7 reasons why organizations should choose Blink to replace Workplace

Work shouldn’t feel like a scavenger hunt.

But for most employees — especially frontline teams — that’s exactly what it’s become.

Need a policy? One app. Book time off? Another. Ask a quick question? Different tool. Different login. Different tab.

Three simple tasks. Three systems. And somehow, still no clear answer.

This is what happens when workplace communication platforms are built to do one thing well — and nothing else. Chat lives in one place. Information lives somewhere else. Culture gets bolted on as an afterthought.

The result? More noise. More switching. Less clarity.

The modern workplace doesn’t work in neat little boxes — so your communication platform shouldn’t either. The best ones support how people actually work: by bringing information, action, and connection together.

That’s where multi-dimensional communication comes in.

Here, we look at the three dimensions of effective workplace communication. And how a 360-degree platform creates a calmer, clearer, more connected work day.

From chaos to clarity: Why communication needs three dimensions

Most workplace communication platforms are built around a single idea. 

Chat tools focus on conversations. Intranets store information. Engagement tools cover surveys and employee recognition.

But this setup doesn’t reflect how work actually gets done. Real work is messy and interconnected. And when these three strands of communication are kept separate, work is less effective.

With so many tools, there’s more noise and less clarity. Your people waste hours hopping between software. Important information gets lost, ignored, or diluted because it’s not available in the right place at the right time.

Blink takes a different approach. We don’t treat communication as a single stream or function. We recognize that workplace communication is about doing work, finding information, and feeling connected — all at the same time.

We bring the three dimensions of employee communication together, so they can work in sync. We break it down like this:

• Head — where information lives
• Hands — where work happens
• Heart — where culture shows up

Individually, these strands are useful to your business. But together? They’re game-changing. They bring comms, information, and culture to life — without adding complexity and without forcing employees to learn yet another tool.

So what does multi-dimensional communication actually look like? Let’s take a closer look.

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The three dimensions of an effective workplace communication platform (and how Blink helps you master all three)

Head: Keep everyone informed

Give employees instant access to the company knowledge, policies, and resources they need to stay aligned and make smarter decisions.

One of the biggest challenges in any organization? Keeping everyone on the same page.

Information is often scattered. Policies are buried in PDFs. Guides live in folders that haven’t been updated since 2019. Content systems are powerful, but underutilized, because access is clunky or confusing.

The result? Employees waste time searching for answers. And when they can’t find them, they either ask around or make assumptions — slowing work down and increasing the risk of mistakes.

How Blink shows up

Blink acts as a modern employee intranet. A living wiki — not a dusty document repository. With a searchable content hub and news feed, employees have the latest company information right at their fingertips.

Policies, procedures, and guides live in one searchable source of truth. And for admins, a drag and drop interface makes adding and customizing content simple — no IT degree required.

Digital forms streamline information sharing, too. Whether submitting a safety report or requesting a pay stub, employees can complete tasks quickly and easily.

The impact

When information flows freely, and your intranet platform connects with other communication tools, you get the following benefits:

• Fewer information gaps. Employees are always clear on expectations, objectives, and policies.
• No duplication. With one centralized location for information, you only create content once.
• Better decision-making. Everyone has the info they need to act confidently and efficiently.
• Faster onboarding. With automated journeys on the feed and onboarding resources on your content hub, the new hire experience is consistent and streamlined.
• Less friction. Powerful search and self-service features let employees find what they’re looking for in seconds — no asking around.

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Hands: Work smarter, together

Connect people to tools and coworkers so they can execute tasks efficiently.

Information is only the start of the story. To get work done, employees need the right tools and easy ways to collaborate.

But in many organizations, conversations and tasks are scattered across channels — personal messaging apps (like WhatsApp), emails, project tools, and shared drives.

Employees spend more time piecing things together than actually getting work done. Decisions slow down. Projects stall. And for the team in charge of compliance and governance, managing so many siloed channels becomes a real headache.

How Blink shows up

Blink combines all internal communication and teamwork into one safe and organized place. 

Employees can send 1-to-1 or group messages, create channels for ongoing conversations, share documents, and launch voice and video calls — all without leaving the app. Crucially, it’s easy to organize, prioritize, and search chat threads. So vital information is always within easy reach. 

What’s more, coworker communication doesn’t exist in a vacuum because Blink acts as a digital hub for your organization. 

It offers deep integrations with HR, CRM, and project management systems. It gives your employees one-click access to every tool they need and syncs software seamlessly. So moving from talk to task gets a whole lot easier.

The impact

When employees have everything they need to collaborate and complete tasks, the difference is clear:

• Easier collaboration. Employees can live chat in real-time, sharing information and solving problems no matter where they work.
• Streamlined workflow. Because your systems talk to each other and because you can switch between tools with ease, everyone is more productive and efficient.
• Auditable, searchable comms. With everything in one place, it’s easy to locate conversations and continue a project from where you left off.
• Better adoption of tools. With one set of login details and easy access from a centralized dashboard, employees use your full range of workplace software, improving adoption and ROI.

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Heart: Shine a light on company culture

Bring company culture to life — recognize achievements, share stories, and create a sense of belonging.

The third dimension of a good employee communication platform is Heart — the human side of work. It’s recognition, connection, and shared experiences.

If your communication tools only focus on information sharing and operations, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Because when achievements are noticed, when employees have an easy way to connect with coworkers, and when culture feels concrete, employee experience improves. 

How Blink shows up

Blink shines a light on company culture with a dynamic and engaging social feed that employees just love to scroll.

The news feed features video stories, recognition posts, quick-fire polls, and lots of interactive multimedia content. It’s a place to put the video from your latest team building session. A CEO selfie. A behind-the-scenes look at a new product.

This is where people go to experience those authentic moments that make your organization what it is. And with opportunities for interaction and two-way conversations, everyone gets to take part — even if they work from home or in a frontline role.

Within this ecosystem, employees can also join coworker communities. Here, they can chat with like-minded teammates about passions, hobbies, and shared interests, developing stronger working relationships and a real sense of community.

The impact

An internal communications platform that amplifies company culture delivers real results:

• Authentic comms. With access to video conferencing, polls, and multi-media content, you make your culture-building comms more human and engaging.
• A stronger sense of belonging. Employees feel connected to their teams and part of something bigger.
• Improved retention. A positive company culture fosters loyalty. Blink customers have reduced employee turnover by up to 26%.
• Improved engagement. Employees who feel invested in your culture and organization work harder and collaborate more effectively.
• Culture without the noise. Personalization and segmentation features ensure content feels relevant and interesting to every employee.

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Bringing it all together (this is where the magic happens)

Maybe you have a tool that works well for one element of workplace communication. Or a collection of tools that seem to cover all the bases we’ve covered above.

Either way, for today’s modern workplace, those one-dimensional tools just aren’t enough.

You need a multi-dimensional workplace communication tool. One that brings every element of comms — information, collaboration, and connection — into a centralized, auditable, searchable location.

When you get this right, an employee can see a recognition post in their feed (Heart), click through to the updated policy it references (Head), then jump into a team chat to discuss its implementation (Hands) — all without leaving the app. 

Your software works more elegantly and effectively, and work flows more easily. So you get:

• Clarity. A place for everything and everything in its place. It’s easy for employees to find the right information when and where they need it.
• Streamlined workflows. Bring chat tools, content hub, and a news feed together and you simplify work. Employees stop jumping between tabs, and operational efficiency improves.
• Cost efficiency. With just one platform subscription and just one tool to manage, your IT budget goes further.
• An enhanced employee experience. Your system reflects how people really work and communicate. Software fits seamlessly into the workday, so digital employee experience improves.

This is what Blink does so well. It’s a platform that unifies every strand of workplace communication. And it does this over a user-friendly, mobile-first app.

So whether you have employees working at home, in the office, or on the frontlines of your organization, everyone has access to the same information, communication channels, and culture-building content.

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Blink — and you’ve got a workplace communication platform built for the way people really work

Blink isn’t just another tool. It’s not another feed. And it’s certainly not another platform employees do their best to avoid. It’s a connected experience designed to match employee behavior — not fight it.

By bringing together Hands, Head, and Heart, Blink makes communication simpler, clearer, and more human.

So your employees spend less time searching and switching tools. And more time connecting with colleagues, contributing to company culture, and doing productive, meaningful work.

Another week, another Life at Blink! This week we are highlighting Ben Willder, a Senior Sales Development Representative located in our London office. This edition comes just in time to celebrate Ben’s one-year anniversary at Blink. Ben describes Blink as a proactive, collaborative and curious place to work.

Now, let's explore Ben’s path at Blink.

What is your position at Blink?

My focus is working within our Sales team as an Enterprise SDR, identifying some of the more critical employee inclusion and enablement challenges for Blink to solve across the largest organizations. 

Another area I’ve started to dig into is our Partnerships team. This is a really fast-evolving function at Blink, and I’ve spent a lot of time building relationships with core partners like Workday in Europe, as well as collaborating closely with some of the leading Meta Consultancies off the back of the news from Workplace. This has been a pretty rewarding passion project and I am excited to have the chance to dive into this more.

What initially attracted you to join Blink?

My previous company also focused on helping frontline employees. I think fundamentally I became aware of the countless challenges facing the frontline worker, and I love how tangible the positive impacts can be.

I want to sell something that I genuinely believe makes a difference. Whilst I know that’s obvious, I do think it’s hugely important, and I love the scope for impact that exists at Blink.

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

Apart from the incredible work myself and my colleagues have done on reinventing what’s possible with the Lavazza to froth a good coffee, I’m very proud of the Partnerships work we’re doing. 

We’ve really encapsulated the people-first approach that’s needed to differentiate ourselves in the market, and it’s set to be incredibly enabling for the company when you think of the scope for support, opportunity and collaboration it provides. More to come here, too!

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

In my opinion it would be optimizing our partnerships with venture partners like Workday. There’s so much scope to support these partners with collaboration and co-creation, and I want to leverage this to ensure we maintain our agility in developing the product, extending our reach and getting as many frontline employees digitally enabled as possible.

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

It would have to be our employee intelligence. The scope for businesses to assess business problems at such a granular level through a lens that has never existed (a digitally enabled deskless workforce) is pretty exciting. 

As we conclude this edition of Life at Blink, we're inspired by Ben’s dedication to solving critical challenges for enterprise clients and forging impactful partnerships across Europe. Ben's passion for innovation, from redefining coffee experiences to pioneering initiatives like employee intelligence, reflects Blink's commitment to empowering frontline workers. When asked why he works for Blink, he responded with:

“I like selling a product that has a tangible impact that genuinely makes sense to me.”

Here's to celebrating Ben's first year with us and the exciting milestones ahead at Blink!

Join us in shaping the future of technology and impacting lives. Explore career opportunities at Blink today! https://www.joinblink.com/careers

Out of all the terms we’ve added to our lexicon over the course of 2020, ‘frontline workers’ is our favorite.

At Blink, we build software that improves the experience of thousands of frontline workers all over the world. We know how hard they work. The hours they put in. The pride they take in keeping their communities healthy, fed and well looked-after. 

There’s a lot about this year we’d all like to move on from. The word 'unprecedented' being one of them. But there’s one thing that we need to take forward, and that's our appreciation of brave frontline teams.

We're forever indebted to you. Thank you for looking after us during the most unprecedented (sorry) of times. 

We can’t possibly mention you all, and we’re sorry. But we hope you know how much we appreciate everything you do for us.

Long live society’s newfound appreciation; long may it continue!

The frontline workers we need to thank

NHS medical teams

This Christmas, many will be raising glasses to the medical staff who threw themselves behind global efforts to contain the pandemic and minimize its impact. 

We’ll certainly be joining them. 

So, here’s to the doctors, nurses, paramedics, healthcare assistants, physios, occupational therapists and pharmacists.

Whether directly or indirectly involved in treating Coronavirus patients, the world owes you one.  

While we extend our gratitude to healthcare workers globally, we can’t help but be extremely grateful for our native NHS. Providing stellar, free-at-the-point-of-access care during a global pandemic isn’t easy - but somehow you’ve managed, and managed spectacularly.

It’s stories like that of Dr Sarbjit Clare, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust's deputy medical director, that demonstrate what a gargantuan effort healthcare workers put in.

Central to operational and clinical decision-making surrounding COVID-19 treatment, Dr Clare cared for over 700 patients. Oh, and she single-handedly kept her department open when all her colleagues were sick or self-isolating. 

If treating and caring for patients wasn’t enough, some healthcare workers took on even more responsibility in their spare time. Ashleigh Linsdell founded and coordinated a national effort to make scrubs during the UK shortage.

Alison Williams raised funds for COVID-19 patient essentials, including iPads to help them contact their families during isolation.

NHS support teams

We need to thank the often-overlooked support teams that keep wheels turning behind the scenes. 

Without them, it would be practically impossible for healthcare workers to do what they do. They’re the backbone keeping the NHS - and healthcare organisations the world over - together and functional. 

Caterers for keeping staff and patients fed. 

Laundry and housekeeping staff for keeping hospitals clean, whilst navigating intense and often-changing safety regulations. 

Hospital porters, for providing an ever friendly, welcoming service. Veteran porter Terry Allen worked tirelessly for patients, transferring them between departments, facilitating their treatment and helping them feel comfortable.

The NHS’s medical teams provide first-class care, but they couldn’t do it without Terry and thousands of others like him. 

Care home workers

Residential care home staff - working with elderly people or those with disabilities - look after those most vulnerable to COVID-19. 

It’s a tough, underappreciated (and often underpaid) job. So, it's all the more remarkable that care workers have gone above and beyond for their patients and their families. 

Care staff have made it an absolute priority to keep their residents safe. Sometimes, they have done so at great personal sacrifice to them and their own families. 

A staggering one in four residential care workers left their families to isolate with residents. Staff from the Victoria House Care Home even committed to sleeping in tents (during March, no less).

Countless others moved away temporarily, when the support of loved ones has never been more important. 

We haven’t even mentioned all the work they put in keeping spirits up amongst those who couldn’t go outside. 

From fiddling about with FaceTime to organizing activities, care home residents would have struggled without them.

Supermarket workers

A huge shoutout to supermarket and food supply chain workers for putting food on our tables.

Whether you’ve been working on the supermarket floor or manning the warehouse, we wouldn't have survived the pandemic without you. We mean that literally –– access to food is generally important for long-term survival, after all. 

Here are a few of the ways food supermarket and food supply chain workers made a difference: 

• Eased shortages by introducing limits on certain items (toilet roll, anyone?) and enforcing them effectively at checkouts
• Remapped warehouses and supermarkets and implemented queueing systems so they could operate with social distancing
• Kept up with frequently changing regulations with regard to masks and PPE 
• Stepped up to a massive increase in demand for online orders/home delivery

Julie Cook, who works at Asda in Aberdare, South Wales, spent her time off shopping for care homes to ensure they received key supplies. 

It’s thanks to supermarket workers like Julie that we’ve all been able to eat and shop safely this year. So, wherever you shop, make sure to thank their in-store team for their efforts when you pop in next.

Teachers

As schools shut and lessons launched online, anyone with a child found themselves more appreciative of how hard teachers work. 

If you thought homeschooling your school-aged child was hard, imagine trying to teach a class of 30. Then imagine trying to teach a class of 30 online, with the myriad distractions and potential for disruption that offers. 

Teachers have kept classrooms open for children of key workers. Dealt with whole year groups being sent home for isolation. And increased their risk of exposure to the virus to minimise disruption to education. 

Headteacher Jane Davenport and the staff at Reynalds Cross School kept classrooms open for children of key workers. They also made sure the school’s most vulnerable children - with complex educational, healthcare and behavioural needs - could attend classes safely. Jane put so much work that she was recognised with an OBE for services to young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

They’ve certainly earned those Christmas chocolate boxes, bottles of wine and ‘best teacher ever’ mugs. If you can’t offer these, a nice note thanking them will be equally as treasured!

Logistics personnel

In a pandemic, it’s vital to keep key supply lines open. That’s exactly what lorry drivers do, alongside the logistics teams that support them. 

The logistics sector made sure food, essential medicines, PPE and medical equipment were delivered to organizations in need, whilst working under significant pressure and increased demand. 

To all the frontline workers across the logistics and supply chain sector, whether working for an in-house operation or a third-party logistics specialist –– thank you.

You can’t eat food that doesn’t arrive on supermarket shelves before expiring. Pharmacists can’t fill prescriptions if they don’t have the right medication on hand. Doctors and nurses can’t protect themselves with PPE if it doesn’t arrive on time. 

Logistics teams make this all happen. 

Public transport workers

Car ownership is by no means a given amongst many groups of frontline workers. Without the efforts of public transport personnel worldwide, lots of urgently-needed staff would have been stranded. 

Drivers, ticket sellers, platform guards and many others in every transport system across the globe need to be thanked here. 

We were in awe of how professionally our own transit clients’ workforces carried out their duties under lockdown regulations. 

Drivers from Go Ahead, Metroline and Stagecoach provide essential services whilst operating in uncertain and unfamiliar circumstances. Not to mention dealing with significantly reduced capacity to ensure social distancing. Kudos to you.

Police, fire and social workers

While it’s great we recognize the contribution ambulance drivers and paramedics made, it’s easy to forget other essential services.

For police and fire crews, this involved keeping essential services running, whilst adding new responsibilities to their workloads. 

For example, UK police have been tasked with enforcing both national and local lockdown laws. These have often changed quickly, and guidance for policing them has been somewhat vague at times. 

Enforcing them whilst strengthening links to local communities has been a difficult, often thankless task. We’d like to thank them for their part in containing the spread of the virus. 

Meanwhile social services workers have continued to do an emotionally demanding job in extremely difficult conditions. 

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List reflected this, with both senior and on-the-ground practitioners recognised for the work they do. 

Social workers Manvir Hothi (Hammersmith and Fulham), Danny Levine (North Yorkshire) and Louise Peart (Vale of Glamorgan) were all recognised for supporting service users throughout the pandemic - but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

Thousands more helped vulnerable people and families navigate a particularly confusing time, provided community-based support and eased the loneliness of those self-isolating. 

Postal workers and parcel couriers

There’s a lot to be said for delivering ‘everyday’ post as well.  

Ask yourself: how much more difficult would those initial stages of lockdown have been without that new hobby you took up?

How much more lonely would elderly relatives or those living alone have felt without cards, letters and gifts delivered?

Postal workers kept it together in tough working conditions. In doing so, they kept countless others together by keeping them connected and keeping them occupied. 

Lockdown would have been a lonelier, more boring place without them. 

Honorable mentions

Containing and treating the Coronavirus pandemic has required a Herculean effort from so many key workers across different industries. 

Not everyone involved in the COVID effort needed to work directly on the frontline. So much organization has gone on behind the scenes, from so many people – many of whom weren't involved as professionals. 

We’d like to give an honourable mention to the groups below for stepping up!

Operations who repurposed their facilities

The most impressive thing about society’s collective response to the Coronavirus was how everyone came together.

Companies repurposing their manufacturing operations to provide essential items and supplies was just one example of this phenomenon. 

It takes entrepreneurship, ingenuity and a lot of hard work to turn around a new, unfamiliar product at short notice. We think it’s important to recognise just how much effort this took, for both strategic decision-makers and on-the-ground workforces. 

There are countless examples across the globe here. Close to home, we saw international craft beer brewery BrewDog produce batches of hand sanitizer to help meet skyrocketing demand.

Luxury fashion brand Barbour’s manufacturing workforce turn their sewing machines away from wax jackets to making seriously high-quality medical gowns. 

Further north, design teachers from James Calvert Spence College and Duchess’s Community High School in Northumberland teamed up to make PPE. 

James Calvert Spence science teacher Dan Davison, who previously worked in an NHS lab, helped develop a test protocol whilst still teaching online classes. Miss Scrimgeour, Mr Donnison and Ms Whitelock from the two schools’ DT departments laser cut visors for use across local hospitals and care homes. 

This ‘all hands on deck’ attitude helped significantly in easing shortages - particularly at a local level. 

Last but not least... let's hear it for the volunteers

Alongside frontline workers and key workers paid to do their jobs, an army of volunteers rose to the challenge.

They transformed old bedsheets into useful medical scrubs, started essential goods collections for struggling families, dedicated their time to befriending isolated people over the phone and so much more. 

We can’t list everyone who helped out, so to finish off, we’ll share Cambridgeshire resident  Geoff Norris’ story.

Already a frontline worker, Geoff worried elderly and vulnerable residents would struggle to get their groceries amidst food shortages. Noticing that all the delivery slots were booked up too, he set up a weekly food delivery service.

On the days he wasn’t working at Asda in Wisbech, he picked up orders, put them through the tills and delivered them at his expense, using his own vehicle. Soon, he had recruited colleagues to help, and was taking orders via phone and email.

We all know a Geoff - or several - who has selflessly given up their time to help others during the pandemic. In our eyes, they’re just as much key workers as anyone else. 

So we’ll end by saying “thank you, volunteers, for donating time when you didn’t have to, and making a real difference to so many.”

Your contribution has been absolutely unprecedented (oh no!), and we appreciate it. 

While 2020 was a rotten year for many, many reasons, the sense of togetherness fostered is inspiring and moving. 

What makes him awesome?

Mike is always willing to help out where needed. He has run the loader on days when we are very busy and does a great job of training new employees in processes and the culture here at Holcim.

He recently received a new 12-yard mixer that he works diligently to keep as clean as possible throughout the week — so much so that his truck was recently used at an NRMCA event!

His great attitude and friendly demeanor makes him a joy to work with every day and he embodies what Holcim is all about.

How has Blink helped in his role?

Blink has helped Michael get new employees set up with the things that are most important to them and helped show the culture that makes Holcim great.

What does he want to do next?

Mike would love to become a Master Driver Trainer in the near future, so he can continue teaching new employees in the future.

Nominated by: Joseph Bockenfeld, Plant Manager Sandcreek RMX

‍

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

#1. Always grasp opportunity.

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

#2. Bring more young people in.

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

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

#3. And promote them fast!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#8. Let's lose the bureaucracy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When an organization rolls out a new tool, the temptation is to focus on the C-suite sign-off and the IT checklist. However, for frontline organizations, there's a group whose support matters far more than either, the frontline manager.

They're the ones whose teams will actually use Blink every day. They're the bridge between leadership intent and frontline reality. Get them on board early, and you get a rollout that sticks. Miss them, and even the best technology collects digital dust.

Here's how to do it right.

Why frontline managers are the make-or-break variable

The data here is striking. According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in team employee engagement. That single number explains why so many technology rollouts fail despite strong executive sponsorship and generous budgets.

Frontline managers directly shape how their teams perceive their work. Research suggests 50–70% of an employee's work experience is influenced by their direct manager. When a manager is disengaged, skeptical, or simply too stretched to champion a new tool, that attitude ripples straight down to the team.

And right now, managers are stretched. More than 50% of frontline managers report feeling burned out. Manager engagement dropped from 30% to 27% in 2024 alone. These aren't abstract statistics - they represent thousands of leaders who don't have the headspace to learn a new system on top of everything else, unless someone makes a compelling case for why it makes their lives easier.

The good news: when organizations do win manager buy-in, the results are transformational. Companies with high frontline engagement report 63% fewer safety incidents and profitability gains of roughly 20–25%. One organization that invested seriously in frontline leadership development cut attrition by more than half. Blink customers specifically report a reduction in frontline attrition of up to 25%, a figure that only materializes when managers are genuinely using and advocating for the platform. The upside is enormous here, it just has to be unlocked at the manager level first.

What great buy-in actually looks like

Buy-in isn't a manager nodding along in a training session. It's a manager who opens Blink before their shift briefing. Who sends a message to their team through Chat instead of chasing people down. Who points a new hire to the Hub when they ask where to find a form. Who shares a recognition post when someone goes above and beyond.

That behavior doesn't happen by accident. It's the result of three things: understanding the "what's in it for me," seeing early wins, and feeling supported throughout the rollout.

One question worth asking every skeptical manager early on: "If you spent two fewer hours a week answering questions your team could self-serve on what would you do with that time?" In real conversations with frontline managers, the answer is almost always the same: coaching. That's the actual sell. Not features. Not dashboards. The promise that Blink handles the noise so they can get back to the work that matters.

Best practices for securing manager buy-in from day one

Involve managers before launch, not after. Run a focused discovery session with a cross-section of frontline managers before you go live. Ask them what slows their day down. What questions do they get asked constantly? What tools do they wish they had? This isn't just research, it tells managers their input shaped the product they're using. That's a very different relationship than "here's a new system, please use it."

Make the first demo about their pain, not the product's features. Lead with the problems Blink solves for managers specifically. Don't open with a feature tour. Open with a scenario: "Right now, when you need to share a schedule change with your team, how long does that take? Here's how it works with Blink." Specificity converts skeptics.

Create a manager champion cohort. Identify four to eight managers who are influential with their peers and genuinely curious about the tool. Give them early access, a dedicated onboarding session, and a direct line to your Blink implementation team. These people become your internal advocates, and they field questions in the break room that no IT team ever could.

Tie rollout metrics to manager recognition. If managers see their team's adoption rates celebrated publicly (on the Feed, for example), adoption becomes a point of pride rather than a compliance metric. Leaders want to lead. Give them something to lead toward.

Keep training short and role specific. Don't send a manager to a two-hour training that spends 40 minutes on features they'll never use. Give them a 20-minute session focused on exactly what a manager needs: how to broadcast to their team, how to find and share resources in the Hub, how to read a survey response. Respect their time and they'll respect the tool.

Follow up at 30 days. The drop-off point for most rollouts is the four-week mark, when early excitement fades and old habits pull people back. A short check-in like a 1-2 question survey, or a brief conversation, tells managers you haven't forgotten about them, and it surfaces friction before it becomes abandonment.

What to show managers in a Blink demo

The features that resonate most with frontline managers aren't the flashiest ones. They're the ones that solve the friction they feel every single day.

Chat and team messaging. Managers spend enormous amounts of time chasing people down, everything from confirming shift changes and answering the same questions repeatedly, to trying to reach someone without a work email. Blink's Chat gives them a direct line to every team member via their personal device, with no need for anyone to share personal phone numbers. Group chats mean a shift update goes to everyone at once. It's faster, cleaner, and it creates a record.

The Feed for top-down comms. When leadership shares a policy update, a safety notice, or a company announcement, it often gets lost in email chains or stuck with line managers who forget to pass it down. The Feed means critical information lands directly with the whole team, in a format that looks and feels like the social media they already use. Managers stop being the bottleneck for comms they didn't write. There's also a compliance dimension here that's easy to overlook, organizations still running frontline briefings through informal tools like WhatsApp have no way to confirm who saw what. The Feed creates a trackable, auditable record which matters when a safety or HR message absolutely has to land.

The Hub as a one-stop resource center. How much time does a manager spend fielding questions like "where's the absence form?", "what's the return-to-work policy?", "how do I log overtime?" The Hub puts everything in one place - HR systems, scheduling tools, payroll links, compliance documents, onboarding checklists all organized and searchable. Integrate Workday, UKG, ServiceNow, or whatever your tech stack looks like, and suddenly managers don't have to be the answer to every procedural question.

Surveys and pulse checks. Frontline managers often have the least visibility into how their team is actually feeling. A quick one or two question survey via Blink gives them a real-time read on morale, concerns, or feedback without waiting for a quarterly engagement score that arrives six months too late.

Kudos and recognition. Recognition is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost tools a manager has. Blink makes it instant. A manager can send a public shoutout to the whole team in 30 seconds. When employees feel seen, they stay, and managers who recognize their teams well tend to run the most engaged ones.

Push notifications and alerts. Time-sensitive information such as a last-minute shift change, a safety alert, or an urgent update from HQ, can be pushed directly to every team member's device. Managers don't have to rely on word of mouth or hope someone checks a noticeboard.

AI-assisted workflows. Blink gives frontline managers back an estimated 8 to 10 hours per week by reducing the administrative drag of repetitive tasks and questions. For managers who are already stretched, that's not a small thing. That's a shift where they can actually manage, and it shows in adoption. Blink customers average seven app opens per day per user, which tells you this isn't a tool people open once and forget. It becomes part of the daily rhythm, because it actually makes the day easier.

The bottom line

Frontline managers aren't just users of Blink, they're multipliers. Win them early, and they'll carry the rollout further than any communications plan could. Lose them, and the best technology in the world won't move the needle.

The organizations that get this right share a common approach: they treat managers as partners in the rollout, not recipients of it. They show them the "what's in it for me" in concrete terms and give them the tools, the support, and the space to become champions.

The Blink platform achieves a 95% employee activation rate across customers. That number doesn't happen because the technology is magic. It happens because someone, somewhere in those organizations, got the frontline managers on board first.

That's what day-one buy-in looks like, and it's what separates a rollout that lands from one that lingers.

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Sources:

Gallup - State of the American Manager report, State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report, Frontline Worker Experience reports.

Yourco - Frontline engagement ROI guide

Harvard Business Review - More than 50% of Managers Feel Burned Out