The pre-shift briefing problem: why it doesn't reach the whole floor
A pre-shift briefing only reaches people in the room. Here's why that's a bigger employee engagement problem than it looks, and how to fix it.
The Blink Team
Published:
August 28, 2026
Every full-service restaurant runs some version of a pre-shift briefing. The team gathers, a manager runs through the specials, a table to watch, a policy update, maybe a quick shoutout for someone who did well last shift. It's a good habit. It's also, in most restaurants, structurally broken.
Here's the problem: a pre-shift briefing only reaches the people standing in the room at that exact moment. The server who's running five minutes late misses it. The line cook who started an hour earlier and is already deep into prep never heard it. Anyone on a split shift, anyone who called in and swapped with a coworker, anyone who simply wasn't close enough to hear over the kitchen noise, all of them are working the rest of the shift on outdated information.
Why this matters more than it seems
A missed pre-shift briefing doesn't usually cause a disaster. It causes something quieter and more corrosive: a server who doesn't know about the 86'd item until a guest orders it, a line cook who wasn't told about a modified recipe, a team member who feels one step behind their coworkers because information didn't reach them the way it reached everyone else. Over time, that gap chips away at restaurant employee engagement in a way that's hard to trace back to a single cause, because it never looks like one big failure. It looks like a dozen small ones.
Two direct competitors in this space, Yoobic and Shiftplatform, already rank for restaurant employee engagement content, which says something: operators are actively searching for a fix to exactly this kind of problem, not just abstractly interested in the topic.
What actually closes the gap
The fix isn't a longer briefing or a stricter attendance policy. It's making sure the content of the briefing exists somewhere every team member can catch up on it, whenever their shift actually starts. A few things make this work in practice:
A written or recorded version of the briefing that persists past the moment it's delivered, so a late arrival or a split-shift worker can catch up in under a minute.
Targeting by section or role, so the briefing content that matters to a bartender isn't buried under kitchen-specific notes meant for the line.
A way to confirm people actually saw it, not just a message sent into the void, but a lightweight way for managers to know who's caught up and who hasn't before service starts.
The connection to front-of-house and back-of-house
This problem sits right next to the front-of-house/back-of-house communication gap covered in a companion piece on this topic, and for good reason. A pre-shift briefing that only reaches half the floor is really just a smaller, more frequent version of the same underlying issue: information that depends on physical presence in a specific place at a specific time, in a job where nobody's schedule lines up perfectly. Blink's practical checklist for closing that broader gap, referenced on the Restaurants page, covers this in more detail.
A small change with a real payoff
You don't need to redesign your entire pre-shift routine to fix this. Start by writing down the two or three things every briefing needs to cover, no matter who's running it, and put those in a place every team member can check before they clock in, not just the ones who happened to be standing in the room. It's a small operational change that tends to show up in restaurant employee engagement scores faster than most bigger initiatives.
Amelia has spent the last two years bringing energy, creativity, and a spark of marketing magic to Blink’s Boston office. As a Senior Marketing Associate, she’s helped shape our presence at events across the US, from high-profile conferences to intimate dinners — and even found time to turn our beloved mascot, Blinkie, into plush toys and Legos.
We sat down with Amelia to talk about what brought her to Blink, the milestones she’s proud of, and what makes the culture in Boston so special.
1. What is your role at Blink?
I am the Senior Marketing Associate at Blink and am based out of the Boston office. I have been here a little over two years.
2. What initially attracted you to join Blink?
I’ve always been drawn to the fast-paced, creative energy of tech startups, and when my former colleague Courtney Hayes joined Blink, she couldn’t stop talking about the mission, the buzz around the product, and how great the team was. That instantly piqued my interest.
At the time, I was still early in my career and looking for a place where I could grow — and Blink offered that in a really exciting way. It felt like a no-brainer. Once I learned more about the technology and how it was solving real problems for frontline teams, I knew I wanted to be part of it.
3. What's a project you are proud of during your time at Blink?
Because I run our events in the US, no two days ever look the same. Every event — whether it’s a major conference, a global webinar, or an intimate dinner — comes with its own unique set of challenges and rewards, so it’s hard to pick just one project. But I’m incredibly proud of how we’ve grown our event presence over the last couple of years. People now expect to see Blink at major industry shows, and they expect us to bring a level of excitement and creativity — and we’ve been delivering on that. From how we look to the quality of conversations we’re having, it’s been a huge leap forward.
On another note, I also somehow became a toy manufacturer on the side! Over the past year, I’ve worked with third-party partners to bring our mascot Blinkie to life as both plush toys and Legos. It’s been a long but fun process, from design to production, and now that they’re in our hands, it’s incredibly rewarding. They’re playful and memorable, and they bring so much joy to our customers, prospects, and the whole Blink team.
4. How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?
Supportive, upbeat, and collaborative.
The Boston office has such a special vibe. Everyone genuinely supports one another, no matter their title or role. We help each other grow, hold one another to high standards, and always find ways to bring energy and fun into the day. That kind of culture makes it easy to stay motivated and feel confident in the work you’re doing.
5. What's one thing you're excited about for the future of Blink?
Definitely our global growth. It’s exciting to see new customers coming on board — whether they’re small teams or massive enterprises. Even in just the few years we’ve been in the US market, we’ve seen incredible momentum. Every new logo is a reminder that there’s a real need for what we’re building.
I’m especially excited to see where we go in industries like EMS and retail. We’ve already made an impact, and I think there’s still so much opportunity. Some of the brands we’ve signed recently weren’t even on my radar when I first joined — and now they’re some of our biggest wins. It makes the next few years feel full of possibility.
6. Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
I’m really excited about the new voice and video feature we launched. I’m someone who sends voice notes all the time and prefers face-to-face conversations, so this update felt like it was made for people like me. It’s not just convenient, it adds a whole new dimension to how people communicate on Blink. Sometimes a message just doesn’t capture tone or emotion the right way, and this makes interactions feel more human and real. I think it’s going to be a game-changer for our customers.
7. Why do you work for Blink?
The product, the mission, and the people. Blink is solving a real need connecting frontline workers who have been left out of digital transformation. That in itself is meaningful work. But what makes it special is the people behind it. Everyone here is passionate about the mission and genuinely wants to make a difference.
There was actually a moment early on in my first year, during an all-hands meeting. Sean gave a really inspiring update about our progress, and I remember looking around the Boston office and seeing how proud people were. That was when it really hit me that I was part of something important.
Kristin has quickly settled into life at Blink in just four months. After starting her career in finance, Kristin discovered her passion for working closely with people to achieve shared goals — leading her to a customer success role where she thrives on building new processes and partnerships.
We caught up with her to learn more about her journey, her excitement for upcoming Blink features, and why she loves working at a company that champions both frontline employees and forward-thinking innovation.
Which Blink office do you work out of?
I work at the Boston office 3 days a week.
What is your position at Blink?
I’m a Customer Success Manager. I work with our existing customers to optimize their use of the Blink platform, ensuring we meet their strategic goals through maximizing the value of their Blink investment.
How long have you been at Blink?
I’ve been here for just over four months, so I’m still relatively new. Before this, I worked in Customer Success at a larger tech company in Boston. It was a similar role, but I enjoy working at a smaller, earlier-stage company because I like having the opportunity to build processes and functions from the ground up — it’s really exciting to me.
I graduated college with a major in Finance and started my career in that field. I enjoyed it and did well, but I realized the part of my job I loved most was interacting with people and working toward shared goals. In Finance, those goals were usually budget-related. I thought, “Okay, I don’t want to become a CFO one day… so, what do I want?” That’s what led me to Customer Success, which is fundamentally about teamwork and collaboration.
What initially attracted you to join Blink?
When I heard about Blink, I was really excited. So many apps target desk-based employees — I’d been working in tech, and everything I worked on was designed for people at their desks. What thrilled me about Blink was that it focuses on frontline, deskless employees. It’s such a cool space in the market, and not many tech companies concentrate on that.
Plus, once I started meeting the Blink team, I could sense a great energy. Everyone was incredibly kind during the interviews, and I knew it would be both an exciting and welcoming place to work.
What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?
I know I’ve only been here a short while, but I’ve already had the opportunity to collaborate with several teams on enablement for one of our new product offerings: Advanced Employee Intelligence (AEI). AEI is a set of real-time dashboards that customers can use to take action on insights across key areas of the platform.
From the Customer Success side, we really needed resources to demonstrate its value to our customers. So, I worked with Izzy, Nikita, and Adrienne to develop talk tracks and enablement materials — a really exciting project! We’re already seeing the benefits of it, because now we can discuss AEI much more confidently with customers, watch them adopt it, and help drive their success.
How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?
I’d describe the Blink team as driven, thoughtful, and team-oriented. Everyone is highly motivated — always pushing to add new product features, improve processes, or try out innovative ideas with customers to enhance employee engagement and communication.
They’re also incredibly thoughtful and team-oriented. From day one, I could tell how welcoming everyone was, eager to help me learn the ropes and teach me everything I needed to know. It’s been great having such a supportive team, especially as I get familiar with the product and start building relationships with my customers.
What's one thing you’re excited about for the future of Blink?
I’m really excited about our product development. We have a lot of cool features on the way, and there’s a great opportunity to partner with our customers to help them leverage these features to enhance their employee communication and engagement.
Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
I think our Voice and Video Calling feature will be really cool. Blink is already a one-stop shop, but I believe this will be a fantastic way to streamline communication for people who need to connect quickly. It’ll be incredibly helpful for real-time collaboration.
Why do you work for Blink?
I work at Blink because there’s an opportunity not only to support Blink’s ongoing success and growth but also to partner with our customers on their own success. That’s what excites me every day: having those calls, collaborating on different initiatives, and seeing firsthand the value Blink brings them. It’s especially rewarding to know we’re making an impact for essential workers or those who, without Blink, might have been overlooked in traditional communication channels.
The partnership introduces a new Blink gamification framework — designed to help large enterprises boost engagement, motivation, and learning across distributed teams.
The first product of the collaboration, Blink Bonanza, is a live playable game experience that showcases how fast, fun, and habit-forming interactions can drive adoption with your employee experience platform and meaningful engagement. The game, unveiled at the Blink stand at Workday Rising EMEA,will soon be availableto play on Blink’s website.
“Work is changing — and so are the people doing it,” said Lauren Burns, chief operating officer at Blink. “For younger generations, play isn’t a distraction; it’s a key way they learn, connect, and stay engaged. Together with Livewall, we’re harnessing that instinct to make frontline work more motivating and rewarding — while powering better operations across the workforce.”
Gamification that drives performance
Rooted in behavioral science, the Blink × Livewall partnership brings proven game mechanics — from competition and achievement systems to progress tracking and peer recognition — into the flow of everyday work.
“Gamification isn’t fluff — it’s neuroscience,” said Brock de Wolde, product strategy lead at Livewall. “The same dopamine feedback loops that keep us playing games can also reinforce the right workplace behaviors. Blink’s platform allows us to apply that science at scale.”
McDonald’s, who pride themselves on their service, was able to reimagine engagement with a game that was adopted by 90,000 employees and played an average of 6.5 times per gamer. This activation allowed them to deliver change in a fresh, engaging way — and build hype around their workforce.
Next up: "The science of gamification" webinar
Blink and Livewall will co-host a live webinar, “The power of play: Engaging the next generation of workers,” on December 3, 2025. The session will explore the neuroscience and strategy behind gamification and feature guest insights from McDonald’s.
About Blink
Blink is the mobile-first employee experience platform built for the frontline and desk-based teams alike. Used by global organizations in retail, logistics, healthcare, and hospitality, Blink brings communication, learning, and recognition into one simple, mobile platform — empowering every employee to feel informed, connected, and valued. www.joinblink.com
About Livewall
Livewall is a creative technology agency based in the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. Specialising in gamified loyalty and engagement gamification, Livewall helps brands and employers drive engagement through innovative, behavior-driven experiences.www.livewall.co
‘As leaders, we should be measuring engagement in everything we do’
– Simon White, VP People at Blink
Frontline leaders have long been searching for the most effective way to engage their deskless workforce. From Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Learning & Development initiatives, to intranets and Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), they've tried a variety of approaches with varying levels of success.
This has led to a Frontline Gap, an issue that many organizations, especially those with deskless employees, face. It is a void where initiatives fail to have their intended impact due to a lack of engagement from workers.
To bridge this gap, employers must look beyond traditional methods such as ERGs and ESNs, and instead focus on using employee engagement surveys to connect directly with the needs of their deskless staff.
Frontline workers are looking for a faster, more efficient, and more useful way to do their jobs, while leaders want to bridge the Frontline Gap and connect with their deskless staff. To be able to achieve these goals, employee engagement surveys can help employers achieve direct conversations with frontline workers and understand the needs of their employees.
By taking a proactive approach to employee engagement and using pulse surveys to directly and regularly connect with deskless employees, organizations can begin to close the Frontline Gap, identify engagement challenges and create a more productive, cohesive, and engaged workforce.
Employee engagement surveys can provide valuable insights into how employees feel about their work environment, job satisfaction, team dynamics and so much more. In this guide, we'll take a brief look at why frontline leaders should conduct employee engagement surveys as a regular practice, before diving into our step-by-step guide on how to conduct your first employee engagement survey the right way.
Why employee engagement surveys are important
The solution to bridging the Frontline Gap lies in approaching frontline engagement as something that is earned, rather than simply expecting it from employees. Instead of relying on traditional methods such as ERGs and ESNs to increase engagement, employers must focus on creating an environment where workers feel truly valued and respected.
The first step towards this lies within employee engagement surveys.
Employee engagement surveys are an important tool for frontline leaders to measure engagement and understand the feelings of their deskless employees. While ERGs and ESNs can provide a good foundation for engagement, taking proactive steps to directly connect with your team is essential in order to create a productive and cohesive environment.
As businesses today are operating in an increasingly competitive hiring market, salaries and benefits are becoming more expensive and difficult to manage. With no visibility into what is going right or wrong, employers are left in the dark as to why their staff turnover rate is on the rise and morale is low.
This lack of insight into employee engagement can lead to disengaged employees, decreased productivity, and high turnover rates, alongside a weaker Employer Value Proposition (EVP) as talent is lost.
Employee engagement surveys can help employers gain the insights they need to effectively measure and address employee satisfaction, team dynamics, and much more. Collecting and actioning this feedback is one of the key employee engagement drivers, and is considered an employee engagement best practice.
So, how exactly can employee surveys support your workforce and drive success in your goals?
Enable
By regularly understanding what they need, leaders can better enable their workforce to succeed. Engagement surveys can help identify key areas that employees are struggling in and provide valuable feedback to address these issues.
One of the main pain points for organizations, especially those with deskless employees, is the lack of resources and support needed to ensure their workforce can work effectively. Without the necessary engagement tools, communication channels and access to information needed to do their job efficiently, deskless workers are often left feeling frustrated and under-valued.
Frequent employee surveys help employers find out what their employees need to do their jobs better. It also helps the employer know if their employees feel respected and valued. The information gained helps them ensure they have the tools and resources needed for workers to do their job well, so that companies can keep a good reputation and meet their hiring targets.
Understand
It can also be hard to collect data from the frontline, as depending on the industry and environment they work in, traditional methods such as paper surveys or iPads may not be practical. For example, if they are working outdoors or in an extreme environment where digital devices cannot operate, it can be difficult to get real time feedback from them.
Additionally, it's crucial to have something that's easy to use, in every frontline worker's pocket. By giving managers what they need to measure employee engagement and continuously improve the employee experience, employee surveys can fill this gap and directly benefit the organization.
One of the most prominent pain points faced by organizations is a lack of understanding of what engaged employees need to be successful, especially in the frontline. Leaders that are out of touch with their workforce can cause real issues, including low morale, decreased productivity and high turnover rates.
To truly understand what engaged employees require, employers must conduct employee engagement surveys, aiding them in identifying key pain points and areas that need improvement.
Engage
Another key objective of employee pulse surveys is to improve and measure employee engagement. It is crucial to engage employees in order to create a positive and productive workplace. Employee engagement surveys measure levels of employee satisfaction, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of policies, programs, goals and objectives within an organization.
By understanding where leadership or productivity are weaker, employers can effectively engage their workers through real-time critical information and structured interventions tailored to improve engagement.
This is a pain leaders are facing: the frontline isn't sharing feedback because they don't want to. Gaining the engagement of the frontline by first earning their trust is key to boosting future engagement levels and increasing employee retention.
How to successfully conduct an employee engagement survey
As we have looked at above, conducting employee engagement surveys can encourage employees to speak up, give them a voice, and help employers to create a more productive environment.
If you're planning to conduct an employee engagement survey, keep this in mind.
The purpose of an employee engagement survey is not to measure employee engagement, it's to improve it.
Employee engagement surveys should not be done out of curiosity or to "check in" with your employees, they take too much time to be done this way.
Simply having an employee survey is not enough - the way in which you conduct your surveys can make all the difference between success and failure.
LeadershipIQ surveyed over 3,000 HR executives to see "how good" their employee engagement survey was, and only 22% said they were getting good results.
So how can you conduct employee surveys so they are actually meaningful? Looking at industry leaders, we see the following behaviors taking place to launch successful surveys:
1. Get rid of annual surveys
Gone are the days of the bog-standard annual engagement survey that provides little useful information, leaving employees disengaged and uninterested.
Instead of a singular survey at one point in the year, organizations should instead be taking a more agile approach to employee engagement surveys by conducting regular pulse surveys with smaller sample sizes.
If you already have an annual survey procedure in place, the first thing you should do is look at your current process and consider whether some parts of it can be scaled back or done more frequently.
2. Define a clear, attainable goal
You'll have to really think about what information you want to get out of this survey, sometimes it's not just a simple case of finding out how your frontline employees are feeling. This is an opportunity to encourage your team to share feedback on every aspect of their role, your role, and even the CEO's right at the top.
For example, if you have a low retention rate that you want to try and improve, what questions need to be asked? What data will help you put together a plan?
Your employee engagement survey questions should be strategically planned in a way that shows the leadership team genuinely cares about their frontline workers and how their careers can be developed. This should be made visible from the start to the end of your survey.
3. Plan ahead
Once you've figured out what information you wish to gain from your survey, it's time to plan ahead and get everything into place. Here are some of the main points you should consider when you're ready to plan your survey:
Have you got the right technologies in place to be able to conduct your survey?
What do you really want to find out?
Do you need to align with CIO or get buy-in?
When is the right time to conduct your survey? You'll need to give your employees an adequate amount of time to finish it.
Are you targeting all of your employees or just a specific group?
4. Let the frontline know!
Once your survey is ready to go, you need to get the message out there.
Reiterate the importance of the survey to your frontline staff and how it can positively affect their role at work and the environment in which they work. It's a way to show them they are going to be heard and listened to (you need to actually follow through as well, but more on that later).
Communications leaders should be well briefed in plenty of time and should be tasked with sending out reminders to all who are involved in taking the survey.
One way you can reiterate the importance of your employee engagement survey is to release it with a message from the CEO, or another senior leader.
5. Act and restart
Once you've received your survey results, you need to come up with a plan stating how you plan to act on your responses. This is a key aspect you can't shy away from.
This is also another chance to acknowledge employee contribution and shows that the right people have seen the results and will take action. Below is a recent example from John J. Herman, CEO of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
He acknowledges and thanks staff for taking the time to do the survey, reiterates their feedback is important, and lays out in clear bullet points what their next action points are. You can view the full message here.
This should be an ongoing effort and you should keep your frontline workers informed of your processes and decision making, as a way of letting them know you are serious about improving your workplace.
If you fail to truly act on the feedback they have taken the time to give you, you risk devaluing future surveys and decreasing response rates.
You should repeat your survey at regular points throughout the year, to see if the employees are satisfied with the measures you have taken and tweak different aspects of your strategies to raise levels of employee engagement.
Considerations for conducting your first employee engagement survey
Plan
As we highlighted above, surveys should not be done out of curiosity, you need a real plan.
So when you're thinking about surveying employees take the below into account:
Who's your audience?: Whether it's teams or departments, segment your stakeholders into groups.
What do you want to measure?: What do you need to find out to improve the employee experience? Set goals, and measurable KPIs.
What are you asking?: Once you know what to measure, what questions do you need to ask to get actionable insights?
What type of survey?: Once you have your audience and goals, what type of survey are you going to run? There are different types such as, benefit surveys to measure how satisfied your frontline is with their benefits and rewards or you could even run onboarding surveys for new hires to see how well they’ve been introduced to the business.
What format?: How will the survey be received? Via email, via an app? What format will the questions be? Multiple choice or free text? Take into consideration your audience and goals and use these to guide the format you choose.
Timing: When's the best time to send your survey to your audience? How long will you leave the survey open for? How many follow up emails will you send to those that don't respond?
There's a lot that goes into planning an employee survey, but you need to do this to set you up for the best chance of it being a success.
Platform
Do you have a way to easily and efficiently collect and analyze data? Depending on your organization you'll need to make sure you use a platform that meets your requirements.
Think about who you are going to survey, are they desk based or deskless? Do they work from home? Are they on the frontline? Do you need the survey to work on desktop and mobile?
For example, our employee survey feature is used by organizations whose employees are on the frontline, this puts more importance on the mobile functionality of our survey feature to allow for quick and easy responses wherever employees are.
If your employees feel disengaged from their colleagues and management team it's time to introduce a platform that can meet your team's needs whatever their job role.
Trust
Employee surveys are a great opportunity to establish trust with your employees that you will listen and understand their feedback, as well as make an effort to act on how they are feeling.
But, they also pose a risk of doing the opposite if you don't do them properly.
A recent campaign undertaken by Blink found that 50% of employees wanted to leave their current position as they didn't feel like management took their complaints seriously. One third didn’t even think their organization would act on their feedback.
This again highlights why employee surveys shouldn't be done out of curiosity. If you run the survey, get the results, and don't act. What do you think will happen to the figure above?
But, if you act and communicate changes made off the back of feedback, not only could these go a long way with improving employee engagement, but build a lot of trust with your employees.
From an employee perspective, it will also be important if the survey is anonymous. This in turn will increase trust and eagerness to take part in the survey. Anonymity is important if you want to get real honest feedback from staff, they will feel more comfortable sharing the truth if they know it won’t come back to haunt them.
Communication
Raise awareness around your survey going live! Involve your communications leader in using as many formats as possible to get the message to the frontline.
This could involve emails, printed posters, and using an employee engagement mobile app.
These communication points need to explain the importance of taking part in the survey and why employee feedback is so important to improving the work culture.
Content
When you're planning out your employee engagement questionnaire, don't be afraid to ask difficult questions. You need to ensure you're set up to get the most out of it.
For example, Facebook found that simply asking employees how long they intend to stay was more than twice as accurate at foretelling their future turnover than machine-learning forecasts.
What's even more telling is that they found when people don’t participate in their two annual surveys they are 2.6 times more likely to leave in the next six months.
The content within your survey needs to be clear, concise, and engaging. There's no need to overcomplicate your questions or try to hide behind big words. Ask the questions in a way that will get a truthful response.
How Blink employee surveys can help you meet your goals
Most employee survey tools are designed for desk-based workers, not the frontline - Blink's Employee Surveys make it easy for you and your teams to quickly and easily conduct employee surveys.
We make it easy for frontline organizations to get the data that matters.
Triple your response rate
Get your survey seen and responded to in an app designed for everyday frontline use. Instantly transition away from paper surveys to having surveys appear seamlessly on every frontline team member’s device.
This gets rid of friction caused by having to use other platforms, with different passwords and make it easier for staff to respond as everything is in one place. From paystubs to scheduling and even critical documents - your surveys are in an app that gets opened an average of seven times a day.
Launch in 90 seconds
Ask questions fast, get answers faster. Our mobile app makes creating and sending surveys easy. From selecting your audience to selecting questions you’ll be done in minutes.
Science-backed questions
We offer a set of science backed Qs which are great if leaders don't know what to ask, you also get the option to add in your own.
Get action-ready insights
Easy-to-use reports to make impactful decisions. Merge this with Frontline Intelligence - together with engagement stats and you’ll have an overall view of the health of your organization.
So, you already know how digital transformation can improve your warehousing, docking and inventory processes, but are you paying enough attention to digitalization in your run-the-business systems? Here's why you need to.
Digital technology is making huge advancements in the logistics sector, yet the frontline are still left feeling unsatisfied. By improving not only supply chain capabilities, but also your day-to-day employee management systems, businesses can enjoy a number of unexpected benefits, which we've put together for you in this handy guide.
We'll share some of our frontline employee engagement expertise with you here, as well as the latest research on how digital transformation can help in areas such as recruitment, training and tracking performance. This should help HR leaders see just how valuable digital tech can be when it comes to making their logistics workforce operate better and more efficiently across the board.
What is digital transformation (DX) in logistics?
Digital transformation (DX) in logistics is the use of digital technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of logistics systems in order to better meet the needs of customers and businesses.
While you may be familiar with the growing pressure to digitize your supply chain management and front-of-house systems, many logistics companies are just starting to realize the impact that digital transformation can have on their back-end operations as well.
In order to keep up with today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, HR leaders will need to look at how they leverage employee technology in order to better manage their workforce; recruit and retrain more effectively; and track employee performance and engagement over time.
By creating a more streamlined, digital and integrated approach to these HR functions, businesses can streamline their operations and better meet the needs of both customers and employees alike.
So for any HR leader looking to get ahead of the competition, it is essential to embrace digital transformation in logistics and use it as a tool to improve operational efficiency, employee engagement, and overall business performance.
Core goals of logistics digital transformation
As business leaders, it's crucial to have clear goals in mind when looking to invest in or implement new digital tools.
While common logistics and supply chain processes like docking, inventory, digital supply chains, and other front-of-house systems might not be your main focus, digital transformation in logistics can help you improve or manage your business in other important ways. Think project management, team communication, and business planning, just to name a few.
But what specific goals should you be looking to achieve with your run-the-biz logistics DX efforts? Core goals often include:
Cost Reduction: For HR professionals, this may mean looking for ways to automate processes, reduce employee errors and minimize overhead costs related to hiring, training, and onboarding new employees.
Improve Communication: One of the main goals of the digital transformation journey is improving communication both internally and externally, with an aim to drive increased employee satisfaction and, ultimately, retention.
Customer Satisfaction: Improving customer satisfaction is another important priority for many logistics leaders looking to leverage digital technologies. Whether it's through improvements in product quality and delivery times, or better tracking of customer feedback and requests, maintaining high levels of service can be a key goal of DX efforts in logistics.
Employee Engagement: One often forgotten goal of DX efforts in the transportation and logistics sector is to improve employee engagement and happiness, which can have a direct impact on your employee retention and productivity levels.
Increase Profits: While not always a top priority for HR leaders, increasing profits and driving ROI can be another overarching goal of DX efforts in the industry – and this can be a great hook to get buy-in from your IT leaders or CEO.
While there are many benefits to be had from digital transformation for logistics companies, there are also a number of potential barriers (see image above) and roadblocks that can impede success. For HR professionals, the main challenges will likely include:
Resistance to Change: One of the biggest challenges faced by any company looking to undergo digital transformation is the natural resistance to change that arises within any organization. This can be especially true in cases where employees feel they are being asked to do more work or change the way they've been doing things for years.
Company Culture: Another obstacle that can arise during DX efforts in logistics is company culture. If the company's culture is not supportive of change or new technologies, it can be very difficult for any type of transformation – digital or otherwise – to take hold and be successful.
Legacy Infrastructure: Finally, one of the biggest challenges faced by companies looking to digitize their operations is legacy infrastructure. Many companies have invested heavily in outdated systems and technologies that can be difficult – and expensive – to replace. As such, it often takes a lot of time and effort to upgrade these systems in order to enable a successful DX initiative.
By knowing what you're up against, you can better prepare yourself and your organization for the challenges of digital transformation in logistics. With a clear understanding of your goals and potential roadblocks, you can work to overcome resistance, build a supportive company culture, and upgrade or replace legacy systems as needed.
And with the right approach and mindset, you can leverage digital tools that will help you achieve improved business outcomes and drive higher levels of success for your organization.
Driving digital transformation with frontline workers
Digital business processes impact your frontline team directly, and they need to be included in the transformation journey. Frontline workers are often left feeling like an afterthought, particularly during digital transformation efforts, which can be a huge mistake.
These workers are the ones who interface directly with customers and clients on a daily basis, and they understand what improvements will make their jobs easier – and ultimately benefit the company as well. As such, it is important to invest in frontline workers when driving supply chain digital transformation initiatives.
For logistics companies, this often means leveraging frontline workers as a source of insights, ideas, and feedback on what technologies will work best for them. For logistics employees, this could include instant communication, on-the-go manuals, direct route information or a familiar social media interface: all features of theBlink Frontline Engagement App.
5 unexpected HR benefits of DX in logistics
1. Reduction in staff turnover
With a real pressure on HR leaders to bring in high-quality candidates and retain their existing staff, one of the most surprising benefits of digital transformation in logistics is reduced staff turnover.
By leveraging new technologies in your business strategy to improve the work environment – such as intuitive systems that are easy to use or improved communication channels – you can help alleviate some of the stresses and challenges faced by your employees on a daily basis.
52% of frontline workers claim that they would leave their job over tech tools, according to Unleash.ai, highlighting the impact that the right workplace technology has on employee retention.
The right digital initiatives can make your workers feel more valued, appreciated, and supported – thereby helping to reduce turnover rates in the long-term.
2. Better employee engagement
Another unexpected benefit of digital transformation in logistics is improved employee engagement. This can be driven by a number of different factors, such as the use of gamification techniques or employee engagement apps that allow workers to connect with their colleagues and share ideas.
DX for your logistics workforce can also help foster a company culture of collaboration, innovation, and teamwork. By investing in your employees and encouraging them to work together towards common goals, you can cultivate a sense of shared purpose that will help drive greater success for the entire organization.
And with improved employee engagement and loyalty, HR leaders are better equipped to attract and retain top talent, manage performance, and achieve their business goals. Highly engaged employees also achieve 23% more profitability and 43% less employee turnover, Gallup reports, so the impact of upgrading your employee engagement initiatives runs deeper than you might think.
3. More productive staff
In addition to greater employee engagement and reduced turnover, digital transformation in logistics can also help boost staff productivity. In fact, McKinsey reports that well-connected teams see a productivity increase of 20–25%, so if you can target your DX initiatives towards connecting your employees, you could see another unexpected benefit.
With the right tools and technologies at their fingertips, your workers will be able to streamline processes, optimize performance, and improve output. This means better results for you and your organization – as well as increased job satisfaction for your logistics workers as it becomes easier to succeed in their frontline roles.
Whether you are implementing new systems, optimizing existing technology, or offering your employees training and support, digital transformation can help unlock the full potential of your workers and help drive greater success for your business.
4. Improved safety
In the logistics sector, one of the biggest concerns is often worker safety. This can be due to a number of factors, including long hours on the road, heavy lifting and handling of goods, or exposure to harsh weather conditions and other environmental hazards.
With digital transformation in logistics, however, you can help improve worker safety by leveraging new technologies and systems to protect your staff. This could include investing in smart wearables that track location and movement, implementing automated risk assessment tools, or an easy-to-access, Central Hub storing safety procedures and policies.
With this focus on safety, your workers will be more confident about their working conditions and better able to manage any risks that arise. And as a result, you can help reduce workplace injuries and help keep your employees safe, satisfied and healthy.
5. Increase your bottom line
And finally, perhaps one of the most valuable benefits of digital transformation in logistics is an improved bottom line. Whether you are looking to reduce costs, increase revenue, or improve overall efficiency for profitability, DX can help support these goals and drive greater success for your organization.
By leveraging new technologies and systems, you can streamline day-to-day processes, optimize performance and drive retention amongst your logistics workforce, saving on costs related to employee churn and recruitment and boosting your bottom line in the long-term.
Tips to help drive digital transformation in the logistics industry
Create a DX roadmap: A DX roadmap should include an evaluation of existing processes and systems, as well as a plan for implementing new technologies and improving existing ones.
Align digital transformation strategy with business objectives: To maximize the impact of your digital transformation efforts in logistics, it's important to align these efforts with business objectives and goals. This will help ensure that you are investing in solutions that can have the greatest impact on your operations.
Appoint digital transformation champions: To drive successful implementation and adoption of digital tools in logistics, it is important to identify key champions within your organization who can act as advocates for change.
Communicate clearly and often: To help ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page, it is important to communicate your digital transformation goals and strategies clearly and often, as well as work closely with IT or other key departments to troubleshoot any issues or problems along the way.
Keep track of your timeline: Maintaining a clear and realistic timeline for your digital transformation journey is essential to ensuring that you stay on track and meet your goals.
Use the right tools: Whether it's a digital tool for employee engagement, a new ERP system, or order tracking do your best to ensure it's right fit that will drive performance forward.
By keeping these best practices in mind, HR leaders can help drive digital transformation in logistics, maximizing the impact of these efforts on their organization as a whole.
Accelerate your digital transformation today…
The Blink Frontline Engagement App offers a powerful and easy-to-use platform for improving communication, collaboration, and task management between logistics managers and frontline employees. Whether you are looking to reduce costs or drive employee engagement in your logistics operations, the Blink app can help you achieve your goals quickly and easily.
Don't fall behind in the DX movement – get started with Blink today, and start accelerating your digital transformation in logistics!
With features like Secure Chats for real-time communications, Blink Feedfor product updates, and a Central Hub for document management, Blink can help drive increased innovation and productivity throughout your entire organization.
Today marks the beginning of a new dawn in digital employee experience. In the next 12 months, 7 million workers will have to transfer from Workplace by Meta to another solution. This represents a fundamental opportunity for us to uplift the experience of 7 million workers, by migrating to a more modern, integrated digital platform for work. A platform that combines communications with broader connectivity to applications, information and workflow.
Workplace by Meta was a great product, but it hasn’t kept up with the developments in recent years as Meta prioritized and moved on to new projects. We’ve already helped many organizations migrate from Workplace to Blink, and they’ve experienced the benefits of our ‘super-app’ and integrated experience. This new approach appeals to all workers in a way ‘social at work’ never did, especially with deskless workers.
As a company, our priority right now is on the 7 million Workplace users who will be losing access to technology over the next 12 months. Employees apps should never be “just about good enough" technology, they make the experience of being employed a simple and fulfilling one. Whether it’s communicating with peers, finding out news or accessing systems, these products, when built and implemented well, become indispensable to day to day working life, so to have that taken away will no doubt be disruptive for employees and employers alike.
My biggest disappointment in all of this though, is the decision to name a solitary preferred migration partner, which won’t meet the needs of many Workplace customers. Buying technology is a significant event for any business, and takes significant time and effort to choose what is right for you, and your people. So the decision for Meta to direct their users to a single platform on the mistaken assumption that it will meet their operational needs, is quite honestly baffling. It’s made more baffling by the fact Blink and other vendors already have the proven capabilities to seamlessly migrate Workplace customers. And for many companies, the best solution for them won’t be the ‘default’ one.
One size fits all is never the correct approach in employee technology. You as leaders know your people and company, and likely spend weeks and months picking what you decided was best for you….to then wake up on a Tuesday morning in the middle of May and be told that you’ll be using a new platform next year? It just doesn’t feel right. As leaders, you deserve the ability to choose what is right for you, and that feels like it’s being taken away.
My advice to any leaders impacted by the closure of Workplace is to pause and take a look at the alternatives. This is an opportunity to upgrade your digital experience, not simply accept the like for like solution being offered.
At Blink, we specialize in helping companies reach every worker - especially the hard to reach deskless workforce. Our in house, digital transformation consultants work with customers to ensure a frictionless move from one platform to another, and then partner with you to improve the metrics that matter to you, including engagement, retention and efficiency.
Visit https://www.joinblink.com/workplace today to book a migration consultation with one of our team. We want to give you the power to make the right choice for you and your team.
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