Phil has been with Malcolm group since 2017, working on the logistics side of the business. It’s been challenging to get our Drivers on board with Blink, but Phil has been a true champion of the app from the start. Sharing pictures on the road, offering guidance to fellow drivers, and now he is a trained Mental Health First Aider for Haydock, he uses the platform to communicate and support with his peers who might be struggling.
How has Blink helped in his role?
We have drivers on roads all over the UK and Blink allows Phil to reach them when he otherwise couldn't. It also means drivers can easily reach office colleagues and others across the business.
What does he want to do next?
Phil loves driving so I’m sure he’ll keep trucking on!
Employee appreciation ideas aren’t just a nice thing to do. They’re common business sense.
71% of highly engaged organizations recognize employees for a job well done, but only 41% of less engaged organizations do the same. Meanwhile, Gartner suggests that a well-designed employee recognition program can lead to an increase in average employee performance.
The numbers don’t lie – employee recognition is vital, now more than ever. You don’t need to spend a lot on employee appreciation ideas for them to be effective either, and some of the best employee recognition strategies are completely free.
Here’s how to start showing your employees how much you appreciate them, and some staff appreciation ideas to get you started.
Why are employee appreciation ideas so important?
Everyone likes to be recognized for the work they put in. For staff appreciation, ‘thank you’ is everything.
In fact, feeling underappreciated at work is one of the most common reasons why employees leave a role. A recent study of UK and US workers by Workhuman found that employees who had been thanked for their work in the last month are:
Half as likely to look for a new job (24% vs 48%)
More than twice as likely to be engaged in their work (48% vs 21%)
More than three times as likely to see a path to grow in the organization (59% vs 19%)
All that, just from two short but meaningful words! Imagine the boost more developed employee appreciation ideas could achieve.
And, with the Great Resignation in full swing, the power of ‘thank you’ has never been more apparent, or commercially essential. Around 4.5 million Americans quit their job in March 2022, enticed by rising wages and more flexible working options.
Appreciating your employees for all the hard work they put in is vital in encouraging them to stay put. The great news is that this isn’t a difficult task at all! All it takes is the willingness to listen and some creative thinking on your part.
How to start recognizing your employees’ achievements
Employee recognition isn’t just a top-down thing.
Sure, your senior execs can and should take the lead in calling out great performance – it makes it much easier for everyone else to follow. The issue is that senior managers can only be in so many places at once. They can’t recognize everything worthy of being recognized.
Instead, it’s all about building a culture of continuous recognition from the ground upwards, encompassing both informal and formal recognition methods. This could include:
An employee app that lets managers share great performance with the wider organization
A quarterly awards ceremony to recognize employees who have gone above and beyond
Peer to peer recognition apps to encourage colleagues to support each other
Training all of your employees in how to recognize their peers
That last point is important. In a recent survey, two thirds of businesses said that they trained their managers in employee recognition but only one third offered employees training in colleague recognition. To build a positive culture, it’s important that everyone knows how to offer praise, and its impact on creating an engaged workplace. Don’t leave it to chance.
It’s also essential to build employee preferences into this process. Some people might love receiving an award in front of all their colleagues; for others, this might seem more like a punishment! Ask your teams (or ensure your line managers do) what their ideal way of being thanked looks like. It's an employee engagement best practice worth following.
6 great staff appreciation ideas
1. Salary rise
Almost two-thirds of U.S. private sector payroll workers work in industries where the average weekly wage in the second quarter of 2021 was at least 5% higher than it was in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If your rates of pay haven’t budged since pre-pandemic, they’re likely no longer competitive. Show your staff you're serious about your long-term relationship by bringing them up to market rate – or higher! Costs of living are rising rapidly right now, and your team will appreciate it.
2. Public shoutouts
Use your employee app or intranet to shout about individual and team successes. As well as the warmth of public recognition, this helps your employees build their networks in your organization and get noticed by those who could help them progress. .
3. Fun benefits and perks
There’s nothing wrong with offering your employees a little treat every now and then. It won’t make or break employee engagement (a decent salary and day-to-day appreciation are far more important considerations), but it’s definitely a great addition.
Spa days, vouchers for department stores, team days out, gym memberships and personal development funds are all great ways to do this – you might have some ideas of your own.
4. Identify and celebrate key milestones
What we don’t mean: only celebrating 10-year milestones and giving your employees a watch on retirement. Things have moved on since the 1950s.
What we do mean: finding milestones that are meaningful to your business and celebrating little and often. Passing probation, completing advanced training, promotions and getting that first landmark sale are all worthy of celebration. Identify some that are meaningful to your workforce.
5. Individual and team specific
On some level, you’ll have to rely on your line managers to ensure employees feel appreciated on a day-to-day basis. Train them to express their appreciation frequently, and give them a budget for treats like team socials and post-project meals out. It’ll make all the difference.
6. Employee Appreciation Day
Dedicate a day to saying thank you to your employees! In the US, the official Employee Appreciation Day is celebrated on the first Friday of March, but you could hold your own staff appreciation day whenever suits you best.
Employee Appreciation Day ideas include running an awards ceremony to recognize all the effort your employees have put in over the year, followed by a few hours of fun to celebrate these achievements. Fire up the grill (or hire a food truck), plan some fun activities and let everyone have a great time.
On a budget?
It’s not all about the fancy extras. Some of the most effective employee appreciation ideas are free:
Creating a ‘wall of fame’ for great achievements
Celebrating employees’ birthdays, marriages and other life events
Putting effort into feedback, so that employees can develop their skills
Providing opportunities that will help build experience, such as shadowing other roles
Working remotely?
This doesn’t need to stop you! Try using an employee app that will allow you to share your appreciation virtually. You could also try the following employee appreciation ideas:
Early finish Fridays, especially in summer
Celebrations and awards ceremonies via Zoom or similar
Constant engagement and feedback via Slack or your other messaging channels
Treats (food, vouchers, care packages) via post. Everyone loves surprise mail!
Staff appreciation quotes
What you say and how you say it matters! Use these ideas as templates so that you really get the message across.
Every day: “Thank you”
Often, it doesn’t have to get much more complicated than this.
“Thank you for getting that report to me so promptly.”
“Thank you for stepping in last minute – we were really short.”
“Thank you for all your hard work this week – it’s been a long one.”
For small, day-to-day actions that have made everyone’s working lives a little easier, there’s no better alternative.
Recognizing consistently good performance: “I’ve noticed that…”
All too often, it’s large, one-off actions that get noticed rather than consistently good performance that keeps the organization running. Avoid this trap with the “I’ve noticed…” approach.
“I’ve noticed that you always make sure the shop’s tidy before locking up, even though that’s not your role.”
“I’ve noticed that you always hit deadlines without fuss, and it makes it so much easier for everyone else.”
“I’ve noticed that you always take the early shift to make life easier for colleagues with kids.”
Follow up with thanks, by passing on this info to higher ups in the business and potentially with a token of your appreciation – lunch on the company, an early finish this weekend or a large box of baked goods can all work, depending on the situation.
One-off actions: “That really made a difference”
For those times where an employee knocks it out the park, it’s always worth emphasizing the impact of their actions. Employees want their work to be meaningful, and this lets them know
“That report gave senior management a real insight into some of the issues we’re facing, and really made a difference in how we’re going to approach them.”
“That big deal you landed made a huge difference in us meeting our quarterlies. You should be very proud.”
“The new processes you suggested save us so much time. They’ve really made a difference to employee wellbeing.”
Again, follow up with an appropriate reward for maximum impact, whether that’s an award, a bonus or something similar.
Employee appreciation ideas: final thoughts
People like to feel appreciated, so a quick ‘thank you’ here and there works wonders for employee retention.
And, now that your employees can walk out of the job and be reasonably certain of finding another one pretty quickly, ‘thank you’ is a must. If your employees don’t feel appreciated, they will leave.
It’s all about the basics here. A fair wage, regular appreciation and long-term support will go further than doling out a few Amazon Prime vouchers once every quarter. Employee recognition should be a constant process that’s built into the heart of your business.
That’s not to say additional treats aren’t motivating. Rewards and bonuses of all kinds can be fantastic tactics as part of an employee engagement strategy, and they will make your staff feel appreciated. They are, essentially, the cherry on the top of your rewards program. Get the foundations right first for best results.
Blink helps you show employees the appreciation they deserve. Get your free demo today.
The most common communication challenges in organizations from big enterprise businesses to small startups are so widespread that dealing with them can start to feel normal.
It’s easy to forget that internal communications issues can have a big impact. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can safely back burner internal comms because communication challenges and barriers are so widespread.
The fact is that poor internal communications can seriously harm your business. It’s a domino effect of frustrating communication, poor morale, lower productivity, higher absenteeism leading to higher employee turnover, and finally, higher costs and smaller profits.
Of course, when you’re in the thick of things, the relationship between poor internal comms and your bottom line might not be very clear. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that communication was thought of as a nice but not necessary soft skill.
We put together this article to lay out some of the ways communication challenges and barriers can sap a company’s resources along with strategies for making your internal comms more effective (also see the best way to improve internal communications).
The deep impact of communications challenges in organizations
The idea that internal communications problems can make a business less profitable can seem overblown.
The statistics, however, show that having a weak internal comms strategy (or having no strategy at all) can have a detrimental impact on everything from employee engagement to your business's bottom line.
Here’s how communications challenges in organizations affect success.
Communication challenges and barriers lead to increased employee turnover
Studies looking into the real cost of employee turnover often show different results.
Some studies show it costs employers 33% of a worker's annual salary to hire a replacement while other research suggests that it costs three times that salary.
What all of the data has in common is that employee turnover definitely costs companies big bucks.
Relationships suffer when communication is a problem
Two heads are better than one, but whole teams of heads are necessary for long-term success.
When people can’t communicate with one another effectively because of technical barriers or, worse, can communicate but feel uncomfortable doing so because there’s not a culture of openness at a company, collaboration may slow or even stop.
That means innovation can’t happen and problems languish with no solutions. Your employees just can’t be as productive when relationships with colleagues are strained and everyone feels like they’re working in isolation.
Less productivity means less profit.
Customer service suffers when there are communication challenges
Internal communications and external communications are inexorably linked.
Employees need access to information to answer customer queries, respond to sales inquiries, or help customers get what they need.
When they can’t get that information easily, they’re apt to feel a strong sense of disengagement that can actually lead to everyone—workers and customers alike—feeling frustrated and dissatisfied during encounters.
Dissatisfied employees leave, and as we’ve shown above, that costs money. And dissatisfied customers take their business elsewhere, costing you even more.
Poor communication = stress = higher healthcare costs
This might seem like a stretch, but stress costs the United States $300 billion every year—a figure that includes costs shouldered by businesses that provide insurance to their employees.
While there’s no way to show a hard and fast causal link between frustrations caused by comms issues and increased healthcare costs, it’s worth mulling over the idea that the communications challenges in organizations that stress workers out may also be contributing to expensive physical and mental health issues in those same employees.
Healthcare is expensive, after all, and effective internal comms is cheap in comparison.
Internal communication problems can be a motivation killer
Workers who don’t feel like they have an important role to play, who don’t understand what is expected of them, and who feel like they don’t have a voice literally can’t give their all.
Time that would otherwise go toward productive (and profitable) work is instead spent trying to navigate a confusing company culture or to figure out what that company’s priorities are. There’s no passion among employees because they feel totally disengaged from their tasks and their teams.
The Gallup State of the American Workplace report put it succinctly: “Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work—they are resentful that their needs aren’t being met and are acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers potentially undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.”
Communications challenges in organizations lead to mistakes
Workers who have access to the information they need to really contribute to a company make fewer mistakes because they feel comfortable concentrating on the work in front of them.
Employees who are focused on trying to figure out what their priorities should be or simple emotional management are more prone to error.
In a retail environment, the result of this kind of disengagement may be fewer sales. In industries like healthcare, however, mistakes can lead to hugely expensive regulatory issues or even injury and death.
Poor internal communication makes boosting employee satisfaction impossible
You can’t boost your workers’ overall satisfaction if you don’t have a clear idea of what employees like and don’t like about their day to day.
At companies with strong internal communications strategies, managers regularly touch base with employees to get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t. When comms just isn’t a priority, chances are slim to none that workers will open up about what changes could make your business better.
Absenteeism rates are higher when communications is an issue
Employees who can’t jump ship at the moment may show their communications-related dissatisfaction by simply not showing up.
A Gallup study conducted in the UK showed that disengaged workers miss 10 more working days each year compared to peers who feel a strong connection to the company vision and are clear on what’s expected of them.
The biggest challenges facing internal communications teams
The factors that have contributed to the biggest communications challenges in organizations are well documented at this point. Lack of clarity, platform. and targeted messaging.
The main problem that companies have faced has always been how to address those factors effectively and economically. Email and Dropbox alone are outdated.
Just having a clear vision doesn’t necessarily mean it is easy to share and then reinforce that vision. A company intranet portal that provides a platform for internal comms may not actually facilitate good communication. And getting the right information into the hands of the right people has always been tough.
Luckily, solving the big communications challenges in organizations has become easier with tech tools like an internal communications tool. Intranets have evolved over time from simple information repositories to a kind of mobile base of operations where business happens from anywhere.
Blink, for instance, can help you communicate administrative and benefits information, but is also a platform for collaboration, a place to store and search for data, a way to solicit feedback (including anonymous feedback), and a social hub for employees to share with one another.
It lets internal comms teams curate messaging so employees stay on the same page without getting overwhelmed by emails, meetings, memos, and Slack chatter.
Up-to-date internal comms tools like Blink’s employee app are even more important for businesses with a lot of frontline workers—especially now that nontraditional employees like remote workers and long-term contract workers make up such a large percentage of the workforce.
By automating paper-based processes, microapps like this help increase productivity overall.
How effective internal communications will change your business for the better
Curious about what effective internal communication can really do for your bottom line? Here are some statistics that might surprise you:
Companies that communicate effectively are 50% more likely to report below average turnover levels.
69% of employees say they’d work harder if their contributions were recognized and praised.
Knowing what you know now, we also want to offer you a quick list of steps you can take right away to gauge how your internal comms is currently working and to enhance your internal comms strategy.
Assess your current strategy — Assuming you have one, that is. If not, you’ll want to make one. But if you do, take the time to consider your internal communications objectives, who has ownership of comms, if the tools you are using are effective, and whether your current strategies are really getting the job done.
Poll your employees — Do they feel like they have a voice in your company? If they have an idea, can they easily share it? When they have questions, can they find answers quickly and easily? Does dealing with administrative tasks take up way too much time? Do they like your communications tech? Let workers answer anonymously and adjust your comms strategy accordingly.
Put everything in one place — Make this the year you finally commit to storing your company data in one place so tracking down a file is never again a half-day affair. When you use Blink to store the information your employees need—from HR docs to project guidelines—they can easily find it all.
Stop sending so many emails — Lengthy, reply-all type email threads are frustrating and, frankly, easy to ignore. Worse, they interrupt the flow of work and often contain irrelevant information leaving workers feeling resentful instead of informed.
Send information to the right people — Use a comms platform like Blink that lets you send information to specific employees and teams instead of the entire company. You can even label posts priority and check to make sure that your messages were received and read by recipients.
The bottom line is that employees at every level of your company will be happier, more productive, and more passionate about their work if they feel informed.
The internal communications strategy you put into place now will not only make it easier for your employees to do their jobs, but will also make your company more profitable in the long run.
Blink makes it easier to overcome the most common organizational communication tool challenges in organizations. Are you ready to tackle the challenges facing internal communications at your company?
Actimo vs. Blink – which is better? It's a question many buyers are asking. And of course, the answer depends on who's asking!
Blink and Actimo are both cloud-based internal communication platforms with a strong customer base and some overlap in features. Yet their primary focus varies.
Actimo vs. Blink – quick facts
Actimo is ideal for teams who want a platform that enables e-learning but aren’t as concerned about real-time interaction.
In contrast, Blink is a truly inclusive real-time communications platform for frontline workers, though it doesn’t have an integrated LMS system.
Your organization’s technical resources may also determine which one is best for you. Blink is easier to use out-of-the-box, while Actimo requires a more thorough setup.
Both apps place a heavy focus on mobile usability, but Actimo doesn’t offer a newsfeed and is best used as a static intranet.
And while Actimo's designed for medium-sized organizations, Blink works best for extra-large enterprises with 25,000+ staff.
In this post, we'll break down the key differences and similarities between Blink and Actimo.
Let's dive into it.
Actimo vs. Blink How they're similar
Mobile-first content
On Blink and Actimo, all content is mobile-first. In other words, everything is optimized to be viewed on a small phone screen, not a desktop. This means both could be a solid option for organizations with mobile or frontline workers.
Customizability
Blink is customizable through third-party integrations and offers a wide variety of functionality through its micro-app function. While the starter platform is incredibly easy to set up, full end-to-end customization can take some work through micro-apps and necessary integrations.
Similarly, Actimo can be extensively configured with a fully customizable onboarding flow and plenty of in-app engagement data. Capterra users commented that it's 'easy to make presentations or apps for almost any purpose.'
Multi-lingual offering
Both platforms cater to multiple different languages. Blink even offers on-demand translation of content into the users language of choice.
Some users complained that Actimo switches text from English to Danish.
Actimo vs. Blink: How they're different
Integrations
Blink's integration capability is one of its strongest selling points. Through its dedicated app marketplace, users can shop for new integrations and mix and match to build their own 'super app'. Integrations are configured using Single Sign-On, so users can access different tools without leaving Blink.
By contrast, Actimo probably won't be the solution that replaces every one of your current internal communications tools. There are limited integrations with third-party business tools beyond HR systems.
Employee engagement
Taking a cue from the most popular social apps, Blink offers a live feed with company updates and user-generated text, images, and video. As a result, engagement with the app is remarkably high, with an average of 14 app opens per user per day.
On Actimo, it can be a lot of work to get set up and maintain engagement. Since the content isn’t primarily user-generated, admins will need to regularly create and schedule content to encourage use. That also means communications are more top-down than other platforms.
e-Learning
Actimo is a fantastic application to facilitate training and learning. Users liked that 'training is fully self-paced and fits anywhere in employee schedules.'
Within the platform, micro-learning is detailed yet simple to use. There are also engaging learning paths with gamified achievements that users can access at their own pace. Data on the compliance with, and completion of, necessary training, is another plus.
On Blink, there is no native onboarding and training function. However, a function can be added with the micro-apps feature, or by adding an integration.
Peer-to-peer communication
Blink offers a searchable in-app database of employees, so it’s easy for users to find a coworker they want to connect with. When they find that co-worker, there are many different ways to communicate: 121 or group chat, through real-time feed posts and comments, or by creating Hub content.
For those looking for a platform with a People Directory, Actimo may also not be a good choice. Beyond group members, there is no way to see a complete list of employees at your organization.
UX/UI
Blink developers design the app to mimic consumer apps like Uber and Facebook as closely as possible, so the user experience is familiar and fresh. Reviewers praised the platform's 'responsive, team-customizable features.'
While Actimo users appreciate they have 'full control of the layout', they were disappointed that the UI is 'clunky andoutdated'.
Frontline focus
While users commented that the app works 'just as well for desktop as it does on mobile', Blink is unique in its laser focus on the frontline experience. And despite offering a highly usable mobile experience, there is also a surprising amount of depth to the content and features.
While Actimo is optimized for the frontline experience, it doesn't focus on tailored features for specific industries (in Blink's case, transport and healthcare).
Targetting content
Blink's architecture is based on 'teams', which means all content is targetted is personalised to users depending on the groups they're in. Users can schedule campaigns months in advance, and 'pin' posts to ensure they're read, or tag them as 'mandatory reads'.
Actimo users complained the app is 'missing a way to micro-manage groups and send-outs', and requested 'more functionality for campaign planning.'
Actimo vs. Blink: systems and pricing
Unlike Actimo, Blink offers all of its features and capabilities through a single system with optional paid add-ons, which includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager. An all-in-one solution like Blink is attractive to many buyers since it provides seamless functionality and is priced as a single unit.
Blink also offers a number of pre-built integrations with popular business apps to allow for further customization.
The core product is priced in four according to scale:
Essential
Business
Enterprise
Enterprise Plus
Organizations can also take advantage of a 40% discount if they pay annually.
Overall, Blink is an affordable product, with users commenting on its 'excellent value for money'. While Actimo pricing is not available online, reviewers commented on the cost per user being 'hard to justify' for smaller organizations.
Actimo vs Blink: final thoughts
While Actimo is a strong choice for organizations focused on training and onboarding, it lacks the features to make it a true digital workplace.
“Dear Employee, your GTK forms are now Available in the YTG portal, Please fill them by Thu so they can be processed by MONDAY. Thank you!!!!”
Internal messages like these are liable to confuse your audience.
Grammar mistakes, inconsistent capitalization, and workplace jargon make internal communications confusing. A lack of personalization and an ill-defined tone of voice make it unengaging.
The result? Your audience doesn’t understand your message — or chooses to ignore it because it holds no interest.
We know that ineffective communication costs businesses up to $15,000 per employee per year. So consistent, effective, and engaging communication has to be the standard.
An internal communication style guide helps your communicators post content that ticks all these boxes. Let’s look at what a style guide is — and how to create one — so you can ensure clear employee communication and a positive employer brand image.
What is a business communication style guide?
A business communication style guide is a document that details the content and writing standards you want internal communicators to stick to.
It includes rules on things like grammar, formatting, writing style, word choice, and tone of voice. It offers guidance on how to make content more interesting, relevant, and easy to digest. It may also provide information on how to create and format multimedia content.
Your internal communicators can refer to these standards whenever they create content, ensuring that everything is kept consistent, no matter who is writing or posting.
This makes your internal messages easier for employees to understand. It also supports your internal communication strategy. Because when employees are used to receiving clear and relevant messages, they’re much less likely to switch off from employee communications.
A style guide keeps everyone on the same page at all times. And it embeds a shared understanding of internal content creation throughout your company.
How to write your internal communication style guide: a template
Internal messages should be as concise as possible. The same goes for your internal communication style guide.
Nobody in your company wants to spend hours reading through a list of rules before they publish an internal communication message. So don’t be tempted to write reams.
It may help to look at style guide examples and templates — like the one we’ve included here — as inspiration. There’s broad consensus on what good internal messaging looks like. So most style guides contain a lot of the same information.
However, you will need to add company-specific guidance relating to your brand personality, tone of voice, and any particular language you want to use or avoid.
With all that in mind, here are the basic components you’ll need to include in your workplace communication style guide, along with some tips.
Introduction
The first section of a style guide is the introduction. It explains the basics of the guide, like how to use it, why it’s important, and what it includes.
The VA.gov style guide hits on all these points. It provides a straightforward experience for everyone, regardless of whether they’re viewing the guide for the first or tenth time.
To ensure people can use your guide as a reference, create a list of contents and use linked subheadings. That way, users can jump straight to the information they need.
A few internal communication principles
A good business communication style guide doesn’t just cover specific rules for workers to follow. It also shares the underlying internal communication principles behind those rules.
With knowledge of these principles, content creators can make the right editorial call, even in situations the guidelines don’t cover.
Here are some of the golden rules to include for content creators in your internal communication style guide.
Stick to the four Cs: Internal communication should be correct, clear, concise, and conversational. So fact check each piece of content. Ensure your primary message shines through. Say what you want to say in as few words as possible. And write in a way that reflects how real people talk to one another — using everyday words and phrases.
Understand your audience: Plan your content before you start writing. As you form an outline, ask yourself:
What are the key things you want to convey?
Who is this message for?
What will the target audience want to know?
What is their likely state of mind when consuming the content?
This will help you write cohesive content that gets to the point and answers employee questions.
Be clear and helpful: Break down complex messages into simple, bite-size chunks. Put the most important piece of information at the start of your content. Also, break up paragraphs and sentences to make them more digestible for readers.
Make it human: It’s much easier to connect with individual people than with an inanimate organization. So use words like “we” instead of your company name. And use the word “you” to talk to employees directly.
X Blink is looking for employees who want to volunteer with a local charity.
✓ We’re looking for employees who want to volunteer with a local charity.
X Employees can get involved by clicking this link.
✓ You can get involved by clicking this link.
Write inclusively: Only refer to a person’s disability, age, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation if it’s relevant to the context of your content.
Grammar and punctuation
The third part of your internal communication style guide is all about the mechanics of writing.
Of course, you can’t cover every single grammar rule here. But you can give guidance regarding the most common grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Here are some ideas.
Ampersands: Don’t use ampersands (&), whether in titles, subtitles or the body of a message. Use the full word “and”.
Commas: Don’t forget to add the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma), in lists of three or more items.
X In his award speech, Tom Cruise mentioned his parents, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.
✓ In his award speech, Tom Cruise mentioned his parents, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Contractions: Contractions make your writing feel less formal. So use them in all your internal communications.
X We will have more news for you soon.
✓ We’ll have more news for you soon.
Be careful with common contraction errors. Writers often confuse “its” with “it’s”.
“Its” is used to show possession:
The HR team has its away day on Monday.
“It’s” represents the phrase “it is”:
It’s the HR team away day on Monday.
Also, avoid non-standard contractions like “should’ve” and “would’ve”.
Exclamation marks: Some writers are prone to using lots of exclamation marks. This can come across as overly informal or a little aggressive. However, the occasional exclamation mark can make a message seem more friendly. Be clear on whether and where you want communicators to use them.
Accuracy and spelling: Ensure that your content is free from errors. Use a spell-checker to catch mistakes you might have overlooked. And proofread everything before submitting it for publication or distribution.
Style and formatting
Style and formatting are all about how you want communicators to use language — and how you want them to present their message on the page.
Acronyms and abbreviations: These can cause confusion, particularly for new employees. So try to avoid them. When absolutely necessary, write the full version of the acronym or abbreviation the first time it appears in a piece of text.
For example:
The customer experience (CX) team achieved their target this quarter.
Then use the acronym or abbreviation throughout the rest of the text.
In some cases, when an acronym or abbreviation is commonly used in the English language, you don’t need to spell the full word out.
Some examples: Mr, Ms, Ph.D
Capitalization: Use sentence case capitalization for page titles, subheadings, text links, and buttons.
X The Ultimate Internal Communication Style Guide
✓ The ultimate internal communication style guide
Remember that proper nouns (names of specific people, places, or organizations) are always capitalized, wherever they appear. And ALL CAPS should be avoided at all costs. They make a reader feel like you’re shouting at them.
Dates and times: Dates are displayed differently in different countries. To avoid any confusion, write dates in their full format.
X 11/12/2026
✓ November 12, 2026
Don’t abbreviate days of the week or months of the year. For example, write “Monday” not “Mon” and “January” not “Jan”. Also, write noon and midnight, rather than 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.
Bullet lists: Bullet lists make content easier to scan and understand. If there are three or more concepts in a sentence, try putting them in a bullet list instead.
When writing bullet lists:
Capitalize the first letter of each bullet point
Keep each list item short (no more than one or two lines)
Use a parallel structure (start each point in the same way —for example, with a verb or a noun)
Links: The links you include in your content should feel natural and intuitive. They should show readers where to click and where the link will take them.
When creating links:
Use descriptive language
Hyperlink the most relevant text
Avoid making the hyperlinked text too long
Headings and subheadings: Use headers and subheads to organize your content. This breaks text up and makes it easier to read.
Paragraphs and sentences: Keep the majority of your sentences and paragraphs short. Long blocks of text can be overwhelming for a reader, particularly if they’re reading content on a small mobile device screen.
Here’s a quick rule of thumb:
No more than 25 words in a sentence
No more than three sentences in a paragraph
Numbers, weights, and measures: Write numbers one to nine as words. Write numbers 10, 11, 12, and so on as numerals. Write out fractions as words, using hyphens. For example, two-thirds or three-quarters.
Decide whether to write out or abbreviate weights, measures, and currencies. For example, decide between:
% and percent
kg and kilograms
€ and euros
Vocabulary: Highlight the correct form of commonly misspelled or incorrectly formatted words — particularly those your organization uses regularly. Ensure that your company name, company locations, and hyphenated words are written the same way across all content.
Context-specific formatting: Perhaps news feed posts shouldn’t exceed a specified word count. Or you don’t want communicators to use emojis in emails. Explain any style and formatting rules related to the internal communication channels you use.
Writing voice and tone
This is where your business communication style guide is likely to feature lots of unique content. It’s all about the brand personality you convey — and how you make employees feel.
Start by thinking about your brand personality and values. Then, imagine your brand as a person.
Ask yourself how that person would speak and the kind of words they’d use. Perhaps their speech is polished and motivational. Or maybe they prefer to talk informally, throwing in the odd joke.
In this part of your internal communication style guide, describe what your brand personality is and isn’t. Also, give written examples that show communicators how to convey this personality across internal communications.
But remember that — while brand voice is a fixed thing — your tone can vary.
You may like to adapt your tone according to each communication channel and message format — or for different audience segments. If this is the case, give examples of how to adjust the tone for different scenarios.
Beyond the specifics of your brand voice and tone, there are a few foundations of good internal communication to keep in mind.
Use active voice: Using active voice instead of passive voice makes your employee communication more engaging and energetic.
X The training day was delivered by Amy.
✓ Amy delivered the training day.
Be open and transparent: Transparent communication builds trust. This contributes to a positive company culture. So when creating internal communications, use a tone that is approachable and honest. Be as open as possible, particularly where mistakes have been made.
Also, invite employee feedback to respond to your communications. In doing so, you establish two-way communication, giving employees a voice and discovering useful perspectives.
Be respectful: As we mentioned earlier, inclusive language is essential for internal comms. Ensure you speak to all employees as equals. Don’t patronize and don’t highlight company hierarchy unnecessarily.
Be direct and to the point: Your employees want to learn the most important details of your message as quickly as possible. Keep your copy short without missing key information. Also, include a clear call to action so employees know what to do next.
Keep it positive: We’re not saying you should gloss over bad news. But where possible, use a positive tone when writing internal messages. Avoid cynicism and sarcasm.
Write with a conversational tone: Make text easy to understand by writing in Plain English. Pick short, simple words over long, complicated ones.
It can help to read your writing out loud. If you wouldn’t use particular words or sentence structures when talking to someone face-to-face, try editing your copy to make it more conversational.
For example:
X Blink is a software solution for frontline-centric organizations.
✓ Blink is an employee app for companies with a big frontline workforce.
Multimedia content
Text may be the foundation of internal communications. But multimedia content is incredibly engaging for employees.
If you regularly create content like videos, images, infographics, or audio, tell your team how this media should be presented. Here are some of the things you might like to cover.
Branding: If graphics and videos need to feature the company logo, company colors, or specific fonts, tell creators how you want them to incorporate your branding. Also, give guidance on whether stock photography is acceptable.
Quality and formats: Detail the minimum resolution of images, the maximum file size of multimedia content, the required quality of audio, and preferred file formats.
Accessibility: Give instructions on alt tags, contrasting color palettes, and any video caption requirements to ensure your multimedia content is accessible to all employees.
A final note on creating your internal communication style guide
An internal communication style guide acts as a reference. Your communicators can use it to improve your internal communication, making it more consistent, engaging, and effective.
Many of the guidelines in an internal communication style guide cover best practices. These can be applied to almost any organization. But you need to adapt your guide so it reflects your branding, your tone of voice, and the needs of your employees.
It can help to treat your guide as a work in progress. Once you have a guide in place, you can add to it. Any time you see an error or an inconsistency in your internal communications, update your style guide to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
We hope this template speeds up the creation of your internal communication guide. Good luck with your first draft!
The last few years brought a storm of change to the HR industry. Artificial Intelligence. The gig economy. And more recently, a global pandemic has altered our reality and redefined workflows.
While Covid-19 has forced us to make many temporary adjustments to the way we live and work, not every new development is short-lived. There has been an influx of new trends that are here to stay.
These innovations have pushed us to view different areas of the HR function from a new perspective. And they have made us wonder: What’s in store for the future? What are the developments that will transform HR for good? Which trends will shape the new reality of work?
Read on for answers. In this post, we take a look at the top HR trends in 2021 for frontline business and HR leaders to take into account as they prepare for what’s to come.
Top HR trends for 2022
Designing work for frontline employees’ well-being
The line between work and home life has been blurring for some time, but the pandemic has all but erased it for many employees. In response, HR leaders have shifted from promoting work-life balance to pushing well-being into the work itself.
As per the 2020 Hartford’s Future of Benefits Study, workers are now demanding benefits like hospital indemnity insurance, additional paid time off, and employee assistance programs.
Companies, on their part, are focusing on online experiences that improve employees’ health. These include virtual team-building events, yoga and fitness sessions, and mindfulness classes, and so on.
So organizations that thrive beyond 2021 are going to be those that integrate health-related initiatives into the design of work. This will be done at the individual, team, and organizational levels to create an environment in which employees are at peak health.
Reskilling to unlock frontline worker potential
During Covid, many organizations struggled to retain employees because of financial problems, sick leave, or losing workers to the virus. So managers called on remaining employees to expand their roles and fill the gaps left by their coworkers. And like the Spartans, employees rose to the challenge.
Workers’ resourcefulness and agency in these hard times have shown that they can learn and contribute in unexpected ways. And in doing so, they have positioned their organizations to thrive in the long term.
So employee reskilling is another important trend to watch out for. According to a recent Udemy survey, the demand for building employee skills grew by 38% in 2020. The consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) illustrates this trend. It invested $3 billion in the learning and development of employees who have stayed with the business for at least 3 years. This suggests that reskilling is a lean and sustainable way to strengthen your workforce.
Building 'Superteams'
Organizations have been using ‘teaming’ (setting up a temporary team of people who aren’t familiar with each other) as a survival strategy to counter the impact of Covid-19. Many leaders have now begun to realize teaming as an opportunity to form “superteams.”
Coined by Thomas Malone, the term ‘superteam’ refers to the pairing of people with technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, to rethink workflows and get faster outcomes.
The strategy of turning teams into superteams is still in its infancy, as many companies still see technology from a limited viewpoint — more as a tool than a team member.
According to Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends report, only 16% of executive-level leaders said that they plan to transform work by combining humans and machines.
But the trend is expected to accelerate, with organizations shifting to this new mindset and strategy in a strong position to realize the untapped potential it offers to drive growth and handle uncertainty. Making sure you have the right employee experience software, and the right tech stack is vital.
Rethinking governance of workforce strategies
Covid-19 has opened our eyes to the fact that using data on your workforce’s current state to determine employee strategies is not enough. Relying solely on the metrics showing the workforce’s present situation is risky because it limits a company’s potential to survive drastic changes. This applies to all strategies, from staffing levels to employee retention.
Some organizations are shifting their approach from strategizing for likely, minor events to planning for the unexpected. 17% of HR executives say that their companies plan to focus on the occurrence of unlikely, high-impact events, as opposed to 6% before the pandemic.
Companies that want to handle change with confidence must address questions that force them to look into the future. It’s forward-looking insights that will help businesses accomplish new milestones.
Shifting from managing employees to re-architecting work
Covid-19 has positioned HR as a prominent part of surviving a crisis. And the good news is that HR has lived up to this new standard, gaining more credibility as a result.
A survey by Deloitte has shown that both HR and business leaders are now more certain of HR’s ability to tackle future challenges.
This creates an opportunity for HR departments to leverage their new position and transform their role from that of managing employees to re-architecting work.
HR leaders can make the most of this by taking charge of reimagining both the workforce and the workplace to ensure future success.
The survey also found that 61% of business and HR executives are planning to reimagine work in the next one to three years. This would mean:
Prioritizing outcomes over outputs
Focusing on building superteams that combine human and technological capabilities
Managing the cultural and leadership changes that arise from the new approach to work
As a result, HR trends and goals will align better with business objectives. And HR will need to work closely with other departments to shape the new architecture of work.
Conclusion
These HR trends show the future holds both big opportunities and tough challenges for HR and business leaders. All this is pushing HR professionals to search for and leverage innovative technologies to improve employee productivity and engagement.
In the near future, AI-based predictive and automation technologies are likely to improve all the areas under the HR function, including talent acquisition, workforce analytics, and reskilling of employees. All these ultimately help HRs role in employee engagement.
So use these trends to anticipate new developments in the human resource field, and to inform your business processes moving forward. It will give you a solid foundation to not just survive but thrive in the face of upcoming changes.
It’s no secret that when employees are happy at work, they tend to perform better. While happiness isn’t necessarily causing employees to go above and beyond the call of duty, there’s no denying that happiness, productivity, and teamwork are all inexorably interconnected. One factor that can influence all of these things is your employee mobile apps.
The mobile apps for employees that you choose can have a big impact on how people work at your company because it involves employee engagement. Remember, an engaged and satisfied workforce will work harder, faster, and more efficiently. This means that every employee mobile app (check out our mobile worker app) you ask people to use during the average workday should contribute to engagement and reduce frustration.
The good news is that there are so many great mobile apps for employees designed to prioritize, enhance focus, streamline tasks, and improve communications. However, choosing between them can be tough, so we put together this post to help you better understand how mobile employee apps can boost happiness at your workplace and why less may actually be more when you’re looking for tech solutions.
Before we dive into those topics, let’s take a look at why happiness in the workplace matters.
Happy employees are more productive
Company culture matters a lot to a business's bottom line because research has shown time and time again that happy, engaged employees are better employees. One recent study conducted by Professor Andrew Oswald, Dr Eugenio Proto, and Dr Daniel Sgroi from the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick found that happy employees are 12% more productive than unhappy employees. In another study, companies that made it onto the Fortune Top 100 Companies to Work For list (which you don’t do with disgruntled employees) saw their stocks rise much faster over time than the competition. And companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20%!
What’s the connection between employee happiness and productivity — and eventually profits? That’s simple. Employees are happiest when they’re in a low-frustration workplace. This includes that they can see how what they’re doing matters, they get plenty of recognition, they have opportunities to collaborate and grow, and they feel they have a voice. These workers are less likely to give up when the going gets tough, better able to persevere when selling, more loyal, less likely to call in sick, and driven to meet not only their own goals, but the goals of the organizations they work for.
Every company wants to attract employees like that, and the good news is that you can if you promote a culture of happiness at your workplace. It’s not about Aloha Fridays and cool swag (though that kind of thing is nice), but rather about making it easier and more rewarding for your employees to do what they were hired to do.
How employee mobile apps can boost happiness
The best intranet software apps for your employees will depend on the nature of your business, but there are some common factors that make certain apps for employees stand out. To get the biggest happiness boost with technology, you should always look for employee mobile apps that:
Reach employees where they are
Connected employees are happier. Whether you’re looking at corporate communications apps, bookkeeping platforms, or mobile HR solutions, the business management software you choose needs to be accessible from anywhere. Deskless, frontline, and customer-facing workers should be able to use any apps you choose in the field instead of having to sit down at a computer, which can interrupt the flow of the day or take up time that could have been spent doing something more productive.
This is especially important when you’re looking at communications apps and full employee intranets. Your workers should be able to access and share information, find the resources they need in the field, and work collaboratively with their in-office colleagues without encountering frustrating barriers.
Help you show workers you appreciate them
One of the easiest but most powerful ways to increase employee happiness and productivity is by showing your appreciation. A Work.com study found that 69% of people worked harder when they felt their efforts were appreciated, while nearly as many would be quick to quit if they were working at businesses that showed no appreciation at all. This is especially important when it comes to your deskless and frontline employees who aren’t regularly in the office and may not be exposed to the same praise.
An employee recognition or award program is one way to say thank you to those workers who consistently do their best. Rewards and bonuses can work wonders, provided you’re giving them out fairly and regularly. You can also choose a communications app like Blink that gives you a platform from which to showcase the accomplishments of your top talent. A simple shout-out can go a long way, so don’t hesitate to applaud great employees and to tell them how what they do matters.
Stop the endless email flood
The average office worker receives more than 200 emails each day and spends roughly two and a half hours managing them. It's not a particularly productive way to spend working hours, and all of that email doesn't do a thing to increase an employee’s happiness. Quite the opposite, in fact. Email is a constant distraction, and the feeling that one needs to be “always on” can lead to big-time burnout.
The daily email influx is an unavoidable reality, but there are apps like Blink that can automate email to some degree (when paired with Zapier) and apps that make it easier to communicate without using email much at all.
Provide opportunities for growth
Employees are happiest when they feel not only challenged but also that there's room to grow. The problem is that providing opportunities for growth can be tough. Even if you find great classes, conferences, and continuing ed programs, there may not be the resources or the manpower available to encourage and then manage employee enrollment. There are employee mobile apps that help you share learning opportunities with more employees and promote these valuable programs to more people. Blink is one of them.
Remove communications roadblocks
Many of the biggest happiness-draining frustrations workers face revolve around internal communications. These range from time wasted spent trying to find missing resources to being unable to get company updates while on the frontline. Here's why smooth internal comms translates into productivity: When people communicate more efficiently, they have more time to get their core work done and to innovate. There are lots of apps out there designed to make organizational communication easier. Blink was created to address multiple comms challenges. It makes everything findable with a unified search feature and archives everything that has been posted, shared, or mentioned in chat. Even photos. It also makes communication a two-way street, giving employees a louder voice.
Empower telecommuting
Not every role lends itself to telecommuting and some workers thrive on mobile devices using facetime but there are good reasons to allow it for employees (especially talented introverted employees) who can reasonably do their work from anywhere. A study by FlexJobs found that half of workers were more productive when they were outside of the office and would be willing to take a new position for less pay if telecommuting was an available perk. The typical barriers to effective telecommuting are manifold (e.g., lack of communication, lack of access to resources, feelings of disconnect or disengagement) but there are apps for employees like Blink that can nullify these issues by ensuring that employees can stay connected no matter where they are.
Support a culture of fun
Some apps for employees (in particular, intranet apps) will support your efforts to create a culture of fun at your workplace. This is important because creating opportunities for play inside and outside of the workplace has numerous benefits. Employees who spend time together doing fun activities like cooking or playing with each other’s puppies on bring your dog to work days are less stressed, better at collaboration, quicker to resolve interpersonal conflicts, and more motivated.
There are employee apps (including Blink) that allow employees to create after-work events, create interest-based online communities, invite colleagues to see them in performances or go to their sports games, and otherwise get to know their coworkers better. Fun can also foster feelings of cohesion among teams, even when the members of those teams are located thousands of miles apart from one another.
Give employees a voice
Giving your workforce a way to share ideas and communicate (and not just to receive information from up above) lets you learn a lot about how happy or frustrated employees are. Why do you need an app for that? Most workplace surveys aren’t anonymous and many employees who feel unhappy don't want to say as much for fear that they'll be seen as less loyal. In an app like Blink, however, you can create anonymous polls and surveys that make finding and then creating solutions to employee pain points easier. Employees also have the means to reach out to their supervisors to share their ideas about how to optimize workflows, make customers happier, and get more done.
Cut down on mandatory meetings
Pointless meetings are at the root of so much lost productivity, and we all know from experience that sitting in long, boring meetings doesn't make anyone happy. Apps for employees can make most meetings unnecessary. Instead of gathering twenty-five people in a conference room for a quick project update, you can shoot out an update in an app like Blink and confirm that everyone has read it.
Serve as a platform for peer-to-peer recognition
Employee appreciation can go a long way to increasing happiness at your company, but you can take it even further by giving workers a way to recognize and reward each other's accomplishments. Formal recognition often takes a long time, whereas peer-to-peer recognition may be almost instantaneous. The apps that facilitate this type of recognition can help you boost morale, engagement, and happiness among your employees.
Facilitate collaboration within and between teams
The most successful companies with the happiest and most engaged employees think regularly about how to encourage collaboration. Teamwork is, after all, the foundation of business success. Two heads are better than one when it comes to idea generation, and what’s even better than that are entire teams. When employees work together, they bring diverse skill sets, backgrounds, and more to the table. Make sure that any employee apps you’re using allow your employees to work together toward their common goals.
Enable flexible work
In one study, more than a third of small-business employees reported that more flexible work schedules can increase happiness and minimize burnout. You don’t need to create complicated flex-time policies to take advantage of this happiness boost. Choosing employee apps that give your employees the freedom to work flexible hours or remotely when the alternative would be taking a day off is a super smart move.
Your company will benefit from the fact that employees are productive on days they might otherwise have been absent (e.g., on the day of the a.m. kindergarten concert or when someone has car troubles), and employees will love the fact that they work for an organization that respects that they have lives and obligations outside of the office. Apps that enable flexible work are especially useful for employees with young kids, those caring for ageing relatives, and anyone with health issues.
There are a lot of employee apps out there, but remember that not all of them are worth investing in. You may be tempted to invite your workers to try every new app under the sun, but most of the time, less is more. If you can find a single employee app that does of all the above and is easy to use for less technically minded workers, your teams and your tech budget will thank you.
