Modern workplace comms: Less PDF, more OMG

Take a look at Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workforce report and you’ll find a concerning stat. 52% of employees told Gallup researchers they were watching for or actively seeking a new job.

While the Great Resignation seems to have subsided, talent retention is still a pressing issue — and it can make all the difference to your business. Holding onto your best people, with all their skills and knowledge, means better productivity, customer service, and profitability.

In this quick guide, we explain what talent retention is and why it’s important. We also share what you can do to inspire employee loyalty in 2025 — from a connected workplace culture to the perks that matter most.

Ready to turn retention into a competitive advantage? Let’s get started.

What is talent retention and why is it so important?

Talent retention is your ability to hold onto your employees once you’ve hired them.

If you have an effective talent retention plan, employees stick around for long, stable, and productive careers within your organization. 

So why does talent retention matter?

Talent retention is important because replacing employees is expensive. Gallup estimates that replacing a frontline employee costs 40% of their salary. This rises to 80% for employees in technical roles and 200% for leaders and managers.

By improving staff loyalty, you reduce costs associated with recruitment and onboarding. But there are other benefits of employee retention to bear in mind:

• Improved productivity. Your organization is more productive because a high proportion of employees are fully trained and know how to do their jobs.   
• An expert workforce. You retain knowledge and skills within the business, which means you achieve your goals faster.
• A positive company culture. Because workers are able to build strong and lasting relationships with co-workers, you raise satisfaction and loyalty.

One final benefit of staff retention is a better customer experience. And that deserves a section all of its own...

The link between employee retention and customer experience

Gartner defines customer experience (CX) as: 

“The customer's perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier's employees, systems, channels or products.”

The snappier version? It’s the degree to which interactions with your brand spark joy in customers.

It’s easy to delight customers when employees are informed, happy, and engaged. And it’s very easy to do the opposite if staff are new to the job — or looking for a role elsewhere.  

According to PwC research, 46% of customers will abandon a brand if employees aren’t knowledgeable and don’t know how to meet their needs.

Employee retention, employee experience, and customer experience are closely linked. Do right by your employees and they’re more likely to stay working for your company.

They continue to build their knowledge and skills, which means they’re more likely to provide an industry-leading experience for your customers.  

Talent retention: why now?

52% of employees say they’re watching for or actively seeking a new job. And turnover rates for frontline industries remain high: 73.8% in hospitality, 56.7% in transportation, and 21.9% in professional and business services.

There’s another, stealthier problem at play too. Glassdoor has revealed that nearly 2 in 3 employees feel stuck in their roles. And Gallup says that we’ve moved beyond the Great Resignation into the Great Detachment, where employees are staying in roles they have little interest in.

In 2025, some employees are quitting. Others are sticking around for lack of a better option. In either case, the business suffers. But a focus on talent retention can help to combat both of these issues.

Talent retention strategies revolve around improving the employee experience. You make your workplace a better, more fulfilling, and more inspiring place to be. So both employee engagement and retention improve.

The first hurdle: identifying talent retention issues

How is your company doing in terms of talent retention?

To truly understand your performance, you need to know — and keep track of — your employee retention rate. You can use this number to set a baseline and establish targets. But while this figure tells you how many employees are leaving your organization, it doesn’t tell you why.

For that, you need to dig deeper. Exit surveys and interviews can reveal trends and problems with the employee experience. They can help you understand why employees are choosing to leave. Some of the most common culprits in 2025 include:

• Work-life balance: a lack of flexibility in the workplace is leading staff — including frontline employees — to look for jobs elsewhere.
• Career progression: lack of career or professional development opportunities is one of the most cited reasons for leaving a job.
• Recognition: when you don’t show regular and authentic appreciation for employee efforts, they become demotivated and more likely to jump ship.
• Workplace culture: a sense of connection and belonging have a big impact on employee satisfaction, so issues with managers and co-workers, or feelings of loneliness can raise employee turnover.
• Salary and benefits: sometimes, it’s simply about the money — it’s difficult to keep employees if competitors are offering better rates of pay.

Convince employees to stay with these 6 talent retention strategies

Staff retention rates not where you’d like them to be? Reduce employee turnover with the help of these practical strategies.

Keep your finger on the pulse

Exit interviews are a useful talent retention tool. But wouldn’t it be better if you could prevent employees from handing in their notice in the first place? To do this, you need to understand the state of employee morale and engagement in your organization at any given moment.

There are some signs a manager may be able to spot. Drop-offs in productivity, refusal to commit to long-term projects, and a lack of enthusiasm are all signs that an employee sees their future elsewhere.

But you can go beyond manager observations to take the pulse of your entire organization. Use employee surveys to gauge sentiment on a range of retention-related topics. For example, job satisfaction, internal communications, benefits packages, and recognition.

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You can then act on any major bugbears to prevent employee experience issues from translating into higher employee turnover.

This feedback process has another talent retention benefit. When you show employees that their input is prompting real change in the workplace they feel heard and valued — and become more invested in your organization.

Help them achieve their goals

According to recent Randstad research, 31% of employees have quit a job because of a lack of career progression opportunities. Employees want to feel that they’re making progress toward their learning and career goals.

Investing time and money in professional development sends a strong signal that you’re supporting your employees over the long term. Build in career development plans, coaching, and one-on-one time as soon as a new member of staff joins your workforce — and sustain these initiatives throughout the entire employee journey.

Emphasizing that you see this as a long-term partnership rather than a transactional exchange of services (“you work, we pay”) lays the foundations for future success.

Offer regular recognition

Retaining employees is easier when they feel valued and appreciated. Workers are five times more likely to stay with your organization for two years or more when there’s a comprehensive recognition program in place.

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All employees — whether they work in the office, at home, or on the frontlines of your organization — should receive regular appreciation for the work they do.

For teams working in the same location, informal recognition is relatively easy. For disparate teams and frontline employees, you have to be more intentional. The right internal communication tools can help. 

You can use an employee app or intranet to highlight the hard work and achievements of your employees — and encourage peer-to-peer recognition across digital communication channels, too.

Create a positive workplace culture

Having a work bestie is more important than you might think. Employees who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to stay working for your organization. 

Again, this can be tricky when employees aren’t working in the same location. So use an interactive company news feed, online Communities, and instant messaging tools to bring your organization together. 

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As well as helping employees to build connections with co-workers, support them to understand and take part in company culture. Make company values and purpose part of your every day. 

Managers also have a big role to play. 70% of the variance in team engagement comes down to the manager. So give your leaders the training they need to boost employee engagement and create a culture employees enjoy being part of.

Offer flexibility where possible 

Flexibility and work-life balance are a top priority for employees. In fact, it’s the second most important factor for frontline employees when choosing a job.  

Flexible working looks different in different organizations. Some employees get to work remotely, work compressed hours, or choose start and finish times.

For frontline employees, this isn’t so easy. But you can support work-life balance for this segment of your workforce by offering expanded paid time off (PTO) policies, a choice of schedules, and easy-access shift swap tools.

Revamp your salary and benefits package

When was the last time you looked at the salary and benefits package you offer? Pay is another big factor in employees deciding to look for another job. 

So compare your offering to that of your competitors and consider improving your package if you find you’re falling behind the pack.

But remember that pay isn’t everything. It will take more than a small pay increase to tempt engaged employees to jump ship. According to SHRM, employees may be willing to trade pay for improved work-life balance, flexibility, and workplace culture.

Make life easier for your HR team with talent retention software

An effective talent retention strategy gives you an edge over your competitors. When you build and maintain a skilled and engaged workforce, your business performs better.

To achieve high levels of retention, you need to offer training and development, honor work-life balance, and provide regular recognition. You should also strive to create a company culture based on purpose, connection, and community.

All of the above is made easier when you have the right tech tools at your disposal. Talent retention technology includes solutions like employee engagement, employee communication, and employee experience tools.

The best software is available on desktop and as a mobile-first employee app, so you can tackle talent retention issues across your entire workforce. These solutions provide employees with easy, digital access to:

• Training and career development tools
• Company news, community, and co-worker chat
• Recognition and rewards
• Health and wellbeing resources

They also give HR teams access to tools like employee surveys and analytics. So you get greater insight into the state of employee engagement and talent retention within your business.

You can spot engagement and retention issues before they harm company culture and lead more workers to jump ship — and you can uncover what employees want from your organization.

With this information, you can make meaningful improvements to the employee experience, keeping staff turnover rates low and engagement high. 

Blink. And improve talent retention with a mobile-first employee app.

For this week’s Life at Blink, we’re excited to shine the spotlight on Joe Whitney! As a Senior Sales Development Representative, Joe has been an integral part of the team for the past year. Starting out as an SDR, Joe’s dedication and growth have made a real impact at Blink. Join us as we explore Joe’s journey, his role in shaping our sales efforts, and what he believes makes Blink a special place to work.

How long have you been at Blink?

I’m coming up on two years — in about five days, it'll be my Blinkiversary. There is a lot going on so it’s gone by really quickly.. Looking back, it feels like these two years have flown by. So many other things outside of Blink seem to have moved a bit slower. But life moves fast, and the older you get, the quicker it seems to go.

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

I have kind of a funny story — well, not exactly funny, but it's the story of how I got to Blink.

For the eleven years before I joined Blink, I was a professional hockey player. I played four years at Boston College, and after college, I signed with the New Jersey Devils to play professional hockey. It was an amazing 11- year journey.

It took me to a lot of different places — I lived in San Antonio, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; Hartford, Connecticut; Hershey, Pennsylvania; New Jersey; and then over to Sweden and Germany. My family and I lived there for two years each. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot of valuable life lessons from seeing different cultures and parts of the world. I think it made me more well-rounded, and I’ve been able to bring some of those experiences into my work at Blink and in sales.

It was funny because when we started having kids, my wife and I never imagined we’d be taking two kids to live in Germany or Sweden for two years. But I wanted to continue my career, so we made the move. We packed all our bags and flew to Sweden. I played in a city called Linköping, and as soon as we landed, it felt like our new home, and the people were incredibly kind. It was a great culture to live in and be a part of, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When my contract expired, we moved to Germany to a small city called Iserlohn, about two hours from Amsterdam. The lifestyle there was very different from Sweden. It was more like North America. The town was small and quiet, but it was a great experience. I learned a lot about German culture and the people. And of course, they love their beer, which was a lot of fun!

When that career ended, it was a bit of a “holy smokes, what do I do next?” moment.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I could do it, since I didn’t have any prior experience. But after reassurance from mentors, friends, and family, encouraging me that many of the same skills in athletics can be applied to sales as well was when I decided to dive in. It was important for me to start as an SDR and work my way up.

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

The thing I’m probably most proud of at Blink is how, despite being a smaller company with a lot of changes and pivots, especially within the SDR team, we’ve been able to build something meaningful.

When I joined in October 2022, our new CRO, Jim McInerny, had just been hired, and we were preparing to go to market in the US. One of the main reasons I came to Blink was to have an impact on the culture and a smaller team. What I'm most proud of is helping to build the culture within the sales development program.

I'm really proud of the fact that after two years, we’re starting to gain traction, building out the program, and seeing the progress we are making as a company. It’s been a journey, but it’s exciting to see how far we have come.

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

Innovative, creative, tight-knit team.

There are so many different ways to describe it, which makes it tough to choose just three words. I think the culture is very open and transparent, and we have a lot of great people working together towards one mission. That’s what makes it so fun to be part of the team.

Coming from an athletic background, I'm all about teamwork, and it feels great to be in a company where the mindset is very team-oriented. There aren’t any selfish people in our organization, and that makes it incredibly enjoyable to work with everyone.

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

I feel like we’re at a point now where we truly control our own destiny. The sky’s the limit for us, and I believe that everyone on the team is fully bought into the company’s mission. The opportunities we have and the market we're tackling are so big and global that we have the potential to change the lives of so many people in different parts of the world. This could have a huge impact on how people approach their work and how they feel about going to work.

I'm really excited about the opportunities ahead of us as a company to transform the way people work and make this as big as possible.

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

Yeah, I think, obviously in sales, day to day, you’re calling people, trying to explain our approach to the employee experience, and inspiring them to see things differently. But I wouldn’t call that a specific project; it’s more like an ongoing journey in sales.

What really inspired me was some of the work we did with some of our biggest customers, particularly on the product side. They’ve done some really cool things within a work app that feels more like a social app we use in our everyday lives. The product features and the vision our product team has for making this next generation of apps so modern is really exciting to see.

Why do you work for Blink?

In general, when I first started, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. There are a million different jobs out there, and a lot of people work on cool things. But I’ve really found a sense of pride in our company’s mission and the vision of where we want to go.

There are so many essential workers around the world who, like us, are trying to take care of their families, make a living, and provide the best opportunities for their loved ones. Many of the people we serve are blue-collar workers who take immense pride in what they do. We often talk about how they’ve been underinvested in and don’t have the same resources as other types of workers.

Serving this part of the workforce is something I’m really proud of. I have a lot of friends and family members who are blue-collar workers on the frontlines, and it took me a little while to realize there was such a gap in support for them. Being at Blink and seeing it firsthand through our customers was eye-opening and helped me fully embrace our mission of serving essential frontline employees. Ultimately, these workers make the world go round.

Providing a better digital employee experience for these essential works and making it much easier to access all the tools they need to do their jobs productively is incredible. It feels like a lifelong mission.

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Businesses are investing more than ever to engage their frontline workforce

Recognition platforms. Pulse surveys. Culture initiatives. Manager training programs built on the idea that employees would be more engaged if leaders were simply inspiring enough.

And yet deskless employees remain the most disengaged segment of the global workforce. More than half say they’re feeling burned out and more than a quarter are actively or passively looking for a new job.

Something isn’t adding up. If engagement investment is going up but frontline employee engagement isn’t shifting, perhaps we’re trying to solve the wrong problem.

The motivation myth in frontline employee engagement

Most employee engagement strategies start from the same assumption — disengagement stems from a lack of motivation. Ultimately, it’s an emotional problem.

People don’t feel motivated enough, connected enough, recognized enough. So we focus on fixing the feeling. We appreciate our teams more, communicate more, and run more surveys.

For deskless workers, this framing misses something important. Because the problem isn’t only emotional. It’s also operational.

It’s hard to feel engaged at work when you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing, when priorities change without warning, or when information arrives late — or not at all.

What frontline employees need isn’t more motivation. It’s clarity on the day ahead.

This is where many employee experience strategies fall short. They focus on how people feel — without fixing how work actually works.

And for frontline employees, the operational experience is a huge part of their overall employee experience. 

What deskless workers say they actually need

When frontline employees are surveyed, they don’t complain that their organization runs too few employee engagement activities.

Some of their biggest frustrations center on something more fundamental: operational friction.

• 40% are unsure of their job expectations
• Only 10% of frontline workers say they have access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in their workplace

Frontline workers say that management is inconsistent. That they waste time chasing updates. And that they don’t have the information they need to do a good job. 

These operational issues have a big impact on engagement. Because when work feels harder than it needs to, mistakes happen more often, confidence drops, and frustration builds. Eventually, people leave — or stay but stop trying.

The role of the frontline manager

So where are frontline managers in all this? 

Frontline managers are stretched. They spend their days juggling priorities — solving operational problems, striving toward targets, and supporting employees.

They’re expected to communicate with staff over a patchwork of phone calls, bulletin board notices, WhatsApp messages, and occasional face-to-face check-ins.

And they have limited time in which to share information. 27% of frontline managers spend 15 minutes or less communicating with their team each day.

The answer to poor levels of employee engagement isn’t landing another engagement initiative on a manager’s plate.

Instead, it’s giving them what they actually need: the tools to set clear priorities, assign tasks, communicate operational updates, and track progress in real time.

When that infrastructure exists, employees arrive at their shift knowing their brief — what’s expected of them that day, that week, and that month.

And managers spend less time fielding questions, chasing updates, and managing the safety incidents that result from poor information flow and ineffective task assignment.

The case for task clarity as an employee experience strategy

Task management doesn’t usually sit under employee experience. But we’re here to make the case for a shift in mindset.

While task management is often seen as an operational issue, it’s also one of the most important drivers of deskless employee experience.

Because clarity on the task at hand changes how work feels. When tasks are clearly explained and assigned, employees:

• Know what’s expected of them
• Understand what success looks like
• Feel more in control of their day
• Build confidence and find work more rewarding

When tasks aren’t clear, employees second-guess themselves. They interrupt managers to ask questions that shouldn’t need to be asked. Or they make decisions despite not having the right information, which means everyone deals with the consequences later.

This cycle of confusion, error, and frustration helps to drive frontline disengagement. And no amount of recognition or culture change will fix it while that underlying operational friction remains.

This is why task clarity belongs inside your EX strategy.  

This is where Blink's task management earns its place in an EX strategy, not just an ops stack. Standard, scheduled, and ad hoc tasks show up in the same app your team already uses to talk, share, and stay in sync, packaged with the checklists, forms, and photo capture people need to get it right the first time. No guessing, no chasing a manager for context, no gap between what's expected and what's understood. That's task clarity, built in.

Task management in employee experience: Where to start

If you want to improve deskless employee experience, start with a simple audit. Not of your engagement programs, but of your managers’ ability to create task clarity.

Ask these three questions:

1. Do our managers have a clear way to assign and track tasks? Or are tasks shared verbally, via WhatsApp, or scribbled on paper? If there’s no clear route, task assignment is inconsistent, and completion is hard to track.

2. Can employees easily see what they need to do — and what’s changed? If information isn’t accessible, it isn’t actionable. Frontline employees should be able to view tasks and communications via their smartphones.

3. Can we see where work is getting stuck? Or do we only find out when something goes wrong? Visibility into task progress helps managers see where support is needed and ensure tasks are completed on time.

If your honest answer to any of these questions is “not really”, you have a task clarity problem, which can quickly translate into an engagement problem.

More positively, you also have a very clear focus for frontline employee engagement improvements.

Making operational design part of your employee experience strategy

Employees disengage when the work is harder than it needs to be, when expectations are unclear, and when the information they need to do their jobs well doesn’t reach them reliably.

Fixing that requires a shift in how we think about EX. Motivation-boosting initiatives are unlikely to succeed while operational friction remains. So operational design has to be an EX priority. 

That means a greater focus on operational infrastructure — tools that allow managers to assign tasks, communicate clearly, and organize work more effectively.

Blink can help. Our mobile-first employee experience platform gives you everything you need to manage frontline motivation and the operational experience.

Blink. And give frontline managers the tools they need to get more from their teams.

Employee experience (EX) is how your organization makes workers feel at every stage of the employee journey. EX impacts employee engagement, employee productivity, and retention — which means that building a consistently positive employee experience makes a big difference to your business.

Positive EX is particularly important for frontline employees. These people are the face of your organization. The frontline experience directly affects product quality and customer satisfaction.

But the frontline employee experience is falling short: 

• A recent Quinyx report found that 1 in 2 frontline workers have thought about quitting their jobs in the past year due to low pay, stress, and irregular working hours. 
• O.C. Tanner research reveals that 2 in 5 frontline employees say they’re viewed as inferior by employees in the office, and more than a third say their work is not valued as highly as office work.  
• Frontline employees are hard to reach. Working in isolation, away from HQ, they often feel disconnected from company culture and comms — and don’t get access to the same tech tools as their desk-based peers. 

The demands of shift work. A sense of inequality. A feeling of disconnection. There are lots of barriers getting in the way of a positive frontline employee experience. To overcome these barriers, you need a targeted approach that keeps frontline needs front of mind. 

The good news is that there are actionable steps you can begin taking today to create a positive employee experience across your frontline — ultimately helping your organization boost employee engagement, productivity, and retention. 

8 steps to building a positive employee experience for your frontline workforce

To create a positive employee experience for frontline workers, consider these eight areas of opportunity:

• Develop an employee experience strategy
• Create a positive company culture
• Give employees development and growth opportunities
• Establish effective communication channels
• Recognize employee achievements
• Improve the physical and digital work environment
• Hone onboarding and offboarding 
• Ask for employee feedback

Let’s take a closer look at each of these actions. 

Step 1: Develop an employee experience strategy

Gallup looked at companies with a strong workplace culture to find out what they had in common. They found that companies with the best culture were committed to developing a positive employee experience across the whole employee life cycle.

In the most successful organizations, employee experience and employee engagement sit at the center of company strategy, informing how they hire, onboard, and develop talent. It also informs how they motivate their teams, set goals, and communicate to their employees.

Achieving this holistic approach is easier when you have a thoughtfully crafted employee experience strategy — one that tackles all five stages of the employee lifecycle:

• Attraction
• Recruitment
• Onboarding
• Development
• Separation

To create a strategy suited to each of these employee journey stages, use employee feedback to help you uncover weaknesses at each stage. You can then set EX goals that align with organizational goals — and develop initiatives that will help you achieve them. 

Step 2: Create a more positive company culture

A positive company culture supports a positive employee experience. So what can you do to improve the culture within your organization?

Define core values and incorporate them into the workplace

When you get clear on your company’s core values, you unite employees behind one definitive version of company culture and establish how people should work together and the goals you’re all working towards.

Once you’ve defined your values, think about how you’ll express them across every stage of your employee journey. Also, weave them into your internal communications regularly to reinforce their importance.

Foster a supportive and inclusive environment

Employees who feel that they belong at an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. So to build a positive and productive workplace culture, you need to ensure that everyone feels supported and included.

That might mean taking an in-depth look at your diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and how they are lived across the employee journey. It might mean working to create a culture of psychological safety and open communication, where everyone feels able to share their ideas and concerns.

For frontline teams, it could mean ensuring employees get opportunities to build relationships with co-workers — and that they get access to the same tools and resources as their desk-based peers.

Promote wellbeing and work-life balance

Another characteristic of strong and resilient workplace cultures is an emphasis on wellbeing in work and in life. Companies that show concern for the holistic wellbeing of employees — caring about them as people, not just workers — are more likely to create a more engaging employee experience.

Gym memberships, mental health support, financial planning, and volunteer days can all improve the physical and mental wellbeing of employees. For many employees, work-life balance is another key factor — and there are various strategies you can use to bring flexibility to frontline work. 

You can share frontline worker shifts at least two weeks in advance, giving them more time to plan their out-of-work lives. You can give them access to shift-swapping tools so they can exchange shifts with co-workers without manager involvement.

Or follow the example of the Principality Building Society, which made the decision to shut their branches half an hour before the end of retail employee shifts. This allows employees to finish tasks and leave on time, without having to serve customers for those last minutes of the day.  

Step 3: Give employees development and growth opportunities

Frontline workers are often overlooked when it comes to training and career progression. McKinsey research shows that 65% of frontline workers are unaware or unsure of how to achieve advancement. Only 32% say that they receive education or training in the workplace.

But training and development can have a big impact on the employee experience. McKinsey also revealed that frontline employees rank job growth or promotion above pay and benefits. In fact, it’s their top priority in the workplace.  

Make it easy for frontline employees to access development resources by choosing training programs that can be accessed via mobile devices. Micro-learning features are also a good idea, allowing employees to complete short lessons, fitting learning around their busy schedules.

Communication is key, too. The connection between a frontline role and opportunities elsewhere in the organization isn’t always clear. Managers need to make employees aware — very early in the employee journey — of the career progression options available to them.

Step 4: Establish effective communication channels

Good internal communication is the foundation of employee engagement and any successful employee experience strategy. But frontline employees are more likely to miss out on vital and culture-building communications if they’re put on a noticeboard or sent via email.

Frontline workers need communication channels that they can access on the go, on their smartphones. They need streamlined channels, so they know exactly where to find the information they’re looking for. To ensure engagement, they should also only receive content that is relevant to them.

Communication channels should allow frontline workers to connect with co-workers, too. The 32,000 frontline care workers at Elara Caring, working alone in clients’ homes, often felt isolated and lonely. This harmed employee satisfaction.

Now, with the help of Blink, the team can communicate easily over a dedicated company app. This means more knowledge sharing, stronger co-worker relationships, and a more positive employee experience.

Step 5: Recognize employee achievements

Employees experience more job satisfaction when they receive recognition from managers and peers. The act of giving recognition is also good for staff morale.

You can recognize an employee on their birthday or a work anniversary. You can highlight project success or how an employee has demonstrated company values.

But giving rewards and recognition to frontline workers requires more intention: Because frontline employees don’t work in the office, there’s less opportunity for informal thanks.

This is where digital recognition tools can help. By sharing praise and rewards on your digital communication channels, you make recognition a more visible part of company culture — even for your frontline. So you get to boost employee productivity, motivation, and satisfaction across the board.

Step 6: Improve the physical and digital work environment

Design a safe and comfortable workplace

The physical work environment has a big impact on employee wellbeing and productivity. You need to ensure the workplace is safe and comfortable and doesn’t put undue physical strain on your workers.

To improve frontline workplace safety and comfort, you should:

• Provide the necessary personal protective equipment
• Conduct regular mandatory training so everyone knows safety protocols
• Provide channels where employees can communicate safety concerns quickly 
• Run regular safety audits

A well-designed work environment prevents accidents and injuries, reduces stress, and improves job satisfaction. 

Use tools to streamline processes and improve efficiency

Only 10% of frontline workers say they have high access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in their workplace. But the digital employee experience is crucial to your overall EX.

Give employees too many tools — or tools that add friction to their workday — and you risk creating frustration and disengagement. Avoid using any tech tools and you’re left with inefficient paper processes. Either way, you end up harming employee satisfaction.  

When choosing tools for a frontline workforce, look for:

• Mobile-first tools, that don’t require a company email address and are available on employee smartphones
• A tool that brings all company software into one hub, so employees don’t have to remember lots of logins and passwords

The best employee apps are built with the frontline in mind. They’re intuitive to use and offer a host of useful features. They allow workers to chat with co-workers, get company updates, select their benefits, view pay slips, complete the onboarding process, and sign up for shifts — all via their mobile device.

Step 7: Hone onboarding and offboarding

To build a better employee experience for your frontline, you need to consider every stage of the employee journey:

Craft an effective onboarding process for new employees

Onboarding is a process that should start before an employee’s first day at your organization and last for at least three months. It should incorporate regular recognition and two-way feedback, along with goal setting, team building, and skills development.

For frontline employees, it makes sense to make onboarding resources available via smartphone. That way, they can read FAQs, complete mandatory training, and learn about company policies at a time and place that suits them.

Conduct exit interviews

Exit interviews are another integral part of any employee experience strategy.

First, because when you treat employees fairly and positively even as they leave your organization, you show other employees that you value the person, not just the worker.

Second, because exit interviews can reveal areas for employee experience improvement. Whether it’s progression opportunities, pay and benefits, company culture, or internal communication, finding out what prompted an employee to leave can give you lots of food for thought.

Step 8: Ask for employee feedback        

Offboarding feedback is important. But don’t wait until employees are leaving your organization to ask what they think of their employee experience. Schedule regular employee surveys to get feedback and learn t how they think and feel about your organization.

Use employee surveys

You can use quarterly employee experience surveys to assess employee sentiment. By asking the same employee survey questions every quarter, you can benchmark your performance and see which of your employee experience initiatives are making the most difference. You can then update goals in your employee experience strategy.

You can also use pulse surveys to get a snapshot of your employee experience at any given moment. This helps to ensure any employee experience issues are identified and dealt with promptly.

For either type of survey, be sure to ask demographic questions. These allow you to segment survey responses by employee journey stage, department, or team — revealing more detailed insights without compromising employee anonymity.

Follow survey best practices

To get the most from your employee surveys, follow survey best practices by:

• Allowing employees to respond to surveys anonymously. That way, you get honest and valuable answers.
• Sending employee surveys in a format that’s accessible to everyone. Mobile-first survey software ensures every member of staff — whether they’re working in the office, at home, or on the frontline of your organization — gets to give their opinion.
• Developing a survey communication strategy. Keep employees in the loop, thanking them for their feedback and clearly communicating how you plan to act upon it. This ensures ongoing engagement with the feedback process.

The role of technology in the frontline employee experience

The digital employee experience is a big part of the employee experience. But it’s particularly important for frontline workers who don’t spend their days at a desk.

With the right technology, you connect everyone — including hard-to-reach frontline employees — to internal communication, co-workers, and vital workplace resources. This helps improve EX, boosting employee productivity and retention in the process.

Many workplace tech tools are designed for office staff. They work beautifully for your team at HQ. But don’t provide the same features and level of functionality for your frontline workers.

To prevent tech from widening the gap between the frontline and desk-based worker experience, you need tech tools and employee experience software with the following features:

• An easy-to-use, intuitive interface with a minimal learning curve
• A mobile-first design, so all features are accessible via an employee’s smartphone
• Single sign-on security, so employees can log into all workplace software with one set of login details
• No email required — some frontline workers don’t have a company email address so it’s important that workplace tech works without them

Blink’s employee app ticks all these boxes and more.

It provides a news feed, group chat, and 1:1 messaging for easy communication. It gives managers EX-boosting tools, like recognition and employee surveys. Blink also integrates with other workplace tech, creating a one-stop shop for your frontline team.  

But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Lorna Murphy, Operations and HR Manager at transit company Abellio had to say about the Blink experience:

“Using Blink, Abellio bus drivers can access a system of simple pathways that makes it easy for them to report issues, start a conversation with management or colleagues, or go about their day-to-day tasks such as checking shifts and accessing payslips, reconnecting them back to the organization they work for via one simple, easy-to-use app.”

Use Blink to create a positive employee experience across your frontline. Schedule your personalized demo today.

Unmotivated workers do the bare minimum. They can drag other team members down with them. They’re also more likely to be looking for a job elsewhere.

Given that only 23% of global employees feel engaged at work, improving employee motivation is a critical business priority. You need to employ strategies known to boost motivation and inspire better employee productivity. 

In this article, we list a range of employee motivation ideas that will help you get the most from your workforce. We’ll be looking at the following:

• Why is employee motivation important?
• Key factors in employee motivation
• 12 ways to motivate employees
• Using an employee super-app to create a motivated workforce

Why is employee motivation important?

Motivated employees tend to enjoy work. They have a sense of purpose and accomplishment. They also approach work with energy and drive.

But employee motivation isn’t just good for employees. It benefits your business, too. Here’s how:

Increased employee productivity. Motivated employees work harder. They’re more efficient and focused. They’re also more likely to take the initiative, going beyond their basic responsibilities.

Better quality of work. A motivated workforce doesn’t just produce more work. It produces better work. Workers are committed to quality. This results in fewer errors, fewer missed deadlines, and fewer workplace safety incidents.

Higher retention rate. Engaged employees are loyal to your organization. So they’re less likely to look for another job. With a motivated workforce, your organization experiences higher levels of employee retention and less absenteeism.

More profit. Gallup research on employee engagement shows that employee morale impacts a range of business outcomes. It leads to a 23% increase in profitability and a 10% increase in customer loyalty.

Key factors in employee motivation 

There are two types of motivation — extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation is all about the carrot and the stick. You create extrinsic motivation with external rewards and penalties. Rewards might include an employee’s salary, bonuses, rewards, and praise. Penalties might include a poor performance review or a manager reprimand.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within. Employees are motivated to do their best work because they find it personally rewarding. This type of motivation relies on drivers like interest, purpose, pride, and curiosity.

When you have high levels of employee engagement within a workplace, you tend to get high levels of intrinsic motivation. Employees feel invested in their work and the company. So they’re driven to bring their A-game without needing constant carrot-and-stick encouragement.

As an employer, it may seem that you have more control over extrinsic motivation. You can raise someone’s salary, provide bonuses, and praise a job well done. All of these things help to motivate an employee.

But the fact is, you can influence levels of intrinsic motivation, too. Here are some of the things that prompt intrinsic motivation in your employees. 

Feeling valued

When employees feel you care about them, their wellbeing, and their lives beyond work, they’re more likely to bring their all. That means giving employee recognition where it’s due, treating people fairly, and valuing their input, too.

Making progress

Employees like to know where they’re heading — and where they’re at right now. That requires regular, positive feedback and constructive criticism. Training, development, and clear career pathing are also important.

A sense of purpose

Every job has its boring bits — the tasks that an employee is never going to be excited about doing. But when employees understand how their work contributes to organizational success and wider society, finding that motivation gets easier.

A positive company culture

Motivation is contagious. And it spreads more easily in organizations where there’s good communication and a sense of belonging. When they’re part of an open and supportive company culture, employees are more invested in company success.

The ideas we’ve included below incorporate all of the above. They also provide ways to inspire both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in your workforce. 

12 ways to motivate employees

To motivate your employees, you need to:

• Highlight values and purpose
• Communicate transparently
• Give employees the resources they need
• Use the right technology
• Provide opportunities for professional development
• Develop employee career paths
• Support employee wellbeing
• Encourage teamwork and collaboration
• Support employees to build workplace friendships
• Recognize employee contributions
• Ask employees for their thoughts and feedback
• Treat everyone equitably

Highlight values and purpose

According to Gartner research, shared purpose is one of five primary things motivating employees to stay in their jobs right now. It helps them feel invested in their work and your organization.

Shared purpose helps employees feel part of something bigger than themselves. So work becomes about more than just a paycheck.

You can support purpose in the workplace, by crafting clear company values and communicating these values regularly.

Start during onboarding. Introduce new hires to your company’s vision, mission, and values from day one. Explain how their role contributes to your goals and social impact.

Be consistent. Regularly reinforce your company's vision and mission in all employee communications. Make purpose a recurring theme in meetings, updates, and internal messaging.

Build a values-based culture: Create an environment where company values are lived and breathed daily. Take concrete action based on your values. That way, employees are more likely to believe in them.

Communicate transparently

Employee communication is another important element of employee motivation. Open and transparent communication builds trust. And employees who get enough information to do their jobs well are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged.

But while 87% of business leaders think their internal communications are “highly effective”, only 63% of employees agree. So what does effective communication look like?

Effective communication is a two-way conversation, where both leaders and employees get to share ideas, concerns, and feedback. It’s keeping employees up-to-date with key company developments, and it’s ensuring that you have clear channels of communication to reach all employees.  

For remote and frontline teams, this means choosing streamlined, digital communication channels. You need internal communication tools you can use to relay messages quickly and reliably, bypassing paper memos and an employee’s already overflowing email inbox. 

Give employees the resources they need

Imagine you’re setting out on a long hike. You’re excited and determined to reach the endpoint.

But you’re given a pair of ill-fitting hiking boots to wear. And a mile or so into the walk, you realize that the map you’re following isn’t 100% accurate. You decide to call the hike organizer for directions. But the number’s engaged and you fail to get through.

It’s likely that at this point in the hike, your motivation has started to dip. You feel thwarted and discouraged. You’re tempted to turn back. What felt like a promising journey now feels like an uphill struggle. 

That’s why it’s important to give employees the resources they need. They need the right tech, training, support, and information to do their jobs well. Without it, morale takes a hit.

Use the right technology

Technology is increasingly important to the employee experience. Done right, it makes life easier for employees. Done wrong, it causes friction and frustration, which harms employee motivation.

A concerning 83% of HR leaders say they don’t have the right technology at work. This is contributing to stress, burnout, and low morale. Similarly, only 10% of frontline workers say they have access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in the workplace.

All workers — those in the office, those working remotely, and those on your company’s front lines — need access to high-quality, user-friendly tech that makes their jobs easier, not harder.

That might mean using a mobile-first employee app to give frontline employees the resources and co-worker connection they crave. Or it might mean implementing a social intranet that supports workplace communication and collaboration.

You can also use tech tools that have a direct impact on employee motivation. Employee engagement tools help organizations to improve and track staff morale.   

Provide opportunities for professional development

According to O.C. Tanner research, organizations have five times greater odds of achieving employee fulfillment when they support professional development. A comprehensive training program improves your workplace retention rate, too.  

O.C. Tanner also found that organizations are more likely to make a success of skills-building initiatives when they:

• Empower employees to make their own training decisions. Supporting employees to choose training paths that align with their career goals and interests improves engagement with the learning process.
  
  
• Give employees time during work to complete training. Allocate dedicated time for training so employees don’t experience stress, trying to juggle learning with daily tasks and out-of-work responsibilities.
  
  
• Provide or reimburse hobby classes as well as work-related learning. Reimbursement for hobby classes improves the odds that a skill-building program will improve retention by 119%.

Develop employee career paths

Training is important. But unless employees can put those newfound skills to use within your organization, they’re going to become frustrated. That’s why every employee should have a clear progression path within your organization.

Sit down with employees to find out where their ambitions lie. And — as we mentioned above — personalize a training program to support their career goals.

Also, try to be realistic and open with workers about when a promotion is likely. This will depend on their current skill set and your organizational needs. If an upward move isn’t available for the foreseeable, there are other things you can do to keep staff motivated.

A lateral move helps employees to develop skills in another area of the business. You give them a new challenge and support them to become well-rounded members of your organization.

Similarly, stretch assignments are a great way to grow employee skills. They encourage workers to move beyond their comfort zone, take on new responsibilities, and prepare for higher-level roles.

Support employee wellbeing

In its State of the Global Workplace Report for 2024, Gallup talks a lot about employee wellbeing. It reveals that to improve employee lives and organizational performance, employers need to do the following:

• Make support for employee wellbeing visible and consistent
• Assign employee wellbeing counselors or coaches
• Emphasize wellbeing at work and in life
• Go beyond physical health to provide mental health and holistic support

Employee wellbeing goes beyond the odd mindfulness session. It requires a company-wide approach and a real understanding of what your employees might be struggling with.

Starbucks is a great example. They’ve been helping employees with the astronomical cost of housing. They offer a Tenancy Deposit Loan Scheme that they’ve named Home Sweet Loan. Employees can access an interest-free loan to pay the rental deposit when moving into a new home.

Starbucks is making it easier for employees to find and secure housing. This is good for their baristas. But it’s good for business, too. Because when employees aren’t worried about the roof over their heads, they’re more motivated and focused at work.

Encourage teamwork and collaboration

A 2022 Corel report reveals that 41% of employees have left their jobs or would consider leaving their jobs due to poor collaboration at work.

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Collaboration is a great way to engage employees. It helps to create a sense of belonging. It makes work more efficient because teams share knowledge and resources freely. Plus, employees motivate one another when they work together.

You can support collaboration by supporting employees to build positive workplace relationships (more on this in a moment). Praising teams, rather than individuals, for their successes is also a good idea.

For teams who work disparately, the right intranet or app is an important part of the puzzle. You need tools that support employees to collaborate in real-time and access shared resources.

Read more: 8 benefits of collaboration in the workplace

Support employees to build workplace friendships

Water cooler chat may feel like an unnecessary part of the work day. But giving employees the time, space, and, in some cases, the tech they need to develop workplace friendships is incredibly important to engagement.

Employees who feel that they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. And those with a best friend at work are more productive, happier to innovate, and happier to share ideas.

So schedule social events. Allow time at the beginning or end of meetings for informal conversation. If your team works remotely or you have frontline workers, be intentional about creating these opportunities for connection.

That might mean letting employees create shared interest groups on the company intranet. How about a book club? Or a running club? Maintaining a news feed where employees can post, comment, and like, helps remote and frontline workers to build connections, too.

Recognize employee contributions

Employee recognition and rewards are another important pillar of employee morale. When employees feel their hard work is appreciated, they’re more likely to maintain their motivation.  

They’re also more likely to stay working for your company. According to recent Gallup and Workhuman research, a 10,000-person organization can save up to $16.1 million a year in reduced employee turnover costs by making recognition an important part of company culture.

Timely and relevant recognition from managers is essential. But peer-to-peer recognition can be just as valuable and it has a surprising benefit. 75% of employees say that giving recognition makes them want to stay at their current organization longer.

Blink’s employee recognition feature makes it easy to give every employee the appreciation they deserve. You can create personalized recognition posts in seconds. Then, share praise with the individual or publish it on the company news feed for everyone to see and celebrate.

If you want to offer employee rewards as part of your recognition program, be sure to find out what employees are excited by. You may think that cash bonuses and company merchandise are great incentives. But it may be that employees would prefer something else, like extra paid time off.

Read more: 6 amazing employee appreciation ideas that your staff will love

Ask employees for their thoughts and feedback

Employees are more motivated when they feel listened to. When an employer seeks their input and insight, it makes them feel valued, which contributes to employee morale.

Ask for employee input on key decisions. Taking everyone’s opinions into account when implementing change helps to ensure buy-in.

Also, get employee feedback on a range of issues, on a regular basis. Use surveys to ask workers about the employee experience, workplace satisfaction, or workplace rewards. Their answers will help you to develop a more motivating environment for employees going forward.

Just remember that feedback is a multi-stage process that requires effective communication. You need to:

• Ask for employee feedback
• Thank employees for their feedback
• Tell employees what their feedback has revealed and what you plan to do about it
• Keep employees in the loop, informing them how your plans are going

Closing the feedback loop like this keeps employees invested in the feedback process. It shows them that you’re really listening to what they have to say.

Treat everyone fairly and equitably

Fairness is crucial to employee motivation. When employees feel that they aren’t being treated fairly or equitably, motivation takes a dive.

So all employees must be given equal access to training and career progression opportunities. Everyone should have the option to give feedback and build workplace friendships. They should get the resources and recognition they need to feel valued.  

Pay also comes into the equation. You can prevent resentment and employee churn by offering employees a fair salary. Conduct a pay equity audit. Also, regularly check to see how your wages match up with market trends and the cost of living.

But bear in mind that engaged employees look for a 31% pay increase to consider taking a job with another organization. So you don’t necessarily have to match competitors like-for-like if you provide non-monetary benefits and a company culture employees enjoy being part of.

Using an employee super-app to create a motivated workforce

Having the right tech on your team makes it easier to boost employee motivation. 

An employee super-app is particularly useful for remote and frontline employees who may feel disconnected from motivators like co-worker support, feedback opportunities, and company resources.

An employee app helps you to create an equitable experience for all members of staff, no matter where they work. It also allows you to put motivation-boosting features into the palm of every employee’s hand. 

Take a look at these employee app features, sure to improve employee motivation. 

Social features

Social features like a company news feed help to include everyone in your company culture and support workplace connections.

A resource library

A resource library gives all employees, no matter where they work, access to essential workplace resources. You can populate your library with how-to guides, company policies, and FAQs.

Recognition features

Built-in recognition features make it easy to show appreciation for employees and encourage peer-to-peer recognition, too.

Survey tools

The best employee super apps make it easy for managers to request feedback — and for employees to provide it.

A digital hub

By integrating with all of the digitals you use, you can give employees access to professional development, wellbeing, and collaboration tools, all in the same place.

Effective communication

With a news feed, group messaging, and 1:1 chats, it’s easy for every member of your organization to take part in the company conversation and for leaders to amplify company culture.  

Analytics

Analytics help you to track motivation and engagement. This allows you to make data-backed improvements to your engagement initiatives.  

In summary

Find ways to motivate your employees and you create a happier, more engaged, more productive workforce. You improve employee loyalty and talent retention. You also achieve better business results. 

There are lots of different things you can do to motivate your workforce. But all actions center around four key pillars:

• Help employees find meaning in their work
• Show employees that you value them as people as well as workers
• Support employees to make progress in their careers
• Build a positive company culture

It’s easier to do all these things when you have the right tech tools. An employee super-app brings your organization together and helps you establish a positive company culture.

It also gives employees all the communication, resources, and digital tools they need to excel in their roles. They experience more flow and less friction, which makes for improved employee motivation.

Find out what an employee app could do for your organization. Schedule a free Blink demo today.

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David Brown is a titan of the public transport industry. His star-studded career has taken him from a graduate with London Transport to CEO of Go-Ahead Group. He's been GM for CentreWest London Buses, Operations and Managing Director for London General and London Central.

#1. Always grasp opportunity.

The advice I give to graduates, young bus managers or other leadership groups is this: grasp opportunity whenever you can. Don't let them pass you by, because they won't come back again.

#2. Bring more young people in.

Privatization was a death knell for a lot of graduate schemes. It was an easy way to save money, to look at the bottom line. But we ended up with a generational hole of senior managers coming through.

One of the first things I did at Go-Ahead was reintroduce a graduate scheme. I'm very excited to see that cadre of talent come through.

#3. And promote them fast!

Now I want to help that young talent leap from junior management to senior or directorship roles. To bridge that generation gap, their career needs to accelerate.

We have a 93% retention rate. That's partly because people see a trajectory to the top of the organization. You need to give people real responsibility and accountability. It's a fantastic time to be in the transport industry as a young person. Because if you're good, there are infinite chances for you to stand out.

#4. (But don't force them to stay).

I'm relaxed about people leaving – because I know they'll come back. But they'll come back with another set of skills and experiences to help us. We need these people as part of transport. I'm passionate about that whole industry, not only the Go-Ahead version.

#5. Real progress happens when there's no time to plan.

I never worked harder than in lockdown. It was 24/7. We were trying to reconstruct our business. We needed lots of local leadership. So from day 1, nobody blinked. We just got on with it.

Desk-based and frontline stepped up massively. The frontline were in some scary situations in their day-to-day, and I'll always be proud of how they coped.

#6. Learn from your mistakes — even in a crisis.

After the first lockdown, we reviewed our actions and said, "What do we do well, and what could we do better?” Because that's what you should do, of course. But when there's a second wave, we also must be ready to remember what we instinctively did well.

The downside has been the public message about our business, that it's unsafe to travel by public transport, and demonizing public transport. That is a real big hurdle that we've got to overcome.

#7. There's a place for greater formal collaboration in transport today.

All the bus PRC companies have grown up in a siloed era: never collaborating, out of fear of the Competition Act, and the CMA.

Now the operators do talk to each other, but only in the context of the CPT, which is our trade body. We've got a huge amount in common, and we need to leverage that better.

We're going to have to be far more agile, far more responsive to an ever-changing situation. That feeds into our engagement with our colleagues’ representatives from the trade union. It's been more collaborative because we've realized it goes beyond the small issues or the legal aspects.

#8. Let's lose the bureaucracy.

When we went into lockdown, people said “Well, we've got to tell the traffic commissioner, we’ve got to check”. I said, “You just go do the right thing, and they're going to have to catch up with us. We’re going to have to do the right thing, and plead forgiveness afterwards.” Because we haven't got the time to wait 270 days to make decisions.

The industry needs more of that, not less of that. We need to be more flexible, more agile and more collaborative going forward.

#9. Technology will help us re-position ourselves.

Technology can automate a lot of aspects to make public transport jobs easier. That leaves the drivers extra time to do the bits we want more of, which is looking after customers. It's important to push that going forward, so passengers feel looked after as well as safe.

Technology will also help us stay relevant around the issues of air quality and climate change. I'm excited to see how that develops.

#10. The UK government must step in – before it’s too late.

At the beginning of this year, I saw a new dawn for public transport. I could see we were going to get good, generous funding from the government. We were helping the government see how transport fits into every single department – not just its own.

Now, we have to pick all that back up. We need the government to spend as much money as they did telling people to travel, as they did telling them not to. A sort of 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme on trains and buses. That level of commitment is imperative.

And if they don't? We'll be left with hollowed out cities. And no one wants that.