Building a better frontline experience: Insights from Workday Rising
Discover 5 ways that organizations can create a better frontline workforce experience.
Jess DeVore
Published:
September 30, 2024
Last updated:
September 30, 2024
What we'll cover
AI and automation are transforming office work — but what about the frontline?
In today’s rapidly evolving work environment, the need to prioritize employee experience for all workers is more pressing than ever.
Yet despite all the attention paid to desk-based employees, there remains a significant gap in how organizations support their frontline workers. Frontline workers, who make up a significant portion of many organizations, are often left out of conversations surrounding employee experience, culture, and retention strategies.
At the recent Workday Rising 2024 conference, Blink was honored to be included in a pivotal conversation on how HR leaders can close this experience gap by using technology to enhance frontline employee engagement.
Marcy Patterson, Vice President of Solutions Consulting at Blink, spoke with Cassie Sam, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Workday, at Workday Rising 2024
The short answer: With the right tools and a strategic shift in approach, organizations can keep their frontline employees engaged in their culture — and keep them for good.
5 opportunities for leaders to close the experience gap
Here are five key takeaways for HR and internal communications leaders to factor into their approach to employee experience.
#1. Frontline workers need a tailored employee experience.
Historically, most employee experience initiatives have focused on desk-based workers. However, frontline employees, who are often the face of a company to its customers, deserve the same investment in their work experience.
“It’s up to HR to work cross-functionally with communications, IT, and operations to understand the frontline worker’s experience today and build one that works for the future.” - Marcy Patterson
For HR and internal communications leaders, this means designing tailored experiences that acknowledge the unique challenges frontline workers face, such as limited access to email or intranets, and creating accessible, relevant communications.
#2. Retention starts with a strong onboarding process.
Retention issues are especially pronounced among frontline workers, with turnover rates exceeding 60% in some industries, and 90-day attrition being a common challenge.
To combat this and prioritize employee retention, a streamlined onboarding process is paramount. The goal is to make new hires feel like part of the organization and culture from day one, helping reduce early turnover.
Through modern employee experience platform features that help to support the employee journey, organizations can build a pattern of timely touch points throughout the first year of employment.
By delivering personalized messages and check-ins at key milestones, HR teams can scale onboarding efforts without sacrificing the personal touch — a critical component for frontline workers who may lack regular manager interaction.
#3. Continuous learning and development opportunities matter.
It may be easy to assume that frontline workers prioritize wages above all else — but research and anecdotal feedback tell a different story.
Frontline employees are hungry for growth opportunities, whether through training or career advancement. And if organizations don’t make their people aware of these opportunities, such as internal promotions or open roles, it can be difficult to keep them for the long term.
To address this, HR leaders should focus on giving employees better visibility into opportunities and simplifying the path to advancement. Whether it’s offering clear guidance on necessary certifications or providing easy access to training, companies that invest in the development of their frontline workers will see stronger engagement and retention.
#4. Recognition — especially peer recognition — drives engagement.
One of the biggest drivers of frontline employee engagement is recognition, particularly from peers. While top-down recognition from managers remains important, data insights from Blink show peer-to-peer recognition has a particularly strong impact on engagement.
Organizations can foster this culture of employee recognition by leveraging interactive employee apps or platforms, where employees can easily recognize each other’s achievements. This form of recognition not only boosts morale but also creates a sense of belonging, making employees feel valued by their colleagues.
#5. Targeted, relevant communication is key.
Effective communication with frontline workers requires a thoughtful approach. Many frontline employees don’t have access to traditional communication tools like email, making it harder to share important updates or recognition.
For most organizations, HR and internal comms teams need to be creative and leverage mobile solutions to reach these workers where they are.
“If I’m working in a manufacturing plant in Oklahoma, I don’t want information about a plant in Chicago.” - Marcy Patterson
Equally important is ensuring that communications are relevant and targeted. This highlights the importance of managing communication noise and focusing on delivering the right messages to the right employees at the right time.
Looking ahead: The future of frontline workforce engagement.
The frontline workforce represents both a challenge and an opportunity for HR and internal communications leaders. By applying lessons from marketing — like using analytics to understand employee sentiment and leveraging targeted communications — companies can create a more personalized and engaging experience for their frontline employees.
As we heard at Workday Rising, improving the frontline worker experience isn’t just about improving retention or reducing turnover — it’s about recognizing that these workers are central to the customer experience. By investing in their engagement, development, and recognition, companies can create a workforce that is not only more satisfied but also more capable of driving business success.
For HR leaders looking to improve their frontline engagement strategies, the message is clear: start by understanding the unique needs of your frontline employees, and leverage technology to create meaningful, lasting experiences that drive both employee satisfaction and business outcomes.
AI and automation are transforming office work — but what about the frontline?
In today’s rapidly evolving work environment, the need to prioritize employee experience for all workers is more pressing than ever.
Yet despite all the attention paid to desk-based employees, there remains a significant gap in how organizations support their frontline workers. Frontline workers, who make up a significant portion of many organizations, are often left out of conversations surrounding employee experience, culture, and retention strategies.
At the recent Workday Rising 2024 conference, Blink was honored to be included in a pivotal conversation on how HR leaders can close this experience gap by using technology to enhance frontline employee engagement.
Marcy Patterson, Vice President of Solutions Consulting at Blink, spoke with Cassie Sam, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Workday, at Workday Rising 2024
The short answer: With the right tools and a strategic shift in approach, organizations can keep their frontline employees engaged in their culture — and keep them for good.
5 opportunities for leaders to close the experience gap
Here are five key takeaways for HR and internal communications leaders to factor into their approach to employee experience.
#1. Frontline workers need a tailored employee experience.
Historically, most employee experience initiatives have focused on desk-based workers. However, frontline employees, who are often the face of a company to its customers, deserve the same investment in their work experience.
“It’s up to HR to work cross-functionally with communications, IT, and operations to understand the frontline worker’s experience today and build one that works for the future.” - Marcy Patterson
For HR and internal communications leaders, this means designing tailored experiences that acknowledge the unique challenges frontline workers face, such as limited access to email or intranets, and creating accessible, relevant communications.
#2. Retention starts with a strong onboarding process.
Retention issues are especially pronounced among frontline workers, with turnover rates exceeding 60% in some industries, and 90-day attrition being a common challenge.
To combat this and prioritize employee retention, a streamlined onboarding process is paramount. The goal is to make new hires feel like part of the organization and culture from day one, helping reduce early turnover.
Through modern employee experience platform features that help to support the employee journey, organizations can build a pattern of timely touch points throughout the first year of employment.
By delivering personalized messages and check-ins at key milestones, HR teams can scale onboarding efforts without sacrificing the personal touch — a critical component for frontline workers who may lack regular manager interaction.
#3. Continuous learning and development opportunities matter.
It may be easy to assume that frontline workers prioritize wages above all else — but research and anecdotal feedback tell a different story.
Frontline employees are hungry for growth opportunities, whether through training or career advancement. And if organizations don’t make their people aware of these opportunities, such as internal promotions or open roles, it can be difficult to keep them for the long term.
To address this, HR leaders should focus on giving employees better visibility into opportunities and simplifying the path to advancement. Whether it’s offering clear guidance on necessary certifications or providing easy access to training, companies that invest in the development of their frontline workers will see stronger engagement and retention.
#4. Recognition — especially peer recognition — drives engagement.
One of the biggest drivers of frontline employee engagement is recognition, particularly from peers. While top-down recognition from managers remains important, data insights from Blink show peer-to-peer recognition has a particularly strong impact on engagement.
Organizations can foster this culture of employee recognition by leveraging interactive employee apps or platforms, where employees can easily recognize each other’s achievements. This form of recognition not only boosts morale but also creates a sense of belonging, making employees feel valued by their colleagues.
#5. Targeted, relevant communication is key.
Effective communication with frontline workers requires a thoughtful approach. Many frontline employees don’t have access to traditional communication tools like email, making it harder to share important updates or recognition.
For most organizations, HR and internal comms teams need to be creative and leverage mobile solutions to reach these workers where they are.
“If I’m working in a manufacturing plant in Oklahoma, I don’t want information about a plant in Chicago.” - Marcy Patterson
Equally important is ensuring that communications are relevant and targeted. This highlights the importance of managing communication noise and focusing on delivering the right messages to the right employees at the right time.
Looking ahead: The future of frontline workforce engagement.
The frontline workforce represents both a challenge and an opportunity for HR and internal communications leaders. By applying lessons from marketing — like using analytics to understand employee sentiment and leveraging targeted communications — companies can create a more personalized and engaging experience for their frontline employees.
As we heard at Workday Rising, improving the frontline worker experience isn’t just about improving retention or reducing turnover — it’s about recognizing that these workers are central to the customer experience. By investing in their engagement, development, and recognition, companies can create a workforce that is not only more satisfied but also more capable of driving business success.
For HR leaders looking to improve their frontline engagement strategies, the message is clear: start by understanding the unique needs of your frontline employees, and leverage technology to create meaningful, lasting experiences that drive both employee satisfaction and business outcomes.
An intranet is a private internal network a company uses to share information, tools, and documents with its own employees. It looks and feels like the public internet, except only people inside the organization can see it.
Here's the catch. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2025 puts employee engagement at 20% worldwide, the lowest since 2020, and most workers, especially the 80% who don't sit at a desk, still can't reach the information they need when they actually need it. A modern intranet is how you close that gap.
This guide walks through what an intranet is in 2026, how it differs from the version your IT team built a decade ago, the features that actually matter, and why most intranets still quietly fail the people who need them most.
What is an intranet?
An intranet is a private digital workspace for employees. It holds company news, policies, HR documents, team directories, knowledge bases, and internal chat in one place, behind a login only employees can reach. Think of it as the company's internal version of the internet: the same browsing and search experience, restricted to your organization.
A modern intranet runs in the cloud, works on mobile, and plugs into the tools employees already use, from payroll and scheduling to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. It gives people a single place to find what they need, sign off on policies, and stay in the loop on company news.
Gallup's 2025 research ties engagement directly to whether employees feel informed and connected, and 31% of US employees are engaged, the lowest in a decade. An intranet that actually gets used is one of the fastest ways to move that number.
Types of intranet: Which one fits your company?
Most intranets fall into one of four categories. The right choice depends on who needs to use it and how they work.
The last category is the newest and the fastest-growing, mostly because the others were built for people at desks. If your company is mostly frontline, deskless, or multi-site, anything other than a mobile-first intranet will underperform on day one.
How does an intranet actually work?
Under the hood, an intranet is a secure web application. It lives on a server, either on-premises or in the cloud, and is accessible only to authenticated users inside the organization. Employees log in through a browser or mobile app using single sign-on, a company password, or, for frontline workers, a phone number-based identity that doesn't require a corporate email address.
Content is organized into spaces: company-wide feeds, team channels, knowledge bases, policy libraries, and directories. Admins control who sees what by role, location, shift, or department. Search pulls results across everything, and integrations surface data from HR systems, payroll, rota tools, and document stores.
The main thing that separates a 2026 intranet from a 2006 one is identity. Older intranets assumed every employee had a work email. Modern ones don't, because most frontline workers don't. That one architectural shift is why mobile-first intranets reach adoption rates the older generation never could.
What are the key features of a modern intranet?
Features matter less than the question they answer: Would every employee, even the ones without a desk, actually use this? Strip it back to essentials.
A personalized news feed. Company announcements, team updates, and peer recognition, filtered by role and location.
A searchable knowledge base. Policies, how-tos, benefits, and training in one place, findable in two taps.
Team chat and group channels. Direct messages, team chats, site-specific groups.
Policy sign-off with audit trail. Read receipts, confirmations, timestamps.
Integrations with HR and payroll. Pay slips, shift rotas, holiday requests.
So, you already know how digital transformation can improve your warehousing, docking and inventory processes, but are you paying enough attention to digitalization in your run-the-business systems? Here's why you need to.
Digital technology is making huge advancements in the logistics sector, yet the frontline are still left feeling unsatisfied. By improving not only supply chain capabilities, but also your day-to-day employee management systems, businesses can enjoy a number of unexpected benefits, which we've put together for you in this handy guide.
We'll share some of our frontline employee engagement expertise with you here, as well as the latest research on how digital transformation can help in areas such as recruitment, training and tracking performance. This should help HR leaders see just how valuable digital tech can be when it comes to making their logistics workforce operate better and more efficiently across the board.
What is digital transformation (DX) in logistics?
Digital transformation (DX) in logistics is the use of digital technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of logistics systems in order to better meet the needs of customers and businesses.
While you may be familiar with the growing pressure to digitize your supply chain management and front-of-house systems, many logistics companies are just starting to realize the impact that digital transformation can have on their back-end operations as well.
In order to keep up with today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, HR leaders will need to look at how they leverage employee technology in order to better manage their workforce; recruit and retrain more effectively; and track employee performance and engagement over time.
By creating a more streamlined, digital and integrated approach to these HR functions, businesses can streamline their operations and better meet the needs of both customers and employees alike.
So for any HR leader looking to get ahead of the competition, it is essential to embrace digital transformation in logistics and use it as a tool to improve operational efficiency, employee engagement, and overall business performance.
Core goals of logistics digital transformation
As business leaders, it's crucial to have clear goals in mind when looking to invest in or implement new digital tools.
While common logistics and supply chain processes like docking, inventory, digital supply chains, and other front-of-house systems might not be your main focus, digital transformation in logistics can help you improve or manage your business in other important ways. Think project management, team communication, and business planning, just to name a few.
But what specific goals should you be looking to achieve with your run-the-biz logistics DX efforts? Core goals often include:
Cost Reduction: For HR professionals, this may mean looking for ways to automate processes, reduce employee errors and minimize overhead costs related to hiring, training, and onboarding new employees.
Improve Communication: One of the main goals of the digital transformation journey is improving communication both internally and externally, with an aim to drive increased employee satisfaction and, ultimately, retention.
Customer Satisfaction: Improving customer satisfaction is another important priority for many logistics leaders looking to leverage digital technologies. Whether it's through improvements in product quality and delivery times, or better tracking of customer feedback and requests, maintaining high levels of service can be a key goal of DX efforts in logistics.
Employee Engagement: One often forgotten goal of DX efforts in the transportation and logistics sector is to improve employee engagement and happiness, which can have a direct impact on your employee retention and productivity levels.
Increase Profits: While not always a top priority for HR leaders, increasing profits and driving ROI can be another overarching goal of DX efforts in the industry – and this can be a great hook to get buy-in from your IT leaders or CEO.
While there are many benefits to be had from digital transformation for logistics companies, there are also a number of potential barriers (see image above) and roadblocks that can impede success. For HR professionals, the main challenges will likely include:
Resistance to Change: One of the biggest challenges faced by any company looking to undergo digital transformation is the natural resistance to change that arises within any organization. This can be especially true in cases where employees feel they are being asked to do more work or change the way they've been doing things for years.
Company Culture: Another obstacle that can arise during DX efforts in logistics is company culture. If the company's culture is not supportive of change or new technologies, it can be very difficult for any type of transformation – digital or otherwise – to take hold and be successful.
Legacy Infrastructure: Finally, one of the biggest challenges faced by companies looking to digitize their operations is legacy infrastructure. Many companies have invested heavily in outdated systems and technologies that can be difficult – and expensive – to replace. As such, it often takes a lot of time and effort to upgrade these systems in order to enable a successful DX initiative.
By knowing what you're up against, you can better prepare yourself and your organization for the challenges of digital transformation in logistics. With a clear understanding of your goals and potential roadblocks, you can work to overcome resistance, build a supportive company culture, and upgrade or replace legacy systems as needed.
And with the right approach and mindset, you can leverage digital tools that will help you achieve improved business outcomes and drive higher levels of success for your organization.
Driving digital transformation with frontline workers
Digital business processes impact your frontline team directly, and they need to be included in the transformation journey. Frontline workers are often left feeling like an afterthought, particularly during digital transformation efforts, which can be a huge mistake.
These workers are the ones who interface directly with customers and clients on a daily basis, and they understand what improvements will make their jobs easier – and ultimately benefit the company as well. As such, it is important to invest in frontline workers when driving supply chain digital transformation initiatives.
For logistics companies, this often means leveraging frontline workers as a source of insights, ideas, and feedback on what technologies will work best for them. For logistics employees, this could include instant communication, on-the-go manuals, direct route information or a familiar social media interface: all features of theBlink Frontline Engagement App.
5 unexpected HR benefits of DX in logistics
1. Reduction in staff turnover
With a real pressure on HR leaders to bring in high-quality candidates and retain their existing staff, one of the most surprising benefits of digital transformation in logistics is reduced staff turnover.
By leveraging new technologies in your business strategy to improve the work environment – such as intuitive systems that are easy to use or improved communication channels – you can help alleviate some of the stresses and challenges faced by your employees on a daily basis.
52% of frontline workers claim that they would leave their job over tech tools, according to Unleash.ai, highlighting the impact that the right workplace technology has on employee retention.
The right digital initiatives can make your workers feel more valued, appreciated, and supported – thereby helping to reduce turnover rates in the long-term.
2. Better employee engagement
Another unexpected benefit of digital transformation in logistics is improved employee engagement. This can be driven by a number of different factors, such as the use of gamification techniques or employee engagement apps that allow workers to connect with their colleagues and share ideas.
DX for your logistics workforce can also help foster a company culture of collaboration, innovation, and teamwork. By investing in your employees and encouraging them to work together towards common goals, you can cultivate a sense of shared purpose that will help drive greater success for the entire organization.
And with improved employee engagement and loyalty, HR leaders are better equipped to attract and retain top talent, manage performance, and achieve their business goals. Highly engaged employees also achieve 23% more profitability and 43% less employee turnover, Gallup reports, so the impact of upgrading your employee engagement initiatives runs deeper than you might think.
3. More productive staff
In addition to greater employee engagement and reduced turnover, digital transformation in logistics can also help boost staff productivity. In fact, McKinsey reports that well-connected teams see a productivity increase of 20–25%, so if you can target your DX initiatives towards connecting your employees, you could see another unexpected benefit.
With the right tools and technologies at their fingertips, your workers will be able to streamline processes, optimize performance, and improve output. This means better results for you and your organization – as well as increased job satisfaction for your logistics workers as it becomes easier to succeed in their frontline roles.
Whether you are implementing new systems, optimizing existing technology, or offering your employees training and support, digital transformation can help unlock the full potential of your workers and help drive greater success for your business.
4. Improved safety
In the logistics sector, one of the biggest concerns is often worker safety. This can be due to a number of factors, including long hours on the road, heavy lifting and handling of goods, or exposure to harsh weather conditions and other environmental hazards.
With digital transformation in logistics, however, you can help improve worker safety by leveraging new technologies and systems to protect your staff. This could include investing in smart wearables that track location and movement, implementing automated risk assessment tools, or an easy-to-access, Central Hub storing safety procedures and policies.
With this focus on safety, your workers will be more confident about their working conditions and better able to manage any risks that arise. And as a result, you can help reduce workplace injuries and help keep your employees safe, satisfied and healthy.
5. Increase your bottom line
And finally, perhaps one of the most valuable benefits of digital transformation in logistics is an improved bottom line. Whether you are looking to reduce costs, increase revenue, or improve overall efficiency for profitability, DX can help support these goals and drive greater success for your organization.
By leveraging new technologies and systems, you can streamline day-to-day processes, optimize performance and drive retention amongst your logistics workforce, saving on costs related to employee churn and recruitment and boosting your bottom line in the long-term.
Tips to help drive digital transformation in the logistics industry
Create a DX roadmap: A DX roadmap should include an evaluation of existing processes and systems, as well as a plan for implementing new technologies and improving existing ones.
Align digital transformation strategy with business objectives: To maximize the impact of your digital transformation efforts in logistics, it's important to align these efforts with business objectives and goals. This will help ensure that you are investing in solutions that can have the greatest impact on your operations.
Appoint digital transformation champions: To drive successful implementation and adoption of digital tools in logistics, it is important to identify key champions within your organization who can act as advocates for change.
Communicate clearly and often: To help ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page, it is important to communicate your digital transformation goals and strategies clearly and often, as well as work closely with IT or other key departments to troubleshoot any issues or problems along the way.
Keep track of your timeline: Maintaining a clear and realistic timeline for your digital transformation journey is essential to ensuring that you stay on track and meet your goals.
Use the right tools: Whether it's a digital tool for employee engagement, a new ERP system, or order tracking do your best to ensure it's right fit that will drive performance forward.
By keeping these best practices in mind, HR leaders can help drive digital transformation in logistics, maximizing the impact of these efforts on their organization as a whole.
Accelerate your digital transformation today…
The Blink Frontline Engagement App offers a powerful and easy-to-use platform for improving communication, collaboration, and task management between logistics managers and frontline employees. Whether you are looking to reduce costs or drive employee engagement in your logistics operations, the Blink app can help you achieve your goals quickly and easily.
Don't fall behind in the DX movement – get started with Blink today, and start accelerating your digital transformation in logistics!
With features like Secure Chats for real-time communications, Blink Feedfor product updates, and a Central Hub for document management, Blink can help drive increased innovation and productivity throughout your entire organization.
Introducing Journeys from Blink: a powerful new way to meet employee attrition and engagement challenges head-on.
Journeys lets you personalize employee interactions at scale.
Did you know that a third of employees quit within their first 90 days? All that time and effort invested in sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding new team members can so quickly go to waste. That's why it's crucial to equip your business with the right tools to keep employees engaged from the day they join.
Foster a personal connection with your employees from day one, and you'll gain control over frontline employee engagement — setting you up in the short term to reduce new starter attrition, and in the long run a happier, more engaged workforce.
What is Journeys?
Journeys is a new way to set up personalized content paths for every employee. Each new Journey helps businesses deliver and scale an engaging employee experience.
It's quick and easy to create Journeys that deliver meaningful interactions with your team.
Businesses using Journeys can:
✅ Boost employee happiness and retention by cultivating a sense of belonging and engagement within their workforce
✅ Personalize for the frontline — effortlessly. With Journeys, delivering personalized experiences to every frontline worker is quick and easy
✅ Streamline onboarding: The entire employee onboarding process is simplified by Journeys, saving valuable time and effort while accelerating employee ramp-up time
✅ Create a winning employee experience: In just a few minutes, you'll have created a tailored sequence of posts that align with your employees' needs
"Journeys has been perfect for giving our new team a great onboarding experience, as well as keeping the whole team reminded of key information such as our handbook and safety protocols. But this only scratches the surface: there are a ton of opportunities here."
Katie Palmatier, Operations Manager at Lifeline Ambulance Service
Ways organizations are using Journeys
Onboarding 👋 Effortlessly guide new starters through your induction process, welcoming them to Blink, sharing key onboarding documents and tools, and introducing them to key people who will support them in their roles.
Collecting feedback 💬 Keep your finger on the pulse throughout your employee lifecycle by linking to forms and surveys.
Celebrating work milestones 🎉 Ensure no work anniversary goes overlooked or unrecognized.
Training and compliance 🎓 Distribute key policies and learning and development resources, then send timely reminders for employees to act.
Organizations using Blink Journeys are benefitting from:
Time and effort saved in managing people operations
Improved employee engagement at scale, leading to better productivity and happiness
Reduced new employee churn, thanks to informative and well-timed onboarding communications
Decreased current employee churn through automated touch points and milestones
What's next?
Ready to transform your employee experience with Journeys and Blink? Reach out to us to learn more about Journeys and how it can elevate your employee experience. Get in touch today.
Carla has been with Elara Caring since 2022 as an Attendant Coordinator at the Mount Vernon branch in Texas.
Carla is a wonderful frontline champion at Elara Caring. She is the first to step up to help or train others. Her ability to teach and lead is amazing — CTs and all PCs reach out to her due to her kindness and understanding and compassion. She is a wonderful person and has taken the time to help me and lead me when there was none other.
Carla sacrifices what she wants for others and it's a blessing. People call her from other offices and states for help because they know how valuable she is to this company. Her determination and leadership is what this world needs more of. She doesn’t just do a great job — she touches lives in every way and work and in the client's home.
I have watched her over 6 months of being at this company and thought, “Wow, we have a jewel!” She deserves to be recognized for her greatness and champion spirit. Elara Caring is better each day due to the fact we have a champion on staff — Carla Brewer is a great person, a great employee, and a treasure to this world.
How has Blink helped in her role?
Carla is a master at Blink and often helps with training. She uses it to talk with the attendants and takes the time to go slow so all learn how to use it.
What does she want to do next?
I believe that Carla wants an environment where all feel valuable and like they have a place. She uses her life to bring light to stressful places and I believe she will only soar in this next level in her life and this company.
Union conversations have a habit of making people nervous. Leaders worry about saying the wrong thing. Employees worry about being monitored. Union reps worry about losing influence or control.
And technology? It often gets blamed for all of the above.
But here’s the reality we see time and time again: unionization itself isn’t the problem. Poor communication is. And when communication breaks down, mistrust fills the gap.
This is where a modern, frontline‑first employee experience platform can either inflame tensions — or quietly make everything work better.
Let’s talk about how.
Why union engagement makes or breaks change
Rolling out any new workplace technology without union engagement is risky. Rolling it out to a unionized workforce without involving union reps early? That’s how good initiatives get derailed.
Union concerns are rarely about the tool itself. They’re usually about how the tool shows up:
Is it being forced on people?
Will it blur the line between work and personal time?
Can data be used against members?
Is this really about safety and communication — or “efficiencies” and headcount reduction?
If these questions go unanswered, assumptions fill the gap — and those stories spread fast.
The fix isn’t better messaging at the end. It’s earlier, more transparent engagement from day one.
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The most common union concerns — and what’s actually behind them
Union concerns tend to cluster around a few themes. None of them are unreasonable.
1. Personal devices and work creep
No one wants a workplace app that turns evenings, weekends, and lunch breaks into unpaid work time.
The fear isn’t the app — it’s the expectation that comes with it.
2. Surveillance and disciplinary misuse
“Are managers reading chats?”
“Is location tracking involved?”
“Can this data be used against members?”
If workers feel monitored, trust evaporates.
3. Data security and privacy
Unions are rightly skeptical of where employee data lives, who owns it, and whether it’s being shared or sold.
4. Digital exclusion
Not everyone is equally comfortable with technology. Digitizing forms and processes can unintentionally disadvantage certain groups if it’s done carelessly.
5. Loss of union voice
In some organizations, unions have historically been the primary communication channel. New platforms can feel like a threat to that role — unless they’re positioned differently.
None of these concerns disappear if you ignore them. They just get louder.
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Reframing technology as a worker benefit — not a management tool
When unions are brought into the conversation early, something interesting happens: the narrative shifts.
Instead of “this is being done to us,” the conversation becomes “how can this work for our members?”
When critical information reaches everyone instantly — not just the people with email access — it reduces risk for the entire workforce.
Clearer boundaries between work and personal life
Replacing informal tools like WhatsApp with a dedicated work app actually protects personal time.
Features like Do Not Disturb and notification controls make expectations explicit instead of implied.
A stronger union communication channel
A modern employee app doesn’t replace union communication. It strengthens it.
Union reps can:
Share updates directly with members
Run group chats and discussions
Post sign‑up forms and resources
Communicate clearly during industrial action or negotiations
Instead of losing visibility, unions often gain it.
Less friction, fewer workarounds
Paper forms, scattered systems, and shared logins aren’t just inefficient — they’re inequitable.
Centralizing access to tools and information creates a more level playing field between desk‑based and frontline workers.
A more equitable employee experience
When everyone gets the same access to updates, policies, and conversations — regardless of role or location — trust grows.
That sense of fairness matters more than most organizations realize.
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What successful union engagement actually looks like
The organizations that navigate union alignment well don’t rely on clever slogans or last‑minute reassurance. They follow a few consistent principles.
Engage early (earlier than you think)
Unions should hear about new platforms before launch plans are finalized — not after.
Early conversations surface concerns while there’s still time to address them.
Make participation voluntary — and mean it
Choice matters. When people feel coerced, adoption drops and resistance hardens.
Ironically, voluntary rollouts often see higher uptake because the value is clear.
Involve union reps as champions
Union reps shouldn’t be observers. They should be part of the champion group helping shape how the platform is used.
Ownership beats endorsement every time.
Explain the “why,” not just the “what”
Link the rollout back to real issues unions already care about — safety, inclusion, access, and communication gaps raised by members.
When the problem is familiar, the solution makes more sense.
Keep the dialogue going after launch
Union engagement doesn’t end on go‑live day.
Post‑launch check‑ins, feedback sessions, and open forums build credibility — especially when concerns are acknowledged and acted on.
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What we see in the real world
Across transport, logistics, healthcare, and other unionized environments, the pattern is consistent:
Unions that are resistant at first often become the strongest advocates once they’re genuinely involved
Union‑led communication through the platform increases trust and reach
During negotiations or industrial action, having a clear, controlled communication channel reduces confusion and misinformation
The common thread isn’t the industry. It’s respect.
Technology doesn’t replace relationships — it exposes them
No platform can fix a broken relationship between leadership and unions. But the right technology does amplify intent.
If the intent is control, workers will feel it. If the intent is safety, clarity, and fairness, that shows up too.
Unionized workforces don’t need fewer tools. They need better ones — introduced with transparency, choice, and trust. Blink was built for environments exactly like this — complex, frontline‑heavy, and relationship‑driven.
Because when communication works, everything else gets easier.
London, 1 November 2023 – Bus operator Abellio London has rolled out Blink, a mobile app that connects management with frontline, or deskless, workers.
Abellio, which operates bus services on behalf of Transport for London and serves 430,000 customers across Greater London every day, will connect its 2,800 employees across six depots and Transport UK Rail Replacement services through Blink’s super-app. Employees can connect, share information and communicate with each other wherever they are which, until now, had been impossible.
Abellio’s investment in Blink gives every worker digital connectivity to the organisation and each other, improving convenience, flexibility and inclusion. This investment forms part of Abellio’s ongoing initiatives to support inclusion within the business and tackle the national bus driver shortage. Transport for London recently revealed they were operating with a shortage of 2,510 drivers, and nationwide, many operators are still experiencing significant staff shortages, with bus vacancy rate at 6.8%, resulting in recent calls for bus drivers to be added to the Shortage Occupation List so operators can recruit drivers from abroad.
Due to the nature of their work, frontline teams – such as bus drivers – are often subject to manual processes and paperwork. They might not have immediate access to some of the tools or information that support them to deliver a positive experience to customers. Across the UK, frontline teams can feel disconnected from the rest of the workforce and, in some cases, undervalued: recent research found that only 39% of frontline workers feel heard, and that 42% are considering quitting their job.
Blink tackles these issues head-on. Beyond communication, the Blink app provides seamless, always-on access to external applications across any device. Abellio’s bus drivers only need to sign into Blink once via secure Single Sign On in order to gain access to all the key systems and information needed for their roles, including the driver allocation system (DAS); payslip information and payslips; and company updates and information that have traditionally been shared by depot notice boards, social media groups or via their line managers.
Previously, drivers needed to access multiple systems to complete certain aspects of their role which was time-consuming and required different passwords and/or access to a computer. Mobile-first with desktop capabilities,Blink brings everything together in one super-app for Abellio’s drivers and management team. Drivers can complete their day-to-day tasks or reports via their phones in real-time and are kept in the loop at the same time as everyone else in the organisation. Crucially, they are able to directly communicate and share feedback with their senior leadership team, giving them a greater say in what’s happening.
“Abellio actively champions inclusivity, as a business that employs 43 different nationalities, we have always prided ourselves on our inclusive culture,” commented Abellio Operations and HR Director, Lorna Murphy. “Differences are very much valued, and our company's success depends on it. We needed an inclusive and simple way to bring our teams together and wanted to offer greater access to information and process for our frontline drivers.
“Blink fosters inclusiveness because everyone in the organisation has a mobile phone, meaning they can log in and access everything they need from wherever they are. It enables two-way conversations and brings connectivity to everyone in the business.”
Sean Nolan, CEO and Co-Founder of Blink, added: “Abellio London is on a mission to put a stop to the frontline worker gap and bring a sense of belonging to employees wherever they are. It recognises just how much an engaged frontline directly impacts how successful they are as a team. Amongst our customers we have seen that by fostering a more engaged and inclusive culture, productivity, quality, care, commitment, and retention will surely follow.
“The company is doing this by putting better company information at their drivers’ fingertips, while giving managers real-time access to frontline intelligence on employee performance and engagement. This will save them hundreds of hours, which they had been previously losing to disparate communications channels.”
The Blink app will also replace all the paper-based forms that currently require drivers to return to depot to complete. Thanks to the app’s intuitive interface, drivers can manage their schedules, payment information, and form-filling from wherever they are and whatever their technical ability.
Murphy added: “Using Blink, Abellio bus drivers can access a system of simple pathways that makes it easy for them to report issues, start a conversation with management or colleagues, or go about their day-to-day tasks such as checking shifts and accessing payslips, reconnecting them back to the organisation they work for via one simple, easy-to-use app.
“At a time when recruitment and retention in the industry is paramount, we hope that Blink, and tools like it, will support teams to feel connected to the business. Blink will help us to create a vibrant and open culture that champions better employee engagement, and give our drivers a channel through which they can voice their queries, ideas and concerns.”
As well as providing company-wide communications, Abellio can use Blink to create specific groups for supported work conversations, something that has been proven beneficial for employee wellness. Blink’s frontline intelligence and analysis capabilities will also help the leadership team to understand what employees need to perform, and how best to deliver it.
Blink has been proven to reach 95% of employees and reduce employee turnover by 26%. It also triples response rates, sees five times the number of adoption of tools thanks to its single sign-on(SSO), and gets a nine out of ten ‘ease of use’ rating from end users.
Press contacts
For more information or interviews, please get in touch with kate@transatlanticent.com | 07980 921961.
About Abellio
Abellio London is part ofTransport UK and operates 55 bus routes in the capital on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), plus rail replacement and event services across the UK.
The business operates around nine percent of London’s bus network, running over 800 vehicles and employing 2,500staff across six depots in Central, South, and West London. Abellio is a pioneer in EV public transport, operating over 100 no-emission fully electric buses in London.
Abellio London was a double winner in the 2021 Bus and Coach Awards and is a finalist in the British QualityFoundation’s EFQM Excellence awards, following a 5-star rating in the BQF Recognised For Excellence assessment. In 2020 it was named Operator of the Year at the London Transport Awards and also helped bring the first Caetano electric single-deck buses to the UK, which were the safest in London with the inclusion of TfL Bus Safety Standard measures. Since 2019 it has held Earned Recognition status with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), which recognises it as an exemplary operator, and in 2023 earned ISO 45001 accreditation across all six depots.
About Blink
Blink is the world's best super-app for deskless workers, with a mission to revolutionise work life for the frontline, closing the digital divide and enabling distributed organisations to communicate effectively and engage together like never before. Blink is used by over 200,000 frontline workers at industry-leading companies including Stagecoach, Elara Caring and Domino’s. Each user opens the app an average of seven times a day, helping lower frontline attrition by up to 25%.
Founded in 2015 and with offices in London, Boston, and Sydney, Blink is a Leader in the G2 Grid® for Best EmployeeEngagement Software and named in the 2022 Deloitte Technology Fast 50.
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