The 8 modern intranet features your company needs

New employee journey maps can take time to develop. But when adding more smiley faces isn’t enough, how do you get an employee journey map to work better for your organization? 

The concept of employee experience maps has been gaining traction as a way to boost employee engagement and improve your onboarding process. 

The template follows a pretty straightforward path from hiring, through training, and eventually exiting, but it’s the way you use these maps that makes them valuable. 

You know your workers will have training at a particular stage, but how helpful is it? Do you see an increase in turnover at any stage? These are the types of questions your employee journey maps should help you answer. 

Why use an employee journey map?

An employee journey map can be a helpful tool for improving the employee lifecycle. This concept visualizes the entire employee experience through your organization, from onboarding until their last day.

There are a few different ways to name each stage of the journey, but every employee experience map follows the same basic flow:

• Recruitment and hiring
• Onboarding
• Engaging and training
• Development
• Progress and performance
• Exit or offboarding 

These employee journey touchpoints describe the main stages a worker might be at within the company.

You can track the average time it takes to complete each step, assign different training and feedback for different stages, and look for patterns within your journey maps.

An employee journey map can help with engagement as you can better address the needs and concerns a worker will have by knowing where they stand in the organization. 

Making the most of this tool will help you actually get some use from it.

How to make a better employee experience journey map

Don’t worry. Not all good employee experience journey maps lead to Manchester. They just have to lead to happier workers. 

Whether you already use an employee journey map template or are just starting to look into the idea, there are some steps you can take to make your maps work better.

They are the following:

1. Create different maps for different roles. The map for a frontline manager will look different from a warehouse worker, with different training and onboarding for each position. Depending on your organization, you may need a few maps or a few dozen.
   
2. Analyze your employee journey maps and look for patterns. Do many employees have trouble at the same part of the training? That may become more obvious when you compare maps and visualize the issue at hand.
   
   The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an average tenure of 4.1 years, and 22% of workers had been with their current employer for a year or less. 

Looking up industry-specific numbers can help you further pinpoint areas to focus on when planning out your journey maps.

3. Time feedback to the stage in the journey your employee is at. Look for onboarding feedback while the process is still fresh in their mind.
   
   Provide appropriate feedback to your employees as well. Let them know how they’ve improved after training, or likewise what they could concentrate a bit more on.
   
4. Remember, journey maps are a tool that can help predict how an employee’s experience will look, but it’s not set in stone. There can be unexpected events that change their journey map.
   
   Like a global pandemic that reduced working hours by 17.3% in 2020. Most of us are still trying to get back on track after that one.
   
5. Make sure your organization learns from the tool. These aren’t coloring book pages for employees to fill in while HR processes their paperwork. Learn from them.
   
   Did you know only 12% of employees strongly agree their company did a good job at onboarding? 

Using an employee journey map, you can analyze your new hires at this stage and see why they might feel that way. 

Wrapping up — Making employee journey maps better for your workers

Employee journey mapping is one of those tools with lots of potential. It can help you improve different processes in your organization, increase employee engagement, and create an easy-to-follow workflow for various roles.

Or you can spend an entire quarter making everyone fill these in and then promptly lose them in a subfolder that was last opened three years ago.

Just keep in mind that creating an employee journey map is the first step. You also need to make it easy to access for employees and have them provide feedback. 

Actimo vs. Blink – which is better? It's a question many buyers are asking. And of course, the answer depends on who's asking!

Blink and Actimo are both cloud-based internal communication platforms with a strong customer base and some overlap in features. Yet their primary focus varies. 

Actimo vs. Blink – quick facts

Actimo is ideal for teams who want a platform that enables e-learning but aren’t as concerned about real-time interaction. 

In contrast, Blink is a truly inclusive real-time communications platform for frontline workers, though it doesn’t have an integrated LMS system. 

Your organization’s technical resources may also determine which one is best for you. Blink is easier to use out-of-the-box, while Actimo requires a more thorough setup. 

Both apps place a heavy focus on mobile usability, but Actimo doesn’t offer a newsfeed and is best used as a static intranet. 

And while Actimo's designed for medium-sized organizations, Blink works best for extra-large enterprises with 25,000+ staff.

In this post, we'll break down the key differences and similarities between Blink and Actimo.

Let's dive into it.

Actimo vs. Blink How they're similar

Mobile-first content

On Blink and Actimo, all content is mobile-first. In other words, everything is optimized to be viewed on a small phone screen, not a desktop. This means both could be a solid option for organizations with mobile or frontline workers.

Customizability

Blink is customizable through third-party integrations and offers a wide variety of functionality through its micro-app function. While the starter platform is incredibly easy to set up, full end-to-end customization can take some work through micro-apps and necessary integrations.

Similarly, Actimo can be extensively configured with a fully customizable onboarding flow and plenty of in-app engagement data. Capterra users commented that it's 'easy to make presentations or apps for almost any purpose.'

Multi-lingual offering

Both platforms cater to multiple different languages. Blink even offers on-demand translation of content into the users language of choice.

Some users complained that Actimo switches text from English to Danish.

Actimo vs. Blink: How they're different

Integrations

Blink's integration capability is one of its strongest selling points. Through its dedicated app marketplace, users can shop for new integrations and mix and match to build their own 'super app'. Integrations are configured using Single Sign-On, so users can access different tools without leaving Blink.

By contrast, Actimo probably won't be the solution that replaces every one of your current internal communications tools. There are limited integrations with third-party business tools beyond HR systems.

Employee engagement

Taking a cue from the most popular social apps, Blink offers a live feed with company updates and user-generated text, images, and video. As a result, engagement with the app is remarkably high, with an average of 14 app opens per user per day.

On Actimo, it can be a lot of work to get set up and maintain engagement. Since the content isn’t primarily user-generated, admins will need to regularly create and schedule content to encourage use. That also means communications are more top-down than other platforms. 

e-Learning

Actimo is a fantastic application to facilitate training and learning. Users liked that 'training is fully self-paced and fits anywhere in employee schedules.'

Within the platform, micro-learning is detailed yet simple to use. There are also engaging learning paths with gamified achievements that users can access at their own pace. Data on the compliance with, and completion of, necessary training, is another plus.

On Blink, there is no native onboarding and training function. However, a function can be added with the micro-apps feature, or by adding an integration.

Peer-to-peer communication

Blink offers a searchable in-app database of employees, so it’s easy for users to find a coworker they want to connect with. When they find that co-worker, there are many different ways to communicate: 121 or group chat, through real-time feed posts and comments, or by creating Hub content.

For those looking for a platform with a People Directory, Actimo may also not be a good choice. Beyond group members, there is no way to see a complete list of employees at your organization. 

UX/UI

Blink developers design the app to mimic consumer apps like Uber and Facebook as closely as possible, so the user experience is familiar and fresh. Reviewers praised the platform's 'responsive, team-customizable features.'

While Actimo users appreciate they have 'full control of the layout', they were disappointed that the UI is 'clunky and outdated'.

Frontline focus

While users commented that the app works 'just as well for desktop as it does on mobile', Blink is unique in its laser focus on the frontline experience. And despite offering a highly usable mobile experience, there is also a surprising amount of depth to the content and features. 

While Actimo is optimized for the frontline experience, it doesn't focus on tailored features for specific industries (in Blink's case, transport and healthcare).

Targetting content

Blink's architecture is based on 'teams', which means all content is targetted is personalised to users depending on the groups they're in. Users can schedule campaigns months in advance, and 'pin' posts to ensure they're read, or tag them as 'mandatory reads'.

Actimo users complained the app is 'missing a way to micro-manage groups and send-outs', and requested 'more functionality for campaign planning.'

Actimo vs. Blink: systems and pricing

Unlike Actimo, Blink offers all of its features and capabilities through a single system with optional paid add-ons, which includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager. An all-in-one solution like Blink is attractive to many buyers since it provides seamless functionality and is priced as a single unit.

Blink also offers a number of pre-built integrations with popular business apps to allow for further customization.

The core product is priced in four according to scale:

• Essential
• Business
• Enterprise
• Enterprise Plus

Organizations can also take advantage of a 40% discount if they pay annually.

Overall, Blink is an affordable product, with users commenting on its 'excellent value for money'. While Actimo pricing is not available online, reviewers commented on the cost per user being 'hard to justify' for smaller organizations.

Actimo vs Blink: final thoughts

While Actimo is a strong choice for organizations focused on training and onboarding, it lacks the features to make it a true digital workplace.

To find out more about Actimo vs. Blink, request a free Blink demo today.

What makes her awesome? 

Dee has been with Arriva since Christmas 2016, working 3 days a week so she could care for her three children. When the 2019 Covid pandemic hit, Dee started to work 6 days per week and stepped up to become acting supervisor. During this time, the team was nominated for (and won bronze at!) the Made A Difference Awards for the initiative and depot leadership they showed. They were also recognized for having the fewest rates of drivers contracting the virus within the area.

After the pandemic, she continued to work 6 days each week — her children were getting older, and she  had a lot of ideas to improve the standards! She continued to invest in herself and in Arriva: In 2023, she passed the passenger-carrying vehicle test, and when the previous supervisor retired, she became the supervisor in April 2024.

She gives immense credit to her team. In her own words:

“The two ladies I work with, Abby and Megan, are not only colleagues but friends as well, and that makes a difference. The friendship and team spirit within the team is very high and we all work together brilliantly. The goals and cleaning standards are at a high standard and we all work together to achieve this — when drivers compliment the cleanliness and difference is what I love most about the work we do.”

Nominated by: Lee Coleman

‍

Healthcare. Manufacturing. Hospitality. Whatever your industry, frontline workers are the lifeblood of your company.

Frontline workers know what’s wrong before you do.

They know what delights customers—and what drives them mad. Why customers are buying less, cancelling contracts, moving to competitors.

The problem? Most companies aren’t listening.

Research shows 60% of frontline workers feel their suggestions go unheard. That can be discouraging and lead to disengaged employees. 

That’s why, to get your frontline staff to feel appreciated, you must find ways to improve employee experience. By doing so, you’ll see a drop in absenteeism, safety incidents, and an increase in work quality. 

It’ll also translate to a better experience for your customers. After all, your frontline staff interacts with your clients every day. If they feel better, they provide better service.

The benefits are great, but remember—it all starts with making your employees feel heard.

For that reason, it’s crucial to include your frontline workforce in internal communications. Not by sending ad-hoc corporate comms in their direction. But by creating an internal comms strategy that’s as relevant to frontline workers as it is to desk workers.

With thoughtful, relevant communications at every stage of the frontline employee lifecycle.

The employee lifecycle refers to the employees’ experience at your company throughout their tenure. It starts from the instant they first learn about your company and ends when they exit. 

An understanding of the employee lifecycle can guide you on how to personalize employee experience to match workers’ unique priorities. 

80% of professionals rate employee experience as important or very important, but 59% feel they are not ready to address the associated challenges. That explains why many organizations have a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a workplace experience. 

However, different employees have different needs based on where they are in the employee cycle. Making that distinction is one of the ways HR can improve employee experience. 

Moreover, the duration of the employee lifecycle also depends on whether the majority of your staff is desk-based or frontline. Frontline workers tend to leave at a dramatically higher rate than their desk-based counterparts. 

In fact, most verticals see an average of 50% turnover per year, leading to several disadvantages: 

• Increase in likelihood of data breaches
• No provision for giving digital identity to frontline workers
• Additional schemes and incentivization to retain frontline workers
• Constant hiring, onboarding, and offboarding  
• Decline in loyalty towards the organization

No wonder the employee lifecycle of frontline workers is so damaging and frustrating. It’s unfortunate considering how this turnover can be reduced without making a big hole in your budget. 

Just put yourself in your worker’s shoes—What should the company start doing to improve your employee experience?

Frontline workers aren’t just motivated by money. They are also driven by meaningful work, inspiring work culture, and internal recognition. By implementing an effective internal communication technology and employee experience software, you can have many of them stay longer with the company.

An intro to employee lifecycle management software

Including frontline workers in your internal comms doesn’t just help you garner customer insights; it adds to your bottom line. In fact, a recent Forbes study showed firms that involve 75% of their frontline employees in internal comms achieved more than 20% growth over a year.

As frontline workers also tend to be remote workers—on the field, at the bus depot, at a hospital—the easiest way to bring them into communications is via employee lifecycle management software that reaches them wherever they are. 

In other words: if you can’t bring them into a physical office, bring them into a digital one. Building a better employee experience starts with bringing your frontline staff into the conversation.

This digital platform used to be a desktop-based intranet, but that technology has gone out of date in recent years, especially for frontline workers. 

In fact, our recent research shows that 2 in 10 healthcare employees don’t even know how to use their company intranet. It’s just too sluggish for today’s workplaces.  

While desk-based workers have improved their workflows with technologies such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, frontline workers are stuck with noticeboards and letters.

That’s where modern intranet software fills the gap. It’s built for mobile, but also compatible with desktop devices. Providing a single hub for knowledge sharing and communication makes way for a better employee experience at every step of improving the employee lifecycle. 

What are the employee lifecycle stages?

1. Outreach

The first stage of the employee lifecycle is when potential employees come across your brand and the job vacancy. 

But today’s workers are more selective than ever before. The average number of applicants per job opening has declined from 52 in 2016 to 36 in 2017 and 29 in 2018.

The number of applicants in 2021 increased, but only 30% of these job applications were completed. 

Potential workers don’t express interest just because you have an open position. And they won’t blindly trust the positive references provided by your company. 

Instead, they’ll rely on the PR you have “earned.” They’ll read online reviews, reach out to your current staff members, and check your social media mentions. Improve employee experience, and you’re more likely to read positive posts or tweets.

That’s why your employer branding is crucial at this stage. Your employer brand is how potential and current employees view your company. It’s the image that comes to their minds when they think about your reputation as an employer.

And it can be strengthened with the right communication tools.  

Think about what you would suggest to improve your experience as an employee, and ask your frontline staff for their input.

A modern intranet solution such as Blink can help you ensure that your existing workers are well-versed with all your policies, core values, brand statement, employee benefits, and recent accomplishments. 

ALT: Blink centralizes document sharing to improve employee experience.

This information will shape the messages your employees spread elsewhere on the web through employer reviews, informational interviews, and social media updates. And it’ll help you build a reputation that attracts a talented workforce. 

2. Recruitment

The demand for frontline workers is higher than ever due to the pandemic and great resignation. However, the talent pool has been retiring or retraining for less demanding positions.  

The result is a massive shortage of frontline workers. No wonder 82% of companies struggle to recruit the right people. 

If you want to attract the best talent, demonstrate you know how to enhance employee experience for your workers. You need a concrete strategy that brands your organization as an exceptional place to work. And at the core of this strategy is a modern intranet platform.

Encrypted and fully secure private messaging between members of your hiring team (or any of your workers) should be a priority. Blink offers this and robust form-building functionality that enables your HR division to create application materials tailored to each vacancy. 

3. Onboarding

Most employees make up their minds about staying or leaving an organization within the first three months of joining. 

And given the fast turnover in recent times, it’s important to start on the right foot and look for ways to improve employee experience. One such method is improving the onboarding process. Implementing a structured employee onboarding process is essential to making a good impression on your top talent and shaping them into productive, engaged team members, which will ultimately have a positive impact on employee performance and retention.

Onboarding processes often consist of many meetings and conferences, along with tons of files and folders that need to be reviewed, filled, and submitted to different departments. 

Depending on the size of your recruitment drive, you may also need to create hundreds of new datasets for each hire, increasing the risk of inaccuracies. 

An intranet can help you centralize, structure, speed up, and even automate parts of the process. 

With Blink, for example, you can automate the entire user creation process, eliminate a great deal of overhead, and keep the user profiles always up-to-date.

Not just that, setting up a designated onboarding site with Blink can help you centralize essential training materials and resources. You can also encourage new employees to connect with each other and ask questions using the chat function. 

Another onboarding issue that arises with frontline workers is that many don’t have a corporate email address, let alone a digital identity. That’s why Blink lets you set up accounts for frontline workers without assigning them email addresses or phone numbers. 

The beauty of such a system is that frontline workers can easily access Blink and the data associated with third-party software integrations such as Microsoft 365.

The result? Your company makes a great impression and your workers start identifying themselves with your culture right from the beginning.

4. Training and development 

Learning is another crucial part of the employee lifecycle. However, a common issue for frontline organizations is the difference in the learning styles of workers. 

Let’s take the age factor for example. While older employees may prefer conventional training tools such as seminars, meetings, and paper-based reading material, younger generations are more inclined towards social engagements, texting, and online reading. 

Blink has the tools you need to bridge this gap, all accessible from a single place. For the young crowd, it offers social and gamified training features like badges, kudos, and leaderboards. 

Meanwhile, baby boomers get access to traditional educational formats including video webinars, explainer videos or articles, and printable manuals. 

5. Performance 

This stage of the lifecycle usually requires some ideas to update your employee experience strategy with some new ideas.

After all, a common issue with frontline workers is the lack of well-defined career progression. Many stay in the same role and pay bracket throughout the employee lifecycle, and not necessarily because they want to. 

Workers can feel they have no big, long-term goal to strive for. That affects motivation and engagement while increasing employee turnover.  

Blink can support you here too, by letting you plan concrete roadmaps to aid career growth and promotion milestones. 

Your workers can get a direct line of communication with mentors whose careers they wish to emulate, along with learning materials and best practices to build new skills. 

Employee recognition is the key to engagement, yet 63% of employees don’t feel recognized for their achievements. With Blink, you can monitor workers’ progress and reward top performers. 

Little gestures such as giving a big ‘thank you’ at an online event, or tagging and thanking people in the newsfeed or your organization or department can go a long way. It would also encourage other employees to follow suit.

6. Offboarding 

As much as intranet software can increase employee engagement and slow down your turnover, some employees will still leave. And it’s important for your organization to get a pulse of the exit process. 

According to one study, companies that act on employee feedback have twice the engagement score of those that don’t.

You basically want to know three key things:

• Why are they leaving? Timely feedback can help nip key issues in the bud.
• Did they successfully complete all their exit formalities?
• Do they still have access to any sensitive information?

So Your intranet solution should be ready to handle all these aspects. 

Blink, for instance, automates de-provisioning, eliminating the risk of ex-employees still having access to company data. 

It also helps you organize exit interviews, offboarding checklists, and pulse surveys so you can learn from each employee’s feedback to improve employee experience. 

Final thoughts: Improve employee experience with an optimized intranet

To succeed in the new work era, frontline workers need experiences tailored to their needs at each stage of the employee lifecycle. Whether it’s their first week on the job or last, they need personalized resources, training, and access to key people in the organization. 

Learning how to improve employee experience at each of these stages will help reduce turnover, increase engagement, and lead to happier workers. Understand how employee experience and engagement work together. Don't forget to into account the relationship between employee engagement and employee experience.

Employee lifecycle management can help you deliver a stellar experience to both frontline and desk-based employees. And by adopting a next-gen intranet software like Blink, you’ll increase employee engagement and streamline your worker’s experience.

Bad communication isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a business risk.

In a hybrid, fast-changing workplace, outdated internal comms strategies can lead to disengagement, confusion, and missed opportunities.

It’s time to rethink your approach and measure what truly drives success.

Thanks to evolving internal communications software, comms team leaders increasingly have the tools they need to deliver a modern internal communications plan. They can share important company news, boost workforce resilience, and create a strong company culture. 

They can also measure the impact of your internal communication strategies, proving ROI and finding meaningful ways to improve internal comms and achieve your communication goals going forward.

Let’s look at the hard (quantitative) and soft (qualitative) metrics you should be looking at to get a holistic view of your comms performance.

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Key metrics for a modern internal communications plan

Hard metrics

Hard metrics are quantitative. They’re objective measures that don’t rely on opinion or perception. This means they’re easy to measure and track — and they provide clear benchmarks for performance.

Here are the key qualitative metrics you should be using to assess the success of your modern internal communication strategies.

#1. Read and response rates

This metric shows you how often employees open and respond to internal communications. You can gather these metrics via the analytics dashboard on your company intranet.

High read and response rates signal that:

• Your internal key messages are relevant to their target audience
• Your messages contain clear, actionable information
• Employees know where to find internal messages on your internal communications channels

Low read and response rates suggest that employees aren’t engaging with your internal messages — and there are several reasons this could be the case.

Perhaps you aren’t personalizing content to employees in different roles, locations, and departments. As a result, employees receive too many irrelevant messages and have decided — out of overwhelm or frustration — to switch off from employee communications.

Message timing (particularly if you have employees who work shifts), complicated communication channels, and a lack of clarity could also be to blame.

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#2. Platform adoption rates

This metric shows you what proportion of employees are using your internal communication platform. High platform adoption rates signal that:

• You provide effective communications about platform onboarding and training
• Your communications platform is accessible to all employees
• Your platform is user-friendly

Low platform adoption rates indicate that:

• Employees are having difficulty accessing your comms platform. This could be because you have a desktop-based intranet that your frontline employees can’t access easily. Or because it’s difficult for employees to remember the login details for multiple internal communication tools.
  
• Employees don’t like using your comms platform. Perhaps your platform isn’t intuitive to use. Or employees aren’t aware of all the useful communication tools it provides. Or it doesn’t offer the levels of engagement and gamification they’re getting from shadow IT solutions.

#3. Employee engagement metrics

You can track employee engagement by looking at a variety of data, including the following:

• Survey participation
• Attendance at company events
• How often employees interact with your intranet
• Interactions by target audience, team, and location

Low levels of employee engagement are a cause for concern — especially when engaged employees are more likely to be more productive and stay at their company for longer. So this metric is a useful warning sign that your employee experience — both on and off your internal communication channels — could use some work.

#4. User-generated content (UGC) metrics

UGC is a key part of any modern internal communication plan. It’s also a useful way to judge the effectiveness of your employee comms. With Blink analytics, you can see which employees post most regularly — and identify those who rarely interact with your news feed.

You can also track useful metrics like these:

• Number of user-generated posts
• Number of likes, shares, and comments on news feed posts
• Number of unique contributors

There’s a correlation between high levels of UGC and a thriving workplace culture. So if these metrics are low, consider what you can do to build a strong company culture and foster a sense of togetherness.

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Soft metrics

Soft metrics capture the emotional and cultural impact of your employee communications. They uncover the opinions and feelings of your employees, revealing the “why” behind the numbers provided by hard metrics.

Here are some soft metrics that will help you to assess the effectiveness of your internal communication strategies.

#5. Employee sentiment

You can measure employee sentiment with the help of focus groups and employee surveys. Include employees from across your organization and ask open-ended questions like:

• What one thing would improve the internal communication function at [your organization]?
• Which communication channels work best for you and why?
• What could managers do differently to improve two-way communication with their teams?

You can then analyze answers — ideally with the help of analytics software — assessing whether employee sentiment is largely negative or positive and identifying recurring themes. Consider deploying pulse surveys in addition to long-form annual engagement surveys to benefit from more frequent and real-time responses.

#6. Observations of employee behavior

Another way to gather soft metrics is by observing employee behavior.

Perhaps there’s been an uptick in cross-departmental collaboration and engagement. Or maybe there’s been a shift in tone and participation during meetings. It could be that employees are now more likely to reference company values and organizational strategy in their online and offline contributions.

Tracking these changes — across all business units, teams, and locations — gives you insight into how your employee communications contribute to a strong company culture.

#7. Quality of feedback and suggestions

Any modern internal communication plan should encourage employee feedback. So the quality of that feedback is another soft metric you can track. 

Alongside qualitative data — like the number of survey responses and the number of questions completed — you can analyze the depth and constructiveness of the employee feedback you receive.

Assess whether suggestions are feasible and aligned with organizational goals — and whether suggestions are coming from all parts of the organization.

If employee feedback isn’t useful, you could try:

• Rewording your survey questions
• Reassuring employees of survey anonymity
• Ensuring surveys are easy to complete, via each employee’s communication channel of choice (this is especially important for frontline workers!)

Also, be sure to close the feedback loop. Inform employees of your survey findings and proposed actions so they retain faith in the feedback process.

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Bridging the gap: Use hard and soft metrics to assess your internal communications strategy.

When tackling your internal communications planning, combine both hard and soft metrics. This gives you a holistic view of what’s happening within your organization.

Use hard data to validate qualitative observations — and use soft data to provide context for your qualitative findings. Then, break down your data by department, role, and location to identify patterns.

Be sure to make use of advanced analytics software, too. It helps you make quick and easy sense of your data. And you can use it to tie metrics to bigger business goals — like employee engagement levels, productivity, employee retention, and business revenue.

Together, hard and soft metrics give you a deeper understanding of comms performance — and help you make targeted and effective improvements to meet your communication goals.

‍Blink. And modernize your internal comms plan.

Missed our Spring 2025 release? Catch up on the details here!

At Blink, we’re continuously evolving our employee experience platform to meet the dynamic needs of organizations and their diverse teams. Our Summer 2025 product release showcases the newest features that will soon be coming to the Blink platform.

Staying true to our commitment to exceptional employee experiences — whether in the field or at the desk — we’re thrilled to introduce our latest innovations. These updates are about more than shiny features. They’re about helping you build the kind of employee experience your people deserve: personal, powerful, and actually easy to use.

From streaming that stops the scroll to governance that keeps content clean, our Summer 2025 release is all about creating smoother, smarter communication — for everyone.

#1. Live streaming: A better way to broadcast

All eyes on your next big announcement. Blink Live now delivers a high-end, broadcast-quality experience — straight to the devices your people already use.

Whether it’s a town hall or training, your live streams just got a serious glow-up.

What’s new:

• Instant replay with DVR mode: Viewers can rewind in real time — no more “Wait, what did they say?”
• Auto on-demand playback: Every live stream is automatically saved, so people can catch up on their own time.
• Captions for accessibility: Every word, loud and clear — and readable.
• Preview studio for presenters: Test your mic. Fix your lighting. Go live with confidence.
• Coming soon: Streaming on mobile — because your frontline deserves a front-row seat.

This isn’t just another video tool. Blink Live is built for scale, mobile, and moments that matter.

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#2. “Save for later” mode: Access your Hub, no WiFi needed

No signal? No problem. With new “Save for later” functionality in the Hub, employees can now save posts and resources for later — perfect for planes, underground tunnels, or dodgy breakroom Wi-Fi.

Everything syncs automatically when employees are back online. It’s a seamless experience that keeps everyone in the loop — no matter where work happens.

What’s new:

• Save any post to view offline — perfect for on-the-go teams
• Automatic syncing when connection is restored
• Built-in functionality, no extra tools or downloads required

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#3. Review cycles: Enhanced content governance

Good governance shouldn’t slow you down. This release brings built-in review cycles and post approvals to the Hub — so your comms stay compliant, on-brand, and typo-free.

It’s easier than ever to manage content at scale — without needing extra tools or workarounds.

What’s new:

• Set custom review and approval workflows directly in the Hub
• Assign reviewers and approvers by team or content type
• Track post status in real time — draft, in review, or approved

#4. Translations & localizations: Speak their language

Whether you’re global or just growing, Blink now supports seamless translations and localized experiences across the platform.

From Hub posts to notifications, your people will see content in the language that works best for them — automatically.

This is more than a translation tool. It’s a step toward a more inclusive employee experience.

What’s new:

• Automatically deliver content in your employees’ preferred language
• Support for global teams with localized experiences across the platform
• Built-in translation tools — no copy/paste or third-party apps needed

#5. Post approvals: Open the feed, keep the control

The best content often comes from the frontlines — but without controls in place, organizations often lock down the Feed to avoid risk.

Post Approvals let you safely open up content creation to a wider audience. When enabled, user-generated posts require approval before they go live. Group Admins and Org Admins can review posts for quality, tone, and relevance — so you can encourage participation without compromising your message.

It’s moderation without micromanagement.

What’s new:

• Control content at the group level by enabling “Requires Approval” in the Admin Panel
• User-generated posts are held for review when targeting approval-enabled groups
• Group Admins or Org Admins approve posts, depending on the audience
• No edits after submission — approved or declined posts are final (for now!)

#6. Ghostwriters: Your voice, their words

Sometimes, the person with the message isn’t the one with the time to write it. Enter Ghostwriters — a smarter way to keep leadership visible, consistent, and active on the Feed.

Now, trusted users (like your comms team) can post and comment on behalf of others — say, your CEO, a store director, or anyone else who needs a hand shaping their message. It’s transparent, trackable, and totally above board — everyone involved gets notified and stays in the loop.

It’s like sharing a voice — not a password.

What’s new:

• Assign trusted users to post or comment on behalf of others — like execs or team leads
• Posts appear as the original author, with their name and profile photo
• Authors and ghostwriters are notified, and ghostwriters can only post where they have access
• Setup is simple via the Admin Portal under “Publishing Profiles”

#7. Voice notes: A new era of workplace communication

Not everything needs to be typed. Sometimes, the fastest way to explain, empathize, or just say thanks is with your actual voice.

Voice Notes let your team send audio messages in chats and channels — perfect for fast updates, shift changes, or a quick “you’ve got this” before a big day. They’re human, easy to use, and ideal for mobile-first teams who work with their hands, not keyboards.

Now your comms can sound a little more like… you.

What’s new:

• Record and send voice messages in chats or channels (mobile only)
• Listen on mobile or web with full playback controls
• Pause, scrub, reply, forward, or report — just like a regular message
• Messages can be up to 15 minutes long

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Blink. And see how these new features can upgrade your employee experience.