Life at Blink | Maggie MacKay-Dunn

“Prove it.”

If you’re in internal communications, you’ve heard that sentence more times than you’ve heard “quick question” (which, as we know, is never actually quick).

The shift is real. Five years ago, a lot of comms tech lived in the “nice to have” bucket. In 2026, it’s a boardroom conversation — and boardrooms don’t buy “nice.” They buy outcomes: efficiency, reduced risk, better retention, higher adoption of expensive tech investments, and measurable operational wins.

In our recent webinar, Proving internal comms ROI in 2026: Lessons from the other side, Ricky Sickelmore shared what he learned after 24 years in transport (including launching Blink at Stagecoach and introducing it at Arriva) — and what consistently held up when leadership came knocking for ROI.

Here are the six takeaways internal comms teams can apply immediately.

1. Ditch vanity metrics for outcomes

Email opens. Page views. Likes.

They’re not useless… they’re just not convincing.

Ricky’s rule: stop leading with activity metrics and start leading with business value. Executives don’t want to hear that “people saw the message.” They want to know: did anything change, and did it matter?

So translate comms problems into operational and financial realities:

• Safety reporting increases (e.g., digital near-miss reporting vs. “find the form somewhere and hope someone bothers”)
• Compliance improvements (e.g., “mandatory read” confirmation)
• Turnover movement (not because comms magically fixes attrition — but because comms can remove friction, improve onboarding, and drive consistency)

A useful gut-check: If your metric can’t be repeated in a budget meeting without you adding a 3-minute explanation, it’s not your headline metric.

Executives aren’t interested in open rates. They’re interested in the financial reality.

- Ricky Sickelmore, Blink

2. Start with hard costs and operational efficiency

If you want CFO attention, lead with the stuff they can smell from three floors away: tangible savings.

Ricky shared a simple example that’s painfully common in frontline-heavy orgs: printing and distributing documents at scale. One organization saved over £200,000 by moving payslips from print-and-post to digital distribution.

But don’t just stop at “printing costs.” The strongest ROI cases widen the lens:

• Printers and maintenance
• Paper, postage, distribution
• Staff time to print, collate, deliver, reprint
• Support tickets created when things go wrong

And when you talk about “time savings,” make them real. Not “we saved time.” Instead:

• “We reclaimed 10 hours per week of manager time previously spent manually filling shifts.”
• “We reduced password reset requests because employees access systems through one authenticated front door.”

Pro tip from Ricky: Do a basic “time and motion” study. Follow one process end-to-end and document every human touchpoint. That one form might bounce across 8–10 people, with delays that never show up on a neat process map.

3. Build a cross-functional case, not a “comms case”

One of the biggest mistakes internal comms teams make is trying to win budget alone — with a comms-only story.

Ricky put it bluntly: ROI gets easier when internal comms stops being “the comms team’s project” and becomes an operations, safety, engineering, and HR win.

That means stakeholder interviews early — not once the deck is already written.

Ask department heads:

• What’s your biggest friction point right now?
• What manual work is wasting your team’s time?
• Where do you have compliance risk?
• What’s the cost of not fixing this?

Example Ricky gave: if a safety leader can’t reliably get 20 drivers in a room for a briefing, that’s not a comms problem — it’s an operational risk. A digital “mandatory read” gives you trackable compliance without the logistics circus.

Make it tangible: Form a small steering committee with reps from the functions that will benefit most. When you go for sign-off, you’re not walking in alone — you’re walking in with allies.

You’re not in it alone — get the right stakeholders in the room early.

Ricky Sickelmore

4. Prove time-to-value through onboarding

Want a metric that operations leaders actually care about? Onboarding efficiency.

Ricky called this one “underestimated” — and he’s right. Onboarding is where friction shows up immediately, and where improvements are easy to translate into time, money, and productivity.

If employees can receive policies, procedures, training content, and day-one essentials before they even start, you can often get people productive an entire day sooner.

That’s not “engagement.” That’s time to value.

And onboarding improvements have a bonus effect: they reduce downstream errors, reduce manager time spent repeating the same information, and improve early retention (again — comms isn’t the sole driver, but it’s a meaningful part of the system).

5. Position your platform as the digital front door

One of Ricky’s biggest reflections: early on, it’s easy to think you’re buying “a comms tool.”

But the strongest ROI cases position the platform as the gateway to your digital estate — the place employees actually start their day.

This matters because most organizations are already paying for expensive systems (HRIS, scheduling, payroll, benefits, learning, etc.). The problem isn’t always the tool — it’s access and adoption.

If your internal comms platform:

• Uses SSO
• Reduces password resets
• Gives employees one place to find and access tools
• Increases self-service

…then your comms investment is also protecting and amplifying other investments.

Ricky shared a real pattern: Once access is simplified through a single front door, usage of other systems can jump dramatically — and suddenly your internal comms platform isn’t “another tool.” It’s the tool that makes the rest usable.

6. Establish a baseline — and sell the cost of inaction

You can’t prove improvement if you don’t know where you started. And you can’t create urgency if you can’t show what “doing nothing” costs.

Ricky’s advice: Baseline early — and don’t just baseline comms metrics.

Baseline business realities that leadership recognizes:

• Turnover / attrition
• Survey participation rates
• Safety reporting volumes
• Time spent on manual processes
• Printing, distribution, and support costs
• Operational delays caused by information gaps

Then translate that into the cost of inaction: the money currently leaking from the business because processes are manual, access is fragmented, and frontline teams can’t reliably get what they need.

When you can credibly say, “Here’s what it costs us to do nothing,” the investment stops feeling optional.

Common mistakes to avoid when proving internal comms ROI

A few “don’t step on this rake” moments that came up in the conversation:

• Don’t lead with outputs. “We sent 12 newsletters” isn’t ROI.
• Don’t build the case in isolation. Cross-functional pain points = stronger case.
• Don’t ignore hard money. The “soft” story matters, but hard savings gets you in the door.
• Don’t skip the frontline reality check. Spend time with frontline teams. Watch the work. Learn the friction.
• Don’t assume leaders know what to ask for. Often the first job is clarifying the real question behind “prove ROI.”

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Be the change maker

Internal comms ROI in 2026 isn’t about becoming a finance team overnight. It’s about learning to translate.

Translate comms into outcomes.

Translate friction into cost.

Translate “this would be helpful” into “this will reduce risk, save time, and speed up productivity.”

Or, in Ricky’s words: Be the change maker.

“Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.” — Joy Gumz

Keeping that train on the right track is the job of a project manager. You have to look at project deadlines, budgets, and deliverables. Then, craft a project plan that achieves the desired project outcomes.

But projects can be derailed by any number of issues. Poor communication. Changing stakeholder expectations. Unidentified risks. Ineffective workplace tools.

So preparation is key. Every good project manager tries to identify and avoid potential pitfalls. That’s why, in this article, we help project managers prepare for their next project.

Read on to discover our ten tips for successful project management.

How do you manage a project effectively?

Effective project management means setting a clear project plan and using the right tools to monitor progress. The best project managers can manage setbacks while keeping the company's goals and workflow on track.

Here are five tips for successful project management:

1. Foster clear and effective communication

The Project Management Institute (PMI) 2023 Pulse of the Profession report reveals a range of “power skills” for project management, as agreed by project managers.

Top of the list? Communication. 68% of survey respondents say that communication is critical to achieving organizational objectives.

Effective project management relies on communication — and not just any kind of communication. To be successful, projects require open communication. Information needs to flow freely between all relevant parties to ensure timely project progress. 

Without this type of communication, your project team becomes inefficient. Collaboration is near impossible. You find it hard to share updates with key stakeholders. Motivation and engagement are likely to dip, too.

With that in mind, here’s how to establish effective communication during projects:

• Hold regular meetings with team members to ensure everyone is on the same page. Clarify deliverables and deadlines. Use these meetings as an open forum, where the project team can share any concerns or ideas.
  
  
• Use communication tools — like Blink’s super app — to communicate over messages and in real-time, even when your project team isn’t working face-to-face.
  
  
• Send project reports to relevant stakeholders regularly, making them aware of any project changes or new developments.
  
  
• Be a good listener. Consider multiple points of view, not just your own. That way, you use all of the skills and expertise within the project team to come up with the best possible solutions.

2. Set clear goals for your project

A great project manager starts by setting goals. Clear goals keep your team focused and aligned. They aid productivity and decision-making.

Well-defined goals also help you decide what project success looks like, making it easier to assess your project once it’s finished.

So before you dive into tasks, ensure you understand the overall mission and objectives of the project. Set the parameters of your project, too. You need to know which tasks you’ll be tackling and which deliverables are expected, along with the timeframe and budget allocated.

With projects becoming more complex, you might like to go further, setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals. You should end up with something like this:

• An understanding of your project goals and how they align with stakeholder expectations
• Project SMART goals and associated metrics
• A clear definition of what return on investment (ROI) means for this project

Once you’ve established your overarching project goals, you can break these down into smaller, more manageable tasks.

3. Create a schedule

A thoughtfully crafted schedule helps a project to run more smoothly. It guides your team to complete project tasks on time, while managing stakeholder expectations, too. It also reveals which tasks are dependent on others, helping you to allocate resources effectively.

To create a project schedule, you need to put all project tasks into a logical sequence, taking into account any dependencies between tasks. You can use project management tools (or just a stack of sticky notes) to visualize project progress.

Next, estimate the duration of each task, using historical data or the past experiences of your project team. You can then identify the longest path of dependent tasks — also called the critical path. This is the project’s shortest completion time.

From this point, you need to:

• Assign resources — including team members, equipment, and materials — adjusting your schedule if resources are needed in two places at once
• Establish milestones and deliverables so you can make sustained progress toward your final project deadline
• Communicate the schedule, sharing it with the project team and key stakeholders
• Use project management tools with features like Gantt charts, time tracking, and Kanban boards to help your team track their progress

4. Use the right tools to monitor progress

It's easier for your team to operate efficiently with the right project management software. Nothing slips through the cracks because everyone can see what needs to be done. If any of your team is working remotely, then this type of tech is critical to project success.

It provides a centralized location for project documents, files, and communication. It allows easy assignment and tracking of tasks. The best software also provides reports and dashboards that summarize project information and facilitate better decision-making.

When selecting a project management software, here’s what to look out for:

• Features that match the complexity of your project and can scale with you as you grow. That way, you're not forced to switch to another software further down the line.
• A streamlined solution. You need a tool that integrates with the workplace software you already use so teams don’t have to log in and out of multiple accounts.
• A platform that’s available on your teams’ preferred devices. If your team members are working remotely, make sure there's an employee app available for mobile devices.
• A clean, modern design that minimizes distractions and a user-friendly dashboard that involves little to no learning curve for your project team

5. Assemble a multi-skilled team

A project is only as good as the people who work on it. You need the right mix of personalities and skills to aid productivity and minimize friction. Get it right and you’ll improve project efficiency and outcomes.

So what traits should you be looking for when selecting project team members?

• They must have excellent communication skills and be able to interact with lots of different people
• They should have basic knowledge of project management methodologies such as Agile and Waterfall
• They must be highly organized so they can keep on top of tasks and meet deadlines even under significant pressure
• They should be familiar with project management software — and happy to use your chosen platform

Remember that the most skilled employees may need some training to thrive as part of a project team. So be willing to invest in their personal and professional development to cultivate those essential soft skills.

6. Motivate your project team members

Skilled project managers know there are times when Waterfall diagrams, Gantt charts, and work breakdown structures aren’t enough to get your team over the finish line. These things definitely help. But the best teams have something else in their favor — motivation.

Gallup research shows that motivated, engaged employees make fewer mistakes. They’re also 17% more productive than their less motivated peers.

Of course, project managers don’t have complete control over employee motivation. But there are some things you can do to increase motivation and employee engagement.

• Recognize the effort and achievements of your team, praising them publicly on shared communication channels
• Create a supportive culture, where all people and their contributions are valued and where work-life balance is respected
• Reduce friction by giving teams the tools and resources they need to communicate and complete tasks effectively
• Don’t micromanage — trust teams to get the work done and encourage team members to share ideas and suggestions

7.  Identify and plan for risks

Risk management is a crucial aspect of project management. That’s because unidentified risks can derail a project. They cause unexpected problems that impact budgets, deadlines, and deliverables.

In the planning stage, project managers need to recognize and assess project risks. By building these risks into your project plan, you’ll find it easier to keep the project on track.

To plan for risks in project management:

• Identify risks. Review past projects and brainstorm with your project team to list potential risks.
• Use SWOT analysis. Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to each risk.
• Determine the probability and impact of each risk, giving each risk a score.
• Prioritize risks with the highest score, finding ways to mitigate or avoid these risks where possible

Once your project has ended, take the time to identify and document any lessons learned. It could be that unexpected risks in this project help you to avoid similar risks in the next one.

8. Identify and interact with key stakeholders

Stakeholders are the people who have a vested interest in your project and those who are affected by project outcomes. Some will be directly involved in the project, some will influence decisions, and some just need to be kept in the loop.

Nurturing stakeholder relationships helps your project to run more smoothly. It ensures that you get stakeholder support, with vested interests understanding and agreeing to your project plans.

Here’s what you need to do to create strong relationships with stakeholders:

• Communicate with stakeholders early in the project to establish trust
• Find out how stakeholders want to receive information. Which communication channels do they prefer? Do they want you to provide high-level summaries or in-depth reports?
• Tailor communications to the interests and concerns of each individual stakeholder and resolve any issues proactively
• Engage stakeholders with regular meetings and clear channels for feedback

9. Be a leading example

As a project manager, you need to lead by example. If you demonstrate the behavior, values, and work ethic you expect from your team, your team is more likely to follow suit. You positively influence their approach to work and bolster your own authority, too.

This type of leadership approach also encourages open communication. When team members see you acting with integrity, they’re more likely to trust you. This makes them feel more confident and comfortable when sharing their ideas or concerns.

The best project leaders are:

• Ethical. They treat all team members fairly and communicate transparently and honestly at all times.
• A team player. They take responsibility for their own mistakes and share credit with the whole team.
• True to their word. They deliver on their promises and meet deadlines.
• Proactive. They seek to resolve challenges and conflicts as they arise.

Lead by example and you improve team communication and performance. This helps you achieve project goals more efficiently and effectively.

10. Ask questions

Some leaders like to behave as if they have all the answers. But the best project leaders ask the important questions.

They tap into the collective expertise of their project team so they have all the information they need. They also ask questions of stakeholders so they understand exactly what’s expected.

This approach helps to improve project collaboration and engagement. It also facilitates crystal clear communication. You clear up any doubts, challenge assumptions, and identify potential risks.

With information from all relevant parties — and no questions left unanswered — you’ll find it easier to make decisions and solve problems throughout the course of your project.

What are the most common project management problems?

No project is plain sailing. Here are some common problems to look out for when managing projects.

1. Scope creep

Scope creep is the gradual expansion of a project’s scope beyond its initial objectives. This impacts a team’s ability to complete a project on time, on budget, or in a way that meets project goals. It can also leave everyone — project team and stakeholders — feeling dissatisfied.

A study by the PMI showed that scope creep affects up to 39% of projects. It’s a problem usually caused by stakeholders changing project conditions — things like budget, deadlines, or deliverables. Scope creep can also occur when project scope is not adequately defined or documented at the outset.

To avoid scope creep, you need to proactively engage with stakeholders during the project planning stage. Pin down their requirements and expectations, then get their approval once you’ve put a plan together.

You may also like to establish a change control board or a change request process. This means you have a fixed and logical way to consider and respond to proposed changes.

2. Poor communication

Poor communication is at the core of most project failures. It undermines cohesion and clarity. It opens the door to misunderstandings between your team members and stakeholders. It also serves to erode trust.

This is why it’s so important to establish an open dialogue from the very start of a project. By communicating transparently and collaboratively, you create an environment where everyone shares information and pulls in the same direction.

Communication tools also come in useful. The right internal communication tools helps you to maintain consistent, two-way communication throughout the whole project.

3. Financial setbacks

Wellingtone reports that only 34% of companies mostly or always complete projects while remaining on budget. This is a big issue because a project can only provide the expected ROI if it’s delivered within budget.

So what can you do to keep a project on the right financial track?

We talked a little earlier about project risks. These risks can cause unforeseen costs. So good risk identification and mitigation is crucial.

You also need to ensure the right level of visibility and control over project expenditure. Establish a clear process for tracking and approving expenses to prevent project budgets from spiraling out of control.

Final thoughts on successful project management

We hope that these project management tips help you make a success of your next project. If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this — communication is the foundation of any successful project.  

Whether you’re motivating your team, brainstorming risks, or liaising with project stakeholders, frequent, open communication makes your job easier.

It supports positive teamwork and ensures you keep key stakeholders in the loop. It also facilitates informed decision-making and problem-solving.

Luckily, there are lots of communication and collaboration tools that can help.

With the Blink super-app, project teams can communicate seamlessly. They can share critical documents, launch surveys to gather stakeholder feedback, and recognize one another’s hard work.

Blink also integrates with a range of popular project management software. This means your teams can access communication and project management tools from one user-friendly interface. You can streamline the project process and prevent app overwhelm for your teams.

Want to see Blink in action? Schedule your personalized demo today.

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

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

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

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

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

Effective employee retention strategies for healthcare providers

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

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

1. Invest in employee development

2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication

3. Create an open and inclusive culture

4. Recognize and reward employee efforts

5. Offer competitive wages

6. Make schedules more flexible

7. Give employees a voice and act upon their feedback

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

1. Invest in employee development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Create an open and inclusive culture

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Recognize and reward employee efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Offer competitive wages

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

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

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

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

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

6. Make schedules more flexible

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Give employees a voice and act on their feedback

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boosting healthcare employee retention with Blink

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Simon White, VP People at Blink

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why employee engagement surveys are important

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

The first step towards this lies within employee engagement surveys.

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

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

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

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

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

Enable

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

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

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

Understand

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

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

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

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

Engage

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

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

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

 How to successfully conduct an employee engagement survey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Get rid of annual surveys

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

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

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

2. Define a clear, attainable goal

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

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

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

3. Plan ahead

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

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

4. Let the frontline know! 

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

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

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

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

5. Act and restart

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

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

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

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

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

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

Considerations for conducting your first employee engagement survey

Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Platform

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

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

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

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

Trust

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

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

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

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

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

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

Communication

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

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

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

Content

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

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

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

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

How Blink employee surveys can help you meet your goals

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

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

Triple your response rate

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

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

Launch in 90 seconds

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

Science-backed questions

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

Get action-ready insights

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

Launch your first survey

Customer experience has a big impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty, along with long-term business success. But it’s getting harder to keep customers happy.

Gallup research reveals that employees are becoming more demanding and they’re expecting higher levels of service, particularly as the cost of products and services is rising.

To keep pace with changing expectations, 86% of customer service leaders told Gartner that customer experience is a top priority for 2024. Organizations are investing time and money in finding new ways to boost customer satisfaction.

Here, we look at the true impact of happy customers on a business. We also explore eight strategies you can use to create a customer experience your customers are sure to shout about.

The importance of happy customers

Happy customers are a sign that your product and service are meeting expectations. Happy customers are also good for business. Here are the benefits you can expect when you keep your customers satisfied.  

Customer loyalty

According to Forrester research, “customer-obsessed” companies enjoy 51% better customer retention than less customer-focused organizations.

When you provide excellent customer experiences, you get more satisfied customers. These people are more likely to shop or do business with you again — because they already know and trust your brand.

Brand advocacy

Happy customers are more likely to become brand advocates. They’re inclined to share their positive experience of your brand in person and online.

This matters to your business because 92% of people trust word-of-mouth marketing more than advertising — and because 50% say they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family.

Brand advocates encourage others to trust your brand and shop with you, so you can spend less on marketing campaigns.

Improved revenue

By creating brand advocates, your brand builds a positive reputation that drives sales. And by encouraging repeat custom, you save on customer acquisition costs — it’s much easier and cheaper to convert an existing customer than it is to convert a new one.

This explains why, according to McKinsey, customer experience leaders achieve 2x greater revenue growth than those who lag behind.

How to keep customers happy and loyal

Now we’ve covered the benefits of prioritizing customer satisfaction, let’s look at how to create happy customers for your business. To improve the customer experience, tick off the following tasks:

1. Invest in employee experience
2. Ensure customer-facing employees have the resources they need
3. Treat each customer as an individual
4. Provide a variety of touchpoints
5. Do customer research
6. Leverage automation
7. Track customer satisfaction and retention
8. Create customer experience goals

1. Invest in employee experience

Customer experience is directly linked to employee experience (EX).

The more happy and engaged your employees are at work, the better experience they produce for customers. Achieve high levels of employee engagement and the quality of your products, service, and customer interactions improves.

Gallup puts a figure on it. Its research shows that companies with high levels of engagement achieve a 10% increase in customer loyalty and a 23% increase in profitability. Employee engagement also leads to better productivity, performance, and employee retention, all of which benefit customers.  

To improve the employee experience, employee engagement software is a game-changer. The right software helps you foster a strong company culture, where every employee has the support and resources they need to succeed.

It gives you tools for employee surveys and recognition. Employees can use your engagement software to communicate with their managers and peers, which fosters a sense of belonging. You can also use these tools to analyze employee engagement, identifying issues and areas for improvement.

By investing in the employee experience, with tech tools that connect customer-facing employees to company culture, you build a workforce that cares deeply about customers.

2. Ensure customer-facing employees have the resources they need

You create more happy customers when employees can access the right resources at the right time. With easy access to customer and product information, employees can:

• Give quick and accurate responses
• Tailor interactions to create a more personalized experience
• Take the initiative to solve problems and enhance the customer experience
• Create a consistent and predictable customer experience

Make resources available via an employee app and frontline employees have everything they need at their fingertips. You can also incorporate internal communication tools, so employees can learn best practices and gain customer insights from co-workers.

When employees have the right resources, they feel competent and confident supporting customers. They’re also more likely to experience positive customer interactions, which improves the employee experience and (as we saw in the point above) further fuels customer satisfaction.

3. Treat each customer as an individual

81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience. But 61% say most companies treat them like a number.

To treat your customers like individuals, start with the basics. Learn and use customer names. Encourage your customer service representatives to listen and to have real, empathetic conversations with customers, rather than just repeating phrases by rote.

Also, ensure your systems and processes flex to each new customer interaction. Give customer-facing employees autonomy so they can adapt their approach to the customer in front of them.

For example, employees at the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain famously have a $2000 budget per day to improve guest experiences without managerial approval.

4. Provide a variety of touchpoints

Convenience means different things to different customers. So they should be able to reach out to you in the way that best suits them.

Looking at the demographics and communication preferences of your target market, determine which touchpoints are most in demand.

You may like to provide customer support over the phone, email, or live chat. Social media support is proving popular with Gen Z and Millennial customers, with 17% of all consumers getting customer service over direct messages on social channels. 

Just ensure the experience is seamless. Your customer service agents should be able to see where a particular customer is up to, no matter which combination of communication channels they’ve chosen to use. This prevents customers from having to repeat the same story each time they speak to someone new.

5. Do customer research

McKinsey recently shared the story of a mobile telecom operator that was having a hard time hanging on to its customers, many of whom were being enticed by cut-price offers from competitors.

After trying and failing to stem the tide by tying customers into contracts and offering great deals to new customers, the CEO listened in on customer service calls. He identified countless customer pain points.

By tackling these pain points, the company reduced its customer churn rate by 75% and doubled its revenue over the next three years. As the CEO said, “It’s amazing the things you can do when you shut up and listen to your customers.”

You can’t keep your customers happy if you don’t understand what they want. To find out what your customers really think of your products and services, you need to seek and analyze customer feedback.

You can gather this feedback using customer surveys. You can also surface customer views with the help of existing customer call transcripts, social media posts, and company reviews.

Also, tap into the knowledge of your frontline workforce. They deal with your customers day in and day out — so they’re well-positioned to shine a light on customer needs, frustrations, and expectations.

Using this research and insight, identify the most common customer pain points. Then develop a plan for resolving them to boost customer loyalty and create more happy customers.

6. Leverage automation

77% of customer service teams are already using AI. It’s helping to make customer support quicker and more effective.

Customers can use a self-service knowledge base to find answers to their questions. Chatbots can answer routine queries, passing customers onto an agent when requests are more complicated.

With the help of automation tools, your customer service team has more time to provide stellar service to the customers who need it most.

But getting the balance right is important. Consumers still value human interaction. Live phone conversations are still one of the preferred methods of contacting companies for help and support, even among younger age groups.

So leverage automation — but maintain a variety of communication channels to ensure every customer gets the experience they expect.

7. Track customer satisfaction metrics

You can identify issues with customer happiness by tracking customer satisfaction and retention rates using your customer relationship management (CRM) software.

You could track metrics like your net promoter score (NPS) and your customer satisfaction score (CSAT). You can keep tabs on how your customer service team is doing with resolution rate, first contact resolution rate, and customer effort score (CES) metrics. 

By tracking customer satisfaction at all stages of the customer journey — and by analyzing customer behavior across your website and other interactions — you get to know which areas of your business have the biggest impact on customer happiness. 

You also identify areas where there’s room for improvement and can then allocate resources based on your findings. 

Follow the right customer KPIs and you can identify gaps in the customer experience — and close them — before they begin to erode customer happiness.

8. Create customer experience goals

Once you have a clear handle on how happy your customers are, you can set customer experience goals based on customer satisfaction metrics.

Choose goals you can measure — such as driving 10% more revenue from existing customers or lowering your average customer service response time to five minutes. Measurable, time-specific goals are easier to track and work towards because you have a clear definition of success.

Finally, everyone on your team should know what you want to achieve and why. Using internal communication tools to share your goals gets all employees on the same page. This is particularly useful for those who facilitate the customer experience.

In summary: 8 strategies to create happy customers and boost loyalty

Prioritizing the customer experience helps you keep customers satisfied. It also boosts brand advocacy and revenue.

Providing fast and convenient customer service, via a range of channels, is essential. You should also treat your customers as individuals and seek their feedback regularly.

While AI is a feature of customer service in many organizations, it’s important to harness its benefits while ensuring customers can always access an empathetic, human customer support agent.

These strategies are all crucial if you want to keep your customers happy. But they’re unlikely to be successful if you don’t also invest in the employee experience.

Workers who enjoy a positive employee experience provide a better standard of customer support. They’re more likely to go above and beyond to give customers the kind of service they remember positively.

To better engage your customer-facing employees, mobile-first employee engagement tools — such as an employee app — are key. They’re a place where you can share useful resources, where co-workers can connect with each other, and where you can build a strong company culture.

Using these tools, you improve the employee experience and employee engagement — which means you’ll find it much easier to satisfy customer expectations and win customer loyalty.

To learn more about communication tools that empower your workforce, including your customer-facing team members, explore Blink today.

Why consider Flock alternatives for team messaging in 2025

Flock has long been recognized as a reliable team messaging and collaboration app, but many organizations are now exploring alternatives that better meet their needs. Whether it’s more advanced integrations, a stronger mobile experience for frontline employees, or broader tools for internal communication, companies are looking beyond basic chat. In this guide, we’ll explore the top Flock alternatives in 2025 — from industry leaders like Slack and Microsoft Teams to modern employee experience platforms like Blink, which offers the most complete solution for messaging, engagement, and productivity.

What to look for in a Flock alternative

When evaluating Flock competitors, keep these criteria in mind:

• Ease of use – Adoption matters. Look for platforms that employees actually want to use.
  
• Mobile experience – With more hybrid and frontline workers, mobile must be seamless, not an afterthought.
  
• Integrations – Your collaboration tool should connect with HR systems, productivity suites, and line-of-business apps.
  
• Communication formats – Modern tools should support more than chat: think video, voice notes, newsfeeds, and live streaming.
  
• Scalability – Choose a solution that grows with your organization and supports both desk-based and frontline teams.
  

Top 10 Flock alternatives

#1. Blink (best overall alternative)

Blink goes far beyond team chat — it’s an all-in-one employee experience platform built for organizations that need to connect every worker, from HQ to the frontline. Unlike Flock, which is primarily chat-based, Blink combines instant messaging with a powerful news feed, surveys, recognition, voice & video calling, live streaming, and document access. Its mobile-first design ensures adoption rates that stick, even among employees who rarely use email or sit at a desk. Blink also offers deep integrations with systems like Workday, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace, driving real productivity gains inside the flow of work. With a 4.8 Gartner rating, Blink consistently outperforms competitors for ease of use, customer support, and engagement impact. If you’re seeking a modern, future-proof solution that delivers ROI across the entire workforce, Blink is the clear #1 Flock alternative.

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#2. Slack

Slack is one of the most recognized Flock competitors, known for its intuitive chat interface and extensive third-party app integrations. It’s particularly strong for tech-savvy teams that rely heavily on messaging, channels, and bots. While Slack excels at knowledge-based collaboration, it can become noisy as organizations scale, leading to message overload. Pricing also rises quickly for larger teams, especially if you need enterprise-grade features. Still, Slack is a great option for teams that prioritize real-time chat and want a highly customizable experience.

Read more: 10 Slack alternatives

#3. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a natural fit for organizations already embedded in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Its strengths lie in native integration with Outlook, SharePoint, and Office apps, making it a strong collaboration hub for desk-based employees. Teams supports chat, video meetings, and file sharing, but it can feel complex and unintuitive for users who don’t live in Microsoft. Adoption among frontline and non-desk employees is often limited, since the platform was designed with office workers in mind. For enterprises that need deep Microsoft integration, however, Teams remains a top choice.

Read more: 12 Teams alternatives

#4. Google Chat

For companies that primarily use Google Workspace, Google Chat provides a lightweight and integrated alternative to Flock. It allows users to communicate in direct messages or spaces, while tying neatly into Gmail, Google Meet, and Drive. While easy to use, Google Chat’s feature set is relatively basic compared to standalone collaboration platforms. It lacks some of the advanced engagement and workforce-wide communication tools found in competitors like Blink. Still, it’s cost-effective and convenient for Google-first organizations that want a simple messaging layer.

#5. Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq is part of the larger Zoho ecosystem, making it a strong option for organizations already using Zoho apps for CRM, HR, or finance. Its chat-first approach supports real-time messaging, channels, and video calls, with integrations across Zoho’s suite and third-party tools. One of its strengths is affordability — Zoho Cliq offers competitive pricing that appeals to small and mid-sized businesses. While it’s not as feature-rich as Blink, it provides solid communication capabilities for teams that value simplicity. Larger enterprises may find its scalability limited, but for SMBs looking for a cost-effective collaboration tool, Zoho Cliq is a practical Flock alternative.

#6. Chanty

Chanty is a simple, affordable collaboration tool that combines messaging with task management. It’s designed for small to mid-sized businesses that want straightforward communication features without the complexity of enterprise platforms. While its integrations are limited compared to Blink or Slack, Chanty offers good value for teams that just need basic collaboration. Its clean interface and easy onboarding make it appealing for startups and small companies seeking a low-cost Flock alternative.

#7. Ryver

Ryver differentiates itself by combining chat, task management, and workflow automation in one platform. Teams can create topics, manage tasks in Kanban boards, and use built-in automation to streamline processes. While versatile, Ryver’s interface can feel dated compared to modern competitors, and it’s less widely adopted than Blink or Teams. Still, for organizations that want an affordable “chat + task” hybrid, Ryver offers a compelling option.

#8. Mattermost

Mattermost is an open-source collaboration platform designed with IT and security teams in mind. It offers self-hosting options, giving enterprises full control over their data — a differentiator from most cloud-based tools. Mattermost supports messaging, integrations, and DevOps workflows, making it popular among engineering teams. However, it requires more technical expertise to implement and maintain. For companies prioritizing security and customization, Mattermost is a viable Flock alternative.

#9. Troop Messenger

Troop Messenger is a secure team messaging app designed for organizations that prioritize privacy and compliance. It offers chat, voice and video calling, file sharing, and screen sharing, with on-premise and self-hosting options for enterprises with strict IT requirements. Troop Messenger also integrates with productivity tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Jira, giving teams flexibility in how they collaborate. While its interface is less polished than Slack or Blink, its security-first design makes it a strong choice for government, defense, and regulated industries. For companies looking for a Flock alternative with robust data control, Troop Messenger is worth considering.

#10. Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is an open-source communication platform that offers both cloud-hosted and self-managed deployment options. It supports real-time chat, audio and video conferencing, and integrations with a wide range of business tools. Rocket.Chat is particularly appealing to organizations that want complete control over their data and the flexibility to customize features. Its open-source nature makes it popular with IT teams and developers, though it requires more technical resources to maintain compared to cloud-first tools like Blink or Slack. For businesses seeking a highly customizable and secure alternative to Flock, Rocket.Chat is a solid contender.

Final thoughts: Choosing the right Flock alternative

While Flock is a capable tool, many organizations need more than just team chat to drive engagement, productivity, and connection across every employee. From Slack and Microsoft Teams to Chanty and Ryver, there are plenty of competitors worth considering. But Blink stands out as the best overall alternative, offering a mobile-first, all-in-one platform that engages every worker — frontline and desk-based alike. With its breadth of communication formats, deep integrations, and industry-leading adoption rates, Blink is the clear choice for companies ready to evolve beyond chat.

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Why teams choose Blink over Flock

Flock is a capable team messaging tool for desk-based teams already comfortable in a chat-first workflow — but it isn't built with frontline or deskless workers in mind. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.