Employee voice in the workplace

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report puts global employee engagement at 20%, the lowest level since 2020. In that environment, the difference between a platform that gets adopted and one that doesn't rarely comes down to the technology. Instead it comes down to how the launch was run.

Most organizations announce new tools, but the smart ones build anticipation. I got to see that difference up close recently, working with AG Barr on the rollout of their Blink app, which their people named Fizz. Within 30 minutes of launch, 50% of their workforce had signed up. Two weeks later, they hit 92% adoption. 

At Blink, we have a deep understanding of the drivers for adoption across the frontline and have incorporated this into our implementation approach. We call our approach the Five Levers, and this is what they look like in practice.

Lever 1: Get your comms team in the room from day one.

Having implemented technology across very different organizations, it’s clear to me that the comms team's proximity to the build is one of the strongest predictors of launch performance. 

A common mistake in platform launches is treating comms as a final step. The platform gets configured, tested, signed off, and then someone hands the comms team a brief and asks them to do their thing. 

The real value is unlocked when the comms team are active participants throughout the implementation journey. Involve them in design decisions, enable them to build deep knowledge of the product, and give them the opportunity to ask the questions that only someone who knows both their audience and the product deeply would think to ask. 

Lever 2: Give people ownership before you ask for buy-in

Gallup defines engagement as the psychological attachment workers have to their work, their team, and their employer. That attachment can be built by users during an implementation through participation, consultation, and all the small, accumulating signals that say “this was made with you in mind”.

The most effective implementations I've been part of find ways to bring users into the process before launch. One customer shadowed frontline workers during the design phase to understand their ways of working and surface how the platform could genuinely remove friction from their day. Another customer ran an internal competition to name their custom Blink app. That might sound like a small gesture, but it got people curious and gave employees a sense of ownership that carried through to launch day.

None of these approaches were expensive, but all of them materially changed the reception at launch by treating co-ownership as an adoption strategy. 

Lever 3: Build suspense, and make launch an event.

Most internal platform launches follow the same pattern: countdown comms, a PDF guide, and a go-live date. However, awareness isn’t the same as anticipation… and knowing something exists is not the same as wanting it.

The most effective comms teams run deliberate suspense campaign in the weeks before launch. By the time your platform goes live, you want people to be itching to finally get access to something they have been waiting for.

One of the best ways to do this is by treating launch as a moment worth celebrating. Set up stalls across locations, run competitions, visible leadership presence and lean on champions (more on that later). 

The most memorable launches I've been part of have had a real sense of occasion. We've seen customers deploy drones to drop QR activation codes, bring in celebrity guests, and line up food trucks on launch day. Prizes have included iPads, flight vouchers, annual leave, and pizza parties for entire teams. These things create energy that employees are still talking about a year later.

Not every organization has that kind of launch budget though, and it doesn't matter as much as you might think. The underlying principle isn't spend, it's signal. A launch that feels like an event tells employees that the organization takes this seriously, that someone thought about them specifically, and that showing up on day one means something. You can do that with a well-placed stall, a visible leader handing out coffees, and a competition where the prize is a piece of inexpensive swag. 

Frontline workers are harder to reach through traditional internal channels, so a physical presence on launch day says something an email can't. It signals that the organization considered them specifically, which is always noticed.

The lesson for comms professionals is that you have more control over the emotional temperature of a launch than most plans account for. Anticipation, energy, occasion are the difference between a launch that lands and one that quietly fades.

Lever 4: Create champions, not just comms

Even a well-designed email gets deleted, but a teammate who says "this is genuinely good, let me show you" gets results. That’s why every successful launch I've been part of has had a network of champions behind it. 

Peer influence consistently outperforms top-down communication. This isn’t because the top-down communication is poor, but because people weight information differently depending on the source. A message from a familiar colleague carries credibility that a well-crafted comms email simply can't replicate. 

Here’s a cheat sheet for building a great champion network:

1. Identify the right people: credibility matters, so look for people who are trusted by their peers across all parts of the business - different locations, functions, and seniority levels.
2. Give them early access: make sure they've had hands-on training and early access to the platform so they have time to explore it properly.
3. Give them something to shout about: champions should understand the “why” behind the platform so they can have an authentic conversation rather than deliver a rehearsed message.
4. Make them visible on launch day: a familiar face in the right place at the right time is worth more than any amount of pre-launch email communication.
5. Keep them engaged beyond go-live: the best champion networks don't dissolve after launch day. Give champions a way to feed back what they're hearing, keep them updated on new features, and recognize their contribution. They're your longest-running adoption tool.

Lever 5: Plan the weeks after launch as carefully as the day itself

The common post-launch pattern to avoid is a spike on day one followed by a plateau. Early adopters come, they engage with the overwhelming amount of week one content on the platform, but then usage stalls. Organizations that plan the post-launch phase deliberately with real incentives, visible momentum, and continued champion activity consistently derive more value than those that treat launch day as the end of the project.

At Blink, we dedicate time to developing a post-launch engagement plan with our customers long before launch, aligning leaders, managers and core functions on what to share and when. We encourage leadership teams to regularly engage across the platform. easyJet's "3, 2, 1" method is one of the most effective approaches I've seen. Leaders are expected to like three posts, leave two comments, and post one thing each week. It's simple enough to stick to, and the visibility of leadership activity sets the tone for everyone else.

Another way to avoid a post-launch slump is to run campaigns within the platform, such as a competition for the post with the highest engagement (cue a ton of wonderful user generated content, with the prize likely going to a post containing a very cute pet photo) or a weekly prize draw eligible only to the people who have activated over the first 4-6 weeks. It should be meaningful enough to sustain motivation, and structured enough to keep the campaign alive long after launch day.

Rather than being the finish line, go-live is the start of a different comms challenge. The pre-launch campaign creates demand, and the post-launch campaign keeps people coming back. 

What this actually takes

Gallup's 2026 data is clear that technology only lands when leaders and managers make it make sense for people. The Five Levers aren't complicated, but they do require treating the communication of change as a discipline with the same rigor as the technical implementation, starting early, going deep, and understanding that adoption has to be designed.

The organizations I've seen launch technology well involve comms from the start, build anticipation rather than just awareness, invest in champions who carry real credibility, and keep the campaign going after day one. The ones that don't, however good the platform, tend to end up with a flat launch and a difficult conversation about why nobody's using it.

If you're planning a platform rollout and want to talk through your approach, I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on LinkedIn, or reach out at joinblink.com.

You rolled out Workday. Now what?

You’ve invested in Workday. Rolled it out. Trained your teams. And yet… usage is lagging.

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone — research shows workplace technology users on average use only 40% of available software features, and Workday is no exception. Why? Because people don’t engage with systems that feel disconnected from their daily flow. Especially frontline employees, who rarely check email and are lucky if they remember their login.

Workday is a powerful system of record. But without the right engagement layer — the employee-facing experience that wraps around it — even the best deployment can fall flat.

Here’s the good news: You don’t need to rip and replace anything. You just need to bridge the gap between people and process.

These five strategies help make that happen — improving team collaboration, streamlining employee communication, and getting your employees to not just use Workday… but actually like it.

#1. Sync comms with key Workday moments

The right message at the wrong time? Still the wrong message.

One of the easiest ways to boost employee engagement is by aligning your internal communication with key employee milestones in Workday. Think: performance review deadlines, open enrollment windows, pay stub releases, or timecard due dates. These aren’t just tasks — they’re moments that matter most across the employee lifecycle.

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By syncing your engagement platform with Workday’s calendar and events, you can deliver perfectly timed nudges right when action is needed. Not just generic blasts or reminder emails, but targeted alerts that actually get read.

Pro tip: Use features like countdown timers, pop-up alerts, or chatbot reminders via Blink to drive timely action. A pop-up reminder about employee scheduling or a push notification that says, “Your new L&D goal just dropped — tap to complete it in Workday” goes a lot further than a newsletter blurb.

This strategy improves task completion rates, reduces HR follow-ups, and helps employees feel more in control of their work lives — especially when those nudges are sent in real time and on mobile apps.

This kind of proactive, targeted, and effective communication supports better team collaboration and keeps everyone aligned around shared timelines and responsibilities.

#2. Turn super users into Workday Champions

If you’re the only one answering Workday questions, it’s time to build a squad.

Every company has a few people who just “get it.” The ones others ping when they’re stuck trying to change their tax withholding or book vacation time. These internal experts are gold — so why not put them front and center?

Empower your internal “Workday Champions” by giving them visibility and a voice on your employee communications tool. Use Blink to create a space where they can host 5-minute tip sessions, answer FAQs, or even stream quick AMAs (ask me anything) via live video.

This does two things:

1. Normalizes learning: People are more likely to ask questions when it feels informal and peer-led.
2. Scales support: Your HR and IT teams will thank you.

When employees see their peers confidently navigating Workday, it makes the system feel less intimidating and more human.

This strategy supports both employee communication and team collaboration as well as builds employee confidence — creating a feedback-friendly, resource-rich environment without adding to the HR workload.

#3. Make Workday training mobile, snackable, and on-demand

No one wants a 52-slide deck on how to submit expenses.

Traditional training content doesn’t cut it — especially for busy, distributed teams. If you want people to actually learn how to use Workday, meet them where they are (hint: it’s on their phones) and make it simple.

Break Workday actions into short, mobile-friendly formats:

• 60-second walkthrough videos
• GIF tutorials
• Step-by-step mobile cards
• A weekly “Workday Tip of the Week” drop in your internal feed

Not only does this make learning more engaging, but it also ensures your content is reusable and evergreen. Employees can access what they need in the flow of work, when they need it — no login gymnastics required.

With Blink, you can embed these learning moments directly in your employee app, right alongside other comms. It’s Workday training — without the friction.

Helping employees engage with Workday in a modern, mobile-first way reduces the learning curve and makes Workday integration a part of their daily flow.

#4. Eliminate access friction (seriously, just log them in)

If logging in feels like a quest, you’ve already lost.

We’ve seen it time and time again: Workday rollout, check. Training sessions, check. But employees still aren’t engaging. Why?

Because they can’t remember their login. Or the password expired. Or they don’t want to click through six tabs to get to their payslip.

Authentication friction is one of the biggest blockers to Workday adoption — especially for frontline workers or hourly employees. If you want to fix that fast, start with access.

With Blink as your easy-to-use employee app for all, you can simplify Workday user provisioning using features like:

• Single sign-on (SSO)
• Biometric authentication
• Deep links that take employees right to the task

The result? One tap and they’re in.

We recommend running a campaign around it — something like “One click. You’re in.” — to show how simple it really is.

And don’t stop there: Track where people drop off, monitor login data, and keep refining your approach. If the front door doesn’t work, no one’s coming inside.

Making Workday user provisioning seamless removes one of the biggest engagement roadblocks and gives your frontline teams easy, secure access to the most important modern tools in your digital workplace.

#5. Build feedback loops that close — not collect dust

If you don’t ask, you won’t know. But if you don’t act, no one will bother telling you.

The final — and arguably most important — tip: Create a feedback loop inside your Workday experience. Don’t wait for the annual engagement survey to find out your time-off workflow is a nightmare. Ask early, and often.

Embed micro-feedback moments directly in the experience:

• After a Workday task is completed, prompt a quick emoji reaction or two-question pulse
• Drop a “How was that?” prompt after a new feature launches
• Create space for open suggestions in your internal communications feed

To boost participation, try light gamification — weekly raffles, team shoutouts, or digital badges for high-response departments.

Employees who feel heard are far more likely to engage with the system. Even more so when they see visible changes based on their feedback.

With Blink, you can launch surveys in seconds, analyze the results, and close the loop without ever leaving the platform.

A feedback-powered employee communication strategy helps optimize your Workday integration strategy and continuously improves system usability.

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Final thoughts: Workday is the engine. Blink is the ignition.

Your Workday implementation is a huge step forward. But the real magic happens when employees use it — and love it.

These five strategies aren’t rocket science. They’re simple, tactical moves that layer human-centered engagement on top of your existing setup:

• Timed comms tied to real tasks
• Peer-led support and live learning
• Mobile, snackable training
• Frictionless access to workplace tools
• Employee feedback that closes the loop

With Blink as Workday’s #1 employee experience platform integration, serving as a timely engagement layer, you unlock the full value of Workday — for every employee, not just the ones with a laptop.

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From native Workday integrations to simplified user provisioning, we help make your rollout stick — and your people stick around.

Blink and Workday. Better together.

Employees power your business, but many are often left behind when it comes to workplace tools and technology.

That’s where Blink and Workday come in.

With the industry’s most comprehensive integration between Workday and any employee experience platform, Blink extends Workday’s powerful capabilities to all employees — whether they’re desk-based, remote, or on the frontline. This unmatched integration ensures every employee can access what they need, when they need it — driving engagement, boosting productivity, and helping organizations unlock the full potential of their Workday investment.

Together, Blink and Workday bridge the employee experience gap, offering the entire workforce seamless, one-click access via their smartphones to the tools and information they need.

Let’s take a closer look at how Blink and Workday work hand in hand to revolutionize the employee experience, creating a more connected and engaged workforce.

Blink and Workday: How it works

Blink is a mobile-first employee experience platform that serves as a digital front door for your organization, giving employees access to all the software you use in just a few clicks.

If you’re already a Workday customer, you benefit from our pre-built, out-of-the-box integration. This means we can take Workday user data into Blink and automatically create user accounts.

Employees can download the Blink app from Android or Apple app stores and use their email or phone number to access.

Through single sign-on (SSO), employees can access third-party apps — like Workday — by simply clicking on the relevant icon. Users can also click on deep links that take them straight to specific Workday functions, like payslips or an address update form.

When you partner with Blink and Workday, you make Workday accessible to all of your employees.

Blink and Workday: The benefits

Here’s what you can expect when you use Blink and Workday together.

#1. Improving adoption of Workday (and other third-party tools)

Persuading employees to download multiple workplace apps is a challenge. But with Blink, there’s just one app to download.

The Blink app acts as a centralized hub. With SSO, employees can access all workplace software — including tools like Workday, SharePoint, and ServiceNow — from Blink. Employees don’t have multiple passwords to remember or reset.

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This explains why Blink customers enjoy a 5x improvement on adoption of third-party tools. Pair Blink with Workday and you’ll get much more value from your Workday subscription.

#2. Easy identity management

Frontline workers don’t tend to have a corporate email address or device. So these employees are often left behind when it comes to workplace tech tools like Workday.

But with Blink, it’s easy to get hard-to-reach deskless employees onto your systems. That’s because Blink serves as your identity provider.

Deep integration between Workday and Blink allows the transfer of rich employee data to Blink systems. Then, Blink verifies user identities, making it simpler than ever to activate employees.

#3. Streamlining the frontline workforce experience

Together, Blink and Workday makes it easy for frontline workers to access all the tools and resources they need, at a time and place that suits them. This makes workers more efficient and effective.

Via Blink, employees can access Workday Skills Cloud, view pay and benefits, pick up shifts, complete employee surveys, submit paperwork, and report safety concerns.

Putting these tools in the hands of frontline workers means you squeeze all possible value from them. You also make life easier for your frontline workforce — so much easier that Blink users give the app a 9/10 ease rating.

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#4. Improving employee communication

Blink takes internal comms beyond the office noticeboard and word-of-mouth messaging. An intuitive news feed gives every employee instant access to up-to-date internal communications, tailored to them.

Admins can use the news feed to highlight Workday-related tasks. You might like to communicate available shifts, signpost training resources, or prompt staff to book their vacation time. You can add links to your posts, directing users to the appropriate place on the Workday app.

Blink’s wide range of employee communication tools supports your workforce in other ways, too. They find it easy to chat with supervisors, coworkers, and leadership. So they feel more connected to your organization and the people within it.

#5. Accessing comprehensive data

When you use Blink and Workday together, you get access to rich analytics and survey data relating to your employees, all via a user-friendly dashboard.

This data reveals how employees are using your workplace tools. It gives you a deeper understanding of employee engagement and staff turnover. It can even help with workforce planning.

Drill down into this data to identify strategic areas for improvement — identifying operational weaknesses and issues with employee experience.

#6. Closing the digital divide

A majority of workers feel disconnected from their organization — and many feel they lack the tools they need to do their jobs effectively.

By improving the digital employee experience, with a combination of Blink and Workday, you close the digital divide. You give all employees equal access to workplace tools and bring them into the company conversation.

This helps to improve employee engagement and satisfaction. It also leads to better staff retention. Blink customers experience a 26% reduction in employee turnover.

Make Workday work harder for your full organization with Blink

Blink helps leading organizations bring Workday to deskless employees. We provide the most comprehensive and effective Workday integration in the industry, which makes for easy setup and a seamless user experience.

Blink also provides a host of other tools to improve employee communications and engagement. These include our news feed, employee surveys, recognition, digital forms, and communities.

Blink. And supercharge your Workday instance.

Frontline workers are the face of your organization. Flight attendants, retail associates, HVAC techs. They create the most human interactions your customers will ever have with your brand, and every one of those moments nudges a customer toward advocate or detractor.

Here's the uncomfortable part: the people who decide whether your message reaches those workers lead the floor. Corporations can polish talking points for weeks, but most deskless workers never watch the all-hands and rarely check an inbox, if they have one. A message comes to life through their leader or dies quietly on the breakroom digital signage.

And the stakes keep climbing. Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report puts global engagement at 20%, its lowest since 2020, draining an estimated $10 trillion from the world’s economy. Gallup also has long shown that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.

The good news? The fix is a handful of small, repeatable habits, most of them on video. Here are six your leaders can start this quarter.

1. Put leaders on a 3-2-1 rhythm

easyJet trains its leadership team on a habit simple enough to fit on a boarding pass: every week, react to three frontline Feed posts, comment on two, and share one of your own.

Notice five of the six touches are responses to other people; presence beats broadcast. When a leader reacts to a ground crew's post, that crew learns someone up top is actually reading. By the time the leader shares their own update, they've earned the attention they're asking for.

And start the rhythm at the top. Frontline managers copy what they see, so the 3-2-1 habit spreads fastest when the executive team goes first.

It takes ten minutes a week. In Blink, it's a scroll through the Feed with your morning coffee.

2. Kill the six-minute video

One CEO learned this the hard way. His video blog had a corporate backdrop and a six-minute runtime. Nobody  watched it. Then, he recorded 90 seconds on his phone at home, unscripted- it became top-performing content. 

The difference: respect for people's time. Forrester finds video brings an authenticity to leadership communication that text can't match - cap leader videos at 90 seconds with one message per video and apply the only test that matters: would you watch it yourself?

Short native video stories in Blink fit the exact moment a worker checks their phone in the stockroom between tasks.

3. Film where the work happens

A global pizza brand's CEO records his videos walking the floor with team members. And when a pharmaceutical company wanted to bring its mission to life, it skipped the scripted executive piece entirely. A communicator carried a phone to the finance floor and asked an analyst what the mission meant to him. He talked about losing his father to cancer, and why keeping patients at the center of his spreadsheets was personal. No script survives contact with a story like that.

The people closest to the work have the best stories. Your job is to point a camera at them, and to get your leaders out of the boardroom backdrop.

With Blink on their phone, a leader can record a video, post to the feed, and reply before the walkabout is even over.

4. Same shirt, same level

One of the world's best-known retailers puts a senior retail executive on camera being interviewed by frontline specialists, everyone wearing the same store shirt.

Flip the mic and the power dynamic flips with it. Let employees ask the questions. One UK organization does this with a stopwatch: leaders get exactly 60 seconds to pitch an initiative while the clock runs down on camera. It's fast, it's funny, and it forces a clarity no slide deck ever has.

Run it as a series in Blink and let the comments under each episode nominate the next leader in the hot seat.

5. Treat every post as the start of a conversation

A large medical association's CEO once delivered his end-of-year message silently, on handwritten cue cards, borrowing the doorstep scene from Love Actually. Employees flooded the comments, the message hit a 71% open rate, and the CEO wrote back.

Authenticity is listening, then visibly adjusting. Plenty of organizations collect frontline feedback that disappears into "under review," which does more damage than never asking at all. So set a standard: leaders reply to comments within a day, and every video opens with what changed because of the last one.

In Blink, the post, the reactions, and the replies live on the Feed, so everyone watches the loop close.

6. Show leaders what actually lands

Most managers communicate blindly. They pass a message along with no idea whether it reached people who are on their feet all day, leaving "good communication" a matter of opinion.

Data ends the debate. When a leader sees that a polished executive talking head reached 33% of the team, while a peer's phone-shot post in another market reached 70%, nobody argues for the studio again. Share reach and engagement numbers with every leader who posts, and coach from them kindly. Then tie the numbers to behavior. An open rate is nice. A shift following the new safety step because a video landed is the point. The goal is the confidence to do less, and do it better.

BlinkIQ shows every leader exactly who their message reached, so the next one lands further.

The habit is the strategy

Your frontline already knows what authentic communication sounds like. They do it with customers all day long. Give their leaders these six habits and the tools to run them, and you'll unlock the potential that's been sitting in your org chart all along.

‍Sources

Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx

McKinsey & Company, How retailers can build and retain a strong frontline workforce in 2024. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-retailers-can-build-and-retain-a-strong-frontline-workforce-in-2024

Forrester, Maximize the Impact of Video in Your Internal Communication Program. https://www.forrester.com/report/maximize-the-impact-of-video-in-your-internal-communication-program/RE

Looking for remote employee engagement strategies that take your company culture to the next level? Here are our best tips to engage virtual teams.

Consultants, freelancers, frontline workers, and full-time staff across time zones – they all have one thing in common. And that thing is – no points for guessing – remote work. They're 'WFH' or at a client site. 

It’s no secret that remote work offers many benefits to both employees and employers. Employers get access to a global talent pool, and employees get the freedom to work from a convenient location.  

No wonder remote employees are happier than office-based workers. A recent PwC study found that only 8% of remote workers want to work from their employer’s office. On top of that, 83% of employers and 71% of employees view the shift to remote work as a success.

But remote work isn’t all a bed of roses. It has its own challenges, one of which is to engage remote employees. You want to ensure that your employees are dedicated and emotionally invested in your company. 

This is easier said than done, since remote teams are physically distant from the company’s main hub of activity. More often than not, they miss out on social events such as birthdays, small talks, and team lunches. Without these opportunities, remote employees can lose their sense of belonging and feel like something is amiss. The result?

Widespread disengagement. 

Now as a senior leader in your organization, you can’t afford to let that happen, can you? So in this post, we’ll show you several effective strategies you can use to boost remote employee engagement.

Engaging remote employees 101

Employee engagement: remote working challenges

When looking to engage remote workers and combat this issue, senior leaders must turn to innovative strategies for boosting engagement in the virtual world such as creating meaningful connections through various channels and gathering feedback consistently - something not always possible using traditional methods such as notice boards, phone notifications, and emails due to low reach and effectiveness.

Common blockers to engagement in remote employees include:

• Loss of information due to a mix of channels
• Noticeboards, letters, and other tools are inefficient
• Low reach and effectiveness
• No clear way or consistent way to gather feedback.

Why engage remote employees?

While employee engagement may feel like something that doesn't need to be a business priority, it can actually help to improve both employee morale and productivity. And in today’s competitive landscape, these two things are key to success.

In fact, research shows that highly engaged organizations achieve a 23% improvement in profitability, 10% higher customer ratings and 18% higher sales.

In fact, there are a number of reasons why it’s important to engage remote employees:

• Increased job satisfaction and employee retention
• Improved collaboration between teams
• Better productivity, thanks to improved communication and feedback loops
• Boosted innovation as a result of cross-functional initiatives
• Easier onboarding due to increased visibility into the culture and processes.

So, how can you keep remote employees engaged? Let’s take a look at some of the most effective employee engagement tactics for boosting engagement amongst your remote workers and direct reports.

12 practical tips to engage remote workers 

Keeping remote workers engaged should be one of your top priorities. Communication gaps in remote teams lead to disengagement, damaging productivity and morale in the long run. Failure to get your remote employees to work inclusively can also hurt your business’s bottom line.  

In contrast, employees who feel engaged are more loyal and motivated. Not to mention 87% less likely to leave their company than unengaged employees. Follow the below best practices to engage remote teams. 

1. Keep remote meetings as short as possible. 

Remote workers attend more meetings every week as compared to on-site employees. The 2019 State of Remote Work found that 14% of remote employees are giving time to over 10 meetings per week (vs. just 3% of those on-site).

While there’s no denying that team meetings are necessary and beneficial to keep employees aligned, too long and frequent meetings can be frustrating. So much so that this phenomenon has led to the coining of a new term - Zoom Fatigue.

Call a meeting only when it’s absolutely necessary, and try to keep it as short as possible. Consider that a best practice for employee engagement.

Have a clear agenda before every meeting and don’t let a team member prolong it with discussions outside of this agenda. 

Another way to reduce the frequency of your Zoom meetings is to provide instant, accessible company updates directly to your workers’ phones. Short, important messages can be delivered via an employee app to minimize wasted time on pointless meetings, which can help both remote and deskless teams stay in-the-know without eating up too much of their valuable time.

2. Make ‘social’ events structured. 

Since remote workers don’t have impromptu opportunities to connect with each other, providing those opportunities intentionally is crucial. And a great way to get started is hosting virtual social events that are not related to work. 

The social event could be a cocktail-making class, a virtual concert, or a biweekly trivia game. 

But here’s the biggest mistake with company-wide social activities — not structuring them. When you host a social event in a way that the talkers keep talking and the quieter ones stay quiet, it’s safe to say that the event has failed its objective.  

So make sure to have rules that encourage everyone to participate. For example, a cocktail-making class with a kit will get more engagement from everyone than a simple virtual drinks session. 

3. Host informal virtual all-hands. 

A transparent culture fosters trust throughout an organization. And since remote teams are physically disconnected from the workplace, they need even more transparency. 

To facilitate the same, you can conduct virtual all-hands from time to time. This event will encourage remote workers to showcase their projects across the company. 

The project could be a product update, a new marketing campaign, or a transition to a new business partner. A different team will demonstrate what they are working on each week, ensuring that everyone’s in the loop. Plus, the workers can ask questions and share their thoughts with the presenting team, igniting a sense of inclusiveness. 

We get it. Putting your work in front of the entire organization may not be easy. But this little discomfort is a small price to pay for virtual employee engagement, and a warm, better-connected workplace. 

4. Say goodbye to email. 

Email has its place for simple communication. But it’s not suitable for a lot of quick, back and forth conversations. Your organization should have a dedicated tool in place for real-time instant messaging (also known as live chat). 

An employee chat app allows you to facilitate flexible, informal communication that helps remote workers build relationships and get the information they need to do their jobs, wherever they are based.

Communication is a key driver of employee engagement. So whether you have remote teams, frontline employees or in-office workers, you can keep your staff connected and engaged.

Blink, for example, offers a world-class chat feature to bring your company together with groups and one-to-one chats. And it lets your employees share not just text, but also photos, documents, videos, spreadsheets, PDFs, and more without the hassle of email. 

5. Create a remote working resources library. 

49% of US workers face difficulty in finding documents, as per a Nintex survey. If employees can’t access crucial information at the right time, you can’t blame them for getting disengaged. While this is a key problem for remote workers, this issue is currently plaguing the frontline workforce, too. With workers constantly on the move, they need intuitive, easy-to-access resources that can move with them.

The solution is easy. All of your company’s key information should be saved and accessible from a central hub. This information would include your policies, process manuals, onboarding checklists, and other materials. 

The ability to publish content on this portal will not be limited to senior management or the IT department. Every department should be able to access, publish, and share knowledge through this hub.  

Sharing their knowledge will help employees feel empowered and realize the value they are adding to the organization. 

So by building such a knowledge base, you’ll be able to reduce silos between in-office, remote and deskless departments, improve information sharing, and improve collaboration. 

For example, with Hub as a central feature of Blink, remote workers can instantly access policies, procedures, and guides in a single convenient location — leading to a more engaged remote workforce.

On top of that, our built-in text editor gives every employee an effortless way to create, edit, and distribute articles.

6. Make all org-wide updates digital. 

Nearly 20% of remote workers feel disconnected from peers due to a lack of communication.

While communication is the key to better remote employee engagement, any type of communication will not solve the problem. It has to have the right channels and the right frequency. 

You can’t constantly bombard remote employees with emails, notice board announcements, unnecessary meetings, and expect them to stay engaged. 

The best way to conduct effective company-wide communication is to use a single, unobtrusive, digital communication tool. This will help establish expectations and norms without isolating or overwhelming remote workers. 

Even if you’re worried about whether key information is reaching your workers, sharing the information repeatedly using multiple channels isn’t the solution. Using the right technology is. 

For instance, you can use an employee app that allows you to ‘pin’ information to the top of people’s newsfeed, or has a ‘mandatory read’ option as Blink does. 

7. Record all (important) meetings.

When you have multiple remote team members across different time zones, web conferencing can go a long way in reducing geographic limitations and engaging workers virtually. 

But even a virtual meeting can’t solve all your problems. Employees can’t attend multiple meetings at the same time, for example. Getting the right folks together for a meeting can still prove to be a bottleneck for a project. 

With an increasingly varied workforce seeing a mixture of remote, in-office and frontline workers, the battle to keep everybody on the same page is on.

So a better solution is to conduct a meeting with the people who can attend, and record it for those who couldn’t. Then keep all these recordings in one place for anyone interested in catching up. 

Recording video of virtual meetings ensures that no one misses out on an important discussion, along with the visuals presented during the session.

8. Use polls and feed posts. 

Most company-wide communication is static, which means that workers simply consume the content by reading, listening, or watching.  

The opposite of that is interactive content. It’s a type of content that allows employees to engage and participate. 

Using interactive communication from time to time is another step you can take towards remote employee engagement by helping reduce the sense of isolation.

The interactive content could be as simple as a quick poll, a short employee survey, or social media type posts that allow workers to like, comment, and tag their team members. Luckily, all these features are an integral part of Blink.

9. Celebrate employee accomplishments. 

Employee Recognition can be implemented in many ways, but remote work makes it hard to carry them out. That’s why you need to put in the extra effort to celebrate contributions and achievements.  

An employee recognition program can increase remote employee engagement, productivity, and performance by 14%, according to Deloitte.

Here are some great ways to acknowledge and appreciate remote workers for their hard work:

• Giving regular greetings and check-ins on shared communication channels
• Conducting employee of the month programs
• Thanking workers during a web conferencing session 
• Acknowledging personal events such as birthdays and anniversaries
• Sending thoughtful notes or signed cards from managers and peers

All these activities help remote employee engagement by making workers feel valued. And contributing to everyone’s understanding of what’s happening in different teams and departments. This helps ensure the employee digital experience is a good one.

10. Understand feedback to make improvements. 

Most remote employees are hesitant to share feedback, because they’re worried about how it might be perceived. That’s why you need to invest in technology that will make it easier for your workers to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a safe environment. 

Digital tools like Blink offer anonymous feedback surveys, which help employees share their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment. You can use this feedback to modify processes and policies to ensure everyone is engaged and motivated. And this means productive employees.

By understanding the feedback, you’ll be able to make necessary improvements in areas like communication, collaboration, productivity, etc. By showing your virtual team that you value their input, you’ll be able to create a culture of engagement, trust and collaboration, fostering more engagement in future initiatives.

11. Make sure everyone is included in the conversation. 

Ensuring that everyone is included in the conversation is an important part of remote employee engagement. Since your workers don’t have the option to physically join meetings and work on projects, they can easily feel left out or ignored.

To make sure no one is ever excluded from a discussion, use employee engagement tools like Blink which come with features like audio-video conferencing, screen sharing and file/group chats.

These features allow your workers to interact with one another in a more meaningful way, making them feel included even when they’re not physically present. Employers should also take part in the conversation regularly, so that employees can understand their objectives and goals better as a team.

12. Provide ample opportunities for team members to network and connect remotely. 

When you’re working remotely or on the frontline, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your colleagues and the business in general. So it’s important that employers create the opportunity for employees to network with their peers - without the scrutiny of management’s presence.

Network building activities like virtual happy hours, ice breaker games and mini-conferences can help boost relationships between team members. Employee Resource Groups are also a great way to help the business towards ESG goals while fostering a safe place for under-represented employee groups. 

These activities will help your workers build relationships, foster trust, and empower the team to work better together, even when they’re not in the same physical space.

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A quick summary of best practices for remote employee engagement…

1. Keep remote meetings as short as possible. 
2. Make ‘social’ events structured. 
3. Host informal virtual all-hands. 
4. Say goodbye to email.
5. Create a remote working resources library. 
6. Make all org-wide updates digital.
7. Record all (important) meetings.
8. Use polls and feed posts.
9. Celebrate employee accomplishments.

Final thoughts

If you look at the above strategies carefully, you’ll realize that they all boil down to one simple thing — trying to give remote workers the same communication opportunities they would have had if they were working from an office. 

Remote or office-based – the best way to engage remote employees is by giving them a voice. After all, 46% of remote workers believe the best managers are the ones who check in – really frequently. 

Making time for employees’ thoughts and concerns, whether through informal small talk or structured feedback, is the golden thread that separates a good organization from a great one.

As long as you keep this basic principle in mind, you’ll not just find it easy to implement these remote employee engagement tactics, but also to generate your own ideas to engage remote workers. 

So, give them the opportunity to voice their needs without the added concern of reaching out at an inopportune moment, and see your remote employee engagement levels rise at a steady rate. 

And while you’re at it, remember that the right technology can make a world of difference. Blink is an internal communications tool that does everything your intranet does, but better. 

Request a free demo to get started.

Final thoughts: best practice for remote employee engagement

If you look at the above strategies carefully, you’ll realize that they all boil down to one simple thing — trying to give remote workers the same communication opportunities they would have had if they were working from an office. 

Remote or office-based – the best way to engage remote employees is by giving them a voice. After all, 46% of remote workers believe the best managers are the ones who check in – really frequently. 

Making time for employees’ thoughts and concerns, whether through informal small talk or structured feedback, is the golden thread that separates a good organization from a great one.

As long as you keep this basic principle in mind, you’ll not just find it easy to implement these remote employee engagement tactics, but also to generate your own ideas to engage remote workers. 

So, give them the opportunity to voice their needs without the added concern of reaching out at an inopportune moment, and see your remote employee engagement levels rise at a steady rate. 

And while you’re at it, remember that the right technology can make a world of difference. Blink is an internal communications tool that does everything your intranet does, but better. Request a free demo to get started.

The Shift went live on Thursday April 20th, hosting an 'Ask Me Anything' session on the topic of frontline stress and wellbeing. Ahead of the event, we asked our audience to send in their questions about burnout on the frontline. The response we got was phenomenal.

Here, we list — and answer — the questions that weren't covered in the live discussion (now available to watch on-demand). These questions are all in search of practical insights: how to help employees who are struggling with burnout, what strategies other managers have had success with, why managers sometimes don't feel confident handling burnout conversations and how to build that muscle.

A big thank you to our 'Ask Me Anything' panel who helped put these answers together:

• Chris Stewart, Managing Director of Minding Minds, a Mental Health First Aid training company
• Ian Gordon, former President of Administrative Operations at Elara Caring
• Simon White, VP of People at Blink

Understanding frontline burnout

Q: What are the early signs of burnout?

Burnout can show itself in several ways and, because we're dealing with people, everyone is individual in their responses. That said, the 'warning signs' are usually:

• Exhaustion/tiredness — You see this when employees still look tired on a Monday morning; the weekends don't feel long enough and just aren't touching the sides in relieving the fatigue. When tiredness becomes extreme, people will not only feel physically drained, but they'll also lose interest in the tasks they used to find enjoyable. This is also a warning sign for depression.
  
• Difficulty concentrating — Coupled with the above, employees may experience a 'butterfly mind', flitting from one thought to another. They may chase issues or tasks, but never stay on them long enough to make progress.
  
• Preoccupation with work and being overly driven — It might sound counterintuitive, but some people approaching burnout will throw themselves into their work and lose themselves within it...
  
• Presenteeism/drop in productivity — ...And yet, being 'at work' doesn't mean you're getting work done. It takes a person longer to complete their tasks when they start to burn out. 10 hours of work may only reap 2 hours of results; they're working more hours, with less output, and lower quality. Of course, the opposite can be a warning sign too. Some people will do less, attend work less, or leave work early due to a lack of interest or bandwidth.
  
• Loss of motivation or outlook — This can be a very corrosive warning sign, and we should always be looking for changes to someone's regular demeanor. Are they displaying more negativity than usual? Are they becoming more cynical? It's unlikely that the individual will notice this change in outlook as they are already in that belief system. It's a manager's role to notice this change. It's an important 'tell' that something is seriously wrong.

• Physical signs — Stress shows itself physically as well. Difficulty sleeping, gastrointestinal issues, aches and pains, low immunity and so higher levels of sickness; if someone is falling ill more often than they used to, burnout may be the root cause.

Q: How can we have an immediate impact on someone who is struggling with mental health?

As mentioned above, everyone's symptoms will be different — and their needs will be too. One thing we can all do is develop the skills to spot the warning signs, approach the person for a conversation, uncover the issues, and respond to their individual needs. There has to be a conversation. That's the most immediate action we can take to help.

Q: Is there a point of no return with frontline burnout or can it be reversed with early identification?

We can think of burnout like an elastic band. You can really stretch it, and though it's under stress, it's still holding. Hold it at a stress point for too long, though, and you'll alter the shape and elasticity of the band forever, even when it's released.

And what happens to an elastic band when we pull it too tight without relieving it? It breaks. You can tie the band back up and it will still serve its function, but it will never regain its original capacity for stretch or stress.

People's capacity for stress never seems to return to their pre-burnout point. Their stress container has shrunk with the experience. But there's a positive within this: when people do return to work post-burnout, they have little choice but to take stress management seriously. People may focus in different ways and manage stress much more effectively.

So, the answer is yes, burnout can be reversed. But given that the warning signs include a preoccupation with work and a drop in productivity or change in emotional outlook, it's up to the organization to have systems and support in place to pick up on these signs and stop them from developing. The individual may not even know they are going through these early or mid stages of burnout.

We have tachographs for lorry drivers and pilots because we know the risks associated with a lack of relief or downtime. The same applies to our people. The company tachograph must look at more than just hours logged, though. Clear and communicated support, with honest feedback sought, and ongoing risk assessment are all essential.

Q: What is the top question you're getting from managers who are on-site and helping lead the frontline?

The biggest question frontline leaders usually have is: "Even if I think there's an issue, how do I broach talking about mental health? I'm not qualified to deal with this. I have enough to deal with already. I am under-supported and under-skilled".

Q: How can you fight and mitigate stress in a mostly remote or deskless work environment? As someone in the corporate office and not close to the frontline, what can I do to help?

Start with communication. This is one of the most powerful ways of fighting and mitigating stress: you have to understand how your frontline is doing and they have to know that you care.

Next, there's advocacy. As a leader, you're either in or close to the seat of power, and you can get buy-in at the top for frontline wellbeing support.

Third, you need to make life easier for the frontline where you can. Reduce the stress that comes from unnecessary cognitive load. Help make them more efficient at work with proper tooling that makes a meaningful difference to their day-to-day.

Q: What can an individual do to support their own mental health?

Check for the warning signs in yourself, where possible, and start to learn what the beginning of stress feels like for you. It's important to take responsibility for your own stress and wellbeing, and to communicate with others when you're feeling the symptoms.

Wellbeing solutions and strategies for frontline teams

Q: Do you have any unique or innovative ways of improving engagement with key wellbeing initiatives? How do you increase morale?

One great example comes from Salutem, a leading care provider in the UK. Like many businesses, Salutem's staff were left feeling stressed and with low morale following the pandemic. The organization was disconnected and disengaged, and Salutem's leaders wanted a new, inspiring way to give employees a voice.

Salutem launched S.E.L.F (the Salutem Employee Listening Forum), with managers using Blink to nominate S.E.L.F Reps using the Feed. These Reps were responsible for moderating Blink Channels for their regions and following up with their teams. Co-workers were encouraged to share their thoughts and have candid conversations regarding their concerns and ideas for improvement.

Given how essential conversation and communication is for promoting wellbeing and mitigating burnout, creating these connections can deliver a lot of impact, fast.

Social and peer proof can also be powerful. There will always be workers who appreciate the importance of taking care of themselves more readily than others. Enlist these people to advocate for your wellbeing initiatives — as fellow frontline workers, they might just be more influential than management.

Q: What are your tips for making stress management accessible and relevant for frontline workers to use in real time? What delivers immediately?

The first truth we need to remember is that what works for desk-based employees typically won't work for the frontline. A frontline worker's 'real time' situations look vastly different compared to someone sitting in head office; they are out in the 'field', on the go, with little access to desktop files. This means that any stress management support we provide has to be easy to access from anywhere, at any time.

Not only that, it has to be easy to access from a usability standpoint too. Adding another platform or tool to the frontline's already unintuitive tool stack will do more harm than good. Don't labor them with another set of log-in details to remember in order to access wellbeing resources.

This is where an 'all through one' employee app like Blink has value.

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Q: In healthcare specifically, how do you get people to take care of themselves when they've cared for others all day?

This is the classic 'Caregiver's Dilemma'. Caregivers are amazing people and, by choice, they place their health and wellbeing second to that of the people they care for. And, to be clear, that's not just how they are at work — it's how they are in every aspect of their lives.

We can encourage better self-care in caregivers by helping them realize that poor self-care will only render them unable to care for others. More than that, they may become the one thing they all fear: a burden on the people around them.

You can also run on-site check-up days for caregivers, where other healthcare professionals come in to perform mental health assessments — like a physical health check, but for stress and wellbeing. Doing so not only makes stress awareness more convenient for the caregiver, but you create a dedicated time slot in their otherwise fully-booked days.

Q: How can managers become more confident and comfortable in leading wellbeing conversations with their frontline workforce?

This question was answered during the live event. But given that managers often feel under-qualified, under-skilled, and under-supported when it comes to approaching these topics, it's worth recapping the answer again.

Confidence and comfort come from two-way conversations around stress and wellbeing. Ian referred to this as 'inverting the hierarchy' — managers making themselves vulnerable to open dialogue up, being present, and acting as a 'servant leader'. Chris explained that managers don't have to stand back and pretend they are all well; empathizing with an employee's experience makes everyone feel more at ease.

These conversations are a core part of your job, says Ian. Once you start breaking down those barriers you remove the fear factor for everyone. You're just another person; someone they trust to have their back and whose job it is to support them. Once you've shown that you value your employees, they will feel much more able to open up to you with personal and professional truths, and you will feel more able to start these conversations too.

This wellbeing resource is available whenever you need it

You can watch The Shift LIVE: 'Ask Me Anything' on frontline stress and wellbeing here at any time.

And make sure you're subscribed to The Shift — Blink's fortnightly newsletter for frontline leaders. That way you'll be the first to know about our next 'Ask Me Anything' event, coming soon.