Life at Blink | Theo Booth

Most intranet comparisons are written by people who've never had to get a nurse, a warehouse picker, or a hotel housekeeper to download an app. Blink. has. We've onboarded 87% of a 10,000-person workforce in 10 days, and we've watched the platforms that look great in a demo fall apart the moment they meet someone without a corporate email address. That's the lens this guide is written through.

Most intranet software was built for people who sit at desks all day. That's a problem when roughly 80% of the global workforce doesn't have a desk, a laptop, or a corporate email address (Emergence Capital, The Rise of the Deskless Workforce). This guide compares 15 intranet software providers for 2026, covering features, pricing, strengths, and where each platform falls short. Whether you're replacing SharePoint, consolidating tools, or reaching workers who've never had an intranet before, you'll find your shortlist here.

Last updated: May 2026.

The short answer

For organizations with significant frontline or deskless populations, the realistic shortlist is Blink., Staffbase, or Firstup, with Simpplr a strong choice if your workforce is mostly desk-based and you want AI-native search. SharePoint and Microsoft Viva remain the default if you're deeply standardized on Microsoft 365 and have IT capacity to configure them. Everything else fits a more specific use case.

Quick comparison: top intranet software at a glance

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What is intranet software?

Intranet software is a private digital platform that connects employees within an organization to company news, documents, tools, and each other. Unlike the public internet, an intranet is accessible only to authorized workers and serves as a central hub for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and day-to-day workflows.

Modern intranet platforms have moved far beyond the static page repositories of the early 2000s. Today's best intranet software includes AI-powered search, personalized content feeds, mobile apps, employee recognition, surveys, and integrations with tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and HR systems. For a deeper look at what these platforms should do for distributed teams, see our guide to internal communication tools.

For organizations with frontline and deskless workers, mobile-first intranet software has become essential. See our complete guide to team communication tools for deskless teams for the wider category.

Which intranet platforms actually work for your team?

Not all intranet software serves the same audience. The biggest split in this market is between desk-first platforms (built for knowledge workers with laptops and corporate email) and whole-workforce platforms (built to reach every employee, including those on the shop floor, behind the wheel, or on a ward).

If your organization has a significant frontline or deskless population, this distinction matters more than any feature checklist. A platform that scores perfectly on Gartner's criteria but requires a corporate email to log in will fail for the workers who don't have one. For more on closing that gap, see frontline digital inclusion.

Here's how each platform stacks up.

1. Blink.

Best for: Organizations with frontline and deskless workers who need a mobile-first intranet. Works across SMB and enterprise.

Blink. was built from the ground up for workers who don't sit at desks. The mobile app is the primary experience, not an afterthought, and employees can join via phone number or QR code with no corporate email required. The platform combines a news feed, team chat, a searchable Hub, surveys, recognition, and digital forms in a single app.

Key strengths:

• Mobile-first architecture with offline access
• No email or IT setup needed for workers to join
• 87% adoption at JD Sports in 10 days, 20,000+ active employees at easyJet (Blink. customer stories)
• Native integrations with Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and major scheduling and HR systems (Blink. integrations)
• AI assistant on the Pro tier
• Recognized in Gartner's Market Guide for Employee Communications Applications

Where it's limited:

• Less suited for organizations that want a traditional document-heavy desktop intranet
• Pure knowledge management is not the lead use case

Pricing: Core at $3.75 per user per month (annual), Pro at $5.00 per user per month, Enterprise custom. Free trial across all tiers (Blink. pricing).

For head-to-head comparisons, see Blink. vs Microsoft Teams and Beekeeper vs Blink..

2. Simpplr

Best for: Desk-based organizations wanting an AI-powered intranet.

Simpplr has positioned itself as the AI-native intranet, earning Leader status across Gartner, Forrester, G2, and IDC reports. The platform focuses on personalized content delivery and automated governance for knowledge workers. Strong search capabilities and clean design make it popular with IT and comms teams at mid-to-large enterprises.

Key strengths:

• Leader across all four major analyst reports
• AI-powered search and content recommendations
• Clean, consumer-grade interface
• Strong governance and content lifecycle management

Where it's limited:

• Primarily designed for desk-based workers with corporate email
• Limited frontline-specific features (no QR-code sign-up, no offline mode)
• Rising fast in AI search visibility, which is making them more visible in buyer research

Pricing: Custom.

See Simpplr alternatives for competitive context.

3. Staffbase

Best for: Enterprise internal communications teams.

Staffbase is built for internal comms professionals who need to create, publish, and measure content across channels. The platform includes a branded mobile app, email newsletters, digital signage integration, and detailed analytics. Strong adoption in large European enterprises.

Key strengths:

• Purpose-built for IC teams with editorial workflows
• Branded mobile app with push notifications
• Email newsletter builder (no separate ESP needed)
• Detailed content performance analytics

Where it's limited:

• High complexity for smaller organizations
• Frontline features require additional configuration
• Pricing can be steep for mid-market

Pricing: Custom.

See Staffbase alternatives.

4. Workvivo (by Zoom)

Best for: Building company culture and social engagement.

Acquired by Zoom in 2023, Workvivo uses a social-media-style feed to drive engagement. The platform is strong on peer recognition, social features, and community building. Popular with organizations that prioritize culture and employee voice.

Key strengths:

• Social feed that feels familiar
• Strong recognition and shout-out features
• Zoom integration for video
• Mobile experience available for desk and frontline workers

Where it's limited:

• Mobile reviews on Google Play have flagged frontline usability issues
• Less focused on operational comms (shift scheduling, forms, workflows)
• Post-acquisition integration with Zoom's broader suite is still evolving

Pricing: Custom.

See top Workvivo alternatives.

5. Unily

Best for: Complex global enterprises with sophisticated requirements.

Unily serves some of the world's largest organizations. The platform offers deep customization, multi-language support, and enterprise-grade security. Strong on governance and compliance for regulated industries.

Key strengths:

• Handles complex, multi-region deployments
• Deep Microsoft 365 integration
• Advanced personalization and targeting
• Strong governance and compliance features

Where it's limited:

• Expensive and complex to implement
• Primarily desktop-oriented, mobile is a secondary experience
• Overkill for mid-market organizations

Pricing: Custom.

See Unily alternatives.

6. LumApps (with Beekeeper)

Best for: Organizations deeply embedded in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 that also want frontline reach.

LumApps integrates natively with both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. In July 2025, LumApps acquired Beekeeper in a deal valuing the combined company at more than $1 billion, backed by Bridgepoint, with a 12 to 24 month integration roadmap to deliver a combined "AI Employee Hub" (LumApps press release).

Key strengths:

• Deep Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integration
• AI-powered content targeting
• Added Beekeeper's frontline features post-acquisition
• Strong in knowledge management and document search

Where it's limited:

• Beekeeper integration is still maturing, two-product complexity remains
• Less intuitive for non-technical users
• Frontline features are inherited, not native

Pricing: Custom.

See LumApps alternatives and Beekeeper vs Blink. for the post-acquisition buyer view.

7. Microsoft SharePoint and Viva

Best for: Organizations already committed to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

SharePoint remains the most widely deployed intranet platform globally, largely because it's bundled with Microsoft 365 licenses. Viva adds employee experience features (engagement surveys, learning, insights) on top. The combination is powerful for desk-based teams but requires significant IT investment to configure and maintain.

Key strengths:

• Included with existing Microsoft 365 licenses (no additional cost for basic functionality)
• Deep integration with Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft ecosystem
• Massive partner ecosystem for customization
• Viva adds engagement, learning, and analytics layers

Where it's limited:

• Not designed for frontline workers, requires corporate email and Microsoft 365 license
• Heavy IT administration and governance overhead
• Mobile experience is functional but not mobile-first
• Configuration complexity means most deployments take 6 to 12 months

Pricing: Included with Microsoft 365 Business plans (from $6 per user per month). Viva suite is additional (Microsoft 365 pricing).

See SharePoint alternatives.

8. Interact

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting an enterprise-grade intranet.

Interact offers a well-rounded intranet platform with strong content management, people directories, and analytics. Popular with mid-market organizations that want enterprise features without enterprise complexity.

Key strengths:

• Good balance of features and usability
• Strong people directory and org chart
• Content targeting and personalization
• Integrates with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Where it's limited:

• Mobile app is secondary to the desktop experience
• Less suited for large frontline populations
• Fewer AI features than newer competitors

Pricing: Custom.

See Interact alternatives.

9. Igloo

Best for: Knowledge management and document collaboration.

Igloo focuses on bringing together knowledge, documents, and conversations in a single platform. Strong for organizations where information findability is the primary challenge.

Key strengths:

• Document management and search
• Customizable digital workplace channels
• Good integration with existing file storage (SharePoint, Google Drive)

Where it's limited:

• UI feels dated compared to newer platforms
• Limited frontline and mobile capabilities
• Smaller market presence means fewer third-party integrations

Pricing: Custom.

10. Haiilo

Best for: Employee advocacy and social amplification.

Haiilo (formerly Smarp) combines an internal intranet with employee advocacy tools, enabling workers to share approved content on their personal social media channels. Strong with marketing and employer branding teams.

Key strengths:

• Built-in employee advocacy platform
• Content creation and curation tools
• Analytics for both internal engagement and social reach
• Multi-language support

Where it's limited:

• Advocacy features may be unnecessary for organizations focused purely on internal comms
• Less robust for operational workflows and frontline use cases

Pricing: Custom.

See Haiilo alternatives.

11. Firstup

Best for: Intelligent, personalized content delivery at scale across desk and frontline.

Firstup (formerly SocialChorus + Dynamic Signal) uses AI to deliver the right content to the right employee at the right time. The platform supports email, mobile app, SMS, and digital signage channels, making it viable for reaching workers across multiple touchpoints.

Key strengths:

• AI-powered content delivery and personalization
• Multi-channel reach (app, email, SMS, signage)
• Analytics and engagement measurement
• Designed to reach both desk and frontline workers

Where it's limited:

• More of a content delivery platform than a full intranet
• Less strong on two-way communication and collaboration

Pricing: Custom.

See Firstup alternatives.

12. Happeo

Best for: Google Workspace users wanting a social intranet.

Happeo is built specifically for organizations using Google Workspace. It adds an intranet, social feed, and knowledge base on top of Google's productivity tools.

Key strengths:

• Native Google Workspace integration
• Social channels for team and topic-based communication
• Clean, modern interface
• Pages and knowledge base features

Where it's limited:

• Google Workspace only (no Microsoft support)
• Desktop-first experience
• Smaller feature set than enterprise alternatives

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $5 per user per month range. See Happeo alternatives.

13. Jostle

Best for: Simple, clean internal communications.

Jostle focuses on simplicity, offering a clean intranet experience for organizations that want to communicate without complexity. Refreshingly straightforward in a market full of feature bloat.

Key strengths:

• Very easy to set up and use
• Clean interface with low learning curve
• Good for organizations under 1,000 employees
• Transparent published pricing

Where it's limited:

• Limited customization and advanced features
• Not suited for complex enterprise requirements
• Basic mobile experience

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $5 per user per month range. See Jostle alternatives.

14. MangoApps

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting an all-in-one digital workplace.

MangoApps combines intranet, messaging, training, and workflow features in a single platform. Good value for organizations that want multiple capabilities without buying separate tools.

Key strengths:

• All-in-one platform (intranet + chat + training + workflows)
• Competitive pricing for mid-market
• Customizable modules
• Basic frontline features included

Where it's limited:

• Jack-of-all-trades means no single feature is best-in-class
• UI can feel cluttered with all modules activated
• Less polished than specialist platforms

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $4 per user per month range. See MangoApps alternatives.

15. Axero

Best for: Knowledge sharing and community-driven organizations.

Axero focuses on creating internal communities and knowledge-sharing spaces. Good for organizations where peer-to-peer knowledge transfer is the primary goal.

Key strengths:

• Community and forum features
• Knowledge base and wiki capabilities
• Customizable spaces for teams and projects
• Competitive pricing

Where it's limited:

• Primarily desktop-oriented
• Less focused on news delivery and top-down communications
• Limited frontline and mobile capabilities

Pricing: Custom.

Why intranet software matters for frontline workers

Roughly 80% of the global workforce is deskless (Emergence Capital), yet most enterprise communication technology still targets the desk-based minority. That gap is why most intranet deployments fail to reach the people who need them most: the warehouse workers, nurses, retail associates, drivers, and hotel staff who keep organizations running but rarely touch a laptop.

Frontline disengagement has a measurable cost. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace consistently finds that disengaged workers leave at materially higher rates than engaged ones (Gallup State of the Global Workplace).

Modern mobile-first intranet platforms are closing this gap. At JD Sports, 87% of frontline workers adopted Blink. within 10 days. At easyJet, 20,000+ employees are active users. Stagecoach reported a 26% reduction in driver turnover after giving frontline staff access to a mobile intranet (Blink. customer stories). For more on the engagement levers, see our guide to deskless worker communication.

How to evaluate intranet software for your organization

Start with your workforce profile. What percentage of your employees are desk-based vs. frontline? If more than 30% of your workforce doesn't have a corporate email address, eliminate any platform that requires one.

Define your primary use case. Are you solving for internal communications, knowledge management, employee engagement, or all three? Platforms like Staffbase excel at comms, Igloo at knowledge, Workvivo at engagement. Blink. combines comms, engagement, and operational tools for frontline-heavy teams.

Test the mobile experience yourself. Download the app. Try to complete common tasks (read a news post, find a document, submit a form) on your phone. If it feels clunky, your frontline workers won't use it. Look for platforms where mobile is the primary experience, not a scaled-down desktop version.

Ask about time-to-value. Enterprise intranet deployments can take 6 to 12 months. Some mobile-first platforms can onboard teams in days.

Calculate total cost of ownership. The license fee is just the start. Factor in implementation costs, IT administration time, training, and the opportunity cost of low adoption. A cheaper platform with 20% adoption costs more per engaged user than an expensive one with 90%.

If you’re one of the thousands of organizations using Workplace from Meta to power your internal communications, you’re probably in the thick of figuring out what you need to do next ahead of the Workplace sunsetting beginning in 2025. Researching, selecting, and implementing a Workplace alternative is likely taking up the bulk of your time and energy and may feel like an overwhelming project to tackle.

The good news: With the right platform — and technology partner — you can take the stress out of migration and continue to give employees the intranet features they know and love.

Whatever your vision is for your new platform — maybe a familiar format, or something new and improved — it’s important to get migration right. A smooth migration process can set you up for success and minimize headaches for you and your workforce.

In a recent webinar, Blink’s migration specialists outlined their full 5-step guide to a successful Workplace migration. While we (of course) believe there are lots of benefits to choosing Blink as a Workplace alternative, these steps are relevant to any platform you choose to use.

3 key steps to Workplace migration  

Migrating to a Workplace from Meta alternative is about more than moving data from one system to another. A successful migration requires meticulous planning and a launch mindset. It keeps disruption to a minimum and supports a seamless employee experience.

Important steps you need to take when migrating from Workplace include:

1. Scope and plan the migration

2. Verify data mapping and reconfigure settings

3. Activate and engage users

Let’s take a closer look at how these can make or break your migration journey.

#1. Scope and plan the migration

Migrating to any of the Workplace from Meta alternatives available is a huge change — and it’s one you want to get right first time by thoroughly scoping and planning your migration.

Bear in mind that while employee communications platforms tend to have a lot in common, no two tools are identical. There are bound to be differences between Workplace from Meta and your new intranet platform.

To ensure each business function is accounted for, bring together people from across your organization. Discuss platform differences. Gather a wide range of perspectives on platform and migration needs. Also, clarify what you want to achieve with regards to user experience and platform capabilities.

As part of the scoping and planning stage, consider incorporating the following tasks:

• Analyze data quality: Take stock of the data you have on Workplace. Are all user profiles activated and complete? Are all groups still relevant? Does your content have contextual elements, like author names and publication dates? Assess which data is complete, which needs to be improved, and which should be deleted or archived.
  

• Review mobile vs. desktop strategy: Consider which data you want to feature on mobile and desktop versions of your platform. For companies with a frontline workforce, it’s wise to include exactly the same data on both mobile and desktop devices — ensuring everyone can enjoy the same great employee experience.
  

• Identify champions and trend-setter groups: To boost early adoption and usage, treat your Workplace migration as a new platform launch. Identify champions and trend-setter groups who will be excited for the new communications hub and encourage peers to join them.

#2. Verify data mapping and reconfigure settings

It can take anywhere from days to weeks to run a migration, with timing depending on:

• Your chosen platform

• The size of your organization

• The volume of data you want to migrate

But as soon as you’ve executed the technical migration, you can begin examining the details of your new platform. The first tasks on the list are verification and reconfiguration.

At Blink, we use our own migration matrix that allows us to clearly map Workplace data and content to corresponding Blink content. However, with any technology switch, it’s always good to be prepared for potential hiccups. Data and settings don’t always transfer neatly to the new platform and post-migration tweaks often have to be made.

To ensure the best user experience post-migration, check that your important data — including user profiles, groups, and knowledge base content — has been transferred correctly, imperfect data has been updated, and settings have been reconfigured as needed.

User profiles

Review the user profiles that have been transferred from Workplace. Check that all details — like names, roles, and profile pictures — are correct. Delete any duplicate users. Also, verify that your organizational hierarchy has transferred correctly, with the right employees assigned to the right managers.

This is a good opportunity to check the permissions and notification settings associated with each user profile. Do this during the verification process and you won’t have to revisit each user profile to make changes later.

Groups

Look at the groups that you’ve migrated over from Workplace. Check that their names are correct. View members and admins to ensure nothing has gone awry during the switch.

You should also take the time to look at dynamic team membership rules to ensure that employees are automatically assigned to relevant groups going forward.

Knowledge base content

To ensure a consistent employee experience, it’s important that users can access the resources they need as soon as they log in to your new internal communications platform. Check that content is in the right place and that users will be able to find it easily. Confirm that all contextual information, including author names and publication dates, is visible and correct. Review permissions for publishing, editing, and sharing rights.

And don’t forget about formatting: Check headings, double-check hyperlinks, and make sure your multimedia content, such as videos and images, looks good and works well.

#3. Activate and engage users

If you’re at this step, it means you’re ready to launch your new intranet to the workforce. Congratulations! To maximize engagement and encourage adoption, you’ll want to give employees an incredible experience on your new platform starting day one.

Decide how you’ll build buzz around the incoming platform. That may mean notifying employees that your new intranet is imminent and incentivizing them to log in on launch day. You can consider running giveaways, creating gamified experiences, or planning a launch party — all with the goal of boosting in-platform engagement.

Remember that you’re launching a social platform: Creating an immediate sense of active community will be the difference between delight and disengagement. By going live with a published backlog of engaging content, employees can be welcomed to the new platform with a lively and pre-populated news feed.

Education is another important part of the puzzle. Help employees get the most from your new solution through training sessions, Q&A forums, and dedicated support channels.

This is also a great time to promote the internal champions and trend-setter groups you identified earlier in the migration process. These ambassadors can spread the word about your new platform, drive activation, and offer support where it’s needed.

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Making your Workplace migration successful

Whether you want employees to instantly feel at home or are relishing the opportunity to start afresh, a clear migration plan can help you minimize disruption and keep the company conversation flowing during the transition from Workplace to your new company hub.

By starting the process with a thoughtful migration plan and ending it with a robust rollout strategy, you can supercharge employee adoption on day one and drive engagement long past launch day.

For our full 5-step guide to making migration easy on you — and your workforce — download our on-demand webinar: From Workplace to Blink: Migration Made Easy for actionable advice helpful for any organization exploring alternatives to Workplace.

If you’re exploring alternatives to Haiilo, you’re likely looking for an internal communications or employee engagement platform that can scale with your business, drive adoption, and deliver measurable impact. While Haiilo offers useful features for connecting employees, it isn’t always the best fit for every organization—especially if you need deeper integrations, frontline support, or more advanced analytics.

To help you find the right solution, we’ve rounded up the top 10 Haiilo alternatives worth considering in 2025. Whether you’re in HR, IT, or internal communications, these platforms can help you improve employee experience and organizational performance.

What to look for in a Haiilo alternative

When evaluating Haiilo competitors, it helps to understand where Haiilo may fall short for certain organizations. Here are the factors to prioritize:

• True mobile-first experience – Haiilo works well as an intranet, but adoption among frontline and non-desk workers can be limited. Look for tools proven to engage every employee.
  
• System integrations – Many organizations want a platform that connects seamlessly with HRIS, payroll, and scheduling tools. Alternatives like Blink offer deeper plug-and-play integrations.
  
• Speed to value – Some Haiilo deployments require significant IT involvement. If fast rollout matters, choose a solution with lower implementation overhead.
  
• Measurable analytics – Haiilo provides engagement insights, but competitors often offer more advanced analytics that tie communication directly to business outcomes.
  
• Scalability across regions – Global organizations may need multilingual support, compliance features, and governance tools beyond what Haiilo provides.
  
• Cost vs. functionality – Evaluate whether you’re paying for features you don’t need. Some alternatives offer more affordable plans without enterprise complexity.

Top Haiilo alternatives

#1. Blink (Best overall alternative to Haiilo)

Gartner rating: 4.8/5
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Pricing: Free trial available

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Blink is the #1 Haiilo alternative because it combines communication, engagement, and productivity tools into one easy-to-use platform. Unlike Haiilo, Blink integrates seamlessly with your existing HR, payroll, and scheduling systems, so employees don’t need to juggle multiple apps. With a mobile-first design, offline mode, and push notifications, Blink ensures critical updates always reach your people — no matter where they are.

Organizations choose Blink for its high adoption rates, even among frontline teams who are traditionally hard to reach. Leaders benefit from advanced analytics that show exactly how messages land across the workforce, while employees enjoy a personalized feed, secure chat, surveys, and recognition tools. With a 4.8/5 Gartner rating, Blink consistently outranks competitors on usability and ROI.

If you’re looking for a Haiilo alternative that goes beyond communication and delivers true employee experience, Blink is the clear choice.

#2. Staffbase

Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Pricing: Custom pricing; typically starts around $5–$10 per user/month.

Staffbase is a strong alternative to Haiilo for companies that want a branded, polished employee app. Unlike Haiilo, which is rooted in intranet design, Staffbase puts more emphasis on top-down corporate communications and employer branding. It’s especially popular in industries where leadership visibility and a clean, consumer-grade design matter most.

The tradeoff is that implementation often requires significant IT or consulting support, and the cost can rise quickly for larger deployments. If you’re prioritizing a branded communication hub over a flexible intranet, Staffbase may be a better fit than Haiilo.

#3. Firstup

Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
G2 Rating: 4.3/5
Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing, often above $10 per user/month.

Firstup is an employee engagement platform that focuses heavily on automation and targeted messaging. It’s designed for enterprise organizations that need to orchestrate communication across large, complex workforces. Features include AI-powered content distribution, analytics, and campaign planning tools.

That said, Firstup can feel heavy for smaller teams and is often considered an expensive option compared to Blink or Haiilo. It also relies on external SSO providers for integrations, which can add extra costs. Still, it’s a powerful choice for organizations with the budget and IT resources to fully leverage it.

#4. Workvivo

Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Pricing: Custom pricing, generally $7–$12 per user/month.

Workvivo, now part of Zoom, takes a very different approach than Haiilo by positioning itself as a community engagement platform rather than an intranet. Its design feels more like a workplace social network, with shoutouts, recognition tools, and community feeds that encourage peer-to-peer interaction.

Compared to Haiilo, which is often used as a structured intranet for documents and news, Workvivo excels at building culture and connection across distributed teams. Organizations looking to create a more interactive, social employee experience will find Workvivo a compelling option.

#5. Simpplr

Gartner Rating: 4.5/5
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: Typically starts at $8–$12 per user/month.

Simpplr differentiates itself from Haiilo through its AI-powered intranet features. While Haiilo delivers a solid communications hub, Simpplr adds a layer of intelligence to help employees search, find, and personalize content faster. Its dashboards and policy hubs make it easy to navigate complex company information.

That said, its price point is on the higher end, and the focus leans more toward knowledge management than real-time employee engagement. If your challenge with Haiilo is that it feels too static or hard to navigate, Simpplr offers a more intelligent experience.

#6. Unily

Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
G2 Rating: 4.3/5
Pricing: Enterprise-focused, often starting at $10+ per user/month.

Unily is an enterprise-grade intranet often chosen by global organizations with complex governance needs. Compared to Haiilo, which tends to serve mid-market European companies, Unily shines in areas like multilingual support, compliance frameworks, and deep Microsoft 365 integrations.

It’s highly customizable but also resource-heavy, which can lead to longer rollouts and higher costs. If your Haiilo deployment feels too limited for a global enterprise environment, Unily offers more scale and enterprise governance capabilities.

#7. LumApps

Gartner Rating: 4.5/5
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Starts around $12 per user/month, enterprise pricing model.

LumApps stands out as a Haiilo alternative for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 ecosystems. While Haiilo functions as a standalone intranet, LumApps embeds directly into employees’ daily workflows with integrations for Gmail, Drive, Teams, and SharePoint.

It also offers stronger multilingual support and global publishing features, making it a fit for multinational organizations. The tradeoff is a more complex setup and administration compared to Haiilo. If your organization is heavily invested in Google or Microsoft, LumApps provides a more integrated alternative.

#8. MangoApps

Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: Starts at $5 per user/month.

MangoApps positions itself as an affordable all-in-one alternative to Haiilo. While Haiilo is primarily a communications platform, MangoApps combines intranet, messaging, project collaboration, and learning management into one tool. This makes it appealing for mid-sized organizations that want more utility at a lower cost.

The downside is that the interface feels less modern than newer entrants, and some users report adoption challenges. But if you’re evaluating Haiilo and find it pricey for the features offered, MangoApps provides a budget-friendly, multi-feature substitute.

#9. Jostle

Gartner Rating: 4.2/5
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Starts around $4 per user/month.

Jostle is a lightweight alternative to Haiilo, aimed at smaller organizations that don’t need a full enterprise intranet. It offers core features like org charts, news posts, and directories, but without the complexity of Haiilo’s content management layers.

Where Jostle stands out is its simplicity and ease of rollout — teams can be up and running quickly without heavy IT support. It’s a good choice if Haiilo feels like “too much platform” for your organization’s size or budget.

#10. Beekeeper

Gartner Rating: 4.5/5
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: Starts at $4.50 per user/month.

Beekeeper is designed specifically for frontline workers, which makes it a sharp contrast to Haiilo’s intranet-first approach. With secure messaging, task coordination, and shift updates, it solves a different problem: getting critical information to employees without desks or corporate email.

While it doesn’t have the intranet depth of Haiilo, Beekeeper excels at fast, real-time communication on the frontline. Organizations with large retail, hospitality, or manufacturing workforces often see stronger adoption here than with Haiilo.

Final thoughts

Haiilo has earned its place as a recognizable intranet and communications platform, but many organizations discover its limitations when it comes to frontline adoption, integrations, and actionable analytics. While it works well as a central hub for content and news, it often stops short of delivering the end-to-end employee experience modern companies expect.

That’s where Blink stands out. Unlike Haiilo, Blink isn’t just an intranet—it’s a mobile-first employee experience platform that brings together communication, engagement, and productivity in one app. From frontline workers without email access to knowledge workers in global headquarters, Blink ensures every employee is connected, engaged, and productive.

With a 4.8/5 Gartner rating and adoption proven across industries like retail, healthcare, transport, and hospitality, Blink is trusted by organizations worldwide to deliver measurable impact. If you’re exploring alternatives to Haiilo, Blink is the clear #1 choice to unlock potential across your entire workforce.

Employee experience (EX) is still top of the agenda in 2025.

84% of businesses see EX as a competitive differentiator — a way to attract top talent and keep them working for your organization long into the future.

But that doesn’t mean all these organizations are getting it right. Crafting an employee experience that engages workers — and has them singing your company’s praises on workplace comparison sites — is no mean feat.

It requires a consistent approach that carries through all departments and across every employee touchpoint. And it requires a deep understanding of worker needs and expectations.

To achieve all this, a solid employee experience strategy is invaluable. This plan will guide your EX initiatives, the workplace tech you use, the company culture you strive to create, and the metrics you use to assess employee experience success.

Here, we take a look at all the ways an employee experience plan benefits your business and outline the steps you need to take to create one.

What is employee experience?

Employee experience is how employees think and feel about their workplace. 

It encompasses every touchpoint and interaction throughout the employee lifecycle, including recruitment, onboarding, workplace relationships, development opportunities, and the technology you expect workers to use.

Employee experience managers are responsible for shaping EX, creating the kind of company culture and workplace environment that employees enjoy spending time in.

Why every org needs an employee experience strategy

Happy employees are good for business. High levels of employee satisfaction lead to improved talent acquisition, productivity, employee engagement, and staff retention.

The benefits of EX are clear. But many businesses are failing to deliver the kind of employee experience that inspires worker motivation and loyalty.

55% of all workers feel dissatisfied with their overall employee experience and this figure rises to 61% for Gen Z employees.

Why are these figures so high? You may have noticed that the modern workforce has pretty high expectations. Employees expect way more from their place of work than they did a few generations ago.

There are a couple of factors at play. First, we’re accustomed to personalized digital experiences at home — algorithms that know what we want before we do. And we expect the same quality and usability from the tech we use at work. 

Second, the baseline for what makes a good workplace has risen. Mental health support, flexibility, and a sense of belonging aren’t perks anymore — they’re must-haves. 

And finally, people are thinking bigger. A job isn’t just a paycheck. Employees are seeking growth, transparency, fairness, and purpose — and are willing to switch jobs to find a workplace that provides them.

Meeting these expectations is tough for any company. And — without a clear employee experience strategy — it gets even tougher.

With a solid employee experience strategy, however, you connect the dots between what your people need and what your business wants to achieve. You create the kind of workplace where people bring their A-game — where employees are engaged, productive, and with you for the long haul.

12 steps for building your employee experience strategy

Stellar employee experience management relies on a clearly defined strategy. Here’s how to get there.

1. Establish your why

Before jumping into tactics, pause and consider what you’re trying to achieve with your employee experience strategy. You need to understand the business case for improving EX. This will help guide your EX efforts — and get stakeholder buy-in.

Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself to get the ball rolling:

• What pain points do our employees currently experience?
• How does this link to business outcomes, like retention, productivity, customer service, and engagement?
• What kind of company culture do we want to build — and how does this align with our values?

2. Map the employee journey

From day one to exit, every touchpoint matters. Working out each point in the employee lifecycle can help you uncover areas for EX improvement.

You should look at:

• Recruitment
• Pre-boarding and onboarding
• Career development and growth opportunities
• Engagement
• Retention
• Offboarding

Then, across these employee journey stages, figure out what the employee experience looks like. 

Consider employee priorities like recognition and feedback, work-life balance, and any bottlenecks in their daily workflows.

Examine the cultural environment. Things like leadership style, the quality of co-worker connections, and the effectiveness of your internal communication channels.

Also, audit the physical environment, assessing how safe and comfortable employees are when they’re at work. Ergonomic desks and chairs are a given for your office-based staff. But consider the needs of frontline employees and those who work at home, too.

With a clear understanding of the employee journey and the factors that impact EX, you can (at step 4) craft staff survey questions that cover all elements of the employee experience. But first, there’s another key area of EX to get a handle on.

3. Assess your tech-sperience

Tech tools are now a fundamental part of every work day. So the digital employee experience forms an increasingly integral part of EX.

Remember that employees get streamlined, personalized experiences on the software they use at home. So — whether you like it or not — your workplace tech is going to be compared to the very best consumer-grade tools. 

Clunky or outdated tech tools create frustration. They harm productivity and employee motivation.

Even the most cutting-edge tools can cause problems if they aren’t implemented with the proper focus on EX. Use too many different tech tools and employees can easily feel overwhelmed. They constantly have to recall login details and toggle between tabs.

So when crafting your employee experience strategy, assess your tech stack — and its impact on employees. Find out where technology is supporting a positive employee experience and where it’s creating friction.

Also, consider tech needs on a team-by-team basis, paying special attention to frontline employees. Without easy access to a desktop computer or a company email address, frontline workers often find workplace tools difficult or impossible to use, which harms the frontline experience.

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4. Ask employees what they want

Every workplace is different. And while you’ll find plenty of articles listing the workplace attributes that employees value most, these can only ever act as a rough guide.

To make a success of your employee experience strategy, you need to understand your workforce and what motivates them. Then, treat them as co-creators of your EX strategy.

That starts by gathering employee feedback. Send out surveys and polls. Launch a listening tour. Find out what employees think of EX at your organization and what would improve it. Work to discover pain points, needs, and expectations.

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This shouldn’t be a one-off event. You should aim to build employee listening and employee voice into company culture. Create two-way communication channels and foster open communication across all levels of your organization. Acknowledge feedback and tell employees what action you plan to take.

By doing so, you encourage engagement with the feedback process and prompt honest responses from employees. You also keep your finger on the pulse, which — faced with ever-evolving employee experience trends — helps you stay ahead of EX issues.

5. Dive into the data

You’ve got feedback. Now what? It’s time to analyze the data you’ve gathered from employees, looking for EX patterns, pain points, and opportunities.

Celebrate the areas where you’re doing a good job. And hone in on areas where EX could be improved.

Use the analytics tools you have access to and combine qualitative feedback with quantitative data on retention, absenteeism, and employee engagement to get a big picture perspective. 

6. Get to know EX across the organization

Segment your data and you can also find out what employee experience looks like for different sectors of your workforce.

Perhaps your office-based team is satisfied with the quality of internal communications they receive. But your frontline team has to make do with a patchwork of paper memos and word-of-mouth messages. 

It could be that Millennials are loving the option to work from their comfortable home offices. But Gen Z employees, still living in shared housing, are struggling to find a quiet and productive place to work.

Maybe one department experiences higher than average levels of turnover and lower than average instances of employee recognition. 

Only by digging deep into the data can you understand how EX at your organization looks for every member of your workforce — and start to see the patterns that will inform your plan of action. 

7. Set goals

You’re at the point where you’ve done all your EX research. Time to put down on paper what you hope to achieve with your employee experience strategy. 

Create targets that are measurable, time-bound, and based on the EX issues you uncovered during the research phase. 

Some examples include:

• Increase career development opportunities for employees
• Establish better two-way communication channels between employees and managers
• Boost news feed comments and reactions by X%
• Increase survey response rates

8. Build your plan

Keeping your goals in mind, lay out the actions that will help you achieve them.

For example, if you want to improve career development opportunities, you could launch a new mentoring program.

Or if you wanted to increase your survey response rate, you could look at ways to close the feedback loop, ensuring that employees feel their feedback is listened to and acted on.

You may like to overhaul employee pay and benefits, well-being support, or workplace recognition. You may want to focus on improving the frontline employee experience with better comms and flexible working opportunities.

9. Find the right EX tech

This is a great time to consider the employee experience tech tools that will support your employee experience strategy. The best employee experience platforms can improve EX with the help of:

• Internal communication tools — channels that support top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer conversations and an engaging company news feed
• Recognition tools — that help you create a culture of appreciation

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• Integrated software — integrations with the other workplace software you use to create a streamlined digital experience
• Automated employee journey tools — features that make it easy for you to deliver the right content to employees at exactly the right time in their employee journey
• HR self-service tools — tools that allow employees to swap shifts, request leave, or view their pay stubs right from their user-friendly dashboard
• Surveys and analytics — employee survey and analytics tools that help your team keep up-to-date with employee satisfaction and EX
• Personalized employee experiences — tools that go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to provide tailored comms, dashboards, and journeys relevant to each individual employee

10. Communicate and roll out

To make a success of your employee experience strategy, you need all hands on deck. Employees should get a consistent experience across the whole lifecycle and that relies on lots of different departments working together.  

Get everyone on the same page — including employees — by communicating your EX vision clearly and transparently. Lay out your objectives and the positive outcome you expect. Tell them what will change and why.

If you’re rolling out new employee experience software, think carefully about how you’ll get your workforce to embrace it. Start by picking user-friendly, mobile-first tools that every employee can use. Then, use a marketing campaign, incentives, gamification, and platform ambassadors to encourage employees to log in.  

11. Measure and evaluate

Is your employee experience strategy having the desired effect? As well as looking at the specific EX goals you set earlier in the process, measure your success in terms of overarching business goals too.

These include employee satisfaction metrics like:

• Employee net promoter score
• Absenteeism rate
• Turnover rate

You can also look at KPIs relating to talent acquisition, customer satisfaction, and employee productivity.

Measure employee experience and you stay ahead of any EX problems that might arise. You see where your EX strategy is bearing fruit — and where you still need to make improvements.

12. Iterate and improve

Improving employee experience isn’t a one-and-done situation. Creating and honing the perfect employee experience strategy is an ongoing task.

Use insights gained from employee surveys and analytics to keep pace with evolving employee expectations. Review your goals. Find new ways to enhance employee experience and keep staff loyal to your organization.

By treating EX as a continuous process, you’re more likely to create a strong culture, happy employees, and the business results you’re looking for.

Using your employee experience strategy to build a better workplace

A strong employee experience strategy can transform your workplace. It impacts company culture and internal communications. It boosts productivity and staff loyalty. And it can put a spring in the step of employees as they turn up to work each day.

And with 52% of employees saying they’re watching for or actively seeking a new job, employee experience strategy isn’t something you can afford to neglect. 

The occasional free lunch or mental health day won’t cut it at a time when employees demand more than ever from their places of work — and are prepared to vote with their feet if their expectations aren’t met. 

To ensure EX success, you need to consider the experience of every employee. The priorities of your retail staff, for example, are probably very different from those of your office-based team. Then, you need to create personalized experiences that make employees feel seen and valued.

An employee experience platform like Blink can make a huge difference to your employee experience strategy and its success.

With tools that automate elements of the employee journey, improve communication, streamline workflows, and include every employee in the workplace community, it becomes much easier to deliver the kind of employee experience your workforce expects.

Blink. And make employee experience your competitive advantage.

The average person will work 35 hours per week. That adds up to 84,365 hours over their lifetime. Yet just over one-third of employees (34%) are engaged, and 16% are actively disengaged in their work and workplace.

If you’re reading this, the chances are you want to make sure your employees don’t feel like they are wasting a large portion of their life at work. We’ll do our best to help you do just that.

In this handy guide, we’ll break down the key steps you need to take when creating an employee engagement strategy.

From understanding why your organization truly needs an employee engagement strategy, to the actionable steps you can take to create your own strategy, we’ll cover everything you need to know right here.

Why you need an employee engagement strategy

Creating an employee engagement strategy can seem daunting, but it’s important for any business. Having a strategic approach to your employees’ happiness and engagement will help you retain top talent, keep them motivated and productive, and ultimately grow your business.

Effective employee engagement strategies will outline exactly how you are going to improve employee engagement within your organization, allowing all team members to stay on the same page when it comes to their roles and responsibilities.

In short: by creating an employee engagement strategy, you can strategically work to improve your employee engagement. And with improved levels of engagement, come a number of organizational benefits, including: 

• Higher Productivity: Employee engagement is closely linked with productivity. Engaged employees are more motivated to do their best work and achieve their goals. In fact, research has shown that engaged employees are up to 202% more productive than disengaged employees.
• Reduced Staff Turnover: Low employee retention is costly and disruptive for any business, and one of the most decisive factors for employee retention is employee engagement. Engaged employees are less likely to leave their job, which reduces the need for costly and disruptive staff turnover.
• Improved Morale: A happy workforce is a productive workforce. When employees feel engaged and valued, they are more likely to be happy at work and less likely to experience stress or burnout. As such, a staff engagement strategy can motivate employees and improve morale, job satisfaction and overall company culture.
• Greater Loyalty: An engaged employee is more likely to be loyal to their company, in fact 90% of workers said they are more likely to stay at a company that takes and acts on feedback: AKA one that engages them. They are less likely to look for jobs elsewhere and are more likely to recommend their company to others. Therefore, the right employee engagement strategies can drive your staff retention rates and encourage employees to stay with your company for longer.

Employee engagement strategies & business types

What your employee engagement strategy needs to consist of will change depending on your business type. For example, a software company will need to focus on ways to motivate and engage product designers and developers in order to compete for top talent in a competitive Silicon Valley environment. A healthcare organization, on the other hand, will need to come up with innovative ways to engage their nursing and medical staff to combat physician burnout and the growing nursing shortage.

What's important is that you provide your workforce with strategies that are designed for them specifically. Ultimately, your strategy will depend on the type of employees you have, the unique challenges facing those teams in your market, their day-to-day tasks, and how your organization operates as a whole.

Employee engagement for the frontline

Creating an employee engagement strategy can be especially important for frontline organizations. With 80% of the global workforce working on the frontline, it’s important to have strategies in place that will help keep these workers engaged, productive and motivated.

Additionally, employees in frontline positions often have more direct contact with customers and are more likely to represent the company to the public. As such, it is important for these employees to be engaged and motivated, so they can provide positive customer service experiences.

Frontline staff engagement strategies might involve providing employees with accessible digital tools for employee engagement, offering transparent and frequent communication, or emphasizing the importance of customer feedback.

Remember: whatever strategies you use, it’s important to tailor them specifically to your industry, business type and workforce.

How to create your employee engagement strategy

In order to have engaged employees, you need a plan in place, outcomes in mind, a clear outline of responsibilities and a culture that takes participation seriously. You also need a toolset available that is able to execute your plan, close distances, track results and simplify operations. 

To make this a little easier to understand, we've broken the process down into 7 simple steps.

1. Define - Your purpose, values & mission

Defining your own purpose, company core values, and mission statement is a crucial step in creating your employee engagement strategy. In fact, when teams know your goals and expectations of them, they are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged in their roles, according to research from Quantum Workplace.

By clearly articulating what you stand for as an organization, you can align your staff with these values and give them a reason to be invested in the success of your business in the long-term.

To ensure that all employees are on the same page here, you should provide an easy-to-access Hub containing all company policy and procedure documents, along with a thorough onboarding process for new hires.

2. Listen - Conversations and research

Direct, two-way conversations and further research into your employees’ needs and wants will help you to create a more personalized engagement strategy, making this a core step in the strategic process. One way to do this is through pulse surveys.

Pulse Surveys are short, regular surveys that ask employees about their engagement levels and how they feel about their work. This can help you to identify any areas where your employees may be struggling, and can help to ensure that your employee engagement strategy is constantly evolving.

Whether it’s through surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews or anonymous staff feedback tools, gathering data and hearing directly from your employees can give you valuable insights into what they need from an engagement strategy, and help you identify your organisation's key engagement drivers, in order for staff to stay engaged at work.

3. Review - Analyze and plan

Once you have gathered data from your employees, it’s time to analyze this information and determine what action needs to be taken. You may find that certain areas of your workplace are in need of improvement, or perhaps a company-wide change is necessary to boost employee engagement.

Whatever the results of your employee research, it’s crucial to identify specific targets and actions that will make your plan a success. What’s working, what's not? Are there specific issues that need to be addressed? What are your engagement goals as a business leader?

Key goals for your employee engagement strategy could include:

• Lower staff absenteeism
• Better employee retention rates and lower turnover
• Improved productivity
• Enhanced employee motivation and happiness 
• Increased customer satisfaction 
• More positive organizational culture.

By reviewing and analyzing the data you have gathered, you can gain a clear understanding of how to better engage employees in order to achieve these goals. This will help you to build a more effective employee engagement strategy that your employees want to respond positively to.

4. Commit - Actions speak louder than words

Strategy is important, but actions always speak louder than words. Employee engagement strategies that work, only work if you plan to back them up with core actions, processes and real change.

Below, we have outlined some key ways to commit to your employee engagement strategy. By truly committing to all of these actions, you can bring your employee engagement strategy to life and start seeing real results.

Tools & technology

Digital tools are essential for any organization looking to boost engagement. By providing your employees with the right tools, you can make it easier for them to connect with each other and with your company. This can help to improve communication and collaboration within your team, leading to higher job satisfaction, and a more engaged workforce.

There are a variety of different digital tools that you can use to engage your employees, including great employee engagement apps, online chat software and team collaboration tools.

It’s also important to consider using technology with frontline-specific features in deskless organizations. With 52% of frontline workers claiming they would leave their job over tech tools, better digital commitments are clearly needed here. By providing your employees with tools fit-for-purpose on the frontline, you can ensure that your employees feel supported and engaged no matter where they are in the organization.

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Recruitment 

Assuming that you have already begun the process of gathering data and analyzing it, you should now begin to take actions across the board in order to improve employee engagement. One way to do this is through better recruitment practices.

People who match your ideals and company culture, who will add value, and who are onboarding engagement are more likely to be engaged employees. Therefore, it is important to take care in the recruitment process, and to ensure that you are hiring people who will be a good fit for your company. You can use interviews, personality tests and job simulations to get to know a candidate better, and to see how they would fit into your team.

It is also important to provide a thorough onboarding process for new hires in order to establish a culture of engagement from day one. This can help them to feel welcome and comfortable in their new role, and can help them to learn about your company policies and procedures.

Communication

Regular communication is key to keeping employees engaged. Employees need to feel like they are part of the bigger picture, and that their voice is heard. By establishing a regular communication schedule – whether it be through Secure Chats, email, newsletters, team meetings or other methods – you can ensure that your employees are kept in the loop.

It’s also important to have a clear internal communications strategy in place. This should outline who is responsible for communicating with whom, and what methods will be used. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and that important messages don’t get missed.

It’s important to tailor communications to the needs of your employees. For example, if most of your employees are frontline workers who don’t have access to a computer, you may need to adjust your communications methods so that they can be accessed on mobile devices – think mobile employee engagement apps. You may also need to consider using different methods for different departments or locations within your company.

Surveys

Although surveys are important when drafting your strategy, it’s also important to gather feedback from your employees on a more regular basis if you want to walk the walk of employee engagement. By conducting regular Employee Surveys, you can get a sense of how your employees are feeling at any given time – and if things need to change.

An employee engagement survey can help you to gather valuable data and feedback from your employees, which you can use to improve your strategy. You may want to consider including questions about work-life balance, employee engagement initiatives, training and development, and other areas.

Frequent surveys are a great way to get ongoing feedback from your employees and to see how they feel about various aspects of their job or the company as a whole. You can also use surveys to measure the success of your employee engagement strategies, obtaining valuable insight into what is working and what needs to be changed or improved.

Managers

“Leadership has an important role to play when it comes to employee engagement, and this is especially important given nearly half (45%) of workers say leadership is “minimally” or “not at all” committed to improving company culture. In fact, 78% of employees confirmed that any change to culture needs to be driven by the CEO.” — Jeff Cates, CEO of Achievers.

For business leaders, mid-level management is often the first step towards employee engagement. By ensuring managers are supported from the top level, given the budget, training, tools and support they need, you can set them up for success as well as help to create a culture of engagement across your entire organization.

Effective managers have many important roles when it comes to employee engagement. They are responsible for setting expectations, holding people accountable, and providing feedback. They are also responsible for coaching and mentoring their team members, as well as helping to resolve any issues or conflicts that may arise.

5. Measure - Analyze and report

To measure the impact and see if their employee engagement activities and strategy is working, businesses should use employee engagement analytics via the right tools, at the right time.

It’s important to use analytics at different points throughout your engagement strategy, as this will help you to gain valuable insight and data that can be used to adjust what is working and improve the areas that need improvement. For example, you may want to analyze employee satisfaction levels before implementing a new training program, or track engagement levels over time to see if your initiatives are working.

There are many different types of analytics tools that you can use to analyze and report this data, for example Blink's Frontline Intelligence tool. Our powerful analytics offer insight into the people and relationships that make your organization tick. 

By analyzing data from people, places, and things on a regular basis, you can gain real-time intelligence into your employee engagement strategy that you can use to better support and understand your workforce.

6. Reward - recognition & progression

When used effectively, recognition can be an extremely powerful tool for improving employee engagement. Employees need to feel appreciated for their efforts, and recognition is one of the best ways to show your most engaged employees that you appreciate them.

However, simply giving employees a pat on the back isn’t enough – recognition needs to be meaningful, memorable and measurable. By taking the time to recognize employees in a meaningful way, you can show them that you truly value their contributions, and make them want to engage and contribute more.

There are many different ways to recognize employees, and it’s important to find what works best for your organization. Some popular methods of recognition include offering Kudos or Employee Recognition, awards ceremonies, Feed shout-outs, gift cards or vouchers, and thank-you notes.

It's also crucial that you back up recognition with opportunities for growth and career development. This may include promotions, opportunities to learn new skills, a stronger compensation and benefits package, or simply more responsibility. By providing employees with opportunities for growth and progression within the organization, you are helping them feel valued and motivated to continue performing well.

7. Repeat - Regular check-ins and adjustments

To truly maximize the impact of your employee engagement strategy, it’s important to take a regular and systematic approach. This means that you should regularly check in on key metrics, analyze the data you gather, and make any necessary adjustments based on what you find.

Stay on top of your engagement. Track key metrics such as employee satisfaction and engagement levels, and conduct regular check-ins to analyze the data you gather. This will help you make any necessary adjustments to your strategy in a timely and effective manner, ensuring that your employees are engaged and motivated at all times.

Final Thoughts

At Blink, we provide the all-in-one solution to employee engagement. Designed for the frontline, our easy-to-access, intuitive employee engagement app delivers real-time data and communications, actionable insights and intelligent recommendations.

Inspiring engagement in your employees has never been easier. With our powerful analytics tools and customizable recognition programs, you can gain valuable insight into your workforce and take the steps needed to boost engagement levels across the board.

Whether you’re looking for a way to track employee performance, improve communication and feedback, or simply create a more positive work environment, Blink has everything you need.

Get started today

If you’re like most people, you’d probably prefer not to imagine what happens in a worst-case scenario, or a situational crisis.

However, imagining what could go wrong — and how you’ll react to it — is one of the most important things you can do for your business. 

An effective crisis communications plan starts with your employees. With early, clear, and consistent messaging, your team can become advocates for your company during any crisis. 

By following these four straightforward crisis communication best practices, your stress levels will go from 100 to 10 (hopefully).

The 4 crisis communication best practices you need to remember

1. Make messaging consistent
2. Back up statements with action
3. Balance timeliness and precision
4. Practice empathy

Let’s have a more in-depth look at each of these practices. 

1. Make messaging consistent

Your internal communications during a crisis should convey the same stance and expectations to every member of your team, regardless of level. 

That is more effective if you already have an easy, direct line of communication with each member of your organization. 

While different roles may need to respond differently, it’s crucial t foster a sense of transparency rather than secrecy to ensure a better response across your organization. 

Communicate often to make sure everyone is on the same page, even with constantly changing information.

In a 2020 Edelman study on internal communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, 63% of employees wanted daily updates, and 23% wanted communications multiple times a day.  

2. Back up statements with action

It's important for your team to understand how to talk about a situation, but it's even more important for them to understand what's being done — and their role in the process. 

As soon as you have a response plan, communicate it to your team. That way, what's being done to resolve an issue is at the forefront of the conversation. Share what your organization's plan is to prevent situations from arising and use as many concrete steps as you can. 

Recruit those in your organization who can help with definite tasks. Perhaps the PR team needs to create an official statement, or the development team needs to redesign a product. Whatever it is, let everyone know how they can help to react to the crisis. 

3. Balance timeliness and precision

The moments immediately following an event are often the most critical for your internal communications during a crisis. 

You don’t want there to be a sudden vacuum of silence where others may be left to speculate. That is the time to get your initial response out quickly, to guide the narrative. 

It’s alright to let your employees know there are some things you still don’t know. It’s better to be upfront about how you’re addressing uncertainties than to wait to communicate at all. 

With that in mind, it’s also appropriate to take your time to craft a more thought-out response for the long term. Planning for crises means you’re prepared immediately in the event. 

While it can be impossible to plan out the details of your crisis response, it's vital to create crisis response documents that lay the groundwork processes for establishing more detailed responses with your team. 

4. Practice empathy

The crisis will undoubtedly affect your employees day-to-day, some certainly more than others. 

It’s critical to empathize with your employee’s struggles throughout the crisis and recognize where their duties have become more difficult.

A 2020 Catalyst survey on the effects of empathy in the workplace during COVID-19 found that empathetic leaders and managers increase productivity, innovation, and engagement. 

Although you don’t want to dwell on how the situation is causing setbacks or difficulties, you can still empathize with your workers while returning to the positive.

Communicate your gratitude for their continued hard work and outline plans to alleviate their stressors. 

The Catalyst study states empathetic leadership entails: 

• Respecting life circumstances
• Supporting both life and work needs
• Fostering inclusion

Open lines of communication to hear their input and experiences. Solicit feedback through forms, polls, and one-on-one interviews. Let your employees know that you want to listen to their thoughts on tackling the crisis from their point of view. 

Show up in more than just writing. Video messages and calls communicate more empathy than written statements. 

Final thoughts: 4 crisis communication best practices

Your internal communication during a situational crisis is just as important as your public communication — and perhaps even more so. 

That’s why it’s essential to lay the groundwork for a plan so you can react effectively if necessary. Your internal crisis communications should be consistent, actionable, timely, and empathetic. 

All the members of your organization deserve frequent, comprehensive, and accessible updates during a crisis. 

Psst – looking for crisis communication tools?

Blink’s employee communications app provides an efficient way for you to communicate with everyone in your organization. From company-wide status updates to policy changes through the intranet, the all-in-one app makes connecting with your employees simple.