digital transformation journey is improving communication both internally and externally, with an aim to drive increased employee satisfaction and, ultimately, retention. 
• Customer Satisfaction: Improving customer satisfaction is another important priority for many logistics leaders looking to leverage digital technologies. Whether it's through improvements in product quality and delivery times, or better tracking of customer feedback and requests, maintaining high levels of service can be a key goal of DX efforts in logistics.
• Employee Engagement: One often forgotten goal of DX efforts in the transportation and logistics sector is to improve employee engagement and happiness, which can have a direct impact on your employee retention and productivity levels.
• Increase Profits: While not always a top priority for HR leaders, increasing profits and driving ROI can be another overarching goal of DX efforts in the industry – and this can be a great hook to get buy-in from your IT leaders or CEO. 

While there are many benefits to be had from digital transformation for logistics companies, there are also a number of potential barriers (see image above) and roadblocks that can impede success. For HR professionals, the main challenges will likely include:

• Resistance to Change: One of the biggest challenges faced by any company looking to undergo digital transformation is the natural resistance to change that arises within any organization. This can be especially true in cases where employees feel they are being asked to do more work or change the way they've been doing things for years.
• Company Culture: Another obstacle that can arise during DX efforts in logistics is company culture. If the company's culture is not supportive of change or new technologies, it can be very difficult for any type of transformation – digital or otherwise – to take hold and be successful.
• Legacy Infrastructure: Finally, one of the biggest challenges faced by companies looking to digitize their operations is legacy infrastructure. Many companies have invested heavily in outdated systems and technologies that can be difficult – and expensive – to replace. As such, it often takes a lot of time and effort to upgrade these systems in order to enable a successful DX initiative.

By knowing what you're up against, you can better prepare yourself and your organization for the challenges of digital transformation in logistics. With a clear understanding of your goals and potential roadblocks, you can work to overcome resistance, build a supportive company culture, and upgrade or replace legacy systems as needed.

And with the right approach and mindset, you can leverage digital tools that will help you achieve improved business outcomes and drive higher levels of success for your organization.

Driving digital transformation with frontline workers

Digital business processes impact your frontline team directly, and they need to be included in the transformation journey. Frontline workers are often left feeling like an afterthought, particularly during digital transformation efforts, which can be a huge mistake. 

These workers are the ones who interface directly with customers and clients on a daily basis, and they understand what improvements will make their jobs easier – and ultimately benefit the company as well. As such, it is important to invest in frontline workers when driving supply chain digital transformation initiatives.

For logistics companies, this often means leveraging frontline workers as a source of insights, ideas, and feedback on what technologies will work best for them. For logistics employees, this could include instant communication, on-the-go manuals, direct route information or a familiar social media interface: all features of the Blink Frontline Engagement App.

5 unexpected HR benefits of DX in logistics

1. Reduction in staff turnover

With a real pressure on HR leaders to bring in high-quality candidates and retain their existing staff, one of the most surprising benefits of digital transformation in logistics is reduced staff turnover.

By leveraging new technologies in your business strategy to improve the work environment – such as intuitive systems that are easy to use or improved communication channels – you can help alleviate some of the stresses and challenges faced by your employees on a daily basis. 

52% of frontline workers claim that they would leave their job over tech tools, according to Unleash.ai, highlighting the impact that the right workplace technology has on employee retention.

The right digital initiatives can make your workers feel more valued, appreciated, and supported – thereby helping to reduce turnover rates in the long-term.

2. Better employee engagement

Another unexpected benefit of digital transformation in logistics is improved employee engagement. This can be driven by a number of different factors, such as the use of gamification techniques or employee engagement apps that allow workers to connect with their colleagues and share ideas.

DX for your logistics workforce can also help foster a company culture of collaboration, innovation, and teamwork. By investing in your employees and encouraging them to work together towards common goals, you can cultivate a sense of shared purpose that will help drive greater success for the entire organization.

And with improved employee engagement and loyalty, HR leaders are better equipped to attract and retain top talent, manage performance, and achieve their business goals. Highly engaged employees also achieve 23% more profitability and 43% less employee turnover, Gallup reports, so the impact of upgrading your employee engagement initiatives runs deeper than you might think.

3. More productive staff

In addition to greater employee engagement and reduced turnover, digital transformation in logistics can also help boost staff productivity. In fact, McKinsey reports that well-connected teams see a productivity increase of 20–25%, so if you can target your DX initiatives towards connecting your employees, you could see another unexpected benefit.

With the right tools and technologies at their fingertips, your workers will be able to streamline processes, optimize performance, and improve output. This means better results for you and your organization – as well as increased job satisfaction for your logistics workers as it becomes easier to succeed in their frontline roles.

Whether you are implementing new systems, optimizing existing technology, or offering your employees training and support, digital transformation can help unlock the full potential of your workers and help drive greater success for your business.

4. Improved safety

In the logistics sector, one of the biggest concerns is often worker safety. This can be due to a number of factors, including long hours on the road, heavy lifting and handling of goods, or exposure to harsh weather conditions and other environmental hazards.

With digital transformation in logistics, however, you can help improve worker safety by leveraging new technologies and systems to protect your staff. This could include investing in smart wearables that track location and movement, implementing automated risk assessment tools, or an easy-to-access, Central Hub storing safety procedures and policies.

With this focus on safety, your workers will be more confident about their working conditions and better able to manage any risks that arise. And as a result, you can help reduce workplace injuries and help keep your employees safe, satisfied and healthy.

5. Increase your bottom line

And finally, perhaps one of the most valuable benefits of digital transformation in logistics is an improved bottom line. Whether you are looking to reduce costs, increase revenue, or improve overall efficiency for profitability, DX can help support these goals and drive greater success for your organization.

By leveraging new technologies and systems, you can streamline day-to-day processes, optimize performance and drive retention amongst your logistics workforce, saving on costs related to employee churn and recruitment and boosting your bottom line in the long-term.

Tips to help drive digital transformation in the logistics industry

Here are our top 5 tips to help implement a successful digital transformation in the logistics industry:

1. Create a DX roadmap: A DX roadmap should include an evaluation of existing processes and systems, as well as a plan for implementing new technologies and improving existing ones.
2. Align digital transformation strategy with business objectives: To maximize the impact of your digital transformation efforts in logistics, it's important to align these efforts with business objectives and goals. This will help ensure that you are investing in solutions that can have the greatest impact on your operations.
3. Appoint digital transformation champions: To drive successful implementation and adoption of digital tools in logistics, it is important to identify key champions within your organization who can act as advocates for change.
4. Communicate clearly and often: To help ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page, it is important to communicate your digital transformation goals and strategies clearly and often, as well as work closely with IT or other key departments to troubleshoot any issues or problems along the way.
5. Keep track of your timeline: Maintaining a clear and realistic timeline for your digital transformation journey is essential to ensuring that you stay on track and meet your goals.
6. Use the right tools: Whether it's a digital tool for employee engagement, a new ERP system, or order tracking do your best to ensure it's right fit that will drive performance forward.

By keeping these best practices in mind, HR leaders can help drive digital transformation in logistics, maximizing the impact of these efforts on their organization as a whole.

Accelerate your digital transformation today…

The Blink Frontline Engagement App offers a powerful and easy-to-use platform for improving communication, collaboration, and task management between logistics managers and frontline employees. Whether you are looking to reduce costs or drive employee engagement in your logistics operations, the Blink app can help you achieve your goals quickly and easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV1_4ZdjPQ4&ab_channel=Blink

Don't fall behind in the DX movement – get started with Blink today, and start accelerating your digital transformation in logistics! 

With features like Secure Chats for real-time communications, Blink Feed for product updates, and a Central Hub for document management, Blink can help drive increased innovation and productivity throughout your entire organization.

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Optimizing an intranet for marketing departments might not be on your mind, but your marketers can benefit from stronger connections with the rest of your corporation.

“Until recently, we communicated through email. This was to share patient information and… not much else. There was little in the way of engaging employees, celebrating achievements, or keeping in touch,”

said Christi Krizman, Director of Development and Training at Promises Behavioral Health. The company now has a 70% average engagement rate on Blink.

The health organization shares personal anecdotes and success stories and communicates with different branches and departments easily. 

Best of all, with a smart intranet, your marketing team members can use these interactions and stories as marketing collateral. 

The intranet for marketing means taking advantage of features other departments will be excited about — like your company social networking feed — and using them to ease your marketers’ workload.

Must-have features for your marketing intranet

Intranets have been associated with HR or IT for a long time. But these departments aren’t the only ones who benefit from a way to connect to the rest of your organization. 

With the right features, your marketing department can both source materials and share upcoming campaigns with ease.

You need to be able to share different media content on your intranet. And you want to be able to share the latest marketing strategies with frontline staff and receive pictures, videos, and feedback from them. It should be simple for everyone to publish their own content too.

An intranet with different permission settings will help make sure only certain teams or people have approval to see specific documents or market research. That makes it easier to share information confidently in the digital workplace.

The best intranet platforms for marketers should integrate with other apps like Slack or Microsoft 365, so your team can continue to use the tools they feel comfortable with.

Surveys will help marketing gain feedback from different departments without hassle. They can then check the built-in analytics to see how engaged employees are with the content they’re posting.  

5 ways to use your intranet for marketing

Now you know what features to look for in a marketing intranet, it’s time to go over how you can use those tools productively. 

1. Share marketing initiatives

Sometimes employees don’t know about new deals or offers unless they get notifications from management. An intranet keeps everyone on the same page. 

2. Create a sharable photo album

Make an album where staff can upload pictures or video clips that marketing can use. Having one place where a photo of a staff celebration can be quickly uploaded to the company intranet reduces the strain on all of your workers.

When it’s easier for people to share their content, they’re more likely to.

3. Collect social media content

Not only pictures but quotes, examples of good work by frontline workers, and even share job vacancies at specific locations. Social media is becoming less curated, and more authentic content is resonating with users.

Sharing digital marketing materials with actual workers instead of models can help you achieve that genuine feel.

4. Promote your company blog

Share posts that staff are likely to be interested in and learn from. 89% of marketers use blogs in their content strategies, but do your workers know about it? Don't just send them to your homepage — share case studies, white papers, and press releases they might care about.

5. Share marketing materials that others need

Have a folder or feed for current sales strategy and brand assets, so if an employee needs to reference them, they’ll always have easy access to the promotions. 

Get your marketing team on board

A social intranet is only as good as the contributions from its users.

You need to get your marketing department engaged with a new platform, or they won’t see the benefits from the workspace.

Multiple experts at the Content Marketing Institute expect video content to grow in 2022, but your department might not have the resources to create all of this content themselves.

By leaning into your company’s intranet software, your team can source photos, videos, success stories, milestones, and other materials from frontline workers and other departments as they create them.

Marketing will be able to access this information quickly — and in most cases, directly. 23% of marketers surveyed by HubSpot said just finding the ideas for new content was their biggest challenge for 2022.  

If your marketing team is able to improve internal communications with other branches, they can access new information and learn what’s trending in stores now.

They can also use employee-generated content as a springboard or incorporate it directly into new marketing efforts. 

The best way to have marketing get on board with an intranet is to have them try it out for free and see how they like it.

Final thoughts: marketing intranet — using an intranet to transform marketing

An intranet for marketing can streamline the entire department and lessen their workload.

Having your entire company help generate content yields a more authentic message that improves employee engagement and means less time spent hunting for a good photo or story. 

Communicating and defining the roles helps keep everyone on the same page. 

But make sure the intranet solution you choose has the features your organization needs for each department.

Your employees need to be able to access the intranet easily, and a mobile solution will help more workers connect and engage. 

Help cut down on the work your marketing department is facing with a fast, company-wide intranet like Blink today.