Life at Blink | Jackson Mannix

Microsoft SharePoint and Viva are powerful platforms — but are they built for internal comms?

When it comes to workplace technology, Microsoft SharePoint and Viva are often seen as the default choice for organized communication and team collaboration. It promises seamless integration, familiarity, and scalability for enterprise organizations — particularly with SharePoint as a best-in-class document management system, Teams for direct chatting, and Viva working to tackle employee engagement.

But in today’s digital workplace, where employees demand intuitive, mobile-first, and consumer-grade internal communication tools, do they truly deliver?

The truth is, Microsoft’s technology portfolio — like Google Workspace and other all-in-one ecosystems — often struggles to meet the diverse needs of modern workforces. While it excels at being a deep and comprehensive solution for desk-based teams, it misses the mark for frontline employees, remote workers, and those seeking a more engaging, user-friendly experience.

Here’s where SharePoint and Viva fall short — and why rethinking your employee engagement strategy is essential.

Challenge #1: The mobile divide between the desk-based and the deskless

Frontline workers make up 80% of the global workforce, yet they often remain underserved by traditional enterprise tools. When it comes to your internal communication platform, it's important to ensure your messages are reaching the right audience at the right time — no matter when or where they work.

• SharePoint: Clunky mobile experience and complex navigation make it difficult for deskless employees to quickly access important information.
• Viva: Engagement remains low among frontline workers because it’s buried within the Microsoft ecosystem, requiring a Teams or 365 login, which many frontline workers don’t use daily.

The impact? Frontline and mobile workers struggle to access the tools they need, causing missed messages and disengagement.

The solution: Create an equitable employee experience

Improve mobile accessibility

SharePoint and Viva are primarily designed with office-based employees in mind. For frontline employees, the extra login requirements, complex navigation, and lack of offline functionality can slow them down and be more frustrating than fruitful.

Not catering to mobile-first needs not only hinders employee engagement, it also creates a divide between desk-based and frontline workers — undermining efforts to build a cohesive and connected workforce.

Enable customized communication

Real-time communications and notifications may work for desk-based employees, but for the mobile workforce that doesn't sit behind a computer, these tools fail to bridge the gap.

Employee communication software that enables customizable notifications and serves up high-priority alerts to relevant titles, locations, and functions can help employees stay in the loop more efficiently.

Create clarity — not complexity

Imagine a retail associate trying to access critical updates through a SharePoint portal from the shop floor, or a delivery driver wanting to check for updates on the go.

While SharePoint and Viva may offer a unified platform, it can be difficult for employees (and especially frontline workers) to find what they’re looking for — requiring multiple clicks, a stable internet connection, and significant time they don’t have.

Challenge #2: Too many tools, too little time

The breadth of SharePoint and Viva is both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness. With Viva for company-wide comms, Teams for instant messaging, SharePoint for content management and file sharing, Outlook for email, and a wide range of additional tools for scheduling, tasks, and other workforce management needs, employees often find themselves navigating a maze of features rather than focusing on their work.

• SharePoint: A great document management system — but not a dynamic communication hub. Important updates get buried under layers of links and folders.
• Viva: Feels like an add-on rather than an integrated experience — employees still rely on Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint separately.

The impact? Employees are left jumping between platforms to find what they need, killing productivity.

The solution: Simplify the tech experience

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Minimize information overload

While complementary tools like SharePoint, Viva, Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive may be well-intentioned, they often overlap and overwhelm, creating confusion and inefficiency rather than streamlining communication.

The average employee switches between apps 10 times per hour, costing organizations billions annually in lost productivity. When each employee communication tool serves a slightly different purpose, workers are forced to juggle multiple platforms that don’t always integrate seamlessly.

Flatten the learning curve

For frontline workers or new hires, the complexity of SharePoint and Viva can be especially daunting. Training employees to effectively use these tools often requires extensive onboarding — time that could be better spent enabling employees to focus on their primary responsibilities.

For many frontline workers, who may not use a computer regularly, this complexity often results in disengagement and underutilization of the tools provided.

Prioritize workflow efficiency

Consider a factory worker needing to log a safety incident. Navigating through SharePoint’s cluttered interface can turn simple task management into a frustrating ordeal — hindering timely reporting and potentially compromising workplace safety.

Similarly, deskless employees may struggle to track down essential documents or communicate updates in real time, resulting in delays and reduced operational efficiency.

Challenge #3: The uninspiring design of outdated tools

In a world dominated by consumer apps like Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, employees have come to expect the same level of ease, speed, and engagement from their internal communications tools.

• SharePoint: Feels like a corporate archive rather than a living, breathing communication space.
• Viva: Lacks social-first, consumer-grade features like Stories, reactions, or interactive engagement tools.

The solution: Bring consumer-grade content to your comms

Employees expect an Instagram-like experience — if the tools feel clunky, they simply won’t engage.

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Provide a user-friendly UI

The design of SharePoint and Viva, while practical, lacks the intuitive, visually engaging experience employees are used to from consumer apps. Navigating through dense menus and static interfaces can frustrate users — particularly younger, mobile-first workers who expect the same seamless, fast, and attractive interfaces they experience in their personal lives.

Boost adoption rates

Employees avoid using digital workplace apps if they find them cumbersome or outdated. This is especially concerning for internal comms teams relying on these tools to share updates, drive engagement, and build a sense of community.

Not only can this disconnect employees from the tools themselves, it can disengage them from the company culture as a whole.

Give employees features they can engage with

SharePoint and Viva are not inherently designed to foster the same social, collaborative atmosphere that we have come to expect from consumer apps. Features like Stories, live streaming, and polls — hallmarks of modern communication — are either absent or clunky to use.

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Challenge #4: Synchronous communication can’t be the norm

SharePoint and Viva shine when it comes to real-time collaboration, but its heavy emphasis on live chats and video calls often leaves asynchronous communication as an afterthought. For shift workers, employees in different time zones, or remote employees who may work on alternative schedules, this creates significant barriers to effective engagement.

• SharePoint: Lacks real-time notifications or role-based updates — employees are expected to “go find” information.
• Viva: Prioritizes live engagement but doesn’t support modern async communication like Stories, video updates, or discussion boards.

The solution: Embrace the needs of your diverse workforce

Shift workers and global teams miss out on key updates and collaboration tools, creating an information gap.

Reduce reliance on live tools

The platform prioritizes synchronous communication, which works well for desk-based employees but alienates those who can’t always join live meetings or respond instantly. Real-time updates are incredibly handy, but for some employees, it's more important that they can access the company content they're looking for on their own time.

Provide modern asynchronous options

What's missing from SharePoint and Viva are features like Stories, real-time messaging chats and discussion boards, or video updates — common in consumer-grade platforms. This limits the ways employees can catch up or contribute on their own schedules.

Keep employees in the loop

Imagine a nurse wrapping up a long overnight shift, only to find they’ve missed a critical live announcement on Viva that directly impacts their day-to-day work. No single method of communication will reach all employees across the entire organization. Without an asynchronous alternative, the information gap widens, leaving key workers uninformed.

Challenge #5: Disconnectivity can damage culture

Focusing on top-down communication channels often neglects the value of peer-to-peer engagement. Building a sense of community and fostering organic interactions are critical for employee satisfaction.

• SharePoint: Functions more as a repository than a tool that fosters connection, making it hard to celebrate milestones and share successes.
• Viva: Built for top-down communication, but struggles to support peer-to-peer recognition and organic community-building.

The solution: Don’t forget about the human connection

Without the right interactive tools in place, it’s easy for employees to feel disconnected from their teams and the larger company culture.

Invest in social-grade features

Unlike a consumer-grade internal communication platform, SharePoint and Viva offer little to encourage informal communication or peer recognition, which are essential for engagement.

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Foster a sense of belonging

In an environment where 40% of people say that they feel isolated at work, business applications that prioritize employee engagement and peer-to-peer connection can be a crucial investment in the employee experience.

Without tools that bring the power of social connection to team collaboration, employees feel isolated, which can negatively affect employee retention and morale rates.

Celebrate milestones without reservation

A manufacturing team wanting to celebrate a colleague’s milestone might struggle to find a platform that facilitates spontaneous recognition — a gap that undermines morale and creates missed opportunities for team bonding and employee motivation.

Challenge #6: The risk of a one-size-fits-all approach

With SharePoint and Viva, getting employees the update they need, when they need it, is like finding a needle in a haystack. The one-size-fits-all approach is convenient, but it makes it difficult to cater to everyone in your workforce.

• SharePoint: Lacks intuitive dashboards or role-based filters, forcing employees to sift through irrelevant content.
• Viva: No real ability to tailor content by role, location, or function—everyone gets the same updates, whether relevant or not.

The solution: Hyper-personalize your strategy

All communication, and especially frontline communication, require personalization and role-specific features. Otherwise, employees waste time navigating a cluttered experience rather than getting the updates they actually need.

Account for different roles, teams, and locations

SharePoint’s rigid company intranet structure and Viva uniform features don’t allow for role-specific customization or hyper-personalized push notifications. This leaves workers on their own to navigate potentially irrelevant or overwhelming content on the employee intranet and other communication channels.

Keep comms clear and efficient

Employees waste time wading through irrelevant company content instead of accessing what matters most to them, which can reduce productivity and increase frustration.

Find opportunities for role-specific tools

A hotel housekeeping staff member might benefit from a simplified employee app that tailors company updates and key features to their daily operations, such as shift updates or specific task lists — something Viva doesn’t easily provide, leaving a gap in streamlined workflow support.

Challenge #7: Heavy reliance on IT for customization and maintenance

While Microsoft SharePoint and Viva offer extensive features, they require significant IT support for setup, customization, and ongoing maintenance. This dependency can slow down internal communications and create bottlenecks for non-technical teams.

• SharePoint: Requires IT expertise to configure, update, and maintain. Customizing layouts, permissions, and workflows often demands dedicated IT resources, making even small adjustments time-consuming.
• Viva: As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, it inherits complex integration challenges. IT teams must manage access controls, troubleshoot syncing issues, and ensure compatibility with existing tools.

The solution: Empower teams with easy-to-use tools that are built for internal comms teams

Reduce IT dependency

Organizations need internal communication software that allows non-technical users to create, update, and manage content effortlessly—without constantly relying on IT support.

Enable no-code customization

Modern internal communication tools should offer simple, intuitive dashboards with drag-and-drop customization, ensuring teams can tailor their platforms to fit their needs without complex back-end development.

Improve operational efficiency

By reducing IT’s workload and giving communication teams direct control over their platforms, businesses can accelerate internal messaging, improve engagement, and ensure employees always have access to up-to-date information.

Your workforce is evolving — so should your tools

While Microsoft SharePoint and Viva have their strengths, it’s not an end-all, be-all solution — particularly when it comes to internal communications for modern, diverse workforces.

For organizations with traditional, desk-based employees, SharePoint and Viva can be highly effective. In particular, highly regulated industries like government, healthcare, and finance often rely on Microsoft’s compliance-focused infrastructure to meet strict standards for data security and document retention.

But the very features that make these tools appealing can also be limitations. Legacy systems that rely on synchronous communication fail to address the needs of hybrid, mobile, and frontline teams. Employees in dynamic, fast-paced environments like retail, logistics, and hospitality need hyper-personalized tools that deliver real-time engagement.

To transform your internal communication strategy and create a workplace where everyone feels informed and connected, organizations must look for internal communication solutions that are built to meet the needs of modern employees — today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Don’t let today’s tools limit tomorrow’s success

The modern workforce deserves a single platform that's as dynamic and diverse as the employees it serves. While SharePoint and Viva may offer familiarity and integrations, it fails to deliver the consumer-grade, mobile-first employee experience that today’s diverse workforce expect.

A modern internal communication tool — designed with mobile-first, consumer-grade principles — bridges the gaps left by Microsoft. They prioritize:

• Intuitive, user-friendly interfaces.
• Offline functionality and mobile optimization.
• Role-specific customization and asynchronous communication.

As organizations evolve, so should our internal communications software. Adopting an internal communication platform that supports every part of your workforce can help foster a more connected and empowered workplace culture. By prioritizing employee engagement, you’re not just supporting your team — you’re also strengthening your organization as a whole.

Blink. And break the Microsoft status quo.

Culture isn’t built in annual town halls or values documents.

It’s built in the hundreds of micro-moments that employees experience every day.

The tiny, human interactions that tell employees what your company stands for and that forge your employee experience.

While you can write your values in a document that employees read during the onboarding process — and (shh!) probably never again — micro-moments are the daily, lived experience of your culture.

Micro-moments can support what’s written in that document — or they can write a completely different story. The best organizations make sure it’s the former. They understand the power of micro-moments. And they use them to create a joined-up understanding of company culture, where daily interactions reflect the kind of organization you want to be.

Here, we take a look at why micro-moments are so important and how to achieve more cultural impact with smaller but no less meaningful employee interactions.

Defining micro-moments in the workplace

So what do we actually mean by a micro-moment? It might help to start with a few examples:

• A shout-out to celebrate an employee's birthday in the news feed.
• A manager checking in to ask how you’re feeling this week over instant messaging.
• A quick story post from the CEO that gives a little insight into their day.

These micro-moments bridge the gap between corporate messaging and real workplace experience. They take that dusty company culture document and turn it into a living, breathing reality.

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Why micro-moments matter in today’s workplace

These small moments might not seem all that significant on their own. But together — with all the hundreds of other micro-moments employees experience — they form the foundations of your culture. They shape how employees feel, interact, and show up.

Here’s what they do for your workplace:

They keep the conversation flowing. Silence breeds uncertainty. Gaps in communication leave room for rumor, misunderstanding, and disengagement. But micro-moments, in the form of regular internal communication touchpoints, keep employees connected and informed.

The compounding effect. One “good job” message might seem insignificant — but repeated, positive micro-moments create trust and belonging. And each one builds on the last. A few words of encouragement today make it easier for someone else to speak up tomorrow.

Connection in a dispersed workplace. When your team is dispersed, micro-moments replace the hallway chat or the catch-up over coffee. They act as a digital water cooler, bringing frontline, remote, and office-based teams together, and keeping culture alive across time zones and shifts.

It’s what employees expect. Outside of work, we routinely connect over micro-moments. A video story. A WhatsApp message. A voice note. We’re used to short-form, snackable content. Which is why, in the workplace, a simple 10-second video can do more for morale and engagement than a 10-page strategy doc ever could.

They fit into your workflow. Employees — particularly those on the frontlines of your organization — are busy. So culture-building efforts shouldn’t pull them away from their day. Micro-moments integrate seamlessly into the flow of work, making connection quick and easy for everyone.

They signal care and attention. Finally, micro-moments show employees that leaders and peers are paying attention, noticing effort, and valuing contributions. They help to build a culture of open communication and recognition, where employees feel appreciated and encouraged to take part.

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How to achieve macro-impact with micro-moments

So how do you harness the potential of micro-moments for your organization? Here are a few practical ways to make the smallest of interactions deliver the biggest possible impact.

Empower managers to create daily connection rituals

Managers are the ones who bring your culture to life. But they’re also sandwiched between employees and the C-suite, juggling expectations and tasks from all sides. That’s why creating small, repeatable rituals is key to micro-moment success. Think:

• A quick message to ask “How’s your day going?”
• A public thank you when someone goes the extra mile
• A follow-up on feedback shared in last week’s meeting

These interactions take seconds but their impact is long-lasting. They show empathy and accountability, which helps managers (and by extension the organization) build trust with employees.

Even better? Make these micro-moments visible. Give recognition and conduct check-ins over shared digital channels to amplify their impact. You’ll spread positivity across the organization and reinforce the culture you want to build.

Balance top-down messages with peer-to-peer moments

The best cultures are built through connection and participation. And that means going beyond traditional top-down messaging to involve everyone in the company conversation. So encourage peer-to-peer connection. Let employees react to posts, respond to news feed questions, add their congratulations to co-worker recognition, and even create their own culture-building content.

By appointing employees as co-creators of your culture, you sprinkle micro-moments throughout the workday. And you ease the load for your comms team, too. Everyone helps keep the conversation going.

Another benefit of this approach? Peer-led moments feel lighter, more organic, and more genuine. They have an energy that draws people in, so they help to build a real sense of community within your organization.

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Encourage the C-suite to go beyond corporate comms

When the C-suite speaks, everyone tends to listen. So you can create truly impactful micro-moments by getting leaders involved. Of course, a lengthy email newsletter or a polished corporate video isn’t the kind of thing you’re looking for.

Instead, you want leaders to share short, relatable moments in real time. A selfie from a site visit. A post sharing what inspired them that week. A quick note to highlight customer success and the team behind it.

This content shows accessibility and warmth. It tells employees: I see you and I’m part of this too. It’s especially powerful for frontline teams who rarely see leaders face-to-face.

Leaders may need a little coaching in how to deliver these kinds of moments. And you may need to experiment with the formats they feel most comfortable with. But — with the right support from comms — the C-suite can create micro-moments that really resonate.  

Prioritize authenticity over polish

The beauty of micro-moments? They don’t need to be overly rehearsed or perfectly produced. In fact, working to get a piece of internal content “just right” can actually dilute its cultural impact.

Use micro-moments to respond to what’s happening right now — a big client win, a project milestone, or even the trending topic that’s on everyone’s lips. Quick, relevant interactions land far better than polished-but-stale content.

That’s because authentic micro-moments show employees that the company is human and that leaders notice what’s happening on the ground. Workers appreciate the authenticity — and they’re far more likely to believe the message.

And for your employee communications team? Removing the pressure to polish every post means content can go out fast, keeping conversations alive, building momentum, and weaving cultural values into every day.

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Create digital spaces for every kind of comms

You can only make a success of micro-moments when you have the right ecosystem in place. That means giving employees multiple, connected communication channels where they can share, react, and respond in real time.

Think recognition, polls, team chat, video updates, live streams — each touchpoint surfacing a different side of your company culture. When these channels are available across mobile-first tools, micro-moments reach every member of your workforce, including hard-to-reach frontline employees.

The result? A culture with the power to create positive employee experiences and better employee engagement across the board.

Use analytics to spot engagement opportunities

With intranet analytics, you can spot the times, places, and teams where micro-moments stand to make the most impact.

If participation on the employee intranet drops, if certain teams aren’t responding to updates, or if sentiment in comments starts to shift, these are the early warning signs you need to pay attention to.

By tracking engagement and feedback in real time, you can see what works, spot gaps, and fine-tune your micro-moment strategy. The data helps you step in at the right time — and keep doing more of what actually connects with employees.

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Incorporating micro-moments into your organization

The challenge for most organizations isn’t understanding the value of micro-moments.

It’s creating the environment where they happen naturally.

A check-in from a manager. A poll to gauge employee opinion. A quick live stream update. These micro-moments drive trust, belonging, and a sense of purpose. They show employees that yours is a place where open communication and connection are the norm.

So what next? To incorporate micro-moments into your comms strategy, go beyond polished, corporate messaging. And — to make your strategy sustainable — encourage people from across the company to share and amplify micro-moments.

Digital employee experience platforms like Blink makes it easy. You can send a recognition post, launch a poll, share a video story, and even go live with your audience, in just a couple of clicks.

And — because Blink is a mobile-first intranet platform — everyone can take part. From the comms team to the C-suite, your office team to your frontline workers, everyone has the tools they need to access and contribute to workplace culture.

Blink. And take your culture from boring to buzzing.

Another week, another Life at Blink spotlight! This time, we're excited to introduce a key member of our London office — Bhoomi Modi! As our QA Analyst, Bhoomi has been collaborating closely with our Product & Engineering team for just over two years.

Dive into this article to learn more about Bhoomi, her role, and what makes life at Blink so special!

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

When I first learned about Blink, what immediately drew me in was the company’s clear mission to empower frontline workers. The idea of contributing to tools that genuinely make a difference for those on the ground was very persuasive. It wasn’t just about the technology — it was about creating something that could transform the day-to-day experience of so many people.

Another big factor was that from the start I could see that this was a team deeply committed to innovation and making a positive impact. The collaborative environment and the focus on meaningful, purpose-driven work really resonated with me. That combination of mission and culture made it clear that Blink was the place I wanted to be.

What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?

One project that stands out to me is the automation of our tests. As a QA Analyst responsible for testing most of our features, this was a major initiative that required a great deal of long-term commitment and dedication.

What made this project truly special was the collaboration with our developers. Working closely with them not only helped us achieve our goals, but it also gave me the chance to grow and learn from some really talented people. It was a humbling experience that deepened my understanding of the development process, and it’s made me better at what I do. Knowing that the automation we implemented has made a real difference in our workflow is something that brings me a lot of personal satisfaction.

How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?

If I had to pick just three words, I’d say fun, friendly, and fast-paced. There’s a real sense of enjoyment in what we do here—work is challenging, but it’s also genuinely fun. The team is incredibly welcoming and supportive, so you always feel like you’re part of something bigger. And when I say fast-paced, I mean it in the best way possible. Things move quickly here, but that energy keeps everyone engaged and constantly pushing forward.

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

I’m really excited to see how Blink continues to grow and evolve. It’s inspiring to be part of a company that’s making such a meaningful impact, and knowing that I’ve contributed, even in a small way, feels incredibly rewarding. There’s something special about watching the company’s journey and realizing that I’ve played a part in that story. I can’t wait to see where we go next.

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

One initiative that really stands out to me is Blink for Everyone. I’m especially proud of this program because it supports non-profit organizations that are doing incredible work for the community, often with very limited resources. I love to know that we’re helping these organizations strengthen their employee connections and make their teams feel more united and valued. Knowing that we’re making a difference for groups that give so much back to society is something that truly motivates me. 

Why do you work for Blink?

I work for Blink because everything we do is truly centered around the frontline worker. In every session, whether we’re discussing new features or analyzing metrics, the focus is always on how we can better serve our end users. We constantly ask ourselves, "What challenges are they facing, and how can we help?". This dedication to making a real difference for the people on the ground is what keeps our momentum strong and our team closely bonded.

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A record 50.5 million people living in America quit their jobs in 2022 — and a further 40% of US employees considered leaving their jobs. Organizations need to step things up a notch if they want to start engaging both their desk-based and frontline staff.

The good news is there are many employee engagement strategies, tactics, and ideas you can implement to turn around the situation. The 12 strategies we discuss in this guide will help you create an engaging workplace experience and drive employee engagement for both desk-based and frontline employees.

Frontline Employee Engagement in 2024

Blink created this guide after working with hundreds of frontline organizations. Now, these insights can help other leaders prepare for a year that promises both challenge and opportunity.

Download to learn more: The top eight frontline engagement trends to watch out for and the six key strategies for success

A quick recap: what is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the ongoing process of ensuring your workforce feels:

• Emotionally connected to their job, coworkers, and organization as a whole
• Satisfied with their job role and function
• Aligned with your company’s values
• Able to give 100% during work hours

Industry statistics cite employee engagement as a key factor in employee satisfaction, retention, and even company profitability. Employee engagement should be a number one priority for businesses globally — and yet, as of 2023, only 23% of employees globally are engaged.

You can use a number of methods to measure employee engagement levels in your business. Think surveys, metrics, and other engagement KPIs that will help determine how motivated, satisfied, and fulfilled your employees are in their work.

Remember, employee engagement is often the byproduct of a great employee experience. If you provide a fulfilling, enjoyable, and inspiring workplace experience, you enable and encourage engagement.

With this in mind, you need to tailor and adapt your strategies to meet the needs of different types of employees, including frontline workers. For instance, the tactics required to drive employee engagement in manufacturing industry environments will look entirely different from those used in corporate offices. Tailoring your approach in this way will make their overall experience positive and rewarding.

The foundations of effective employee engagement strategies

Engaged employees can be your greatest business asset. They are more focused and committed than disengaged workers, encourage their coworkers, and positively impact your bottom line.

But improving employee engagement is not about what you do. It’s about what you are as an organization, the culture you cultivate, and the values that you live by.

So before we jump into the employee engagement strategies, it’s important to look at the key values of employee engagement that form the foundation for those strategies. Those core values are:

Respect

Respect is an essential consideration for all your high-level decisions about managing employees. For your workers to be engaged at work, they should be able to trust that they are being treated with fairness and respect.  

So how do you convey this in your processes and policies? You pay competitive wages, allow enough breaks, listen to their ideas, and formally recognize excellent performance and value-abiding behaviors.

Transparency

If your employees aren’t aware of anything about your organization that’s beyond their scope of work or immediate team, you can’t blame them for feeling like an outsider. Sooner or later, they’ll feel isolated and disengaged.

Being in the loop doesn’t just help them do their jobs in a better way, but also makes them feel like they belong. So it’s essential to communicate openly and regularly with all your employees.

The more transparent your communication, the higher level of trust you’ll build with your workers. And the more comfortable they’ll feel sharing their thoughts and concerns, which brings us to the next pillar of employee engagement.

Two-way communication

Most organizations follow a top-down approach to employee communication in which frontline employees hardly ever have a say. But these workers often have the best insights because they work directly with customers day in and day out.

So one of the best values to nurture and cultivate for high employee engagement is two-way communication. Give your workers ample opportunities to raise their voice and share what they think. Then act on this feedback to take your employee engagement to the next level.

12 actionable employee engagement strategies

Here are 12 employee engagement strategies & tactics you can implement today:

1. Foster co-worker relationships

When employees have friendly relationships with immediate team members and other people in the organization, they are more likely to enjoy the day-to-day.

Workplace relationships don’t just help with networking, they also provide the guidance and motivation a worker needs to succeed in their role. And creating opportunities to build and nurture these connections is one of the best employee engagement strategies.

Co-workers don’t always cross paths throughout the working day — especially in frontline organizations. It might be up to you to encourage better intra-department connections through organized events. You could create a program to encourage workers to collaborate, socialize, or train each other on the parts of the job that they know best.

Workers from different departments can connect, share notes, and exchange best practices. This way, they can also try out a recently learned skill or explore different options they might want to pursue in the future.

In fact, there are many cases in which employees consider leaving their organization to pursue a different career path. This program will help you facilitate the lateral moving of an employee to a different department, so they aren’t forced to look elsewhere. This way you hit two goals with one stone: high employee engagement and better employee retention.

2. Have a thorough onboarding process

Onboarding is essential for setting the right tone and expectations when a new employee joins your team.

As the statistics in the video above highlight, around 20% of new hires leave in the first seven weeks of employment, but organizations with a strong onboarding process have improved retention rates by 82%.

A strong onboarding experience is achieved by:

1. Making sure your onboarding process covers not only organizational policies, but also the company’s core values, mission, and vision
2. Giving your new employees mobile access to relevant materials and resources to learn from, and encouraging all employees to provide their feedback
3. Acknowledging the importance of connection during onboarding. Introduce new hires to their team members, leadership, and coworkers. For a dispersed workforce, this can be done by ensuring your employees have the right digital tools and channels to connect from wherever they are

A sense of belonging from day one is integral in order to improve employee engagement — particularly for the frontline, where 80% of workers feel they have few connection opportunities at work.

See how Go North West is using Blink to make new team members feel part of the organization right from day one.

3. Rethink physical spaces

Frontline employees power the global workforce. With no central break room or day-to-day opportunities for office chat, dispersed workers can become increasingly disconnected from the rest of the organization.

While team building and other social events may be organized with the best of intentions, they often miss the mark for frontline workers, putting more pressure on employees instead of providing a channel for enthusiastic engagement.

If you’re a frontline leader, you need to rethink your social spaces and channels to meet the engagement expectations of all your employees. This might mean creating dedicated digital channels, Feeds, or groups for frontline workers who would otherwise never have a chance to interact.

Deliberately creating space for accessible social interaction can help build relationships, increase engagement, and create an environment of inclusion and positivity throughout your organization.

4. Clarify career pathways

Results of a recent Frontiers report show that:

1. Career growth has a positive impact on knowledge workers’ organizational engagement
2. Career goal progress and professional ability development promote job engagement
3. Career growth has a positive effect on affective commitment, which in turn influences employee engagement.

If you can make workers feel that they can advance their careers without leaving your company, you’ll see a big boost in employee engagement. Workers at every level of your company should be able to view a clear-cut career path ahead and the map to follow that path.  

So when formulating employee engagement strategies for your company, see how you can help workers get in complete control of their careers. The more assured they are about achieving their future goals, the more engaged you’ll find them to be.

How to accomplish this? Take your workers’ input on where they see themselves in the future. Here’s a career development plan template that might come in useful, as you do.

When you empower employees to take charge of their goal setting in alignment with team objectives, they’ll be more invested in working hard to hit those goals. And they won’t need tight schedules to do the same, leading to an improvement in overall satisfaction.

5. Provide training and learning opportunities

Helping workers learn new skills and investing in their professional development is crucial to their engagement.

In fact, 35% of millennial employees (who also make up around 35% of the US workforce) said they were attracted to employers who offer excellent training and development programs for this reason and saw it as the top benefit they wanted from an employer.

There are many measures you can take to facilitate employee education:

• Conduct online workshops that support employees’ learning goals
• Make educational content easily accessible through a central repository
• Provide reimbursements for courses workers enroll in

When you invest in employees’ learning and development, you are sending a message that your company is committed to them for the long term. And this demonstration of commitment makes them far more likely to give their 100% on the job.

6. Clear and consistent communication

Dispersed staff need a tool that allows them to interact with each other as if they were in the same room. This is key for breaking down barriers, unifying teams, and working productively, no matter where your team is located.

Secure 1-1 and Group Chats, a News Feed for communicating organizational updates, and team or departmental channels are all essential.

At Blink, communication is part of our culture and we are strong believers in its power. This is something that you must emphasize too if you wish to engage your employees. When you build a culture of trust and open communication, you help create an environment of transparency, respect, and collaboration.

You also need to make sure your team members are able to communicate with each other. Every team member should be aware of the communication channels that the organization uses and how to use them.

As leaders, don’t forget your own role in communication, either. Simply providing employees the channels to communicate and actually engaging employees through these channels are two different things.

To ensure a clear and consistent communication strategy, consider:

1. Frequent News Feed updates to keep team members in the loop
2. Regularly scheduled 1-1s and ongoing two-way feedback loops
3. Targeted posts in group chats and forums for sharing ideas and gaining insights
4. Frequent Employee Recognition or shoutouts in the company channels

7. Improve internal branding

When someone asks where they work, your workers can feel absolute pleasure, cold apathy, or even disdain or embarrassment answering that question. It all depends on your company’s reputation inside and outside the premises.  

Money is undoubtedly a strong motivator, but employees also want to feel proud of where they work. The strength of your organization’s brand and what it stands for is directly related to your workers’ level of engagement.

That makes internal branding one of the most crucial employee engagement strategies. It means you need to ensure that your workers understand, support, and feel connected to your mission, vision, and values. The more convinced they are of what your brand stands for, the more likely they are to emulate behaviors that speak to the same values.

The supermarket chain Trader Joe’s is a great example. It has designed a fun and quirky environment for both workers and customers, with the workers conveying its brand values through different aspects of their job. The way they name products, design signage, décorate the store, and interact with customers — everything aligns with the Trader Joe’s brand.

The checkout process is just as warm, friendly, and casual. Workers display enthusiasm and a genuine desire to help with their feedback and expertise on the products.  

This goes on to show that when done correctly, internal branding can create a virtuous cycle. It will attract workers who love your brand, who will further communicate their passion to your customers and partners, thereby enhancing the brand and attracting more top talent.  

8. Encourage diversity and inclusion

D&I initiatives are crucial to the overall employee experience, making them a great place to focus your efforts for improving engagement levels. Research by ADP states:

“Studies have shown that employees who are satisfied with their organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) are twice as engaged as dissatisfied employees. Changeboard adds that diverse and inclusive organizations work 12% harder, are 19% more likely to stay longer with the organization, and collaborate 57% more effectively with peers.”

What does this look like in action? Bentley University highlights some key actions that can help you better promote diversity in the workplace, including to:

1. Address implicit bias: Make sure everyone in the company, starting with your C-suite and leadership teams, is aware of their unconscious bias and take proactive steps to address it
2. Acknowledge intersectionality: D&I initiatives must not ignore or sidestep the fact that all individuals have nuanced social identities and backgrounds that can confer or deny privilege in accordance with cultural norms
3. Invest in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Investing in ERGs, or affinity groups that provide social support for employees with shared backgrounds, interests, and/or experiences is one of the most effective ways to ensure diversity initiatives remain top-of-mind
4. Offer mentorship programs: Mentorships encourage both personal and professional growth, and provide a pipeline for leadership development. For groups with fewer role models in senior positions, mentorship can be crucial to cultivating diverse leadership
5. Communicate with transparency: Be open and transparent about the goals of your D&I initiatives. Communicate progress towards achieving measurable objectives, ensure everyone is informed about key developments in the initiative, and most importantly, be open to feedback from all employees on how you can improve it

In addition to these diversity strategies, every segment and every department of your organization must also feel included to foster true D&I and, in turn, boost engagement.

In fact, studies show that belonging is one of the most powerful predictors of D&I efficacy in the workforce. Organizations with high levels of belonging also have higher employee net promoter scores (eNPS), which are correlated with higher engagement levels.

Frontline workers can experience the very opposite. Warehouse workers, for example, are typically secluded from other employees — and that goes double if they work the night shift as well. If a frontline worker continues to feel left out, then their engagement is likely to suffer. It’s crucial that you take the necessary steps to ensure that everyone has a sense of belonging and inclusion, starting with your frontline employees.

9. Survey, listen, and act

Your employees all have improvements they’d make to their roles, whether it’s a better work-life balance, tools that they can actually use in their roles, or more contact with management. You need to collect these insights — and act on them — to keep your employees engaged long-term.

An employee engagement survey can help you gain this valuable feedback from workers. An employee survey gives you insights into employees’ opinions, attitudes, and experiences — and you can use this data to identify areas for action.

You can also use surveys to recognize areas of improvement and understand what makes employees proud of their work.

Make sure you follow through on survey results with actions that address the employee feedback provided. Additionally, keep your workers in the loop with regular updates on progress and changes made as a result of their input. This will help build trust between your team and management, and demonstrate your commitment to employee engagement.

10. Recognize and reward

Rewards and recognition are essential for employee engagement. In fact, one 2022 Harvard Business Review study found that when an employee says their manager is great at recognizing them, then that employee is 40+% more engaged than those with managers who were not.

Recognition is an effective way to keep employees motivated. It also reinforces the behaviors you want more of in your organization.

For example, if you want to encourage team collaboration, reward teams that work together on a project or present a unified front during client meetings. If you need increased productivity, recognize employees who go above and beyond to get the job done.

Remember, rewards don’t have to be expensive or elaborate. Digital recognition tools or Kudos are both an effective and cost-effective way to show appreciation for your team’s hard work.

11. Provide incentives and perks

While closely related to your rewards and recognition schemes, incentives and perks work slightly differently. Typically, incentives are used to elicit a particular action from your employees. For instance, you might offer bonus pay for completing a project before the deadline or reaching certain on-the-job targets.

Unlike as-and-when recognition and rewards that react to a job well done, with ongoing incentives, workers will often know what they will get for completing the challenge ahead of time, and exactly what is required in order to receive that incentive.

Perks are more general benefits that make working in your organization more desirable. Some basic examples could include flexible work hours, subsidized gym memberships, and free snacks or coffee. You really need to get more creative than this, however, if you want to provide perks that your employees really want.

For example, factors such as compensation, growth through promotion, paid training, and high-value traditional benefits have the largest impact on frontline employee preferences when choosing a new role. However, employers do not value the same factors, according to the same research by McKinsey. The study states:

“When it comes to growth-oriented attributes, employers tend to emphasize a higher job title (among the bottom five attributes for frontline employees) over job growth and learning opportunities (both top-five attributes), which may help explain why frontline employees cite a lack of employer-provided development opportunities as a primary barrier to their advancement.”

To align your company perks with the needs of your frontline workers, you should consider providing opportunities for a yearly raise or promotion, advanced learning and employee development opportunities, and ongoing upskilling.

12. Implement employee engagement tech with analytics tools

Analytics are essential for a successful employee engagement strategy. With the right engagement analytics tools, you can gain insights into how employees are engaging with company messages, what topics they’re most interested in, and how to best tailor future activities to their needs.

For example, use feedback or survey tools on mobile devices to collect real-time data from employees. This data can then be analyzed to reveal the most critical areas of focus for your engagement strategy.

You can also use dedicated analytics features to tailor specific messages or activities that best meet the needs of individual employees. This helps you create a more personalized, effective experience for workers and drive more meaningful engagement within your organization.

Using technology to monitor employee engagement is also one of the best ways to ensure that initiatives are tied directly to overall business objectives. Analytics help you understand if there are any engagement gaps that you need to fill.

Are there certain teams that consistently fail to engage with your content, for example? Tracking open rates, comments, will help you identify any disengaged teams or employees, so that you can work to address and improve their experience.

How to create an employee engagement strategy

Set goals

You need goals that are specific and measurable when creating a successful employee engagement strategy. This provides the foundation for your efforts, ensures everyone is on the same page, and helps you assess progress along the way.

Identify your issues

Once you have established your goals, determine what obstacles stand between you and achieving those objectives. Communication issues, lack of motivation, or a disconnected team can all put your progress at risk. Knowing what might stand in your way will help you tailor activities to your organization’s needs and develop solutions that are relevant and effective.

Build your plan

Next, you need to create a plan of action for achieving your engagement goals. You should include activities such as tailored employee surveys, tech and communication refreshes, and analytics implementation in this plan.

Analyze and adjust

Finally, track the progress of your employee engagement efforts with analytics tools and review how well they worked. Adjust activities based on the findings, and move forward with more tailored initiatives.

Why your employee engagement strategy might fail

Not listening to feedback

If you don’t listen to what your employees are telling you, then your engagement activities will be misguided and ineffective. You need to respond quickly and effectively to feedback in order to ensure that your initiatives meet their needs.

Not having the right tools

Communication and engagement tools are essential in today’s workplace, and even more so if you want an engaged workforce. Without the right tools, you won’t be able to track progress or employee engagement scores accurately — let alone ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Plus, if your tools aren’t fit for mobile, you will be missing out on the chance to engage with your key employees when they are on the move.

Not having leadership buy-in

Employee engagement strategies rely on strong leadership support. Without it, your initiatives can easily be overlooked or deprioritized as other programs take precedence. Make sure that your leadership is involved and invested in the process to ensure success.

But who are your most engaged allies?

How would greater employee engagement help them meet their targets?

How do you bring the opportunity to life for your wider leadership team?

What are the risks they’ll ask you about, so that you can prepare in advance?

We cover this and more in our essential guide to executive buy-in for frontline employee experience.  

Not communicating effectively

Employee engagement strategies only work when teams are communicating effectively. Invest time into making sure that communication channels are clear and regularly updated with relevant content so that everyone can stay in the loop.

Final thoughts

No one wants employee disengagement. It’s costly and damaging to morale. Plus, disengaged workers make errors at a 60% higher rate.

But still, many companies turn a blind eye to the issue. They wait to take concrete action and implement employee engagement strategies until things get out of hand.

The good news is that improving employee engagement is both possible and measurable. You need the right steps, the right engagement tools, and serious execution. So take a good look at your present culture and see which of these strategies will be a good start for you.

Remember, your company is a community. And communities prosper only when every member and segment feels valued, trusted, and respected.

Blink is an internal communications tool that can help take your employee engagement to new heights.

Request a free demo to get started.

At Blink, our mission is to connect and empower workforces worldwide, and a crucial part of that mission is ensuring that our platform is accessible to everyone.

We’re excited to announce that Blink is now WCAG 2.2 level AA compliant, marking a significant milestone in our commitment to accessibility.

Why accessibility matters

Roughly 15% of the global population — around 1 in 6 people — lives with some form of disability. Given these numbers, there’s a high likelihood that many Blink users depend on our app to be accessible.

Many countries require digital products to meet accessibility standards, so we take these obligations seriously. However, our commitment to accessibility goes beyond compliance. It’s about making sure that our platform meets the needs of all users, removing barriers and creating a truly inclusive environment.

Understanding WCAG standards

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of internationally recognized standards for digital accessibility. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), these guidelines ensure that content is accessible to people with disabilities, including those who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers or alternative input devices.

WCAG standards are organized into three levels of compliance: A, AA, and AAA. Level A does not achieve accessibility in many situations, yet AAA is not recommended by the W3C because it is not possible to satisfy all Level AAA Success Criteria for some content. Therefore we comply with AA, whilst striving to meet as many AAA criteria as possible. The latest version of the standards, WCAG 2.2, includes updated requirements that address new aspects of accessibility, such as improved keyboard navigation, visible focus indicators, and content predictability.

How we’ve updated the Blink experience

Here are some of the key accessibility enhancements we’ve introduced as part of our efforts to be WCAG 2.2 AA compliant:

#1. Media accessibility

Blink now supports features that make media content more inclusive. For example, we’ve added the ability to set alternative text for image-only context, allowing user-generated content to be accessible to a broader audience.

#2. Improved visual and text contrast

To enhance readability, we’ve adjusted contrast levels to ensure that users can easily distinguish text from background colors across all devices — an essential feature for individuals with visual impairments.

#3. Flexible orientation and resize options

Blink’s content and interface elements can now be resized up to 200% without losing clarity, and the platform supports both landscape and portrait orientations. These improvements make it easier for users to read and navigate on any device, regardless of their visual needs.

#4. Keyboard navigation and focus visibility

Keyboard focus is now visible and consistent across all interactive elements, enhancing accessibility for users relying on keyboard navigation. Additionally, we’ve ensured that elements won’t change unexpectedly when they receive focus, which prevents accidental interactions and supports smooth navigation.

#5. Consistent navigation and error prevention

We’ve made navigation more predictable and consistent across the app. Users will now receive helpful error messages and suggestions to prevent data entry mistakes, making Blink more user-friendly and inclusive.

Blink’s commitment to accessibility

We’re dedicated to empowering diverse workforces and ensuring that our technology is accessible and inclusive. Here’s how we’re continuing to prioritize accessibility:

• Adhering to standards: We maintain strict alignment with the WCAG 2.2 level AA, ensuring that Blink meets industry-recognized accessibility standards.
• Inclusive development: Accessibility is at our engineering core. From screen reader compatibility to clear navigation, we build with accessibility in mind at every stage.
• Transparent accessibility: We provide an up-to-date, transparent accessibility statement, outlining our efforts and providing information to our users.

Accessibility isn’t just about checking the box — it’s about empowering individuals and creating an environment where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive.

‍Blink. And create an inclusive employee experience at your organization.

Here's the question I come back to constantly: how do you get 16-to-19-year-olds on the shop floor to care about a message from the CEO?

It's not a rhetorical question. It's one my team has been working on for the last 18 months, and we've made a real impact.

Five generations, one workforce

JD Sports isn't a small operation. We have 90,000 colleagues across 20+ countries with25 brands under the JD Group banner. And five generations working side by side, with 70% of our workforce being under the age of 30.

That last number is the one that keeps me up at night (in a good way). The majority of our people are on shop floors, not in front of laptops. They're not opening an intranet. They're not watching the hour-long town hall recording. 

There's never a day where we don't walk into the office and think: what can we do for the stores today, and how are we going to get this message to land? Everyone has a different love language. There is no one-size-fits-all anymore, there just can't be.

The red flag: one-way, overly corporate communication

As a FTSE 100 company, we have real obligations. Results to share, legal updates to communicate, leadership directives to cascade. None of that goes away.

But the way we were delivering it? It wasn't landing.

Long messages. Lengthy calls. Content that felt designed for a boardroom, not a stockroom.

The fix wasn't to dumb things down. It was to meet people where they actually are.

JD Now: going where our people are

We launched JD Now - our internal comms platform - in the UK 15 months ago. The brief was simple: mobile-first, bite-sized and human.

Instead of polished corporate videos, we started producing 30–45 second clips on iPhones. Quick editing, often with a same-day turnaround. A CEO update became five key points, delivered straight to camera, in under a minute.

For some of our shop floor colleagues, it might be the first time they've ever seen anything from our team or leaders. Because it's on their phone and it's done in a style of content they’re already used to seeing from their other favorite apps.

But the bigger unlock wasn't the content my team was making. It was the content our colleagues started creating themselves.

When you give people a platform, they run with it

Employee-generated content has taken over JD Now — and honestly, we didn't plan it that way.

One store team created a popular movie franchise-themed video to promote an Air Max release. A group in London started recording a podcast about career progression, using an Amazon mic and an iPhone. These all became smash hits with great engagement of likes and comments from their peers and leaders. We didn't ask them to do any of this. They just did it, because they'd found a space that felt theirs.

That podcast host? We spotted him, brought him up to Manchester to host a major youth event, and then took him to a King's Trust event where he met Prince William. Because he posted on our internal comms platform.

Making leaders human

One of the most consistent things we heard in surveys was simple: there’s a big opportunity to know and understand the people who are leading us better.

We tackled this head-on with JD Now — starting with our senior leaders in retail. Many of them are known as the important people who come in, provide feedback and expect excellence (we always make sure we’re the best, of course).. However, during our launch week, and the weeks leading up to it, we empowered these leaders to use JD Now as a platform to connect with their people - not just talk about sales, but use it as a way to connect and engage in a way they might not have been able to before. They’ve leaned into it…now commenting on various posts and showcasing their personalities a bit more.

The response from colleagues? Oh, they’re normal people!

I know it sounds corny. But we were blown away by how many colleagues said: yeah, actually, employee communications can be engaging. One comment, a post, a like on a photo from a store and the ability to have more visibility did so much more for the perception and connection to that team than a dozen town hall appearances.

The numbers back it up

When we first launched JD Now, we saw an incredible 74% adoption across our initial 20,000 colleagues, and it has grown from there. Right away, we knew that our teams had a genuine desire to experience a new way of communicating. 

This was validated with a 3% increase in our overall Communication score in our first global survey following the launch of JD Now. We absolutely credit that to changing how we communicate and how we get retail leaders genuinely involved.

But the metric I care about most isn't a survey score. It's when a store manager says to me, unprompted: "We should put that on JD Now."

We didn't prompt them. They came to us. That's what matters.

What I'd tell every comms team

The future of communications isn't rooted in communication. It's about culture.

• What makes your organization you? 
• What are your values, and how do they connect with your colleagues? 

Everything else falls into place when you feel really good about what you have to offer — and when your people feel it too.

Gen Z is taking over the workforce whether we're ready or not. I'm a millennial, so I'm somewhere in the middle, but I see it every day, and understand the importance of connecting to people in a way that resonates with them, and knowing one-way isn’t the best way. 

The organizations that'll win aren't the ones with the slickest content strategy. They're the ones that make young people feel like they actually belong there.

That's what we're building at JD. And we're only just getting started!