Life at Blink | George Monk

Why ditching the PDF could be the best thing your comms team ever does

The dreaded PDF.

A multi-page document posted on the company intranet. No summary. No design flair. And zero chance everyone will actually read the thing — especially if you have any number of frontline employees. 

Dense blocks of text feel uninspiring and overwhelming in a world where real-time news, multimedia content, and bite-sized morsels of information are now the norm.

So why are so many internal communication messages still stuck in 2005?

“Please see the attached document” may have worked once upon a time. But for today’s workforce — used to scrolling and skimming — this kind of internal communication simply doesn’t cut it.

Let’s take a look at why static comms still linger — and how to move beyond them to deliver social-style communications your workforce will love.

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The PDF problem — and why it persists

Overreliance on PDFs is a tell-tale sign that your internal comms strategy needs a makeover. While the PDF was once the preferred format for read-only updates, in 2025, it’s something of a relic.

Here’s why:

• It’s slow, clunky, and hard to read (especially on mobile). Ever tried to read a PDF on a smartphone screen? It’s a miserable experience. Pinching. Zooming. Scrolling from side to side. Endless downloads clogging up your device storage. Even on desktop, downloading a PDF is a process. And reading lots of long-winded text requires a lot of time and concentration — neither of which is easy to come by in the middle of a busy work day.
  
  
• It doesn’t engage employees. People don’t tend to consume information in document form these days. They prefer feeds, stories, swipes, and reactions. They don’t read studiously through a text. They expect key messages to jump out at them. And PDFs definitely don’t meet the 8-second comms rule — they consistently fail to grab and hold employee attention.
  
  
• There’s no way to measure impact. PDFs are a one-way street. You send it out and hope it lands — but you never really know. Sure, you can track email metrics like open rates. But you can’t be sure that employees are actually reading the attached doc from beginning to end. It's hard to get a good sense of employee feedback. So you have lots of unanswered questions. Who read it? Did you grab their attention? Did they understand the information shared?

The charge sheet is pretty conclusive. PDFs aren’t fit for a modern communication strategy. And they’re especially frustrating for frontline workers. So why are some companies still using them?

It often comes down to habit — and a feeling that PDFs are an “official” form of communication. Some organizations have always done comms this way and no one has challenged the process yet.

Workplace tech is sometimes also to blame. Many legacy tools still default to static formats. So it’s easier to create a PDF than to explore modern internal communication channels.

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What “modern comms” actually looks like

Modern comms are dynamic, snackable, and social. They split an extended message (that would once have been presented as a PDF) into smaller, bite-sized morsels that are easy — and even fun! —to digest.

If you’re itching to ditch the document in favor of something that meets your audiences where they are, you’ll need help from all the following:

• News-feed-style content. Just like LinkedIn or Instagram, your company updates should flow like a content feed. Think attention-grabbing headlines, snappy captions, and plenty of images.
  
  
• Short-form video. The most popular form of content in recent years, short-form video deserves a place within your internal communication strategy. A quick 60-second vertical video from your CEO will make a much bigger impact than a 4-page memo.
  
  
• Real-time updates, not quarterly announcements. Because you share rolling company news with your workforce, there’s no need for lengthy quarterly updates. You can make your messages short and snappy, so it’s easy for employees to engage with them during a busy work day.
  
  
• Comments, likes, and quick polls to boost interaction. Top-down business communication is out. Two-way communication is in. Modern comms gives employees the chance to like, share, and comment on content — and even respond to polls — so they’re always part of the company conversation.

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Benefits of a modern internal comms strategy

Creating Insta-worthy internal comms isn’t about replacing PDFs with pretty pictures or chasing the latest comms trends. It’s about improving internal communication, meeting employees where they are, and delivering real business value.

Here’s what a modern internal communications strategy can do for your business.

Better reach, better recall

When messages are delivered in an engaging and accessible format, employees remember them. They’re also more likely to be hanging out on your internal comms channels in the first place, so reach improves too.

Faster adoption of updates

Need to roll out a new process? Launch a policy update? Shift a deadline?

Because modern comms are more likely to land, employees see and understand what’s happening within the workplace. Everyone pulls in the same direction, and behavior change and adoption of new policies get easier. 

More authentic connection to your workforce

Today’s workforce craves transparency and authenticity. They want to hear from leaders who sound like real people. And they want to see what their peers are up to, too.

Modern comms make that happen. It gives leaders a way to show up in a relatable way — via short-form videos, comments, and emojis. It gives employees space to voice their own perspectives and connect with one another.

A stronger sense of culture

With video, images, graphics, and interactive internal content, it’s easy to showcase company culture — and help employees feel part of it too.

Recognizing wins. Sparking conversation. Sharing behind-the-scenes moments. Modern comms is great at all of the above. So you make employees feel seen, celebrated, and part of something bigger. You create a shared sense of community — something a PDF could never do.

Measurable results

Unlike a PDF delivered via email, it’s easy to track the impact of modern comms delivered over a modern comms platform.

You can view analytics that tell you how many people are logging in, liking, clicking, and responding. You get the insight you need to hone your internal communication plan and double down on the content your workforce likes best.

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Practical shifts you can make now

The best internal communication tools give you everything you need to deliver a modern comms strategy. But if you’re not ready for a total platform overhaul, there are still things you can do to modernize your employee communications.

Start small and build momentum with the following ideas.

Turn long-form PDFs into bite-sized posts

Break that 6-page deck into a series of short news feed posts. Lead with a headline. Include a key takeaway. Add a graphic or visual. End with a call to action. Use bullet points, simple language, and short paragraphs that make it easy for employees to digest content on the go.

Introduce Stories and visual formats for leadership comms

Video is even easier to consume than short-form text — and it’s great for employee engagement too. A quick Story from your CEO or a candid photo from a site visit helps to humanize your leadership and build trust with employees.

Encourage employee-generated content

Employees are often experts in social media-style comms. And with the right guardrails in place, an internal creator culture can work wonders for your modern comms strategy. Give people a way to share their wins, co-worker shoutouts, and day-in-the-life content — and your feed will be filled with authentic, culture-building content, sure to engage your workforce. 

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Ready to put your PDFs out to pasture?

PDFs had their moment. They were useful when all we knew were static, desktop-based systems. But — in 2025 — they’re no longer an effective way to share information with your workforce.

Your people are busy. They’re mobile. They’re social media savvy. Frontline employees, in particular, need mobile-first comms that fit seamlessly into a jam-packed work day. If you want their attention and their trust, you have to meet all employees where they are, with content that actually connects.

That means rethinking formats, making your messages more fun and engaging — and producing content that feels less like a boring homework assignment. So bring in visuals. Spark a dialogue. And make life easy for employees with short, snappy snippets of content.

So next time you’re about to hit “Save as PDF,” pause. Could it be a feed post? A 30-second video? A quick poll? If the answer’s yes — skip the static doc and go modern. Your employees (and their attention spans) will thank you. Blink makes it easy.

‍Blink. And give your people the modern comms employee experience they deserve.

Get to know your organization like never before

On a 2023 listening tour, Safeguard Global, an HR consulting company, discovered that employees were worried about their winter heating bills. The organization acted on this feedback by providing a monthly stipend to help cash-strapped workers. 

Chief People Officer Katherine Loranger told SHRM, “It wouldn’t have happened without the firsthand information about how inflation was impacting those employees.”

Similarly, after layoffs at Change.org, Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Dulski used a listening tour to understand the impact on remaining employees. She found that trust was at an all-time low. 

The company responded by improving transparency and communication about its financial situation. Employees came to understand why difficult decisions had been made — and felt reassured about their job security. 

As organizations like these have found, a listening tour can help you find and fix employee problems before they cause undue harm to your organization. They can also surface fresh perspectives on everything from your products to customer service to the employee experience.

In 2025, a listening tour is an essential part of any good internal communication plan. Let’s look at why that’s the case — and how you can put a listening tour into action.

What is a listening tour and why does it matter in 2025?

A listening tour is a series of structured conversations with employees, designed to gather feedback and insights.

It can include:

• 1-to-1 interviews with employees
• Focus groups
• Pulse-check polls
• Workplace walk-throughs
• Town hall meetings

A listening tour goes way beyond the annual employee survey. By actually speaking to employees, asking relevant questions, and encouraging honest and expansive answers, you develop an in-depth understanding of the employee experience.

In the case of an internal comms listening tour, you get to understand the employee experience in relation to your communications. You discover what employees think of your internal communication channels and tools. And whether your internal comms plan is having the desired impact.

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Key benefits of a listening tour

Executing an impactful listening tour takes time and effort. But it’s well worth the investment. Here’s why: 

• It builds trust. Conduct a listening tour and you show employees that you value their input. When you act upon their feedback, employees feel heard. This strengthens their trust in your organization and its leadership.
  
• It fosters inclusion. On a well-planned listening tour, you gather feedback from hard-to-reach sectors of your workforce — like frontline employees — who may have little chance, day to day, to share their ideas, challenges, and perspectives with company decision-makers.
  
• It surfaces actionable insights. A listening tour provides lots of useful qualitative data. You get to know what employees are struggling with and their preferred solutions. These actionable insights allow you to make changes that make a real difference to your workforce.

Why run a listening tour now?

There’s never been a better time to run a listening tour.

We know that many hybrid and frontline employees feel excluded from the company conversation. Nearly 2 in 3 UK workers are worried about burnout in 2025. And the latest Gallup figures show that just 23% of employees are engaged at work.

In 2025, employees are also holding leaders to a higher standard of accountability and transparency. Deloitte research shows that 84% of workers and 74% of leaders say an increasing focus on trust and transparency between workers and the organization is very or critically important.

According to Deloitte, transparency is the most pressing business trend. It’s predicted to have the greatest impact on an organization’s success, both this year and over the next two years. 

A listening tour helps to address all these issues. Employers can uncover what employees want from leadership and better understand employee motivation and wellbeing. They can then develop a plan to improve internal communications, transparency, and employee engagement, benefitting workers and the organization’s bottom line.

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Planning your next listening tour

So how do you make a success of a listening tour at your organization? It starts with a clear and comprehensive plan.

Set clear goals

Decide what you want to achieve with your listening tour and how your communication goals align with broader business objectives, such as employee retention.

If you’re running an internal communications listening tour, you may want to find out how employees feel about the company intranet — or the other internal communication tools you use. You may want to know if employees feel part of company culture and how they rate the transparency of your leadership team. You may also want to gauge their feedback on internal communication efforts such as key messages, internal emails, or peer communication.

Whatever your focus, establishing your goals helps to ensure your listening tour has direction and that you can measure outcomes effectively.

Identify your audience

The goals of your listening tour will help to dictate its audience segments. If you’re looking to address challenges within a single team, you only need to target that department. But for business goals that relate to your entire organization, you should look further afield.

Also, consider the diversity of your target audience. If you want to get a holistic sense of employee sentiment, speak to employees from all corners of your organization. That includes hybrid and frontline workers who experience the workplace differently from desk-based workers.

Choose the right format

The format of your listening tour needs to align with the needs and expectations of your workforce. Be conscious of time zones, shift patterns, access to tech tools, and the resources available to your interviewing team when deciding how to conduct your tour. Options include virtual sessions, in-person conversations, or a mix of the two.

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Prepare key questions

You’re more likely to achieve your listening tour goals if you set a couple of key interview questions in stone. Some examples include:

• What challenges are you facing in your role?
• How can we improve employee communications?
• What support would make your work easier?
• Which key messages do you care the most about?
• What motivates you to stay with the organization?

Pro tip: Conduct an employee survey before running a listening tour. This helps to surface issues you might want to explore in more depth during the tour.

Executing the tour

To get the most from your listening tour: 

• Be present and authentic. Show genuine interest in employee feedback by demonstrating active listening skills and empathy. Leave space for them to elaborate on their answers.‍
• Encourage open dialogue. Use inclusive language and emphasize that all opinions are valued and confidential. Facilitate two-way communication by allowing participants to ask questions, too.‍
• Adapt as you go. Be flexible and prepared to pivot if certain topics emerge as priorities. Don’t be afraid to go beyond your key questions to ask meaningful follow-up questions.‍
• Document key insights. Designate a note-taker or record sessions (with permission) to ensure no feedback from employees is lost

Related read: Crisis communication best practices: the only 4 you need to remember

Analyzing and acting on feedback

If you’ve executed an extensive listening tour, the amount of data you now have at your fingertips can feel overwhelming. Here’s a step-by-step process for analyzing and acting upon it.

Step 1. Organize your findings

Group feedback into themes like communication gaps, technology issues, or recognition needs. You can do this manually, using a spreadsheet or sticky notes. Or you can use tech tools like AI and mind-mapping software. This helps you identify any burning issues and prioritize your action plan.

Step 2. Share what you’ve learned

Transparency builds trust. So share a summary of the feedback with employees, acknowledging recurring themes, significant insights, and any surprising findings. Also, thank workers for their input, emphasizing the crucial role they play in shaping workplace improvements.

Step 3. Take action

The ultimate goal of any listening program is meaningful workplace change. So outline specific steps the company is planning to take, along with timelines. Involve managers to ensure employees see immediate and tangible results.

Most importantly, prioritize transparent and effective communication along the way, keeping employees up to date with progress on your action plan and closing the feedback loop.

Pro tip: Seek ongoing employee feedback to find out if changes have addressed the concerns raised in your listening tour. If not, go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan.

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Beyond the tour: Building a listening culture

When you go beyond a one-off listening tour to build a culture of listening at your organization, you embed the benefits. 

Employees have faith that their feedback is listened to and acted upon — and they feel comfortable voicing their opinions because there’s a wider culture of psychological safety.

As a result, you receive honest and valuable employee input, which yields more effective workplace improvements. You also get ongoing feedback, which means employee dissatisfaction is much less likely to take you by surprise.

So how do you create a listening culture? Start by putting these key foundations in place:

• Ongoing feedback channels. An annual feedback event isn’t enough. Encourage employee feedback all year round with regular pulse surveys and 1-to-1s, ensuring feedback channels are accessible to all workers.
  
• Leadership training. Equip managers with the tools and skills they need to conduct their own mini-listening tours, making open and empathetic communication a priority.
  
• A regular schedule of listening tours. Keep your finger firmly on the pulse by turning listening tours into an annual event. You’ll improve the process — and employee input — with each new cycle.  

It’s time to make listening tours a fixture of your internal communication plan

Listening tours are a commitment of time and effort. But — because they provide insights that you simply can’t get from an employee survey — they’re well worth the investment.

By embarking on an annual listening tour, deploying other employee listening tactics in the months between tours, and reliably acting upon feedback you build a culture where employees feel heard and supported.

Find new ways to improve your internal communication strategy, foster employee engagement, and build workplace trust. And make a tangible difference to the work lives of employees in the process.

‍Blink. And start truly listening.

If you’re new to mobile workforce management, you’re not alone. 

Before the pandemic, just 6% of the employed workforce worked from home. Now, 74% of US companies are either operating on a hybrid working model or plan to do so in the future. Businesses that previously did not need mobile workforce management strategies are now rapidly trying to figure out what works when your team is scattered across multiple locations. 

If that’s you, don’t panic. With the right tools and approach, it’s possible to run an effective mobile workplace, without compromising on productivity. Here’s how. 

What is mobile workforce management?

IBM defines a mobile workforce as “a group of employees that isn’t bound by a central physical location. Instead, the employees are connected by various types of mobile technology: computers, smartphones and other mobile devices.”

This includes – but isn’t limited to – remote desk-based teams who might have worked in a centralized office pre-pandemic. It could also include: 

• Community healthcare teams who visit outpatients during working hours
• Drivers – whether for public transport, taxi or private logistics fleets
• Traveling sales teams, who spend part of their time visiting clients, conferences and trade shows
• Teams of engineers, tradespeople or contractors who attend different clients each day 

Mobile workforce management is simply the process of managing these teams so that they’re as effective, efficient and engaged as possible. The three ‘e’s, if you like. 

The differences between the mobile and the standard workforce

Traditionally, a ‘standard workforce’ is based on physical location. You might have an office HQ that your employees commute to each day or a manufacturing plant that needs to be manned 24/7, for example. 

Thanks to the wave of remote and mobile working brought on by COVID-19, things aren’t as clean-cut as they once were. Mobile workforce management is now a major consideration for desk-based teams as well as more traditionally mobile workforces. 

In terms of how you approach managing your teams, this means: 

• You’ll need to use mobile workforce management software to run your team effectively
• You’ll need to be mindful of differences across time zones when scheduling calls or arranging deadlines

The principles of good management still hold. A transparent and fair approach to managing your team is still a great foundation to work from – you just might have to incorporate a couple of extra tools for maximum effect!

The benefits of mobile workforce management

The benefits of a strong management strategy remain the same across both mobile and traditional workforces: 

• Increased productivity: teams get more done in the same amount of time
• Improved visibility: managers provide insights into how your business works day to day
• Improved customer experience: good managerial support allows your employees to offer a great customer experience through building skills and retaining talent
• Improved employee engagement: employees feel supported by management and engage more with the business as a result

Mobile workforce management specifically – when done right – offers two key benefits besides. 

Firstly, you’re no longer bound by geographic location when hiring. This opens up a vastly wider talent pool that you can draw from – especially useful at a time when competition for new employees is at an all-time high. 

Secondly, flexible working is a hugely attractive benefit to offer new and existing employees. Nearly all (97%) respondents in Buffer’s 2022 State of Remote Work survey said they wanted to work remotely at least part of the time for the rest of their career. 

Source: buffer.com

Trends and challenges shaping mobile workforce management 

Some of your employees are onsite. Some of them are remote or on the move. How do you collaborate in such a seemingly fragmented team? 

This has been one of the major issues about mobile workforce management in the post-COVID era. Whilst the majority of businesses want to implement some sort of hybrid working arrangement, 63% of employees say that their company has not made any major changes to make this easier. 

If your working model has changed, your processes need to change too. 

One trend that’s becoming increasingly popular is a remote-first approach to work. This means that you run your entire team as if fully remote, by having all meetings via video conferencing software, for example.

The result is that everyone feels included and can interact on the same level – you remove the awkward atmosphere created by having some people meeting in person with others phoning in via a conferencing system. 

Manage your mobile workforce

Getting started on mobile workforce management? Here are some tips. 

Use the right software

Mobile workforce management is 100% reliant on using technology to communicate and collaborate, so having the right tools can make all the difference! An employee app to help you get messages across is essential, and you should also invest in a strong project management tool (e.g. Trello, Asana, Basecamp) at a minimum.

There are many different types of mobile workforce management software that you can use to make managing your teams easier. We’ve included a guide at the end of this article to help you get started. 

Check in…but don’t micromanage

Daily check-ins are a must when your team is on the move or scattered across different locations. It’s all too easy for these to slip into micromanagement if you frame them wrong. 

By all means ask for updates, but avoid listing ‘must-do’ tasks or demanding constant micro-updates on progress. Instead, ask if there’s anything you could be doing to support your employee, or if there’s anything they need assistance with. Check-ins are as much about offering support as they are about task updates. 

Constant communication, not necessarily on topic

How much of your traditional office chat was work based? Inane office chatter – pets, the kids, weather, vacation plans – actually serves a valuable purpose in team bonding and making social connections across the company. 

Use channels on your messaging app to provide a virtual space for this. You’ll find your team works better together as a result. Your remote and mobile workers start to feel more like a part of the wider organization, and engage more as a result. 

Mobile workforce management software

Employee apps and mobile intranet (e.g. Blink)

Mobile-first employee experience apps are vital for day-to-day communication between team members as well as employee recognition, networking and engagement. ‘Mobile first’ is a must here – if your employees don’t have 24/7 access to a desktop, you need to be able to spread key messages via smartphone. 

Project management tools (e.g. Trello, Asana, Basecamp)

Provide a single point of reference for tasks and deadlines with an online project management tool. Choose from a variety of project views to suit your team, with automated notifications and reminders when a deadline is approaching. 

Remote collaboration tools (e.g. Google Docs, Miro, Microsoft Teams)

Unlock your team’s creativity with a range of collaboration tools. Video conferencing is an absolute must-have, as is some form of collaborative document tool – Google Docs is by far the most intuitive here. For visual projects, virtual whiteboard tools are a particularly handy tool for online collaboration. 

Mobile scheduling tool (e.g. Deputy, RotaCloud, Blink)

If your teams work in shifts, rota management is a must. Mobile rota management and scheduling apps save you hours by automating this process, and your employees will get instant updates if the rota changes. Eliminate misunderstandings and never be accidentally short staffed again!

Performance management software (e.g. Engagedly, Reviewsnap, Talent Guard) 

Performance management is as important in a mobile setting as it is in a traditional work environment. Give your managers the tools to give feedback, run appraisals, manage employee goals and more with an extensive performance management solution. 

A few final thoughts on mobile workforce management

Mobile workforce management doesn’t have to be a huge departure from your existing management strategy. Open communication, respect and approachability will get you some of the way there on their own.  

It does, however, mean that you need to support employees across more than one different location though. And this means that finding the tech that works for you is essential in keeping everything running smoothly. 

Spend time thinking about your requirements here, and don’t rush into any purchases, no matter how urgent they may seem. Being locked into an unsuitable contract will cause a lot more damage in the long term than waiting to find the right software for you. 

Blink is an employee app that helps you manage your mobile workforce. Book your free demo here.

Internal comms teams: It’s time to start thinking like social media managers

In today’s workplace, grabbing attention and building a sense of community is more challenging than ever. As Instagram has demonstrated, there’s immense power in blending visuals, brevity, and engagement-driven features to keep audiences captivated.

Why not apply the same principles to your internal communications plan?

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By embracing an Instagram-inspired approach, internal comms teams can turn traditionally static and monotonous updates into dynamic, employee-centric experiences, ultimately boosting engagement, experience, and retention.

And when we think about the newest generation of workers, a modern employee experience isn’t just nice to have — it’s a key differentiator: 70% of Gen Z employees would leave their job for better workplace technology.

Let’s dive into how you can create an Instagram-worthy internal comms strategy that truly resonates with — and retains — employees.

#1. #PicsOrItDidntHappen: Lead with visual storytelling

You know that old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words”?

In a corporate environment, where text-heavy comms are the norm and often leave employees feeling uninspired, it might be worth even more. On Instagram, visuals do the talking. They capture attention, convey emotion, and get users to linger. Imagine applying the same idea to your internal comms.

From photos of team achievements to video messages from leadership, visually rich content invites more interaction and gives employees quick ways to engage with company updates. Incorporate more images, infographics, and videos to help distill complex messages, celebrate moments, and build a visually engaging narrative.

Try a “day in the life” photo series from different teams, or showcase milestones with celebratory visuals. This not only humanizes the workplace but also helps employees feel more connected to their colleagues across the organization.

#2. #StorySawItFirst: Share the moments that matter

Stories — on Instagram, Facebook, and beyond — have changed how we consume content by making it quick, timely, and interactive. For internal comms, a similar approach keeps messaging fresh and to the point.

Consider launching an internal Stories feature, with short-form, time-sensitive updates. Whether you use video, images, or brief text, these snippets can recap highlights, recognize employees, or celebrate accomplishments in a way that’s easy to digest.

Launch a weekly Story roundup that features key updates and celebrates wins from across the company. These updates create anticipation and encourage employees to check back regularly for new content.

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#3. #POV: Embrace user-generated content

One of the reasons Instagram is so successful is because it breaks down the barrier between creators and consumers: All users have the power to create, post, and engage with content.

Bringing this into the workplace by encouraging employee-generated content (EGC) adds authenticity and makes employees feel like co-owners of the company’s story.

Consider how your team could prioritize EGC and what makes most sense for your organization. Maybe it’s creating a designated space where employees can post daily photos from their workday, or coming up with an internal hashtag campaign where employees can share short stories that showcase daily victories or moments of pride.

We’ve seen firsthand the power of EGC on building trust on external channels: Content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared on brand channels. Imagine the impact this boost could have on your internal comms strategy.

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#4. #ForYouPage: Personalize your comms approach

If you spend enough time on social media platforms, then you’re deeply familiar with the omniscient algorithm — an underlying intelligence that recognizes which content you watch with most and, with increasing accuracy, serves it up to your news feed to create a more individualized and engaging experience.

Internal comms can take the same data-backed approach by using insights from their employee platform to segment audiences, gauging content effectiveness through metrics like engagement rates, and then tailoring content based on individual preferences

By surfacing hyper-relevant information to the right people — like recommended News Feed content based on team, or custom updates to specific departments and regions — you can make internal updates feel more targeted, help employees feel seen and understood, and prevent information overload.

#5. #SlowYourScroll: Prioritize mobile-friendly content

Instagram is all about mobile-first, short-form content. It’s what makes the platform so easy to navigate and what keeps people coming back for more.

When it comes to modern internal comms, employees are similarly craving updates and content that are quick to access and even quicker to digest, wherever they are.

As you plan out your content strategy, ensure all internal messages are mobile-friendly, concisely written, and formatted for on-the-go reading. For example, consider formatting key announcements as brief bullet-point highlights — we’re talking 200 characters or less — with a link to read more.

By keeping updates short and to the point, complemented with visuals whenever possible, employees can stay informed without dedicating a large amount of time — helping to ensure key messages don’t get lost in the shuffle.

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#6. #Influenced: Embrace the internal influencer

Influencers drive engagement on Instagram by speaking from an authentic, relatable perspective. By empowering internal champions, you can build similar trust and encourage peer-to-peer communication within the company.

Identify influential voices within the organization who can serve as communication champions and lead the charge for two-way communications. This might be leaders, long-term employees, or team leads who can add a personal, credible touch to internal updates and culture-building efforts.

Have these champions share company updates, promote engagement, or even host takeovers of internal channels to drive excitement and reach. Their familiar faces make messages feel more personal and authentic.

#7. #HighlightsReel: Spotlight employee achievements

On Instagram, highlights create a curated space for special moments. In internal comms, a similar approach can spotlight achievements and milestones in a meaningful way. And this small effort can have a big impact on retention: 79% of employees who quit their job cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.

Create a virtual “highlight reel” to celebrate employee achievements, team milestones, and other noteworthy moments. This can be part of a monthly or quarterly roundup, creating a sense of shared success and recognition.

These small moments of celebration and success spotlights help employees feel valued and recognized within the larger internal community — and may even result in them staying longer at your organization.

#8. #LetsExplore: Make content easily discoverable

The Explore tab on Instagram allows users to stumble upon new and interesting content. Internal comms can take a similar approach by reimagining the outdated intranets of yore and making helpful resources easy to find and share.

Organize information in a way that allows employees to quickly discover and revisit updates, whether through tagging, keyword searches, or categories. A content hub can help employees catch up on past announcements or discover useful resources.

Create a centralized digital home for all internal updates, organized by topics like announcements, team wins, and resources. This lets employees browse based on their current needs or catch up if they missed a recent announcement.

Think beyond traditional communication channels

As employee communications move into the future, embracing creativity and interactivity — much like social media platforms we all know and use in our personal lives — can reshape the employee experience and build a more connected, motivated workforce.

By incorporating Instagram-inspired features into content strategies, internal comms teams can create a consumer-grade workplace experience that feels inherently familiar to employees, breaking down barriers for adoption and engagement.

Experiment with these tactics, prioritize authenticity, and watch as your employees become more empowered, creative, and excited to contribute to the company culture.

Blink. And design an internal comms strategy that gives Instagram a run for its money.

An intranet is a private internal network a company uses to share information, tools, and documents with its own employees. It looks and feels like the public internet, except only people inside the organization can see it.

Here's the catch. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2025 puts employee engagement at 20% worldwide, the lowest since 2020, and most workers, especially the 80% who don't sit at a desk, still can't reach the information they need when they actually need it. A modern intranet is how you close that gap.

This guide walks through what an intranet is in 2026, how it differs from the version your IT team built a decade ago, the features that actually matter, and why most intranets still quietly fail the people who need them most.

What is an intranet?

An intranet is a private digital workspace for employees. It holds company news, policies, HR documents, team directories, knowledge bases, and internal chat in one place, behind a login only employees can reach. Think of it as the company's internal version of the internet: the same browsing and search experience, restricted to your organization.

A modern intranet runs in the cloud, works on mobile, and plugs into the tools employees already use, from payroll and scheduling to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. It gives people a single place to find what they need, sign off on policies, and stay in the loop on company news.

Gallup's 2025 research ties engagement directly to whether employees feel informed and connected, and 31% of US employees are engaged, the lowest in a decade. An intranet that actually gets used is one of the fastest ways to move that number.

Types of intranet: Which one fits your company?

Most intranets fall into one of four categories. The right choice depends on who needs to use it and how they work.

The last category is the newest and the fastest-growing, mostly because the others were built for people at desks. If your company is mostly frontline, deskless, or multi-site, anything other than a mobile-first intranet will underperform on day one.

How does an intranet actually work?

Under the hood, an intranet is a secure web application. It lives on a server, either on-premises or in the cloud, and is accessible only to authenticated users inside the organization. Employees log in through a browser or mobile app using single sign-on, a company password, or, for frontline workers, a phone number-based identity that doesn't require a corporate email address.

Content is organized into spaces: company-wide feeds, team channels, knowledge bases, policy libraries, and directories. Admins control who sees what by role, location, shift, or department. Search pulls results across everything, and integrations surface data from HR systems, payroll, rota tools, and document stores.

The main thing that separates a 2026 intranet from a 2006 one is identity. Older intranets assumed every employee had a work email. Modern ones don't, because most frontline workers don't. That one architectural shift is why mobile-first intranets reach adoption rates the older generation never could.

What are the key features of a modern intranet?

Features matter less than the question they answer: Would every employee, even the ones without a desk, actually use this? Strip it back to essentials.

• A personalized news feed. Company announcements, team updates, and peer recognition, filtered by role and location.
• A searchable knowledge base. Policies, how-tos, benefits, and training in one place, findable in two taps.
• Team chat and group channels. Direct messages, team chats, site-specific groups.
• Policy sign-off with audit trail. Read receipts, confirmations, timestamps.
• Integrations with HR and payroll. Pay slips, shift rotas, holiday requests.

You’re in the market for a new internal communications platform, but which is better: Staffbase vs. Blink?

The answer depends on what exactly you’re looking for. Both offer several similar features, but their execution is different. Let’s dive into the specifics to see which communication tool is right for you.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Staffbase vs. Blink — quick facts
• Staffbase vs. Blink: How they’re similar
• Staffbase vs. Blink: How they’re different
• Staffbase vs. Blink: pricing
• Final thoughts: Staffbase or Blink — which should you use in 2022?  

Staffbase vs. Blink — quick facts

The Staffbase employee app works best for big corporations, while Blink’s simpler format lends itself to on-the-go workers.

If a good portion of your team comprises frontline employees, Blink is the internal communications platform for you. Their mobile-first design and seamless app integrations are ideal for keeping deskless workers engaged.

Staffbase offers more robust customization features as standard with each product launch, including a custom logo and font.

A user said, “I love the look & feel of the app and the option to personalise the app for (conditional) user groups.”

But for those looking to customize their employee intranet software’s overall function and employee experience, Blink brings more flexibility, with deep integrations with existing apps inside the platform.

Within this, Blink brings existing apps to the platform via Single Sign-On integrations, while Staffbase offers more functionalities out of the box.

For example, Staffbase comes with a basic payroll function, while Blink has an end-to-end integration with Workday.

Comparing Blink vs. Staffbase on history, Staffbase has been around longer, making it a more established product with tried-and-tested service offerings. It is well-respected as a quality option.

As a newer company, Blink offers more innovation and cutting-edge features. 100% of the product roadmap is written based on customer requests, and it’s to provide feedback on the functionalities they want with each update.

The right solution for you depends on if you’re looking for a one-stop solution or something to complement your existing software.

Staffbase vs. Blink: How they’re similar

Mobile content

Comparing Staffbase vs. Blink on mobile compatibility, you’ll find both offering well-optimized mobile platforms. That means your deskless employees will have the same access to information, documents, and community as those in the office with either platform.

But some G2 reviews suggest that Staffbase’s “Admin access on smartphones is very limited with basic functionality.”

Support for XL enterprises

Both internal communication platforms are robust enough to support enormous organizations. The intranet, news, and key features are designed to aggregate and organize a large content volume across many different functionalities.

But Staffbase is best used by large corporations, while Blink also works for companies with a large frontline workforce but smaller desk-based teams. Blink’s platform requires less time to implement and works with a hands-off IT experience.

Centralized intranet solution

Staffbase and Blink are good options for those searching for an employee intranet replacement. While peripheral features differ, both offer a solution to disseminate updates, provide access to company policies, spark conversation, and track insights about employee engagement.

Although the search in Staffbase works fine for a mobile app, those using Staffbase intranet will find the lack of filters, document management, and content management tools limiting them from creating a proper knowledge base.

Staffbase vs. Blink: How they’re different

When comparing Staffbase vs. Blink at a high level, it may seem like they share many features. But the execution of those features varies greatly.

Customer input

Blink serves fewer customers, which means they can have a much closer relationship with their customers — we’re talking on a first name basis.

Blink relies heavily on customer feedback to craft its product roadmap and even maintains a Product Portal to allow customers to request features and vote on what they want to see next.

In contrast, users say that Staffbase “aren’t quick to take on board and prioritise client feedback/requests for development.” Overall, Staffbase’s updates and features implementations are less agile.

Email

One notable feature that Staffbase offers that Blink lacks is email building. Through their merger with Bananatag, Staffbase lets you create engaging newsletters, send targeted emails to subsets of employees, and measure the impact of your internal email strategy.

Since frontline workers don’t have company email addresses, email is less of a focus at Blink, although it is accessible via integrations with Gmail and Outlook.

Employee generated content

Blink focuses on decentralizing employee communication so that every employee has a voice.

Blink champions employee-generated content through a live user feed and omni-directional chat features. For organizations that want to revitalize their outdated top-down team communication structure, Blink is a great choice.

Staffbase does not make it as easy for users to share content with other users. To upload a photo, users must send a submission form to the admin — who then creates the post themselves.

This setup is ideal for companies looking for greater control over who can share news. A user appreciated this feature, saying, “It’s very easy to make someone editor of a news channel so for example a Team Leader can communicate to his own team without giving him administrator rights of the whole app.”

Integrations

Blink offers a wider range of integrations with thousands of apps via Single Sign-On. Employees can access niche industry tools, Microsoft teams, and Sharepoint without ever leaving the app. The Blink team also takes care of the dev work, making it an all-in-one solution.

Staffbase integrations are more limited. They offer integrations with Microsoft 365 and SAP. This could only work well for a company that uses other enterprise applications or has a dedicated team to customize Staffbase through their APIs. Users said, “Currently, no local programs can be integrated into the launchpad.”

Notifications

Blink offers an array of real-time and schedulable push notifications to keep employees in the loop and engage with the app frequently.

Besides regular notifications, admins can create priority posts to catch everyone’s attention or create mandatory posts that users must acknowledge. Users can switch notifications on and off and follow certain posts.

Staffbase employee app’s push notifications are less customizable, focusing only on basic functions. Users say notifications “need improving,” and “There is no way to control push notifications separately for each channel.”

Chats

Blink’s chat is designed for both socializing and collaboration — wherever you are. Advanced features like saving messages and file sharing elevate the chat as a tool for getting workflows done rather than just a social media feature.

Staffbase offers an instant messaging feature as an add-on to advanced subscriptions. The chat supports one-on-one and group chats with a 128 user cap.

Users can only send images or videos on the Apple and Android apps, rather than documents. This leads to users calling Staffbase’s chat function “very basic.”

Here’s what Staffbase supports:

Frontline focus

Blink’s core principle is that they improve frontline workers’ lives. As a result, engagement with the app is remarkably high, with an average of 10 opens per user per day.

While Staffbase is also targeted at frontline workers, many features aren’t carried through to the mobile interface. Reviewers say, “The biggest obstacle for us is to get non-desk users excited about the app and to integrate them.”

Content moderation

In Blink, administrators can assign content moderators who have complete power in managing content.

But Blink offers omnidirectional communication: User-generated content does not have to undergo a review before getting published, but any user can report and flag inappropriate content.

At Staffbase, admins have more direct control over moderating content. But there are some functional limitations around offline viewing and flagging inappropriate content which is surprising in an otherwise full-featured app.

Staffbase vs. Blink: pricing

Blink offers four levels of paid service based on company size, while Staffbase structures its pricing based on the number of features you use.

Blink levels:

• Essential: $3.40 per person, per month
• Business: Price on application
• Enterprise: Price on application
• Enterprise Plus: Price on application

Staffbase levels:

• Employee app
• Employee app + Intranet
• Staffbase NOW

Final thoughts: Staffbase or Blink — which should you use in 2022?  

Staffbase is a highly customizable internal communication software ideal for large corporations with a clear idea of what tools they need to round out their digital workplace.

Blink is ideal for businesses large and small wanting a complete out-of-the-box solution to engage frontline workers and facilitate more communication across their organization.

If you’re not sure, try a free demo of Blink and see for yourself the technology that drives a 330% increase in engagement for its users.

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