5 red flags your internal comms platform is holding you back
Think your internal comms platform is working? Discover the five red flags that might be holding your strategy back — and learn how to fix them before they impact your workforce.
Jess DeVore
Published:
January 22, 2025
Last updated:
January 22, 2025
What we'll cover
It's time for your annual internal communications check-up.
You’ve invested in an internal communications platform, so you’re good to go — right?
Not so fast.
The technology landscape has evolved rapidly, and so have employee expectations. In fact, research shows that companies with outdated communication tools experience 23% higher employee turnover and 40% lower engagement compared to those with modern, mobile-friendly employee communication platforms.
Modern internal communication solutions are no longer just message boards or email replacements. They’ve become go-to hubs for connection, collaboration, and engagement. The best ones don’t just help your internal communication strategy survive — they help it thrive by providing features that enhance everything from onboarding to day-to-day tasks.
If your employee communication software hasn’t kept up with the times, it could be holding your business back. How can you tell? Here are five key signs that your internal comms platform might be letting you — and your employees — down.
#1. Your mobile experience is MIA
If your platform is a desktop-only by design, it’s time for a reality check. For deskless and frontline employees, mobile access isn’t just nice to have — it’s a necessity.
Think about it: Frontline workers like delivery drivers, retail associates, and healthcare staff are rarely in front of a computer. If your employee communication software platform doesn’t offer full functionality on mobile devices, you’re potentially excluding a significant part of your workforce from critical updates and engagement opportunities.
A truly effective platform ensures that all employees can easily navigate communication channels, tackle daily operations like shift scheduling, access real-time collaboration tools, and get important resources directly from their smartphones.
The gap between desktop and mobile functionality creates unnecessary barriers. Your remote employees or mobile workforce might feel undervalued or left out, leading to disengagement.
To create equity, your platform must deliver the same robust experience on every device, ensuring that everyone stays in the loop — no matter where or how they work.
{{mobile-main="/image"}}
#2. The 1990s called — they want their static platform back
Does your employee communication tool feel like an old-school bulletin board?
Today’s employees are growing increasingly familiar with dynamic and engaging platforms like Instagram and Facebook. If your platform isn’t offering key features like short-form videos, interactive news feeds, or user-generated content, don’t be surprised if your updates aren’t getting the traction you want.
The modern workforce expects more than a repository for company updates. They want to feel connected, heard, and inspired. Platforms that incorporate a wide range of features inspired by social media — such as stories, polls, and real-time messaging — foster two-way communication and increase employee satisfaction. Consider short-form videos that replace long email threads, or how you can enable user-generated content to allow employees to showcase achievements or share ideas.
An outdated, static system doesn’t just fail to engage — it can actively alienate employees. By mirroring the tools they already use in their personal lives and providing a user-friendly interface, a modern internal communications platform helps bridge the gap between work and life, fostering a sense of familiarity and connection.
{{mobile-story-polls="/image"}}
#3. You’re stuck in a click-a-thon
Ever feel like you need a GPS to navigate between business applications?
If your team has to jump between multiple tools to take employee surveys, respond to polls, fill out forms, or reach the company intranet, you’re wasting time and energy — and so are your employees.
Employees shouldn’t have to open a new app or browser tab every time they need to complete a task. An effective internal communication tool centralizes these capabilities in a single platform, letting users seamlessly deploy and respond to surveys, forms, and polls within the same digital workplace through single sign-on and powerful integrations. Not only does this save time, but it also reduces cognitive load and frustration.
Simply put: The easier it is for employees to engage with company content, the more likely they are to participate. A unified platform creates a frictionless employee experience by streamlining workflows, keeping communications clear, and ensuring that no task gets lost in the shuffle.
{{mobile-workday-feed="/image"}}
#4. Your platform looks like it belongs to someone else
Your internal communication platform should feel like an extension of your brand. If it’s generic and non-customizable, it’s missing a major opportunity to reinforce your company culture.
From colors and logos to tone and messaging, your platform should reflect your organization’s unique identity. A white-labeled solution ensures that employees see your brand — not someone else’s — every time they log in, reinforcing brand familiarity and loyalty over time.
And customization shouldn’t stop at aesthetics. The functionality and usage of your platform should align with your company’s values and communication goals.
When your platform mirrors your brand identity, it fosters a stronger connection and a sense of community between employees and the entire organization. It shows that you care about creating a cohesive, immersive experience that resonates with your workforce.
After all, branding isn’t just for customers — it’s for your employees, too.
{{mobile-nokia-feed="/image"}}
#5. Insights get lost in a black hole
Do you have any idea what’s actually working? If your platform isn’t giving you analytics on employee engagement, sentiment, and reach, you may be winging it with your strategy.
Internal communication software isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. To truly understand your workforce, you need data-driven insights. Advanced analytics can reveal which messages resonate most, which channels drive engagement, and where improvements are needed. Metrics like click-through rates, sentiment scores, and survey responses provide a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not.
Without these insights, you’re essentially shouting into the void. Modern internal communications tools don't just deliver your messages; they also show you how they’re received. With the right data at your fingertips, you can continuously refine your approach and create communications that truly connect.
In a landscape where finding talent is competitive and resources can be limited, a healthy internal communication platform isn’t a luxury — it’s an investment in business success. If these red flags sound all too familiar, it might be time for an upgrade.
With the right internal communication tool, you can help you empower your workforce today and set up your workplace culture for success in 2025 and beyond.
It's time for your annual internal communications check-up.
You’ve invested in an internal communications platform, so you’re good to go — right?
Not so fast.
The technology landscape has evolved rapidly, and so have employee expectations. In fact, research shows that companies with outdated communication tools experience 23% higher employee turnover and 40% lower engagement compared to those with modern, mobile-friendly employee communication platforms.
Modern internal communication solutions are no longer just message boards or email replacements. They’ve become go-to hubs for connection, collaboration, and engagement. The best ones don’t just help your internal communication strategy survive — they help it thrive by providing features that enhance everything from onboarding to day-to-day tasks.
If your employee communication software hasn’t kept up with the times, it could be holding your business back. How can you tell? Here are five key signs that your internal comms platform might be letting you — and your employees — down.
#1. Your mobile experience is MIA
If your platform is a desktop-only by design, it’s time for a reality check. For deskless and frontline employees, mobile access isn’t just nice to have — it’s a necessity.
Think about it: Frontline workers like delivery drivers, retail associates, and healthcare staff are rarely in front of a computer. If your employee communication software platform doesn’t offer full functionality on mobile devices, you’re potentially excluding a significant part of your workforce from critical updates and engagement opportunities.
A truly effective platform ensures that all employees can easily navigate communication channels, tackle daily operations like shift scheduling, access real-time collaboration tools, and get important resources directly from their smartphones.
The gap between desktop and mobile functionality creates unnecessary barriers. Your remote employees or mobile workforce might feel undervalued or left out, leading to disengagement.
To create equity, your platform must deliver the same robust experience on every device, ensuring that everyone stays in the loop — no matter where or how they work.
{{mobile-main="/image"}}
#2. The 1990s called — they want their static platform back
Does your employee communication tool feel like an old-school bulletin board?
Today’s employees are growing increasingly familiar with dynamic and engaging platforms like Instagram and Facebook. If your platform isn’t offering key features like short-form videos, interactive news feeds, or user-generated content, don’t be surprised if your updates aren’t getting the traction you want.
The modern workforce expects more than a repository for company updates. They want to feel connected, heard, and inspired. Platforms that incorporate a wide range of features inspired by social media — such as stories, polls, and real-time messaging — foster two-way communication and increase employee satisfaction. Consider short-form videos that replace long email threads, or how you can enable user-generated content to allow employees to showcase achievements or share ideas.
An outdated, static system doesn’t just fail to engage — it can actively alienate employees. By mirroring the tools they already use in their personal lives and providing a user-friendly interface, a modern internal communications platform helps bridge the gap between work and life, fostering a sense of familiarity and connection.
{{mobile-story-polls="/image"}}
#3. You’re stuck in a click-a-thon
Ever feel like you need a GPS to navigate between business applications?
If your team has to jump between multiple tools to take employee surveys, respond to polls, fill out forms, or reach the company intranet, you’re wasting time and energy — and so are your employees.
Employees shouldn’t have to open a new app or browser tab every time they need to complete a task. An effective internal communication tool centralizes these capabilities in a single platform, letting users seamlessly deploy and respond to surveys, forms, and polls within the same digital workplace through single sign-on and powerful integrations. Not only does this save time, but it also reduces cognitive load and frustration.
Simply put: The easier it is for employees to engage with company content, the more likely they are to participate. A unified platform creates a frictionless employee experience by streamlining workflows, keeping communications clear, and ensuring that no task gets lost in the shuffle.
{{mobile-workday-feed="/image"}}
#4. Your platform looks like it belongs to someone else
Your internal communication platform should feel like an extension of your brand. If it’s generic and non-customizable, it’s missing a major opportunity to reinforce your company culture.
From colors and logos to tone and messaging, your platform should reflect your organization’s unique identity. A white-labeled solution ensures that employees see your brand — not someone else’s — every time they log in, reinforcing brand familiarity and loyalty over time.
And customization shouldn’t stop at aesthetics. The functionality and usage of your platform should align with your company’s values and communication goals.
When your platform mirrors your brand identity, it fosters a stronger connection and a sense of community between employees and the entire organization. It shows that you care about creating a cohesive, immersive experience that resonates with your workforce.
After all, branding isn’t just for customers — it’s for your employees, too.
{{mobile-nokia-feed="/image"}}
#5. Insights get lost in a black hole
Do you have any idea what’s actually working? If your platform isn’t giving you analytics on employee engagement, sentiment, and reach, you may be winging it with your strategy.
Internal communication software isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. To truly understand your workforce, you need data-driven insights. Advanced analytics can reveal which messages resonate most, which channels drive engagement, and where improvements are needed. Metrics like click-through rates, sentiment scores, and survey responses provide a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not.
Without these insights, you’re essentially shouting into the void. Modern internal communications tools don't just deliver your messages; they also show you how they’re received. With the right data at your fingertips, you can continuously refine your approach and create communications that truly connect.
In a landscape where finding talent is competitive and resources can be limited, a healthy internal communication platform isn’t a luxury — it’s an investment in business success. If these red flags sound all too familiar, it might be time for an upgrade.
With the right internal communication tool, you can help you empower your workforce today and set up your workplace culture for success in 2025 and beyond.
Team chat apps play a pivotal role in organizing, securing, and making workplace communications accessible.
Blink’s audience often includes remote, frontline, and hybrid teams that rely on dependable messaging to stay aligned.
For small and medium businesses, Blink suggests choosing a team chat app that's easy to use, well-organized, and available on all devices, particularly if the business doesn't have an IT team.
In this Blink guide to the best team chat apps, we review eight leading options for hybrid teams and affordable choices for startups and SMBs. We evaluate each team chat platform based on ease of setup, support levels, and total cost.
If your business is a remote startup, operates a small office, or needs to keep hybrid employees connected, this Blink overview will help you choose a team chat app that fits your needs.
Why team chat apps matter for SMBs and agile teams
Team chat apps play a pivotal role in organizing, securing, and making workplace communications accessible.
Blink’s audience often includes remote, frontline, and hybrid teams that rely on dependable messaging to stay aligned.
For small and medium businesses, Blink suggests choosing a team chat app that's easy to use, well-organized, and available on all devices, particularly if the business doesn't have an IT team.
In this Blink guide to the best team chat apps, we review eight leading options for hybrid teams and affordable choices for startups and SMBs. We evaluate each team chat platform based on ease of setup, support levels, and total cost.
If your business is a remote startup, operates a small office, or needs to keep hybrid employees connected, this Blink overview will help you choose a team chat app that fits your needs.
Highlights
The best team chat apps organize, secure, and make workplace communications accessible in frontline, remote, hybrid, and work environments.
Top chat apps for 2025 include Blink,Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zulip, Discord, WhatsApp, Google Chat, and Element, each designed for different business needs, from affordable team chat apps for startups and SMBs to work chat platforms that are easy to set up without IT support.
Key team chat app features to consider include instant text or group messaging, voice and video calls, file sharing/storage, chat history and search, workflow automation, analytics, and insights, language and accessibility support, and security.
To find the best team chat apps for a small business and easy team chat apps for hybrid teams without IT support, test a free trial period, and assess how it improves your team’s connectivity and productivity.
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What is a team chat app?
A team chat app is a digital platform that enables quick, real-time communication between employees across locations and departments. These apps are essential for maintaining coordination, sharing updates, and ensuring accountability, especially in remote, hybrid, and frontline work environments.
Blink, a leading employee communication platform, defines team chat apps as:
“Tools that combine instant messaging, collaboration, and productivity features into a single accessible workspace. Allowing teams to connect without the delays of email or the complexity of multiple disconnected systems.”
Choosing the right team chat app for your business depends on how your team communicates, your company size, the tools you already use, and the level of IT support available.
For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Blink offers an all-in-one solution that simplifies communication, integrates with existing workflows, and keeps teams connected wherever they work.
How to choose the best team chat app
Most team chat apps focus on real-time communication, collaboration, and organization, along with a host of extras, some you'll need, others you won't.
But some features are crucial for every business, such as:
1. Real-time messaging
One-to-one and group chats so team members can communicate
Typing indicators, read receipts, and message reactions to increase engagement
Threaded and channel conversations for organized discussions
2. File sharing and storage
Uploading and sharing documents, images, videos, or links in chat is essential
Preview and version control for shared files and tracking updates
3. Channels and topics
Public channels for open chat and private channels for specific teams or projects
Topic-or hashtag-based organization for easy navigation and search
4. Voice and video calls
One-click voice or video calls for meetings or quick check-ins
Screen sharing and virtual whiteboards
5. Notifications and mentions
Customizable alerts for separating communications
@Mentions and tagging to alert people and groups
6. Integrations
Integration with tools like Google Drive, Trello, Asana, Slack, Zoom, and GitHub
Automation to handle repetitive tasks like reminders and updates
7. Search and history
Full-text search for files, messages, and channels
Search filters for searching by user, date, or keyword
8. User management
Admin roles, moderation controls, and security access levels for protecting sensitive data
Team invite, guest access, and user status alerts (online/offline/away)
9. Cross-platform availability
Desktop, web, and mobile apps to ensure accessibility everywhere
Synchronization across devices so users can seamlessly continue conversations.left off
Startups and SMBs often need affordable team chat apps that are easy to set up without IT support.
Blink, an off-the-shelf, all-in-one solution, is designed with simplicity in mind, making it a perfect fit for mobile-first or frontline teams. It's customizable to fit your team perfectly, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience.
Described as an "employee experience platform" that combines chat, news feeds, and workplace tools into one app. Blink enables direct and group messaging, file sharing, and voice or video calls, without a complex setup.
Blink’s interface is intuitive and built for teams that “aren’t particularly tech-savvy.” Perfect for easy team chat apps for hybrid teams without IT support
Best suited for:
Startups and SMBs that want an affordable chat tool that does more than messaging, like polls, shift management, and document sharing
Small businesses seeking a lightweight internal hub (chat + company news) instead of an entire enterprise stack
Described as "where work happens," Slack is the most used app in the workplace (Source: Mio). It combines chat, channels, integrations, and file sharing into one streamlined workspace.
Slack serves a wide range of businesses, from small startups to global organizations, and offers thousands of third-party integrations, smooth onboarding, and real-time communication features.
Best suited for:
Hybrid and remote teams that need synchronous and asynchronous collaboration
Startups and SMBs that want a flexible, easy-to-adopt chat platform
Teams that rely on integrations and automation
Slack pros:
The free tier provides what many startups need, keeping costs low during those expensive first few years
According to Social Intents, Slack works best for small, flexible teams because it prioritizes chat
Slack integrates with over 2,600 apps, including Google Drive, Notion, Asana, and Zoom
Slack cons:
Without guidance, channels can become noisy and unstructured, something Wired notes as a common growing pain.
Pricing can surge when you add users or need advanced features such as security and compliance controls
Teams already using Microsoft 365 may find Slack less seamless in comparison
Slack pricing: Free tier available. The Pro plan is $7.25 per user/month (billed annually).
Microsoft Teams gives you file sharing, video meetings, chat, and collaboration under one roof, fully integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Microsoft built Teams for hybrid work, combining chat and productivity tools into a single, secure space.
Best suited for:
Teams that need chat, meetings, and document collaboration in one platform
Businesses with compliance or governance requirements
Organizations already using Microsoft 365 or Office
Small businesses that want scalability built in
Microsoft Teams pros:
Microsoft positions Teams to "empower employees to meet, chat, call, and collaborate from anywhere"
Sharing files and working together on documents is easy because it works well with OneDrive and SharePoint
Microsoft`s Teams Essentials plan was designed for small businesses
Microsoft Teams cons:
Setup is more complex than other chat tools, especially if you're not already in the Microsoft ecosystem
If you're not a Microsoft user, licensing and configuration can be frustrating
For some startups, the complete feature set might be overkill
Microsoft Teams pricing: TheEssentials plan is $4 per user/month (annual). Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $6 per user/month (annual). Microsoft 365 Business Standard is $12.50 per user/month (annual).
Created for gaming, Discord has evolved into a powerful communication tool for creative and hybrid business teams by combining text channels, voice chat, video calls, and community-style engagement on a single platform.
Best suited for:
Budget-conscious organizations that need robust features at low or no cost
Startups and creative teams that love informal, real-time collaboration
An easy team chat app for hybrid teams without IT support
Hybrid teams that frequently use voice and video
Team chat apps for small businesses
Discord pros:
Zapier said its flexibility and community-style setup make it appealing for small, fast-moving teams
Discord offers always-on voice channels, thread-based chat, and strong media sharing
Its free tier is generous and can handle most small business communication needs
Discord cons:
Employee engagement platform, HubEngage said, "Discord lacks the enterprise-grade governance and compliance features in tools like Teams or Slack"
Productivity tool integrations are improving, but they're not as good as those in popular work chat apps
The platform's laid-back vibe and game-like design might not suit every workplace
Besides the 2 billion WhatsApp users, many small businesses also use WhatsApp Business for staff chats, GPS location, file sharing, and quick customer interactions.
Best suited for:
Businesses that need to combine internal chat with customer communication
Small teams or micro-businesses with minimal onboarding needs
Teams that rely on mobile messaging for quick coordination
WhatsApp pros:
WhatsApp Business offers quick replies, automated greetings, and product catalogs
Setup is pretty easy: verify your phone number, and start messaging! 🥳
Most of us know the interface, so adoption's a breeze
WhatsApp cons:
AI-powered customer service provider, Cuedesk, advises that using WhatsApp for internal business chat could lead to problems with data control
Google Chat is a perfect match for Google Workspace users, as it integrates with Gmail, Drive, and Docs, making it easy for Google users to chat and collaborate.
Best suited for:
Small businesses that need minimal IT setup or training
Teams already using Google Workspace
Google Chat pros:
Google says Chat is a secure, integrated way to “collaborate in the flow of work”
You can organize topics, assign tasks, and share files in one place
Easy setup for businesses already using Gmail and Drive
Google Chat cons:
Fewer features than Slack or Teams in terms of integrations and automation
Anyone outside the Google ecosystem may find limited value in using it
Google Chat pricing:Business Starter is $7/user/month (annual),Business Standard is $14/user/month (annual), Business Plus is$22/user/month (annual)
Element built its open-source, enterprise-grade chat platform on the Matrix protocol.
It's secure, private, and supports self-hosting, making it unique among popular chat apps.
Element suits:
Businesses with the technical capability to manage setup and maintenance
Teams that require secure, end-to-end encrypted communication
Organizations that prioritize data control and self-hosting
Element pros:
Element's system is decentralized and shared, so no single server stores your data
You can self-host, use the cloud, or integrate Element into existing infrastructure
It's both mobile-friendly and compliant with strict security standards
Offers full end-to-end encryption (E2EE)
Element cons:
Self-hosting or advanced deployment may be too complex for teams without IT resources
For quick, non-technical adoption, it's less plug-and-play than tools like Blink or WhatsApp
The integration ecosystem is smaller than mainstream options
Element pricing: $5–$10 per user/month, depending on the hosting plan.
Quick recap of our best team chat apps
Blink and WhatsApp are budget-friendly team chat apps for startups and SMBs with mobile-first teams that want simplicity and affordability
Slack offers the best mix of ease, integrations, and scalability for growing SMBs
Microsoft Teams delivers collaboration for businesses already using Microsoft 365
Zulip and Element provide teams with security, privacy, and self-hosting options
Discord shines as a platform for creative, hybrid teams that value flexibility and real-time communication
Google Chat is ideal for Google Workspace users who prefer work chat platforms that are easy to set up without IT support
Which team chat app should you choose?
When choosing a team chat app, test a free plan or trial period while assessing your team’s connectivity, sense of community, and productivity.
If you need additional functionality, consider a paid plan, as saving a few dollars on a free option is rarely worth the loss of your team’s time and efficiency.
The best team chat app connects, focuses, and engages your workforce, avoiding unnecessary technical complexity or friction.
Blink meets 95% of workforces where they are by providing fast, innovative solutions to modern-day communication requirements.
If you’re exploring alternatives to All Gravy, you’re likely looking for a platform that offers more flexibility, deeper integrations, or broader functionality for workforce engagement and management. All Gravy is known for its financial wellness and shift management tools, but it may not provide the full set of capabilities needed for growing organizations.
This guide reviews the best All Gravy alternatives in 2025—starting with Blink, our top recommendation—and includes pricing, reviews, and pros and cons for each.
What to look for in an All Gravy alternative
Before making a decision, it’s important to assess which features matter most to your organization.
Comprehensive Communication Tools – Look for platforms that combine messaging, news feeds, and surveys in one place to reduce tool fatigue.
Integrations – Seamless connections to HRIS, payroll, scheduling, and collaboration tools save time and reduce manual work.
Ease of Use – A clean, mobile-first design ensures both frontline and desk-based staff can use the platform without lengthy training.
Scalability – Choose a solution that can grow with your business without requiring a platform switch in a few years.
Analytics & Insights – Data-driven decision-making starts with robust reporting on engagement, adoption, and performance.
The 10 top All Gravy alternatives in 2025
#1. Blink – The #1 alternative to All Gravy
Blink is an all-in-one employee engagement, communication, and productivity platform designed for both frontline and office-based teams. It replaces multiple disconnected apps by bringing secure messaging, company news, task management, surveys, file access, and HR integrations together in one easy-to-use interface.
Its mobile-first design ensures high adoption rates, while advanced analytics give leaders actionable insights into engagement trends. Blink integrates with major tools like Workday, UKG, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace, meaning it fits seamlessly into existing workflows. Organizations praise Blink for its intuitive user experience, enterprise-grade security, and rapid onboarding process.
Connecteam offers a modular platform that combines chat, scheduling, onboarding, task tracking, and time management. Its mobile app is designed for easy navigation, making it a good choice for organizations that want a straightforward, customizable tool. The built-in training and knowledge base features help teams onboard quickly, while its scheduling tools ensure shift coordination without external apps.
Pricing: Free plan for up to 10 users; paid plans from $29/month for 30 users.
Cons: Limited advanced analytics compared to enterprise-focused platforms.
#3. Workvivo
Workvivo focuses on employee connection and culture-building through a social-media-like interface. Employees can post updates, recognize peers, share wins, and engage with company news in a familiar, engaging way. Workvivo integrates with productivity tools like Slack, Zoom, and Teams, and offers a customizable interface for branding.
Pricing: Custom pricing based on company size.
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
Pros: Strong focus on culture, intuitive social-style interface.
Cons: Less suited for task or operations-heavy use cases.
#4. Leapsome
Leapsome blends engagement, performance management, and learning into a single platform. It enables continuous feedback loops, performance reviews, 1:1 meetings, and learning paths to help employees grow. While it’s less operations-focused than All Gravy, it’s a strong choice for organizations prioritizing employee development.
Pricing: From $8/user/month.
G2 Rating: 4.8/5
Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
Pros: Excellent for performance and development, customizable workflows.
Cons: Not designed for frontline scheduling or shift management.
#5. Dayforce
Dayforce is a full HCM solution covering payroll, workforce management, benefits, and employee engagement. It goes far beyond All Gravy’s scope, offering compliance features and deep analytics. The unified approach makes it ideal for organizations wanting HR, scheduling, and payroll under one roof.
Staffbase is an internal communications platform that supports branded employee apps, intranets, and targeted messaging. It excels at reaching distributed teams with segmented communications and integrates with enterprise systems for analytics. While less focused on shift management, it offers superior content distribution capabilities compared to All Gravy.
Beekeeper is built for frontline workers, offering secure messaging, document sharing, and workflow automation. Its integrations with scheduling and HR platforms make it a practical alternative for shift-based teams. Compared to All Gravy, it offers broader communication features but fewer financial wellness tools.
Pricing: Custom pricing
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
Pros: Designed for frontline teams, good integration options
Cons: Smaller app marketplace than some competitors
#8. Monday.com
Monday.com is a highly flexible work management tool with modules for projects, tasks, CRM, and operations. It can be customized for shift management, though it’s not a native feature. The platform’s visual boards and automation features make it ideal for cross-functional visibility.
Pricing: From $9/user/month
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
Pros: Highly customizable, broad use cases
Cons: Requires setup to suit shift-based teams
#9. LumApps
LumApps is a digital workplace and intranet platform with strong personalization and knowledge management tools. It integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for seamless document access and collaboration. While not built for shift scheduling, its focus on personalized content delivery helps keep employees informed.
Zoho People offers HR management tools for leave, attendance, onboarding, and performance. It integrates with payroll systems and supports custom workflows. While less engagement-focused than Blink, it’s a cost-effective way to centralize HR operations.
Pricing: From $1.50/user/month
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
Pros: Affordable, broad HR features
Cons: Lacks rich employee engagement tools
Final thoughts
While All Gravy offers solid functionality for financial wellness and scheduling, it may not meet the full range of communication, engagement, and operational needs for every organization. Blink leads this list for its ability to centralize tools, improve adoption, and deliver measurable results—backed by excellent user reviews and enterprise-ready features.
Why teams choose Blink over All Gravy
All Gravy is focused on flexible and gig-style workforce management, which is a narrower use case than full employee communication and engagement. Blink is built to be the single, mobile-first home for your entire frontline workforce — no corporate email required — and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See how Blink compares.
AI isn’t exactly the new kid on the block, but 2024 was the year it truly hit its stride. Businesses that embraced it didn’t just dip their toes in — they’re already seeing big wins.
According to Boston Consulting Group, businesses that are leading the way with AI have achieved 1.5x the revenue growth than those that lag behind.
So could 2025 be the year when AI becomes commonplace in internal communications and HR? HR leaders seem to think so. 3 in 4 say that failing to adopt and implement AI in the next 12 to 24 months will harm organizational success.
AI is becoming a necessity rather than a nice-to-have — and the employee intranet is the perfect place to put it to use. AI has the power — not just to enhance intranets — but to reinvent them for the modern workforce.
Let's take a closer look at the essential features and benefits that an AI-powered intranet can bring to your employees and organization.
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Why employee intranets are stuck in the past
Traditional employee intranets — we’re talking those clunky, desktop-based platforms — rarely meet the needs of today’s modern workforce.
Typically used as a content management hub on a private network, they serve up static documents that tend to quickly go out of date, like company policies. Interfaces are usually hard to navigate. There are few (if any) employee engagement features built into the system.
The result? Employees actively avoid your intranet solution. Adoption and usage rates drop. It gets even harder to streamline workflows and share important employee communications.
In recent years, modern intranets and employee apps have been rectifying some of the problems created by traditional intranets — and AI is taking the digital workplace to a whole new level.
How AI is turning corporate intranets into must-have tools
The talk about AI isn’t just hype. Incorporate this tech into your intranet software and you can finally create a social intranet that serves as a single source of truth for your employees.
Imagine logging into your intranet and seeing everything you need in one central location — no digging, no guesswork. Thanks to AI, your intranet can serve up personalized internal communication, relevant content, and digital tools in a company news feed that’s designed to feel custom-built just for you.
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Enhanced search capabilities
Natural language processing (NLP) means we can speak to AI as we would a person — and it understands what we’re saying. This enables intuitive and conversational intranet search functions. Also, AI may soon be able to answer employee questions using its knowledge of intranet resources, rather than simply serving a list of resource links.
Proactive assistance
AI can be integrated into your employee intranet as a chatbot. It can answer employee FAQs and guide onboarding for new hires. It can help employees find the intranet content and tools they need. This frees your HR, IT, and comms teams to focus on higher-level tasks.
Real-time recommendations
Your intranet could become your employees’ personal assistant, predicting what they need before they even realize it. Need a document? It’s already highlighted. Looking for a collaborator? AI’s got a suggestion. It’s like having an intranet that reads minds.
Voice and chat integration
Employees can enjoy seamless intranet interactions through virtual assistants and voice commands. Employees don’t even need to type. They can get answers to questions like, “What are my tasks for the day?” or “show me the latest HR policy,” without having to navigate the intranet interface. This is great for accessibility and for employees who want to access your intranet on the go.
Task automation
AI can automate a wide range of routine tasks, including PTO requests, compliance training reminders, and IT support tickets. It can search for and flag outdated intranet content, automatically generate content tags, and launch pulse surveys as per your schedule. It can become the home for easy-to-find collaboration tools that help employees connect and work with one another. Managers and employees can also use AI to compose intranet content.
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Easy analytics
AI can help you make the most of your intranet by analyzing data on usage patterns, features that aren’t used very often, and your most popular content. You can also use AI to analyze employee sentiment and identify employee engagement red flags. This gives you time to make changes before dissatisfaction impacts productivity and retention.
Why an AI-powered intranet is a win-win
AI transformation can feel daunting. But the benefits it brings for both employees and organizations can’t be ignored.
Benefits for employees
An AI intranet improves the employee experience. Automation and proactive AI support make work quicker and easier, so employees can focus on more meaningful and strategic tasks. AI can optimize the collaborative parts of a unified platform — like enabling an easy-to-navigate employee directory, or quick-to-use instant messaging — that make or break a great experience on a daily basis.
An AI-powered intranet also reduces friction and frustration because employees are presented with relevant information at every turn. Every employee — from the desk-based employee to the frontline worker — gets a user-friendly, personalized intranet experience that improves their engagement and motivation.
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Benefits for organizations
AI improves your intranet solution, driving higher employee adoption rates and ensuring you get the best possible ROI from your intranet investment.
Your new and improved intranet can also become a key part of the company culture, supporting employee engagement, productivity, collaboration, and retention. And with easy data analysis, it’s much easier to track success relating to all these business objectives.
AI roadblocks — and how to power through them
An AI-powered intranet can transform your digital workplace, making it more engaging, efficient, and collaborative. But — as with any big change in the workplace — you need to give careful consideration to potential pitfalls.
Here are some of the challenges of incorporating AI into your intranet software and what you can do to overcome them.
Data privacy concerns
AI systems process vast amounts of personal and organizational data. So preventing data breaches and the associated loss of employee trust is imperative. You should only use encrypted intranet platforms and work to establish clear data privacy policies.
Change management
Introducing AI to your traditional intranet is like rolling out the red carpet for innovation — but not everyone might feel like a VIP right away. Some employees may hesitate, wondering, “How do I even use this?” That’s where effective communication and training come in to save the day.
Balancing AI and a human touch
Use AI to augment, rather than replace, human connection. AI can handle repetitive tasks and help with data analysis. But when it comes to tasks that require decision-making, emotional intelligence, creative collaboration, and relationship-building, ensure that employees — not bots — take the lead.
How to make AI intranet adoption seamless
If, like us, you’re convinced that AI is going to be an intranet game-changer, here’s what you need to do next.
#1. Conduct a needs assessment to determine what features matter most
To find an AI intranet that meets all your organizational needs, start with a needs assessment. Consult with stakeholders at all levels to find out which intranet and AI features they’d like to see. Then, put features in order of priority before you go vendor shopping.
#2. Partner with a tech vendor specializing in AI-powered intranets
There are lots of tech vendors out there — but not all of them specialize in AI-powered intranets. Work with an AI intranet specialist and your partner can guide you seamlessly through the intranet upgrade process. You can also count on platform reliability, time and cost efficiency, and access to the most advanced AI features. Check out our recommendations of top intranet software providers here.
#3. Prioritize mobile-first design to align with employee expectations
Like the rest of your modern employee intranet, any AI tools should be available to all employees across all devices. Employees — from your office-based knowledge workers to your remote workers and frontline workers in the field — should get the same great intranet experience. So prioritize user-friendly, mobile-first intranet software that meets employees’ high expectations.
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#4. Roll out AI capabilities in phases to avoid overwhelming users
When rolling out any new intranet feature, it’s best to do so in stages, getting employees used to one new feature at a time. This reduces staff overwhelm and helps you sustain intranet engagement. A phased approach also takes the pressure off your IT team, who are less likely to be swamped with training and support requests.
Incorporate AI and take your employee intranet to the next level
Let’s face it: AI isn’t just the future — it’s here. And it’s reshaping the company intranet into something your workforce will actually want to use. With the help of AI, organizations are enhancing the digital employee experience, boosting workplace productivity, and fostering corporate culture — ultimately improving outcomes across the entire company.
The question is: Are you ready to make the leap?
By making the shift to a modern intranet solution now and preparing your platform, employees, and organization for the future, you can stay ahead of the curve — and start to reap AI’s benefits sooner rather than later.
Blink. And discover how an AI-powered intranet can reimagine your organization.
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?
Team chat for frontline teams is a mobile-first messaging tool that connects everyone in a company, not just the people at a desk. It gives a shift worker, a store manager, and a head-office exec one place to talk in real time, from a phone, without needing a work email address to log in.
That's the part most tools miss. Email and desk-era chat apps were built for people who sit in front of a screen all day. Frontline chat is built for the 80% of the workforce who don't. Same conversation, same company, everyone included.
We're a software company. We sit at desks. So why do we live in a frontline chat app every working day? Because reaching everyone is a problem every distributed company has, ours included.
Why a desk-based company runs on a frontline app
Blink is 132 people across offices in London and Boston, plus remote. We've used our own platform, every working day, for twelve years. That's not a marketing decision. It's how we believe you build good software for the frontline: you live in it yourself.
It also happens to solve our own problem. We have people in two time zones and at home, all needing to stay on the same page. A London designer, a Boston project lead, and a remote engineer working the same website launch shouldn't need three tools and a calendar invite to stay aligned. They need one place. That's chat.
If the "reach everyone, wherever they are" problem sounds familiar, that's because it isn't unique to frontline businesses. It's just sharper there. Which is exactly why living in the product teaches us so much.
You can see both worlds in our own numbers. In the last 30 days, our team opened Blink 211,042 times: 141,610 from desks and 69,432 from phones (thanks to Blink IQ). Head office and people on the move, in the same app, reading the same things at the same moment. That desk-and-pocket split is the whole reason chat has to work brilliantly on a phone, not just tolerate it.
Why our COO sends more chats than anyone else
Here's the counterintuitive part. In a company of 132 people, the person sending the most messages isn't in support or sales. It's the COO.
Lauren's reason is simple: as a leader, you need to get a sense of the bigger picture without bothering people. Chat lets her stay close to what's happening across every team by reading, not interrupting. No status meeting. No "quick catch-up" that eats an afternoon. She scans the channels that matter and she's caught up.
Our data backs the pattern up at the top. Our CEO, Sean, opens the Blink app on his phone more than anyone else in the company. But 58% of his messages are written from a computer. He reads while he's moving, between Boston and London or inside a customer's distribution center, and writes when he's sitting down. Leaders staying close to the work is a behavior you can see, not just hope for.
What can chat do that email or a meeting can't?
Chat keeps a live conversation in one place, visible to everyone who needs it, searchable forever, with no one left out when they step away. Email buries it and meetings lose it.
Ask Lauren for a concrete example and she'll point to the everyday stuff. This week, it was a website project run across Boston and London.
Email would have meant a thread nobody reads to the end, with the newest person always missing context. A meeting would have meant finding a slot across two time zones, then writing it all up afterward anyway. In chat, the whole project lives in one channel. Decisions are written down. Anyone who steps away comes back and scrolls up. Anyone new gets added and sees the full history.
That's the thing consumer messaging apps can't do at work. In chat, everything is written, which means everything is searchable. You have a record. You can find what you need. You stay in the loop when you're away. Nothing lives in one person's inbox or one person's memory.
What Blink uses chat for, and what it doesn't
Almost everything at Blink happens in chat. 97% of our team actively chats, and last month alone we sent 113,232 messages, in a company of 132 people. We barely use emails. Every team has a channel. Every office has a channel. There are channels for cross-team collaborations, for squads, for specific customers. The whole company is a network of connections, and chat is what holds it together.
You can see it in the data. Our Customer Success and Implementation teams, the two groups that move a customer from signed contract to live and beyond, exchanged 42,223 chat messages in a single year. That's more than any other pair of teams at the company. The handoff between them isn't a moment. It's a constant conversation.
What don't we use chat for? Anything that should happen in person. Difficult conversations, sensitive feedback, the moments that need a face and a voice. Chat is for keeping everyone connected and informed. It isn't a place to hide from the conversations that matter most. Knowing the difference is part of using it well.
What chat features do frontline teams actually use?
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Four, mostly. Direct messages, channels, video and voice calls, and document sharing. Here's how each one earns its place at Blink:
Direct messages. One-to-one and small group conversations, from any device.
Channels. A space for every team, office, squad, project, and customer. This is where the company-wide network lives.
Video and voice calls. Jump from a message to a call without switching apps or sending a meeting link.
Document sharing. Share files where the conversation is already happening, so context and content stay together.
None of these are exotic. What matters is that they're all in one app, on a phone, available to everyone in the company, not just the people at a desk.
What leaders get wrong about chat
Here's the one thing Lauren wants leaders to understand: chat is not enough on its own.
The mistake is thinking that if you give people a messaging app, you've solved internal communication. You haven't. Chat is the entry point, not the whole thing. You also need a company news feed, where people can post, react, and share what's happening across the business. You need video. And you need a way to recognize good work.
You can see it in how we use Blink ourselves. 97% of us actively chat, 94% use the Hub for resources, 89% use the news feed, and 59% post Stories. Adoption across all of it is the difference between a channel people tolerate and a workplace they live in. Chat gets them in the door. The rest is why they stay.
Because communication at work isn't only about coordination. We're social. We crave connection. We need to feel part of something and to feel seen for the work we do. Chat handles the day-to-day. The rest is what turns a group of people into a culture.
Which is a good place to leave a hint about episode two. Next up, we're opening up the feature we use to highlight great work across the company: recognition. Same couch, different person.
Team chat vs email and Slack for frontline teams
If you're weighing up how to connect a frontline team, here's the short version:
Swipe to see all columns
Email
Desk-era chat
Blink chat
Built for
Desk workers
Desk workers
Everyone, frontline included
Login
Work email required
Usually work email
Phone number, no email needed
Primary device
Laptop
Laptop
Phone
More than messaging
No
Chat only
Chat, news feed, video, recognition
Blink isn't "just another comms tool." Slack and email were built for people at a desk. Blink was built so the person on the shop floor, the driver, and the head-office team are all in the same conversation. And chat is only the front door to a wider employee experience.
Bring your whole team into one chat
We use Blink because it does for us exactly what we built it to do for our customers: connect everyone, wherever they work, in one app on the device they already carry.
You can try it with your own team in a few minutes. Start a free trialand set up your first channel. Everyone can join, including the people who've never had a company email address.
Whenever you place a new hire in a role, you hope they’ll go the distance. But ‘hopefully’ isn’t enough in this challenging recruitment climate.
The first 90 days of employment is an opportunity to set firm foundations and begin the first chapter of a productive, long-lasting relationship. And yet, within the caregiver and healthcare sector, those first 90 days are also where the majority (57%) of turnover occurs.
A small portion of this turnover will come from poor-fit hires and people who are asked not to continue after their probationary period.95.5% of all hospital staff turnover is voluntary though, so there’s clearly something to analyze here.
To put it plainly, employees who are supported and nurtured through their first 90 days in post become engaged, loyal workers — likely to stay for a year or longer. Those who aren’t, resign.
Let’s look at how you can harness the 90-day retention opportunity for your healthcare organization.
Retention efforts begin before recruitment ends
When we think about retention, we typically think of the employees we’ve already onboarded. And this appears entirely sensible: you can’t retain the staff you haven’t hired yet.
At the same time, we know that the employee experience journey starts way before an official job offer. The ‘moments that matter’ start as early in the lifecycle as first seeing your job advert and visiting your website.
Candidates are forming an opinion about your organization throughout the application and recruitment process. They’re deciding whether or not they can see themselves staying with you long-term.
At this stage, candidates are looking at factors such as:
What you ask of them during the assessment process
How well and often you communicate
Your employer branding
What current employees say about your business on social media
How well your organization is reviewed and how it’s represented in the press
What your annual reports say about the employee experience, your commercials, vision and values, and position in the marketplace
Not all candidates will deep dive into your organization’s public profile, but some will. And at the very least they’ll be on the receiving end of how you manage the application process. So to start as you mean to go on: to help employees get past the first 90-day threshold, your recruitment efforts need to serve as retention efforts, too.
This can be a challenge for organizations using staffing agencies, who may have significantly less control over their relationship-building efforts. Similarly, US companies deploying CDPAP may find care workers appearing on the payroll without any previous facetime and with limited understanding of the provider that’s hiring them.
The need to deliver retention is pressing even in these scenarios. Attrition is a phenomenal cost burden for healthcare organizations placing employees from any recruitment source.
Understanding attrition factors
Healthcare workers brought into your organization through traditional means — that is, not CDPAP or staffing agencies — must have been excited about the opportunity enough to accept your offer. What can happen to make them want to leave only a few months later?
Experience versus expectations
Employees come to a new role with a series of expectations. These come from their previous work experiences, your employer branding, and the job description. If their experience is significantly worse than — or even just different to — their expectations, they may decide to move on.
There’s a ‘two-factor theory’ at play here. On one hand, you have hygiene factors, otherwise thought of as ‘causes of dissatisfaction’. These can include issues such as problems with managers, poor working relationships, or a feeling of inadequate health and safety.
Motivating factors are the opposite: they make a worker want to stay. These include opportunities for growth, having a sense of purpose, and feeling recognized for good work.
If there’s a significant mismatch between hygiene factor expectations and experience, don’t be surprised if your staff start to churn quickly. An absence of motivating factors may take longer to push staff into leaving, but eventually, this will too.
Lack of access to training, resources, and tools
Staff who lack the necessary training, resources, and tools to perform their duties effectively quickly become frustrated and demotivated. They’re unable to enjoy their work or do it well.
This isn’t just an attrition risk. A lack of access like this also creates compliance and patient safety concerns — it leaves your organization open to risk, reputationally and financially.
‘Access’ is the right word to interrogate here. Training might be on offer for healthcare workers, you may have paper copies of necessary resources, and specific tools might have been rolled out to the frontline to support their day-to-day. But if employees can’t access them easily — without disrupting their working day — then they simply aren’t fit for purpose.
Frontline healthcare workers need tools designed to meet their needs. Tools and software solutions originally aimed at office-based workers are unlikely to fulfill this requirement.
It’s also important to recognize the additional administrative burden your employees face during their first 90 days. There’s rarely enough time for thorough onboarding and training before workers are asked to care for patients.
This leaves workers trying to juggle patient care and paperwork throughout their first 90 days. This overload and lack of intuitive tools can mean that aspects of onboarding and training get missed.
Scope of the role
Unsurprisingly, some healthcare roles have higher turnover than others. For example, larger hospitals with more than 500 beds have the highest rates of staff turnover.
Similarly, few new hires are comfortable joining a team that remains understaffed. If the situation isn’t resolved promptly then turnover is likely to be high.
Contact time
Some frontline healthcare workers spend the majority of their day surrounded by other people — on a busy Accident and Emergency ward, for example, or riding in the ambulance with the rest of their EMS crew. Others work solo. Home health carers can go weeks without seeing another co-worker or connecting with HQ.
Every frontline worker needs contact time with their manager. They need support, development, and feedback on their performance. They also want to share their difficulties and suggestions, and this contact time is all the more important during their first 90 days when so much of the role is new.
Contact time with co-workers is essential too. Teams need to spend time together to create a sense of belonging. They can share ideas and experiences and provide peer-to-peer support.
Healthcare and home health organizations relying on staffing agencies and CDPAP need to put in considerable extra effort to encourage this kind of culture.
Seizing the opportunity: what makes those first 90 days engaging
Flipping the above on its head, we can now start to assess what a great first 90 days looks like for healthcare employees.
An immediate and thorough welcoming
Employee onboarding plans set the tone across four important Cs: compliance, clarification, culture, and connection.
Compliance is vital in healthcare. You need to know that new hires understand what’s expected of them to satisfy the necessary criteria and continue with best practice. You should also use the onboarding process to ensure employees go through any required training or certifications before they treat patients.
Clarification is broader than compliance. It helps employees understand what their job role is in detail and by being crystal clear from the off-set you can set them up for success. You might also choose to clarify who they will work with, who they can turn to for questions and support as they learn the ropes, what your organizational goals are, and how much their individual contribution matters.
Culture we’ve mentioned already and it’s where many healthcare organizations start to fall down where retention is concerned. Harvard Business Review data concluded that “Competitive pay and other support options are essential to recruiting caregivers, of course, but organizational culture, including a commitment to excellence, is what makes them stay.”
Connection is rarely ever achieved without the right cultural environment. If culture can be thought of as how you work as an organization, then the way you connect your teams together naturally falls into this category. Remember: just because a healthcare worker is put on a busy ward with many busy co-workers doesn’t make them connected. Connection requires considered effort, from them and from you. And you have the opportunity to lead by example from as early as day one.
Welcoming staff shouldn’t be a one-way process, though. Yes, you will have lots of information you need to pass their way, but the earlier you get them actively engaging the better.
Run regular onboarding surveys at the end of weeks 1, 4, 8, and so on. And if you have employee groups and communities available to join, make sure your new hires know they are there. These could be around internal initiatives, like digital inclusion, or shared values and characteristics like LGBTQ+. Look for every opportunity to create community, belonging, and psychological safety. The impact on retention and employee wellbeing can be transformational.
Make employees feel 18x more committed to their employer
Increase a sense of connection in 91% of employees
And lead 89% of employees to feel ‘very engaged’ in their work
What could your healthcare organization do with stats like that?
Having the tools needed to succeed
Frontline healthcare workers often have tools extended to them as an afterthought. Whatever their desk-based peers in head office are using is what they are asked to use too.
But these tools are not fit for purpose for the frontline. Either as a result of bad mobile user experience, requiring multiple log-ins, complicated filing systems and navigation, or all of the above.
Some crucial workflows are still paper-based by default, causing a digital divide to form between healthcare teams. This impacts efficiency and productivity, employee engagement and satisfaction, and the quality of patient care.
By empowering frontline staff with the right tools for the job from their very first day you can greatly reduce attrition risks, solving for the ‘hygiene’ and ‘motivating’ factors we covered earlier on.
Facilitate single sign-on and bring all mission-critical apps together in one place
Allow teams to stay connected to each other and the wider organization
Transitioning from desk-based tools to a frontline employee app will make frontline hires feel valued and invested in. It’ll also keep them with your organization way beyond the first 90 days.
Checking in regularly
It’s no shock to anyone that great relationships rely on effective communication. What’s important is how you make this kind of communication normal for your new employees.
Encourage new hires to ask questions, build connections, and proactively seek out the training they need. Home Health Pulse explains it perfectly when they say, “Because inexperience breeds vulnerability, caregivers who feel unsure or underprepared in their position for too long will choose to save their dignity and quit to go where they feel competent.”
Focus on their relationships with co-workers and the first-line managers who lead them. These should be your employee’s first point of contact when they need help, so make it easy for them to ask
Ask for their feedback often. When staff find it easy to talk about the challenges they’re facing, you hear about problems early. This lets you tackle emerging issues around burnout or frustration before it’s too late. 91% of nurses blame burnout, poor working conditions, and pay for the staffing shortage — hear them out on these issues to minimize attrition. Annual healthcare employee surveys are only the beginning.
Offer your new hires a variety of paths to communicate their needs. Blink Pulse surveys let you track feedback from your new hires, opening up the opportunity to optimize and improve your retention rates.
Connecting new hires with your overall purpose and mission
“I’m yet to meet a clinician or caregiver who got into this line of work to be on a computer all day” explains Ian Gordan, former President of Administrative Operations for Elara Caring.
And it’s true. At the risk of over-generalizing, frontline healthcare workers typically want a sense of purpose in their work — and it pays to provide this sense of purpose as soon as you possibly can.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to remember this purpose when workers are constantly rushed, focusing on the immediate needs of their patients. Limited contact with co-workers can make this problem worse.
It’s here that tooling becomes essential again:
A shared news ‘Feed’ allows you to send regular reminders of the company's purpose and internalize those values in new hires
Building connections and ‘Chats’ between team members provides a collective sense of excellence and dedication to the cause
Lastly, but equally as importantly, there’s reward and recognition.
Keep your new hires motivated and enthused during and after their first 90 days by demonstrating a culture of recognition. Reward staff who are doing well early in their time with you. Give them a shout-out on your news Feed or gift them some company goodies.
It’s a basic tenant of psychology that we should reward the behavior we want to see repeated, but the benefits of recognition programs in the workplace extend far beyond productive behavior. Culture, customer service, and commercial outcomes are all improved when your healthcare workers feel appreciated.
Reaching the 90-day milestone — and beyond
Don’t let the 90-day milestone pass by without at least some form of recognition and check-in. If your employee stays with you past the first 90 days, celebrate that — and them.
If your employee voluntarily leaves before they pass the 90-day milestone then you have an opportunity to learn. Ask your employee why they’re leaving and what could have enabled them to stay.
Consider going further, too. Consider holding regular ‘stay interviews’, offering employees an opportunity to discuss concerns they have with their role and their aspirations for their career.
Blink. And deliver the best employee experience from recruitment to retirement
Blink helps you keep top talent from recruitment to retirement. Our frontline employee app enables and empowers healthcare staff with the tools, resources, and support they need to thrive at work and offer outstanding patient care.
