Make it personal: Why internal comms needs a POV

Blink, the leading mobile-first employee experience platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Cocentric, a UK-based digital employee experience company, to accelerate the development of tech solutions for frontline employees to help engage workforces across the UK and EU. This collaboration positions Cocentric as Blink’s key European and APAC partner, bringing cutting-edge, multi-platform expertise to organisations seeking seamless, next-generation communication tools.

The collaboration will enable organisations to take advantage of Blink’s award-winning platform, which helps companies reduce staff turnover by up to 26% by providing frontline employees with a single, mobile-first tool to stay connected with their team and company updates. Cocentric, known for helping businesses like Rare Restaurants, Populous, and Pizza Pilgrims to transform their employee communications, will build on its expertise to deliver tailored support for Blink’s platform, allowing organisations to easily integrate the app into their existing systems.

“At Blink, we are committed to transforming how frontline workers stay connected, regardless of their location,” said Sean Nolan, CEO at Blink. “By partnering with Cocentric, we’re able to leverage their deep knowledge of workplace technology and tailor our approach to the unique needs of UK and EU organisations. Together, we will help companies overcome the complexities of managing distributed teams by integrating Blink’s technology with Cocentric’s expertise.”

The partnership will also focus on co-selling initiatives and joint solution development, with Cocentric building specialised subject matter expertise around Blink’s platform. The collaboration will extend beyond standard integrations to include unique technology solutions developed by Cocentric, such as Connect, a synchronisation tool designed to enhance Blink’s user experience by bridging gaps in HR system integration. These solutions are designed to streamline user data management and deliver a more seamless experience for Blink customers.

“Cocentric is thrilled to partner with Blink, whose platform has already proven its ability to drive real results in employee engagement,” said Regan Collins, CEO at Cocentric. “Our clients are always looking for ways to create a better working environment for their teams, and with Blink’s app, we can help them deliver improved communication and collaboration at every level. We’re looking forward to offering this solution across the UK and Europe, with integrations that make the process even smoother for businesses.”

In addition to building solutions around Blink’s technology, Cocentric will also help to develop tools and integrations within the Microsoft 365 suite that will further enhance Blink’s offering in this space. This will ensure that organisations currently relying on Microsoft technologies can benefit from enhanced employee engagement capabilities without the need to migrate to competing platforms. 

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Say hello to Jackson Mannix — Boston-based Commercial Account Executive, former SDR trail-blazer, and resident champion of all things frontline.

Since joining Blink in late 2022, Jackson has helped shape our SDR program from the ground up, pushed the Southeast market into high gear, and kept the competitive-but-collaborative spirit of our culture alive and buzzing.

This week, he sat down with us to talk startup chaos (the good kind!), scaling a sales engine, and why empowering frontline workers still gets him out of bed every morning. Let’s dive in!

Which Blink office do you work out of?

I work out of our Boston office.

What is your position at Blink?

I’m a Commercial Account Executive covering the U.S. Southeast. I joined Blink in fall 2022 as an SDR.

How long have you been at Blink?

Just over two and a half years.

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

Back then I wasn’t sure which kind of company I wanted to join. I’d spent about six months bartending and serving at a local Boston bar, figuring out my next step. I knew I wanted to get into software sales — I just didn’t know where or how. More importantly, I wanted to work with people who were invested in my growth and who valued the traits I bring to the table.

While job-hunting, I tapped my network and discovered Blink. At that point, Blink didn’t have a Boston presence, but the passion I saw for Blink was contagious. The idea of helping frontline workers, not just businesses, struck a chord. Yes, we deliver huge value to organizations and improve their bottom line — but we also make life less stressful for hourly employees who are raising families and juggling enough already.

Having lived that hourly-wage reality myself, I immediately saw the impact Blink could have. We’re creating real, global change by improving work for people who often get overlooked. That combination of purpose, growth, and the chance to help build something from the ground up drew me in.

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

The evolution of our SDR program, hands down. I spent more than two years as an SDR, so it was a true career commitment. The first 4-6 months were pure learning, then — right as I hit my stride — Amanda (our Global Sales Development Director) arrived. Working closely with her and the senior SDRs, we overhauled training, processes, and feedback loops.

Seeing that transformation — from the scrappy early days to today’s structured program — has been incredible. We have a new cohort of SDRs coming in now, and they’ll benefit from a playbook built on both our successes — and our mistakes. Every miscue was a lesson that made the program stronger. I’m proud that leadership trusted me to shape the day-to-day work, give candid feedback, and help steer where the team is going.

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

Competitive, collaborative and chaotic.

Blink is competitive in the best way: We all push each other — within and across teams — to set a high bar, but never with the hope that someone else falls short. I want to beat my number, but I still want the person next to me to smash theirs, too.

That healthy drive dovetails with a spirit of collaboration that’s almost startling. From day one, people leap in to share decks, brainstorm talk tracks, or hop on a call when something goes sideways. That help hasn’t slowed for me two-and-a-half years later.

“Chaotic” sounds negative, but it’s a positive here. Priorities shift fast, new projects hit your desk with immediate urgency, and if you thrive in that kind of pressure-makes-diamonds environment — learning from the inevitable missteps and bouncing back stronger — Blink is your playground.

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

Landing big global logos will always be a thrill, but what really excites me now is cracking new verticals where we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Billions of frontline workers still lack a modern comms tool, and some operate in highly specific or newly burgeoning industries. Every so often a niche customer pops up — maybe a specialty manufacturer or seasonal service — who shows us Blink can solve problems we didn’t know existed in that space. One unexpected win like that can inspire product tweaks and reshape how we go to market.

The “green grass” feels endless, and the idea that next quarter’s most interesting deal might come from a sector we’ve never targeted keeps the future wide open.

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

I’m loving the new podcast studio. We upgraded from a basic setup to a full broadcast-quality room, and the content now coming out — clean visuals, tight edits, professional sound — has lifted our thought leadership game. Podcasts may feel crowded, but they work because people already consume information that way. Watching customers plan their own internal podcasts after seeing what we’ve built is proof we’re practicing what we preach. It’s cool to see us invest in a channel, nail the execution, and then hand clients a real-world example they can replicate for their own teams.

Why do you work for Blink?

I believe in our mission and in the people delivering it. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Blink has celebrated my wins loudly and stood by me during the lows.

When a deal closes, teammates are first to cheer; when I hit a rough patch, my teammates and leadership step in without hesitation. Amanda, for instance, showed incredible compassion when I was dealing with serious personal challenges, and the business made sure I felt heard and valued, not just judged by a number.

That genuine, reciprocal support is powerful. It’s why I log in every morning ready to push harder, and why I see a long runway for myself here.

Stress, strained relationships, and missed deadlines. According to Grammarly’s 2024 State of Business Communication report, poor internal communication causes all three of these things.

In contrast, good workplace communication leads to increased productivity and work satisfaction. Employees who get enough information to do their job well are also 2.8 times more likely to be engaged in their work.

There’s a strong link between internal communication and employee engagement.

Effective communication helps employees feel more connected to the organization, their work, and each other. These highly engaged employees then contribute to positive workplace communication.

It’s a virtuous circle that — according to Gallup research — leads to improvements in employee retention and wellbeing, as well as your business profits.

In this article, we look at how you can boost employee engagement through your internal communication strategy.

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The basics of a good internal communication plan

If you want to improve employee engagement, improving employee communication is a great place to start. To do that, you need a plan.

An internal communication plan helps you approach employee communications with strategy. You understand where you are now, where you want to get to, and which combination of activities is most likely to get you there.

We can boil an employee communication plan down into four key stages. You can create a successful internal communications strategy by:

1. Assessing your current situation

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current communication strategy? Are your comms successfully engaging employees? Are messages resonating in the way you want them to? Are some communication channels more effective than others? Listen to opinions and ideas from across the company to evaluate your current comms performance.

2. Choosing communication channels

Communication channels should be accessible to all employees, including those working remotely and on the frontlines of your organization. You need appropriate channels for company-wide updates, 1:1 meetings, and group chat. You also need channels that facilitate top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer communication.

3. Deciding on communication content

If one of your priorities is employee engagement, crafting engaging company messages is the next item on your list. Create an internal communication calendar, starting with the essential messages that help your organization function safely and efficiently. Next, decide on the types of content you’ll use to share company culture and foster a sense of belonging.

4. Assessing engagement

A good internal communication plan is fluid. It’s a constant work in progress. So once you’ve put your new strategy into action, it’s time to assess what works and what doesn’t. Using communication and engagement key performance indicators (KPIs), see how far you’ve come and make targeted improvements.

Read more: 13 ways to quickly improve your internal communications

11 engaging ideas for your internal communication plan

Approach your internal communication plan tactically and it will better support your employee engagement efforts. Here, we’ve put together a list of internal communication best practices to incorporate into your plan.  

Choose the right channels

Employee communications should reach every member of every team. In a world of remote working, this means using digital communication channels.

These digital communication channels need to be accessible on mobile devices because 80% of the world’s workforce doesn’t sit behind a desk — and because paper memos on a noticeboard are far too easy to miss.

If email is your first thought, bear in mind that it’s rarely the best solution. Many frontline workers don’t have a company email address and lots of desk-based workers are suffering from email overload. There’s a temptation to overlook company comms in your inbox when it’s already overflowing.   

Your internal communications engage employees more effectively if you create dedicated, digital channels with the help of a social intranet or employee app.

These platforms allow your teams to communicate over a news feed, group chats, and 1:1 messages. The best tools come with lots of engaging, social-media-style features and are available on every employee smartphone.

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Be clear and concise

Clear and concise internal communications are essential to engagement because:

• You get fewer misunderstandings — and when employees fully understand your message they’re more likely to respond to it quickly
• It makes messages easier to absorb and remember
• You show respect for your employees’ time, which means they’re more likely to read future messages

So when creating employee communications, try to use simple language, avoid industry jargon, and keep sentences short.

Before you put anything down on paper or into words, think about what you want your audience to do after reading or watching your content. Also, identify the most important information and put this at the start of your message.

Once you’ve written your content, edit it ruthlessly cutting unnecessary words and repetition. You can also use AI tools, like Hemingway. Hemingway highlights sentences that are difficult to read. You can then simplify these sentences to make your internal communications clearer and more concise. 

Foster two-way communication

Imagine you’re watching a presentation.

The speaker — let’s call him Steve — clicks through his well-designed slides. He talks through the content competently. But he doesn’t pause for input or questions.

Now, another speaker takes to the floor.

This speaker — let’s call her Maria — starts her presentation with an interactive poll. After speaking for a few minutes, she involves the whole room in a discussion so everyone gets to share their thoughts and ideas. She speaks some more, then invites you to ask questions.  

Which presentation is the most engaging?

It’s likely that if you had to sit through Steve’s presentation, your mind would wander. You’d start thinking about the workload waiting for you back at your desk — or what you fancied eating for lunch.

But by incorporating two-way communication, Maria grabbed everyone’s attention from the beginning. She sustained that attention by regularly involving everyone in the conversation.

When you involve people in a presentation — or in your internal communications — you make the experience more engaging.

There are lots of ways to create interactive, two-way employee communications. You can launch polls and surveys. You can run an online Q&A session with your CEO. You can also post content to the company news feed, where employees can interact by commenting, liking, and sharing.

Create open dialogue like this — where thoughts, opinions, and questions flow in all directions — and you’ll find it much easier to interest employees in your internal communications.

Collect feedback

As we’ve just mentioned, polls and surveys boost employee engagement. Employees like to feel that they have a voice — and that leadership takes their thoughts on board.

So collect feedback regularly. Ask employees about the employee experience, the latest company changes, or the next company social event. You can also ask them what they think about your internal communications.

According to Axios research, 36% of employees want to share feedback with leaders about the essential communications they’re receiving but they don’t feel they get the opportunity.

So ask your employees about their communication preferences and any pain points they experience with your current employee communication plan. Give workers the option to share feedback anonymously if they prefer.

Then, analyze your feedback results. Also, be sure to share the results of polls and surveys with your employees. Thank them for their input and tell them what you plan to do.

This type of feedback loop shows employees that feedback requests aren’t just empty attempts at engagement. You really care about their opinions and ideas — and are willing to take action on them. This helps to engage employees with these types of communications going forward.

Tailor your communications

If all employees get all internal communications, they start to switch off. When your audience knows that only a small proportion of employee communications apply to them, they stop taking the time to read them.

That’s why another internal communication best practice is personalization. Using digital internal communication tools you can segment your audience based on their role, department, location, and tenure. You can then tailor content to each segment of your audience so everything they receive is relevant.

Your warehouse team sees different messages to the staff in HQ. Managers receive different comms to new hires. Employees in each of the regions you cover only see content relevant to their location.

With an intranet or app, you can also personalize employee dashboards, making them applicable to different roles and departments, putting the most important content front and center.

Celebrate achievements and milestones

Recognition is an integral part of any good employee communication plan. That’s because praise makes employees feel valued — and because other employees love to get behind a co-worker who’s done a great job.

Whether you’re celebrating the completion of a project, a birthday, or a work anniversary, you’re engaging your workforce. You’re creating a sense of accomplishment, belonging, and motivation. This can make a huge difference to your business.

A recent Gallup and Workhuman recognition report revealed that, by making recognition an important part of company culture, a 10,000-person organization can save up to $16.1 million a year in reduced employee turnover costs.

The easiest way to give company-wide recognition is via a dedicated recognition program across your digital communication channels. This type of program helps you build recognition into the fabric of your organization.

It makes manager-employee and peer-to-peer recognition incredibly easy, so it becomes a regular occurrence. A digital solution also ensures that frontline employees — who don’t get a lot of face-to-face time with managers or co-workers — get the same level of appreciation as their office-based peers.

Be consistent

The best employee communications are consistent. They stick to a reliable schedule and they demonstrate a similar tone and style.

This consistency ensures that employees come to trust and rely on your internal communications. They know when and where to expect key messages and feel kept in the loop. So they’re more likely to engage with what you have to say.

Here’s how you can make your comms more consistent:

• Use an internal communications calendar. Plan your comms for each month, including a mix of formal and informal company content.
• Provide clear guidelines and templates. That way all members of staff can deliver communications with the same style and tone.
• Use automation tools. A feature like Blink’s Employee Journeys allows you to create automated content paths. This ensures that all employees receive essential comms at key milestones — for example, during onboarding or after a year of service. 

Create engaging content

We all know from browsing social media that multimedia content catches the eye. An original photograph, an infographic, or a video is much more likely to grab our attention than plain, old text. So make these multimedia elements part of your internal communication plan.

Also, include a variety of content on your communication channels. That means need-to-know company updates along with snaps from your latest social event. Informal content helps to amplify company culture and create a sense of belonging.

Stories are also engaging. So post a real-life story about a customer your company has helped — or about one of the causes your organization supports.

When planning internal communications, think about what matters to your employees, too. They might like a reminder of the training and development opportunities, wellbeing resources, or benefits you offer. FAQs come in handy for new hires. 

You could also take inspiration from the Tesco supermarket chain, by creating personalized videos to support employees with financial planning. 

Encourage leadership involvement

When leaders communicate transparently with their workforce, it creates trust and builds engagement. It also sets a great example. Employees are more likely to be active on communication channels if their leaders are showing up there, too.

Employees also care what their leaders have to say. 36% say that they’d like to hear from their leaders more often.

So encourage leaders to get involved on the company news feed. Schedule a bi-weekly post from the CEO. Or plan an online Q&A session, where employees can ask leaders their burning questions.

Create connection

Employees who feel that they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work.

So use your communication channels to reinforce a positive and inclusive company culture — and make peer-to-peer connection part of your employee communication plan.

Frontline employees — and those who work remotely — have much less opportunity to collaborate and build workplace friendships. So ensure that employees have company communication channels suited to informal conversation.

Salesforce has made peer-to-peer connection and inclusivity a priority. They’ve created equality groups where employees with a shared interest, background, or identity can come together to champion their needs in the workplace.

However you choose to do it, be sure to make connection part of your internal communication plan. By giving co-workers the tools they need to support one another, share useful insights, and build workplace friendships, you create a more engaging workplace.

Leverage technology                 

Internal communication tools make comms and employee engagement much easier. With the right all-in-one platform, you create a company hub, which becomes the go-to place for the latest company news.

Using this platform, you can post communications that are easy for employees to find and search. You can create multi-media content to engage employees. You can recognize hard work, launch polls, and automate content so it reaches the right people at the right time.

Through integrations, you support employee engagement beyond comms. Employees are only ever a click or tap away from learning and development programs, wellbeing resources, and self-serve HR tools — like vacation booking and shift scheduling.

Technology helps you measure the success of your internal communication plan, too. A communication tool with in-built analytics can tell you how employees are interacting with your comms.

Metrics like message open rates, post likes, response time, profile completion, and communication tool adoption build a picture of what is and isn’t working when it comes to your internal communication strategy.

You can then use your findings to make data-backed improvements, finding new and more effective ways to engage employees with your internal communications going forward.

Using an employee app for internal communication plan success

Creating and executing a successful internal communication plan is easier when you use the right technology. A great tech tool is essential if you have hard-to-reach employees working on the frontlines of your company.

Frontline employees don’t spend a lot of time in the office nor do they have easy access to a computer or company email account. That’s why — if even a small proportion of your employees work away from a desk — you need mobile-first internal communication tools, accessible via smartphone.

An employee app fits this description. It brings communication channels to the palm of every employee.

Workers can catch up with company news during a break or check their shift schedule from home. They get to chat with co-workers and feel part of company culture in a way that simply isn’t possible if your organization still relies on emails or a desktop-based intranet.

Here at Blink, our employee app comes with a company news feed, 1:1, and group chat. It has tools for surveys and employee recognition.

Your employees also get access to a content library and a digital hub — where it’s easy to access other workplace software. Your comms team gets automation and analytics features that help them hone your internal communication plan.

If you’d like to see what Blink can do for your employee communications, schedule a personalized demo today.  

What exactly is doomscrolling?

We’ve all been there.

Silencing our nightly wind-down reminders and ignoring the unopened book on our nightstand as we endlessly scroll through increasingly negative news articles and social media posts — only to feel worse afterward.

It’s called doomscrolling, and it’s not just a buzzword. It’s a real problem.

Coined — and escalated — during the Covid pandemic, doomscrolling is the growing habit of constantly consuming negative articles on news sites or social media. What may begin as a well-intended desire to stay informed on world events can quickly devolve into a downward spiral of distressing content. For instance, searching for updates on the economic market can lead to a flood of articles on recessions and layoffs, and looking up the latest on a local election can unearth politically divisive headlines. It’s an especially easy trap to fall into on smartphones, as our social media apps algorithmically learn how to keep us scrolling for more.

The unending cycle of stress caused by doomscrolling has the power to infiltrate not just our personal lives, but our professional ones, too. It exacerbates feelings of anxiety and pessimism that people can inadvertently bring to work with them, hindering workplace satisfaction, focus, and productivity.

And if you don’t think your workforce is impacted by the doomscrolling dilemma, you may be surprised: A recent survey revealed that nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults who use social media — and, generationally, a whopping half of Gen Z adults (53%) and millennials (46%) — said they occasionally or frequently doomscroll.

The good news? Employers can help to reverse this trend and improve employee well-being.

Enter: The power of positive internal comms

If we consider the average 8-hour workday, employees spend a third of their day — or more — at work and on workplace tech platforms. This means that internal communications leaders have an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in mitigating the damage of doomscrolling and creating corporate content that uplifts the workforce.

Let’s explore four ways that internal comms teams can help their workforce detox from doomscrolling and boost employee spirit — whether they’re on the frontline or in the front office.

1. Gauge the mindset of your employees

Doomscrolling, and overall negativity, can be detrimental to an individual’s mindset, focus, and overall well-being — making it a priority for HR and people-facing leaders.

To lift up employees, an important first step is acknowledging the challenges that people may be facing and understanding the state of the workforce. In addition to having open conversations with employees in team meetings or one-on-one check-ins, internal comms teams should consider conducting company-wide outreach.

Short-form polls, which people can respond to anonymously, can be a great way to gauge how employees are feeling across the organization. By conducting a quick poll or pulse survey on how stressed people are feeling outside of work, or how supported they feel by their manager or employer, organizations can establish a baseline for employee morale and track sentiment over time with follow-up check-ins.

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This is also an excellent chance to see what employees are looking for in their company’s internal comms. Employees can share their thoughts on the frequency, formats, themes, and channels they prefer the most when it comes to receiving information from their company, helping internal comms to ensure their important company updates and culture-building messages aren’t lost in the noise.

2. Create a positive communications culture

Long gone are the days of internal comms being just corporate news-sharing and policy updates. Today’s most successful comms plans include telling uplifting stories from across the organization as part of a broader effort to improve employee engagement and retention.

By regularly celebrating company wins (like the opening of a new facility), recognizing employee contributions, and celebrating big milestones (such as birthdays and work-iverseries), internal comms teams can establish a rhythm of lighthearted and positive content. Not only can this help to counterbalance negativity outside of work, it’s a good step toward humanizing and strengthening internal storytelling overall.

For employers who have a significant population of frontline workers, the risk of disconnect and isolation can be much greater, given the very nature of how and where they work. These team members may want more frequent and engaging updates — think personal shout-outs from coworkers or short-form videos from people leaders — that highlight their hard work and the positive impact they’re having on the organization.

Bonus points if all of this employee celebration and recognition is happening on a mobile platform where everyone can engage and chime in with their own comments of appreciation.

3. Encourage connection over isolation

Employers of any size and scope — and especially those who have a combination of office-based, frontline, and remote workers — know how difficult it can be to build a cohesive sense of community. When not all employees have a company email address or access to a work computer, how can you reach everyone where they are? And, maybe even more importantly, how can they connect with one another?

This is where a mobile-first internal comms platform can be a game-changer. Virtual chats and communities give employees a dedicated place to communicate with each other. By mimicking the most collaborative parts of social networking apps like Facebook, internal comms leaders can facilitate social connection and create a unifying and fulfilling employee experience.

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And with easy photo- and video-sharing capabilities, employees can be not just consumers of internal comms content, but creators as well. Consider encouraging employees to generate and share their own content — giving coworkers visibility into their day-to-day roles, for example, or virtually checking in from their current worksite. This can be a great way to incorporate more voices and bring a new level of authenticity and personalization to your internal comms strategy.

4. Promote a digital peace of mind

Even when it comes to uplifting internal comms, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.

Part of the appeal of doomscrolling is that it’s easy to mindlessly scroll on and on — the last thing we want workplace platforms to do is encourage the same behavior. Internal comms teams can mitigate the endless scroll by keeping their messages positive, avoiding information overload, and making their digital workplace super relevant.

Sharing content based on team, role, or region, for example, can minimize potential information overflow. Likewise, labeling critical company updates as mandatory reads can help internal comms ensure their must-read messages are being seen, while providing flexibility to employees to engage with or dismiss other posts as they see fit. And organizations that offer employee well-being solutions, such as a mindfulness app, can create an internal resource hub that quick-links to helpful employee benefits where they’re easy to find and use.

Finally, as a rule of thumb, internal comms should serve as external eyes and keep a pulse on what’s happening outside of work. Be sure to stay up to date on current social conversations that may be causing distress, as well as upcoming events that may cause heightened anxiety. By factoring these concerns into monthly or quarterly plans, internal comms teams can more proactively create content that’s timely and helpful to employees across the organization.

Don’t let doomscrolling get your employees down.

Detoxing from doomscrolling is about more than just unplugging from technology, which is often difficult or — for some employees — outright impossible. It’s about thoughtfully using workplace platforms to create an encouraging and supportive environment at work.

By taking a more strategic approach to employee morale and implementing these uplifting communications strategies, internal comms teams can help their people stay positive, connected, and resilient — even during the most uncertain times.

‍Learn how you can uplift your workforce with an inclusive and interactive internal communications platform. Discover Blink today.

Employee retention is the art of holding onto your staff once you’ve hired them.

And, in 202w, it’s more important than ever.

Why?

Because companies are finally waking up to the competitive advantages of being a "people" company. A "churn and burn" approach to hiring results in poor customer service.

This is an issue, because customers are placing increasing value on good service. With smartphones, it’s easier than ever to find a competitor company to buy from. Or in the case of consumer goods, to avoid the shop altogether and order online.

Before we start.

You can hold onto employees (more or less) by treating them well. Listening to their concerns, and providing them with a few incentives to stay put.

If you’re an HR professional or a CEO, you don’t need us to tell you that.
What you might find useful is an in-depth guide to employee retention in the modern workforce.

How to maximize your employee engagement efforts. And make sure there were no stones left unturned in creating the most comprehensive guide... we asked some industry-leading experts to contribute.
We’ll cover:

• Detail on the importance of employee retention today.
• How to build effective employee retention strategies.
• The exit interview, and how to turn it into your secret employee retention weapon.

Let’s begin...

Why is employee retention important?

Employee retention means "treating your employees right"; it’s an end in itself, not just the means.

From an ethical standpoint, no company should mistreat their employees. Meeting your colleagues’ basic needs and providing them with a safe and stimulating workplace? It's the right thing to do for its own sake.

But it’s more than that.

Attracting talent to your company—and keeping it once you’ve found it—has so many advantages. According to Herzberg's famous Two-Factory Theory, employee retention and employee motivation are interdependent. You can find out more about this in the Vantage Circle HR blog. A strong employee retention strategy will:

• Reduce operating costs.
• Improve customer service levels.
• Allow you to out-compete your competitors for the best people.

The cost of high employee turnover

Hiring and firing is expensive.

Eye-wateringly expensive, to be precise. Think six to nine months salary as a conservative estimate.

Then you need to consider the impact of not having someone there to do that person’s work. That could slow down a massive project. Cause higher overtime costs as existing staff pick up their work. Or just lead to a reduction in staff morale as they struggle with increased workloads.

Companies tend to get the importance of this for salaried positions and execs. but there’s often a bit of a blind spot when it comes to their non-desk workforce and the real cost of losing an employee.

Sure, replacing a senior-level manager is more expensive than replacing a bus driver. But what happens if your bus drivers’ morale becomes so low that two or three quit per month?

It all adds up.

"Losing talented staff can also have emotional consequences on those who stay. Effectively reducing productivity by decreasing morality and motivation," says Rochelle van Rensburg of the Ezzely Blog.

"Maintaining essential talent is therefore mission-critical to organizational effectiveness for all these reasons. Staff retention puts companies ahead of their competitors, by reducing recruiting and re-skilling costs. But more importantly, by keeping the top performers, which results in all of their specialized knowledge and expertise remaining in-house."

Your mobile workforce interacts most with customers. They are the public face of your company. So, their happiness will reflect in the level of service they give your customers.

Happier, more engaged employees deliver better customer service. They also build up a bank of operational knowledge over time. This helps them respond to queries quicker and more effectively than a steady stream of new hires ever could.

The importance of employee retention in 2020

An active employee retention strategy is more important than ever.
There are two key reasons for this:

Firstly, it's never been easier for customers to look elsewhere if they feel that your levels of service don’t match their expectations. We live in an age where any information you want is available via a few taps of a smartphone screen.

Dissatisfied with a hotel stay? Booking.com can recommend thousands of others.

Bad experience in a taxi? A quick Google gets you all the phone numbers of other local firms.

Poor customer experience at a theme park? TripAdvisor lists other attractions.

You get the idea.

Despite this, customers still want to be loyal. Millennials want to stick around if your brand fits in with their personal values. Don’t throw away this loyal market.

Secondly, it's never been easier to browse jobs via online jobs boards. If your workforce isn’t happy they will move. Don’t assume that they will sit in their job miserable because there aren’t any other options.

Reasons why employees leave and reasons why managers leave aren't always the same.

Your competitors may be waking up to the benefits of being a "people company." They'll more than happily snap up the staff you can't keep.

The best employee retention strategies

A strong employee retention rate is crucial to remain competitive. How you go about doing this is worth examining in some depth.

Remember - you are an employee too! As you create your employee retention strategies, keep asking yourself, "would I be happy with this?" or, "does this seem reasonable to me?"

Here are a few points you’ll need to cover when creating an employee engagement plan. Remember, the employee experience starts before the first day at the interviewing stage. To set each new starter up for success, getting the onboarding right is crucial. Want to learn more? Check out the Definitive Guide to Onboarding.

Let's quickly touch on the foundation of any working relationship: trust. As Kayla Lopez from the recruitment firm Viqtory.com reminds us. "If your employees trust you and the organization they tend to embrace the workplace; this begins before the employee is even hired. Transparency is something that we need to willingly support to gain trust. A workforce that trusts you will be engaged, a workforce that is engaged will retain. Trust is the foundation of all strong partnerships."

Now for the details...

Pay well

We’ll start with the basics.

If your pay rates don’t match with your competitors’, you’re going to have a bad time keeping hold of your high achievers.

Take a quick look at what your competitors pay for equal positions. Try and build a league table of what similar companies to you pay, and where you rank. Glassdoor is a good starting point.

Aiming for the absolute top is ideal if you can afford it, but you don’t have to offer the best salary offer out there. There are plenty of other ways to encourage your staff to stay put (more on that below), as long as you can land in the middle of the table. For someone working in a frontline job, it is difficult to give your best at work knowing you could get $5.00 per hour more for the same job elsewhere. (Even if there’s free pizza every Friday).

It’s also worth noting that even a generous wage packet won’t persuade your employees to stay if you’re otherwise a nightmare to work for.
Consider this step the cornerstone of all your employee engagement efforts. Not enough by itself, but essential in building something lasting and meaningful.

Give competitive benefits

You might not be able to take it to Silicon Valley levels. (Free three-course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, unlimited holidays, and puppy creches).

You can offer a benefits package or a performance bonus scheme tailored to the size of your business, your budget, and your business objectives. The key is to prioritize benefits that would have a tangible difference to the lives of your employees. Add the fancy stuff on if you have money to spare.

Think about:

• Childcare vouchers: we’re all aware of the struggle to find affordable childcare. Help your workforce with their work-life balance (and keep it diverse—most of the people who end up quitting jobs for childcare reasons tend to be women) by offering vouchers to help with the cost.

• Health cover for employees and dependents: an absolute must if you're US-based, although even if you live in a country which has some form of universal health care, giving employees the opportunity to go private is very appealing.

• Flexible working: if the type of work you do accommodates it, flexible working is like gold dust to your staff. A "work your hours however you want" policy helps people manage childcare commitments, fit in dentist appointments, and reduce the stress of trying to juggle work and life commitments.

• Lunch program: Most of the lunch break is spent buying, prepping or reheating food. Offering a tasty and healthy in-house solution, such as the online canteen Smunch, allows your employees to capitalize on their break time and share a meal together. Ultimately, this will improve your company culture and cross-departmental communication as well.

Once you’ve got the basics sorted, some nice-to-have options include:

• Above average PTO allowances
• Free gym memberships and cycle to work programs
• Personal development funds

Develop a feedback culture to empower employees

Your employees know their workplace better than anyone else. Make the most of it.

If your employees feel involved in shaping their workplace and consulted on major decisions then they will be reluctant to leave it.

The key to this is to carry regular, easy-to-complete employee engagement surveys so you know exactly what the mood on the ground is and how to improve it.

Employees will hold an enormous amount of goodwill towards a workplace that listens to their concerns and acts on them. Equally, they will reserve a special sort of resentment for those that send out survey after survey, only to ignore the results.

It’s essential to have a solid plan in place for your employee engagement surveys, or they will backfire spectacularly.

Key pointers

• Small, regular surveys are better than long, annual ones. Only giving your employees one chance per year to raise issues will result in bottled up frustrations spewing out come survey time. Not only does this result in surveys that skew unhelpfully negative, but it also means that your HR team will face an uphill struggle
• Another point about designing surveys that you can respond to effectively: keep it targeted. Focus each of your quick-answer surveys on a specific area—facilities onsite, for example, or about relationships with line managers.
• Use short answer questions: "yes/no" or "on a scale of 1-5" formats make it easier for people to respond immediately. Long-form feedback can be helpful, but having lots of long-answer text boxes on your survey will put people off completing it. A good compromise is to have an optional "any specific comments" box at the end of the survey.

When you’ve processed the surveys, share the results and shout about what you’re doing to act on feedback. Employees will appreciate the transparency, and it’s important to signpost what you’re doing to address the concerns they raise—or they won’t bother to participate in future surveys.

Try and create a "feedback culture" in your company by encouraging people to come forward with suggestions for improvements any time they want. Surveys highlight pain points as they are reactive; an anonymous suggestions box (either digital or real-life), on the other hand, will bring out the more innovative side of your workforce.

These suggestions might be small—a new way of organizing the break room fridge, or the introduction of free coffee Mondays—but the opportunity to improve the workplace in this way will work wonders for your wider staff’s sense of allegiance to it.

Make your workplace a fun place to work

If your coworkers are your friends, spending time at work doesn’t seem so taxing.

This is where the fun stuff comes in—the away days, lunchtime yoga, the free breakfast bar, the Christmas party...

If you have a mobile workforce, don’t forget to include them, too! They might not be in the office that often, so having regular get-togethers or breakfast clubs when shifts change is a great way to build a sense of belonging.

Obviously, base these activities on what your own workforce would like, but some ideas include:

• Regular lunchtime sports clubs (running, yoga, five-a-side, badminton are good starting points)
• Away days and team-building weekends.
• Semi-regular opportunities for free food. Depending on the size of your team, you could offer lunch on the company each Friday, pizza parties when teams hit their targets or just because
• Big events like Christmas parties and family fun days. If you run awareness weeks for things like diversity, mental health and stress, why not run some exciting events for these too?
• Recognition of key milestones. If there are particularly busy periods throughout the year (like the Christmas rush for anyone working in retail or hospitality), put on an event to recognize the hard work your employees put in. This could be a full-on party, or simply just giving your staff the nod to take off after lunch on a quiet day.

This step does, however, come with a big flashing warning sign that says: don’t bother doing any of these without doing the steps listed above first.

Because these are fun and exciting, and sound super trendy when you put them on your Careers page, people often use them in place of paying a decent wage, or offering flexible working hours, or acting on employee feedback.

The exit interview - your employee retention secret weapon

One of the best ways of figuring out what’s going wrong with your employee retention efforts is asking your colleagues when they leave.

Seems counter-intuitive, and rather frustrating, doesn’t it?

And in some ways, it is. No amount of collecting and aggregating exit interview data, tweaking your employee engagement plan and making changes in your company to reduce employee turnover will change the fact that, for that particular employee, your efforts weren’t enough. For HR people and line managers, that stings sometimes.

Still, if you can take your losses on the chin, this is a real opportunity to do better for your colleagues, and identify and fix any major issues that push people to leave.

There are three main reasons why exit interviews are so effective at flagging up things that need to change:

The employee is leaving so won't hold back

Regardless of how many times you reassure your colleagues that your pulse surveys are anonymous and that helpful suggestions are encouraged, they will still be a little suspicious.

The worry that surveys aren’t really anonymous, or that speaking out about a key workplace bugbear will get them labelled as a troublemaker, will be a constant thorn in the side of your employee retention efforts.

(As a side note, if this attitude is pervasive then it might be time to take a look at your workplace culture. A little reticence is natural. An all-encompassing dread of speaking up might indicate something a little more sinister).

The exit interview is a different kettle of fish. They’re leaving. There are no raises or opportunities for promotion in the pipeline. This is their opportunity to "tell it like it really is."

Listen, even if you think they’re being unfair and bitter.

Problems brought up during exit interviews tend to have weighed heavily on an employee’s decision to leave. In other words, they’re big issues you need to address urgently.

Get the whole picture

Multiple exit interviews help build up a better picture of life on the ground.

Of course, there’s always the chance that one particular employee just, for whatever reason, didn’t have a good time.

That’s where keeping data from previous exit interviews comes in.

For example, if an employee complains about their line manager being unbearable, it might just be a clash of personalities. Equally it could be because that line manager is difficult to work for and too demanding. It’s difficult to say without further info.

So. Run some analytics.

How many other employees from that line manager’s team have left over the past year?

Did they say anything in their exit interviews?

Have they been flagged to HR for anything previously?

If so, you might want to investigate further.

This is why it’s important to conduct an exit interview for every single person that leaves the business. If you restrict it to management positions, people based in HQ, or full-time workers, you’re missing key sets of data that could be useful in improving your employee retention strategy.

Find out what went wrong

An exit interview, conducted well, helps you identify wrong turns in your employee journey map.

You’ll probably have some sort of employee journey map already.

You might call it something different. We’re referring to the plan you make that starts at the hire phase and ends with the offboarding phase when the employee leaves. This normally includes guidelines for each stage they go through with your company. For example:

Hiring:

• Offer letter and contract sent
• Start date agreed two weeks in advance

Onboarding:

• First day: tour of premises, fire safety, welcome coffee or lunch
• First six weeks: all e-learning to be completed

You get the idea. Here's a basic template you could expand on:

(Source: Trends in Employee Journey Maps)

The exit interview provides an excellent opportunity to ask your employees about various stages in this plan, to see whether they’ve been carried out to your expectations.

Ask specifically, and don’t be afraid to go right back to the start of their employment. Whether they felt welcomed in their first weeks, for example. If they were given clear and regular feedback on their performance, and compare that to your notes on how your employee journey should pan out.

It could be that, despite your meticulous efforts in planning it, your employee journey map isn’t being adhered to by managers in the wider organisation. This could be why your employees are leaving - this map provides guidelines on how to make sure people feel safe, supported and included at work. If people don’t follow it you’re going to have problems.

Your employee journey map is important. If it isn’t being followed, you need to correct that as soon as you can. Exit interviews are the best way to do this.

How to conduct an employee retention interview

Be flexible around your employees needs

If a lot of your workforce are remote or mobile, don’t insist on a face-to-face interview at HQ.

There are several free video calling apps available, so why not make use of them? An employee is more likely to feel comfortable talking to you if you’ve made accommodations for their situation.

If they’re more comfortable talking to you, they’re more likely to be honest with you, and that’s exactly what you want.

Don’t make it overly formal

Go for a relaxed vibe. Making things too formal will only stifle conversation.

If you’re conducting a face-to-face interview, it’s a nice touch to provide some sort of refreshments; hot drinks and a pastry, maybe. The employee will appreciate the gesture, and it will encourage a more conversational feel, which is exactly what will get them to open up.

Identify the specifics to touch on

You will know, from previous exit interviews if there are any particular pain points in your employee experience.

Ask about them. You’ll then be able to establish:

• Whether these are still issues
• What progress you’ve made on them, and how effective your efforts to tackle them have been.

...But allow them to express their opinion too

If the structure of the interview is entirely created by you, you could miss something important.

By allowing employees space to expand on their own concerns, you give yourself the opportunity to pick up on potential issues that aren’t on your radar. Sure, a lot of this could be specific to that particular individual, but you should investigate nonetheless—otherwise you’ll never know whether it’s the iceberg tip of something bigger.

Remember: your relationship with the employee isn't over

People leave for all sorts of reasons—not all of them negative.

You might want to leave the door open for talented employees, in case they want to return at some point. Also consider that talented former employees can be great source of referrals.

These can be your company’s cheerleaders, even after they’ve left. A good exit interview can make this relationship. A poor one can ruin it.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that the employee leaving has been less than stellar. In this case you should see the exit interview as a chance to smooth things over, and divert potentially negative Glassdoor reviews or social media mentions.

Final thoughts

To summarize:

• An employee retention strategy is important because it makes your employees happier. Happier, more engaged employees perform better in general, and deliver better customer service.
• The cost of employee turnover is measured in increased operational costs and decreased institutional knowledge.

Bearing this in mind, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t "can we afford to expand our employee retention efforts?"

It’s "can we afford not to?"

An engaged, happy workforce with a low churn rate isn’t just a nice thing to have.

It’s not just something you can boast about on your Careers page.

It’s a competitive advantage—and people are only just waking up to this fact. Because now more than ever, people value good customer service. If you can provide that, you’ll have a serious head start on your competitors.

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What makes him awesome?

Fernando has been with Holcim since October 2022. Until earlier this year, Fernando's position was a RMX driver at the Bannock location in Denver. The summer of 2024 proved a challenge for staffing levels, and Fernando stepped in across a multitude of environments to keep the business marching forward. Fernando was task-trained, cross-trained, and utilized as an instrumental resource for operating skid steers, front end loaders, water trucks, shovels, and concrete batch plants across the Denver metro.  

Plant managers as well as plant operators have welcomed Fernando’s support from operations in Aurora, Castle Rock, Centennial, Denver, Franktown, and Littleton, comprising seven ready-mix plants and both central and dry batch facilities. While every site was different, it was Fernando's attitude and willingness to learn that strengthened our teams’ ability to have a successful year in concrete production. We thank Fernando for being such a valuable member of the Denver RMX business.

How has Blink helped in his role?

Were it not for the Blink platform, I’m not sure Fernando would have the same level of peer recognition that Blink offers. In order to appreciate the opportunities within our business, sometimes allowing others to understand what is available is as simple as sharing a story of success!

What does he want to do next?

Fernando has recently transitioned from a driver to a plant operator at the Bannock RMX plant, and continues to develop his production skills to sharpen our business’s performance within a very competitive market. I look forward to seeing his continued growth within the organization.

Nominated by: Michael Galbraith, Operations Manager

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