Optimizing an intranet for marketing departments might not be on your mind, but your marketers can benefit from stronger connections with the rest of your corporation.
“Until recently, we communicated through email. This was to share patient information and… not much else. There was little in the way of engaging employees, celebrating achievements, or keeping in touch,”
The health organization shares personal anecdotes and success stories and communicates with different branches and departments easily.
Best of all, with a smart intranet, your marketing team members can use these interactions and stories as marketing collateral.
The intranet for marketing means taking advantage of features other departments will be excited about — like your company social networking feed — and using them to ease your marketers’ workload.
Must-have features for your marketing intranet
Intranets have been associated with HR or IT for a long time. But these departments aren’t the only ones who benefit from a way to connect to the rest of your organization.
With the right features, your marketing department can both source materials and share upcoming campaigns with ease.
You need to be able to share different media content on your intranet. And you want to be able to share the latest marketing strategies with frontline staff and receive pictures, videos, and feedback from them. It should be simple for everyone to publish their own content too.
An intranet with different permission settings will help make sure only certain teams or people have approval to see specific documents or market research. That makes it easier to share information confidently in the digital workplace.
The best intranet platforms for marketers should integrate with other apps like Slack or Microsoft 365, so your team can continue to use the tools they feel comfortable with.
Surveys will help marketing gain feedback from different departments without hassle. They can then check the built-in analytics to see how engaged employees are with the content they’re posting.
5 ways to use your intranet for marketing
Now you know what features to look for in a marketing intranet, it’s time to go over how you can use those tools productively.
1. Share marketing initiatives
Sometimes employees don’t know about new deals or offers unless they get notifications from management. An intranet keeps everyone on the same page.
2. Create a sharable photo album
Make an album where staff can upload pictures or video clips that marketing can use. Having one place where a photo of a staff celebration can be quickly uploaded to the company intranet reduces the strain on all of your workers.
When it’s easier for people to share their content, they’re more likely to.
3. Collect social media content
Not only pictures but quotes, examples of good work by frontline workers, and even share job vacancies at specific locations. Social media is becoming less curated, and more authentic content is resonating with users.
Sharing digital marketing materials with actual workers instead of models can help you achieve that genuine feel.
4. Promote your company blog
Share posts that staff are likely to be interested in and learn from. 89% of marketers use blogs in their content strategies, but do your workers know about it? Don't just send them to your homepage — share case studies, white papers, and press releases they might care about.
5. Share marketing materials that others need
Have a folder or feed for current sales strategy and brand assets, so if an employee needs to reference them, they’ll always have easy access to the promotions.
Get your marketing team on board
A social intranet is only as good as the contributions from its users.
You need to get your marketing department engaged with a new platform, or they won’t see the benefits from the workspace.
Multiple experts at the Content Marketing Institute expect video content to grow in 2022, but your department might not have the resources to create all of this content themselves.
By leaning into your company’s intranet software, your team can source photos, videos, success stories, milestones, and other materials from frontline workers and other departments as they create them.
Marketing will be able to access this information quickly — and in most cases, directly. 23% of marketers surveyed by HubSpot said just finding the ideas for new content was their biggest challenge for 2022.
If your marketing team is able to improve internal communications with other branches, they can access new information and learn what’s trending in stores now.
They can also use employee-generated content as a springboard or incorporate it directly into new marketing efforts.
The best way to have marketing get on board with an intranet is to have them try it out for free and see how they like it.
Final thoughts: marketing intranet — using an intranet to transform marketing
An intranet for marketing can streamline the entire department and lessen their workload.
Having your entire company help generate content yields a more authentic message that improves employee engagement and means less time spent hunting for a good photo or story.
Communicating and defining the roles helps keep everyone on the same page.
But make sure the intranet solution you choose has the features your organization needs for each department.
Your employees need to be able to access the intranet easily, and a mobile solution will help more workers connect and engage.
Help cut down on the work your marketing department is facing with a fast, company-wide intranet like Blink today.
Optimizing an intranet for marketing departments might not be on your mind, but your marketers can benefit from stronger connections with the rest of your corporation.
“Until recently, we communicated through email. This was to share patient information and… not much else. There was little in the way of engaging employees, celebrating achievements, or keeping in touch,”
The health organization shares personal anecdotes and success stories and communicates with different branches and departments easily.
Best of all, with a smart intranet, your marketing team members can use these interactions and stories as marketing collateral.
The intranet for marketing means taking advantage of features other departments will be excited about — like your company social networking feed — and using them to ease your marketers’ workload.
Must-have features for your marketing intranet
Intranets have been associated with HR or IT for a long time. But these departments aren’t the only ones who benefit from a way to connect to the rest of your organization.
With the right features, your marketing department can both source materials and share upcoming campaigns with ease.
You need to be able to share different media content on your intranet. And you want to be able to share the latest marketing strategies with frontline staff and receive pictures, videos, and feedback from them. It should be simple for everyone to publish their own content too.
An intranet with different permission settings will help make sure only certain teams or people have approval to see specific documents or market research. That makes it easier to share information confidently in the digital workplace.
The best intranet platforms for marketers should integrate with other apps like Slack or Microsoft 365, so your team can continue to use the tools they feel comfortable with.
Surveys will help marketing gain feedback from different departments without hassle. They can then check the built-in analytics to see how engaged employees are with the content they’re posting.
5 ways to use your intranet for marketing
Now you know what features to look for in a marketing intranet, it’s time to go over how you can use those tools productively.
1. Share marketing initiatives
Sometimes employees don’t know about new deals or offers unless they get notifications from management. An intranet keeps everyone on the same page.
2. Create a sharable photo album
Make an album where staff can upload pictures or video clips that marketing can use. Having one place where a photo of a staff celebration can be quickly uploaded to the company intranet reduces the strain on all of your workers.
When it’s easier for people to share their content, they’re more likely to.
3. Collect social media content
Not only pictures but quotes, examples of good work by frontline workers, and even share job vacancies at specific locations. Social media is becoming less curated, and more authentic content is resonating with users.
Sharing digital marketing materials with actual workers instead of models can help you achieve that genuine feel.
4. Promote your company blog
Share posts that staff are likely to be interested in and learn from. 89% of marketers use blogs in their content strategies, but do your workers know about it? Don't just send them to your homepage — share case studies, white papers, and press releases they might care about.
5. Share marketing materials that others need
Have a folder or feed for current sales strategy and brand assets, so if an employee needs to reference them, they’ll always have easy access to the promotions.
Get your marketing team on board
A social intranet is only as good as the contributions from its users.
You need to get your marketing department engaged with a new platform, or they won’t see the benefits from the workspace.
Multiple experts at the Content Marketing Institute expect video content to grow in 2022, but your department might not have the resources to create all of this content themselves.
By leaning into your company’s intranet software, your team can source photos, videos, success stories, milestones, and other materials from frontline workers and other departments as they create them.
Marketing will be able to access this information quickly — and in most cases, directly. 23% of marketers surveyed by HubSpot said just finding the ideas for new content was their biggest challenge for 2022.
If your marketing team is able to improve internal communications with other branches, they can access new information and learn what’s trending in stores now.
They can also use employee-generated content as a springboard or incorporate it directly into new marketing efforts.
The best way to have marketing get on board with an intranet is to have them try it out for free and see how they like it.
Final thoughts: marketing intranet — using an intranet to transform marketing
An intranet for marketing can streamline the entire department and lessen their workload.
Having your entire company help generate content yields a more authentic message that improves employee engagement and means less time spent hunting for a good photo or story.
Communicating and defining the roles helps keep everyone on the same page.
But make sure the intranet solution you choose has the features your organization needs for each department.
Your employees need to be able to access the intranet easily, and a mobile solution will help more workers connect and engage.
Help cut down on the work your marketing department is facing with a fast, company-wide intranet like Blink today.
Alison has been with Aggregate for nearly four years, and is Factory Manager for the Concrete Products department.
Alison is that one person you can go to when having a bad day. She’s always so inspirational even though there have been hard times in her life. Even when there are mistakes or hiccups in the factory, she will always bounce back and be the first one to lend a hand or an ear to help in whatever way she can.
With a personal motto of “never stop trying to be better,” she is passionate about breaking barriers to create a future that is inclusive, productive and effective, which is clear in everything she does.
What does she want to do next?
Alison wants to progress onto a Regional Operations Manager Role.
As the nights grow longer and the shadows creep in, we can’t help but share some of the most terrifying tales from the world of internal communications.
These are the kinds of stories that send shivers down the spines of communications leaders everywhere — from abandoned intranets to the files that won’t die, each one serves as a chilling reminder of what happens when things go awry in the workplace.
But don’t worry, we’re not here to scare you for long. With the right strategies and technologies, you can avoid each nightmare scenario and ensure your employees are kept safe from the monsters of comms gone wrong.
So grab a mug of hot apple cider, curl up under a blanket, and read on, internal communicators… if you dare.
#1. The abandoned intranet
It’s a cautionary tale we hear all too often.
The company’s intranet, once a thriving hub of communication and collaboration, is now a digital ghost town. There was once a time when employees would check in daily for company news, office events, and team updates. Now, it’s a desolate, dusty corner of the office’s virtual space, where outdated files collect cobwebs and employee profiles haven’t been updated since 2016.
No one posts anymore. No one checks it. Rumor has it that some employees haven’t even logged in for years.
As workers find more convenient ways to communicate on the fly, the old intranet withers away, trapped in the past. No matter how hard HR tries to breathe life into it, the abandoned intranet remains a relic of a bygone era — an eerie reminder that if communication tools don’t meet modern employee expectations, they’re doomed to fade into oblivion.
#2. The phantom shift swap
The shift swap app was supposed to make everything easier. But for one bus driver, it felt like a terrifying prank.
She submitted a request to swap shifts, expecting a quick confirmation. But when the shift was approved, strange things began to happen. Her name appeared on two shifts at once. Overlapping schedules. Double bookings. No matter how many times she tried to fix it, she was stuck in an endless loop of conflicting shifts. Her manager said she tried to adjust the schedule, but the terrors persisted. Colleagues wondered if she’d been cursed to work two shifts at the same time, forever trapped behind the wheel.
As the errors mounted, it became clear that this was no ordinary scheduling issue. It was a haunting glitch with no escape in sight.
The only way to help her escape this scheduling nightmare was a shift management tool with real-time integration into the comms platform — no room for terrible errors.
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#3. The curse of the social scrolls
You’ve heard of the risks of “all work and no play” — but what about the other way around?
There was once a company who launched a social media-inspired internal platform to modernize the employee experience. It had it all — likes, shares, comments, and the ability to follow colleagues’ posts. Employees were thrilled, treating company updates like their favorite social media feeds.
But then, things took a terrifying turn.
It all started when a routine update on workplace safety spiraled into a viral nightmare. A sarcastic comment sparked a meme storm, and soon, the original message was buried beneath a graveyard of reactions.
Notifications haunted inboxes. Critical information got lost in the noise. Announcements became a race for likes and important deadlines were ghosted as employees spent time conjuring clever comments or trying to win thread wars.
The only way to save the team from this cursed scrolling nightmare was to strike the balance between employee engagement and efficiency — where important messages were prioritized and light-hearted engagement didn’t overshadow critical work updates.
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#4. The cursed CEO email
Legend has it that whenever the CEO sends a company-wide email, chaos ensues.
The email arrives without warning. Employees feel a chill run down their spines as they open it. Suddenly, meetings are scheduled, projects are assigned, and urgent tasks appear out of nowhere. Everyone has that sinking feeling — you’ve just been “voluntold” for something new.
But the worst part? The email sits in your inbox, lingering, waiting for the poor soul who dares to click “Reply All.” And when they do, chaos breaks loose — a flood of unnecessary responses, confusion, and frantic attempts to undo the damage.
It’s a curse that haunts the office every time, and no one seems to learn the lesson. Some say that targeted messaging and group filters are on their way, ready to rid the company of frightening follow-ups… but then another all-employee email arrives and all hope of progress is lost.
5. The forgotten frontline worker
The newest member of the shipping team was excited to join the company — but something was off.
As the weeks passed, he couldn’t shake a deep feeling of total isolation. He never received the onboarding checklist that he was told to complete. He sent messages to his colleagues, but no one responded. The company’s communication channels were a maze he couldn’t navigate. He tried joining the team’s video call, but every attempt resulted in error messages.
The more he tried to reach out, the more he realized — he was completely alone in the company’s communication void. It was as if no one knew he existed.
As he worked the quiet aisles of the fulfillment center, he began to wonder if he was doomed to wander the similarly empty virtual hallways of the company, disconnected and invisible.
A simple mobile-first comms platform, intuitively designed to onboard frontline and remote workers smoothly, could have saved him from this forgotten fate.
{{mobile-recognition-post="/image"}}
#6. The jump scare alert
Every time the company intranet sends a new notification, employees flinch.
It’s never good news. The dreaded ping of a new notification means another last-minute all-hands meeting, a new policy change, or another round of mandatory compliance training. No one is safe from the frenzy of pings, dings, and buzzes, each one causing a ripple of jump scares throughout the employee base.
The never-ending notifications aren’t just constant, they almost feel cruelly timed — catching workers off guard during lunch breaks, late-night shifts, or right when they’re about to clock out.
Each alert leaves employees with a sinking feeling. What fresh horror awaits?
The employees often look into the distance and share stories of friends whose employers use message segmentation and smart notifications to personalize alerts and reduce irrelevant pings. “If only we were so lucky,” they whisper into the abyss.
#7. The files that won’t die
It started with an innocent attempt to delete an outdated HR file.
But no matter how hard the HR team tried, the file kept coming back, plagued by ghostly glitches. They uploaded a newer version, yet “Benefits2024” turned into “Benefits2024_v2,” then “Benefits2024_FINAL,” then “Benefits2024_FINALFINAL.” It didn’t matter how many versions she created — the old files returned to haunt the intranet, filling up space and confusing employees. Soon, the page was cluttered with so many versions, no one knew which file was the real one anymore.
It was a digital graveyard of files, and there seemed to be no way to stop the nightmare.
These haunted files could only be put to rest in a dynamic content hub where other systems and tools integrated with ease — leaving the intranet free from undead debris. {{mobile-hub-safety="/image"}}
#8. The dreaded “let’s split up” slip-up
In an effort to cover more ground and engage employees where they are, the internal comms team made a fateful mistake: they split up into different task forces.
They had specific groups for HR updates, operations, and company culture. Instead of coming together to create a unified message, each team worked in silos, unaware of what the others were doing. Emails flooded employees’ inboxes — some with safety updates, others with event invites, and still more with policy reminders.
Before long, messages contradicted each other. Employees grew confused, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communications. They didn’t know whose emails to prioritize, which deadlines were real, or where to turn for accurate information.
The split had fragmented not just the comms strategy, but the workforce itself.
If only the team had used a modern all-in-one comms platform, where unified company-wide and targeted messages could be sent with ease, they could have avoided this chilling fate altogether.
#9. The faceless leader
There’s a chill in the air whenever a company-wide message arrives from… The Leader.
No one knows who they are. No one’s seen their face or heard their voice. All they know is that every few weeks, a cold, impersonal email appears in their inboxes, filled with company updates, policy changes, and new directives. The messages are distant, robotic, and completely one-sided. Employees can’t reply. They can’t ask questions. They can’t even tell if The Leader knows what’s really going on at the frontline.
The faceless leader simply delivers information, never seeking feedback, never engaging in conversation. It feels like a ghostly figure hovering over the organization, whispering commands from the shadows.
The team grows frustrated, morale dips, and engagement begins to vanish into thin air.
With a comms platform that encourages two-way dialogue, maybe The Leader could finally step out of the shadows, engage with employees directly, and build trust. Until then, employees are left haunted by the eerie silence on the other end of the message.
Don’t let internal comms frights keep you up at night.
While these spooky stories may send a chill down your spine, they don’t have to haunt your workplace.
With the right internal communication tools — from mobile-first apps that keep everyone in the loop no matter where they work, to message segmentation that prevents information overload — you can save your employees from these hair-raising horrors.
This Halloween, don’t let outdated technology, disjointed messaging, or phantom notifications haunt your team. After all, internal comms should unite — not cause fright.
Blink. And deliver all treats — no tricks — with your internal comms this Halloween season.
Blink, the leading employee engagement super-app, announced that The Learning Experience, a premier early childhood education provider, has successfully implemented Blink’s employee engagement platform as part of its strategic initiative to improve frontline staff communication, engagement, and retention across its 350 locations.
As The Learning Experience continues its significant growth, finding innovative ways to enhance company culture and ensure effective communication across all locations has become increasingly important. Due to the nature of the work, traditional communication methods aren’t accessible, as most staff members are teachers who do not use email during the day and need a more flexible solution. To address these needs, the organization launched a strategic initiative called Operation Blue Elephant, utilizing Blink’s platform to enhance engagement and streamline internal communication. This effort focuses on unifying the experience for the company’s 10,000 employees, 90% of whom work in franchise-operated centers with limited direct connection to the corporate team.
Blink’s platform, known as the "Happy Hub" within The Learning Experience, has become a key component of its employee engagement strategy. This centralized communication tool offers employees timely access to essential information, core tools, and a platform for feedback, thus enhancing overall engagement and connectivity.
“Blink has been a game-changer on how we communicate and engage with our employees,” said Traci Wilk, Chief People Officer, of The Learning Experience. “By providing a unified platform, we’ve ensured that every team member, from corporate staff to frontline franchise employees, feels connected and valued. This initiative is not just about improving communication-it’s about building a culture where every employee thrives.”
Key highlights of the Happy Hub
Comprehensive benefits program - The Learning Experience introduced "TLE Cares," an affordable benefits package for franchisees to offer their employees.
Reimagined teacher onboarding program - Through the platform, new teachers have the tools they need to succeed from day one, leveraging new technology and resources.
Happiness index -The Learning Experience began running both parent and employee engagement surveys. Viewing these results together gave the organization and franchisees a clearer idea of their performance and how Happiness index scores relate to employee engagement, retention, and family enrollment at centers.
Results
Since the launch of the Happy Hub, there has been a notable improvement in employee retention rates. The streamlined onboarding process has also contributed to this success by boosting new hires' confidence and readiness to lead classes effectively. In addition, the positive reception of the platform, with 99% of franchisees actively participating, highlights its effectiveness in enhancing staff engagement and creating a more supportive work environment.
Sean Nolan, CEO and co-founder of Blink said, “The success of The Learning Experience’s Happy Hub showcases the profound impact of effective frontline connection. In today's competitive market, fostering a strong organizational culture and ensuring employees feel supported is crucial for retention and growth. Other organizations can look to The Learning Experience as a model on how to leverage technology to achieve these goals.”
HR and employee engagement conferences are more than educational forums for people management insights (although that’s absolutely one of the benefits of attending these events). They are also a gateway to exciting, lucrative networking opportunities — it’s no wonder that huge businesses are built on running conferences for HR and people leaders.
Which employee engagement and HR conferences are best for you to attend in 2023? We’ve put together a list of the events worth your time and the speakers you should be lining up to hear from.
The importance of employee engagement conferences
Every organization strives to engage its workforce, making employee engagement investments and running employee engagement programs. And yet, the latest surveys illustrate that 79% of employees don't feel engaged at work meaning that we’ve still got work to do.
Disengagement is widespread — particularly when it comes to frontline employee engagement — and every business can take bold steps to improve.
Employee engagement is about inspiring your staff to be the best version of themselves. It requires a proactive attitude, one that picks employees up and motivates them to find their feet and climb higher.
But the opportunity to engage employees can only be achieved by seeking out the tried and tested advice of experts. And that’s where employee engagement conferences come in.
What's the link between employee experience and employee engagement?
This is a topic we see come up a lot, but there’s an easy way to remember where employee engagement fits within employee experience.
Employee engagement is the target you're trying to hit and employee experience is the means to get you there.
Employee experience covers everything an individual sees, hears, feels, and believes while at work. It’s made up of countless interactions (or ‘moments that matter’) across the employee lifecycle, from the initial onboarding process to daily tools and responsibilities. Employee engagement, on the other hand, is how demonstrably committed a worker is to their role and your organization.
What are the 4 Cs and 3 Es of employee engagement?
Driving employee engagement is easier when you have a simple guide to follow. Here are the seven key points that will take center stage at employee engagement conferences in 2023:
Contribution - employees need to feel they have an active role to play in your company and that their work is making a notable impact
Connection - whether working remotely, on-site, or on the frontline, it's important to avoid working in silos by forging meaningful relationships with co-workers
Communication - having a management team that’s accessible and approachable offers employees the means by which to speak up and take part
Confidence - members of staff need certainty in their role, to allow them to perform to the highest of their abilities, without worrying about the health of the company or if their job is at risk
Empowerment - instilling employees with a sense of trust and authority gives them the motivation to go that extra mile
Enablement - in order to improve productivity, every employee needs to have the right tool for the job, so ensure their technology needs are met
The challenges and benefits of frontline employee engagement
Frontline employee engagement challenges
When it comes to frontline employees, there are several unique challenges to consider. And all too often courses, articles, and guides don't feel as relevant or relatable — as if they've been written with one (office-based) employee model in mind.
Frontline workers feel disengagement more acutely than most other professions. For one, there’s the disconnection inherent in their line of work, separating them from their co-workers and the wider organization. This deals a heavy blow to morale and productivity in the process.
The trick is to find an employee engagement solution that suits the frontline’s needs and requirements. It should speak to their inconsistent sense of belonging with the company and offer clear development to help employees build careers with your organization, rather than ‘just jobs’.
This goes beyond empty investments and initiatives. Frontline employees want to feel listened to, recognized, and included in strategies that directly affect them, rather than being an afterthought.
Frontline employee engagement benefits
The truth is, we all know the benefits of an increase in engagement. Employees that are committed, motivated, and engaged at work deliver more and perform better — and that means your bottom line improves across each and every level of your organization.
Absenteeism and health and safety incidents fall significantly and employee turnover plummets as staff engagement soars. With this, your competitiveness in the industry and attractiveness to prospective new hires is solidified. For CHROs, this is what makes the job feel great and it's understandable to see why employee engagement conferences are so appealing.
Learn more about how frontline organizations can improve employee experience and engagement through Blink’s customer case studies.
11 must-see HR and employee engagement conferences for 2023
Priding themselves on securing top industry names, you can expect to see representatives from Amazon, Deloitte, Capital One, UPS, Microsoft, and many others, all sharing their invaluable talent management insights.
With a strong focus on HR tech, UNLEASH is the ideal opportunity to explore how technology is changing the future of work across all industries — and the investments you can make to elevate efficiency. It's a must for those in HR and employee engagement.
This convention is not to be missed. One of the biggest of its kind, the CIPD Festival of Work boasts an impressive roster of guests. Organizations with frontline workers will be particularly interested in hearing from Danny Mortimer, CEO of NHS Employers, Tunde Agoro, Head of ESG at Hydrock, Fiona Brunskill, Chief People Officer of Transport for London, and Toby Culshaw, Global Head of Talent Intelligence at Amazon.
And for that specific focus on employee engagement, CIPD has two keynotes lined up: ‘Maintaining engagement through periods of change’ and ‘Employee listening — the key to retention and employee engagement’.
Energetic, vibrant, and fun — SHRM's annual conferences are well-known in the HR world. SHRM’s mission is to offer the widest possible reach with its events, covering ways to improve every facet of working life.
This gathering of industry professionals from all walks of life guarantees that every organization has something to gain from the expansive four-day HR conference.
HR Summit is the UK’s home for HR networking. Understanding that your time is precious, their goal is to pair you up with professionals that can answer the burning questions you have and provide the solutions you need.
They achieve this by organizing pre-arranged, face-to-face meetings between delegates and key industry suppliers. The event also features an array of cutting-edge technology, as well as HR products and services, all presented without a pushy hard sell.
Technology is a main talking point at many HR conferences. The tools we use to manage staff and improve business practices are growing exponentially — and HR Vision dives into the tech that’ll revolutionize your workflows.
The aim of this HR conference is to empower your workforce with the right HR technology and connect People leaders to an impressive set of speakers. Look out for Brady Pyle, Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer at NASA, Stephen Pierce, Deputy MD and CHRO of Hitachi Europe, and Cath Possamai, CEO of Recruiting Group, British Army, and other big names on the HR Vision agenda.
The idea of a sprawling event can feel overwhelming for those new to the employee engagement conference scene. Thankfully, there are more intimate options, such as Canada's Western Cities HR Conference 2023.
This event is made up of personal interactions with like-minded professionals and is designed to help managers gain a better understanding of their employees’ challenges. And with a focus on improving employee experience to drive employee engagement, this year's Western Cities HR Conference may be the best option for those looking to dip their toe into the HR conference experience.
Delivering the best HR tech on the market is what a lot of HR conferences pride themselves on. But for companies looking ahead to the horizon, they want to know what the next leap is, several years down the line — and how they can get in on the action early.
For those businesses, HR Technology Conference & Expo is where it's at. The organizers certainly know that having your finger on the pulse and investing in HR technology is a reliable way to improve your company’s HR standing.
Gartner ReimagineHR Conference
Date: September 11-12, 2023, October 23-25, 2023, and December 4-5, 2023
Location: London, UK, Orlando, USA, and Sydney, Australia
While still too far away for an agenda to have been published, we’re expecting more top-quality content from Gartner’s ReimagineHR Conference in 2023. Attendees of this employee engagement conference will learn how to tackle pressing issues within talent management, such as attrition, while keeping one eye on what’s coming further down the line.
What's more, this is a great opportunity to explore leadership development, culture building, and improved strategic decision-making — all to help your business operate at its highest possible level.
Date: September 26-29, 2023 and November 14-16, 2023
Location: San Francisco, USA and Barcelona, Spain
Ticket price: TBD
Workday’s online employee engagement content was available until April 2023 and it’s bringing the in-person experience to San Francisco and Barcelo towards the end of the year.
With a rallying cry of “It’s time to rise”, Workday Rising’s conference content is always inspiring — and helps deliver more than a few of those employee engagement 4 Cs and 3 Es. It’s energizing and empowering, designed to enable People leaders to excel in their roles. You’ll also connect with fellow leaders and gain greater confidence in the work that you do.
How to get the most from an employee engagement conference
With so many options in mind, having a clear game plan will result in the best takeaways and ROI from your experience. Here's what you should focus on:
Research and planning
What are the particular challenges your organization is facing? Will improving retention have the most impact or do you need to create a culture of communication? Understanding where you’re at today and where you want to be in the future is a great way to prepare for employee engagement conference season.
While it might not look like it on the surface, each HR conference will have its own niche angle. Research the speakers, investigate the talking points, and read reviews of how engaging and effective their output is. What you want to see are the success stories, so you can become one too.
Organize your time
HR conferences are designed to wow you. There are multiple stands, panels, and events that will draw your attention, but having a clear itinerary will keep you on track. Keep the exact timings and locations of must-see sessions marked down to avoid disappointment. But don't overload yourself either. Make sure you schedule breaks and allow for chance encounters, too.
Network before, during, and after
Speaking of encounters… The best thing about employee engagement conferences is that you’re with like-minded professionals. Hunt down the group chats or hashtags on sites like LinkedIn to build those connections in advance, then make time in your schedule to introduce yourself in person.
And, perhaps most importantly, keep the fire burning. Maintain momentum and keep in touch to convert that conference acquaintance into a strong business connection.
This is particularly important for HR leaders from frontline organizations. As we know, there are very few conferences that cater specifically to the frontline employee engagement challenges, so use the events listed above to find your allies. You can support each other from there!
Meet Blink at an employee engagement conference near you
Here at Blink, we don't just talk about HR conferences — we attend them too. Take a look at the exciting employee engagement conferences we'll be attending this year. And whether this is your first time or you're a seasoned pro, come and say hello.
76% of workers say they enjoy working collaboratively. But workplace collaboration isn’t just good for team members. It’s also good for your organization.
That’s because, when your teams are pulling in the same direction, there’s less wasted effort, greater productivity, and better business results.
These days, collaboration is a little more complicated than it used to be. Many employees work remotely or on a hybrid schedule. There are also hard-to-reach frontline employees to consider.
In 2024, organizations are having to be more intentional about employee collaboration — and they’re turning to tech tools to bring dispersed teams together.
Collaboration in the workplace may be changing. But it’s still as important as ever. Here, we take a look at the benefits of workplace collaboration, along with the role tech can play in creating a collaborative ecosystem.
What does collaboration look like in the workplace?
Workplace collaboration involves team members working together to achieve a common goal. It relies on empathy, active listening, conflict resolution, and accountability.
But it’s not just about team members working together on a big project. Or giving the standard monthly update on company developments. Collaboration is much, much more than that.
The most collaborative organizations make collaboration part of their company culture. It’s a mindset of openness and transparency. A place where all employees engage in effective communication and are ready and willing to help one another.
Employee collaboration might mean liaising with engineering, marketing, and sales teams to launch a ground-breaking new product. Or simply helping your co-worker get the photocopier working again.
In any form, collaboration is about sharing information and knowledge. About willingly offering support. And about combining employee strengths to get the best results each and every day.
Nowadays, there’s another key element to collaboration in the workplace — technology. In the wake of remote working and higher employee expectations with regard to tech, collaboration has gone digital.
Organizations use digital tools to facilitate employee collaboration even when teams don’t work face-to-face. They use tech, like project management software, employee apps, and real-time communication tools.
This is helping to maintain collaboration among desk-based teams, at home and in the office. It’s also supporting dispersed frontline workers to collaborate at work, too.
Collaboration is good for business. It ensures that your employees, like cogs in a well-oiled machine, are all working together. There’s more momentum and less friction. So you find it easier to achieve organizational goals.
Collaboration within teams helps those teams to function more effectively. Cross-functional collaboration is important too. Team-working across different departments helps to remove workplace silos and get all teams on the same page.
Workplace collaboration is also good for employee motivation and morale.
With easy and effective communication, the workplace becomes a happier place to be. And when employees operate as a team, helping each other to achieve tasks, the workplace becomes more caring and supportive.
Collaboration clearly makes a difference to employees. A 2022 Corel report into team-working revealed that:
41% of employees have left their job or would consider leaving their job due to poor collaboration at work
64% of employees say that poor collaboration costs them at least three hours per week in productivity
78% of employees say that leadership could be doing more to promote collaboration within the organization
Collaboration ties in with employee engagement, the employee experience, productivity, and employee retention, making it a really crucial component of any workplace.
8 benefits of collaboration in the workplace
Let’s take a closer look at what workplace collaboration can do for your employees and organization. Here’s what you can expect when your employees routinely collaborate with one another.
Improved employee engagement
Employees who feel they belong within an organization are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. And employees who get enough information to do their job well are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged.
Workplace collaboration brings employees together. It gives them need-to-know information, and aligns everyone behind company goals.
This creates a sense of community and purpose, which fuels employee engagement. Collaboration leads employees to feel more satisfied in their work and more loyal to your company.
Increased efficiency
When teams collaborate, they share information. Teams pool resources and people power. Employees who work together closely can share workloads and responsibilities.This enables teams to complete tasks more quickly. It also reduces the chance of duplicated work.
This efficiency frees up time in the workday. It helps managers to make workloads more manageable, while creating the time and employee headspace for even more creativity and collaboration.
Knowledge sharing
Imagine a company that fails to share its collective knowledge effectively.
Teams spend their time researching topics that other teams understand in depth. Employees repeat the same mistakes because there’s no one sharing their hard-earned insights. You fail to establish best practices. And employees are in a constant state of catch-up.
Now imagine the opposite. A company where knowledge is shared seamlessly between co-workers, teams, and departments. There’s no gatekeeper and collective knowledge is easy for everyone to access.
The latter scenario makes for a more successful organization. It helps you build a more knowledgeable workforce. And it saves a heap of time — because your people aren’t separately pursuing the same lines of research.
Stronger relationships
Good employee collaboration relies on strong workplace relationships. And it helps to develop them, too.
When teams collaborate, they communicate regularly. They work together towards a shared goal. They also develop trust and mutual respect as they share ideas and rely on each other’s support.
By developing these strong relationships, your organization gets better at collaboration going forward. You create a culture of psychological safety, where people feel comfortable speaking up about their ideas, mistakes, and concerns.
Strong workplace connections also improve the employee experience. With Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report revealing that 20% of employees experience a lot of loneliness at work, nurturing workplace relationships has never been more important.
Better decision-making
When you make decisions as part of a team, you leverage the knowledge, perspective, and experience of each team member. You involve the people who are directly affected by the decision — and those who are responsible for implementing it.
Making decisions as part of a team means assumptions are challenged and everyone has a sense of buy-in. You make informed and balanced decisions that are more likely to garner company-wide support.
For example, in a recent webinar, we heard from the team at the Capital District Transport Authority (CDTA) in New York. They realized they needed new tech to improve internal communication at the organization.
When deciding on the right tech solution, they took a cross-functional approach. They involved communications, IT, and HR teams, along with leadership. They also consulted the workers who’d be using the new tech.
By collaborating in this way, the CDTA was able to choose a modern intranet that met everyone’s needs and enjoyed excellent levels of adoption.
Enhanced problem-solving
We all know the proverb. “Two heads are better than one.” And when it comes to problem-solving, you’re much more likely to come up with creative and effective solutions when working as part of a team.
Collaboration brings people with different viewpoints together. This diversity helps teams to approach a problem from multiple angles — and come up with a variety of potential solutions.
It also minimizes blind spots. Because there are people with lots of different perspectives involved, it’s less likely that some element of the problem or its solution is overlooked.
Stronger employee development
The practice of collaboration helps to develop employee soft skills, like decision-making, problem-solving, communication, conflict resolution, and creative thinking
When you have a culture of knowledge sharing, co-workers can also learn from one another. They can pick up new skills and information from the people they work with. Employees are organically coached by more experienced members of the team.
This informal learning can take place within teams and across departments. Successful cross-departmental collaboration enables workers to get a better understanding of different areas of the business.
Boosted productivity
As we’ve already seen, good teamwork is linked to:
All of these things support workplace productivity. Employees have access to the resources, skills, knowledge, and relationships that help them perform at their best.
Collaboration also improves accountability. When employees are involved in planning, decision-making, and problem-solving, they’re more motivated to work hard and make a success of the initiative or project.
The role of technology in workplace collaboration
It used to be that collaboration could take place informally in the office.
Co-workers could share ideas as they made coffee in the break room. Or as they walked to the elevator together. There were plenty of face-to-face meetings where people could work together to solve problems and make decisions.
But things have changed. In recent years, technology has played a much bigger role in team working.
Firstly, thanks to the pandemic, remote working became much more widespread. While some organizations are encouraging people back to the office, a sizable proportion of employees still spend part of their working week working remotely.
In the UK, figures for 2024 show that 40% of workers spend at least some time working from home. In the US, 41% of employees whose jobs can be done remotely work a hybrid schedule.
Secondly, employee expectations around workplace tech have increased. With intuitive tech at home making life easier and more convenient, employees now expect the same digital experiences in the workplace. This goes for frontline employees, too.
Frontline employees — working shifts, in isolation, or on a busy shop floor — haven’t always had the same opportunities for teamwork as their desk-based peers. But with organizations now focusing on frontline employee engagement and retention, this is something that employers are looking to rectify.
To involve all employees in workplace collaboration — no matter their location or schedules — we have to be intentional. We also have to use the right technology.
Here are a few tools that support collaboration in the modern, digital workplace.
Real-time communication tools
When teams are working away from the office, real-time communication tools are an employee collaboration essential. You need a way for co-workers to communicate seamlessly, sharing information as if face to face.
We know that many deskless workers conduct conversations on personal apps. But this type of shadow IT poses security risks. It also fails to enhance collaboration and employee engagement as successfully as a dedicated communication tool, run with the oversight of your managers.
So providing employees with messaging and video conferencing tools is a must. You need software that facilitates 1:1, group, and company-wide chat.
Project management software
Projects have lots of moving parts. And — particularly for non-office-based teams — it can be hard to visualize project tasks and progress without project management software.
This type of software acts as a centralized platform for planning and executing projects. It keeps all files, discussions, and tasks in the same place, ensuring nothing gets lost and everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
Project management software is particularly useful for remote and hybrid teams. But it can still come in useful for purely office-based teams.
Streamlined communication, workflow automation features, file organization, task visibility, and real-time updates are useful for teams wherever they may be working.
Employee apps
For employees who don’t spend their day at a desk, an employee app is another vital workplace collaboration tool.
As Ian Gordon of Elara Caring said to us in an interview:
“Being a frontline worker can feel like you're on an island by yourself, and the solutions that you need must be quicker and more succinct. You can't spend a lot of time signing in and navigating. You need to get to your answer now.”
Apps, like Blink, fit Gordon’s description. They’re intuitive to use and available on employee smartphones. They also make it quick and easy for employees to complete tasks, whether that’s sending a message to a co-worker, checking the latest policy documents, or filling in a safety report.
Employee apps support collaboration for time-poor frontline workers. They help them build connections with co-workers, share their frontline insights, and keep up to date with company news, improving the employee experience in the process.
A resource hub
Whether it’s on your company intranet or an employee app, a digital resource hub is another useful tech tool for employee collaboration.
A resource hub allows co-workers to share files and work together on them. It also acts as an internal knowledge base.
Here, employees can find best practices, company policies, and FAQs. If they have the appropriate permissions, they can also add their own insights to the hub, tagging documents so employees can find them easily.
AI and automation
AI and automation tools are also playing a role in employee collaboration. They’re providing time savings that give team members more opportunities for collaboration. And they’re supporting collaboration in other ways, too.
Companies are using this tech to automatically tag resource hub documents so users can find what they’re looking for more easily. AI is producing better resource hub search results.
AI is also supporting employees in their use of data. With automated data analysis and predictive analysis, AI is giving employees a sound basis for their collaborative problem-solving and decision-making efforts.
Some organizations are also using AI to facilitate communication between different departments. For example, technical teams are using it to translate complicated documents for non-technical co-workers.
This is helping to close the communication gap between departments and ensure that everyone has the information they need to collaborate effectively.
In summary
Workplace collaboration has changed dramatically over the past decade. But it’s still a key indicator of business success.
Collaboration supports workplace productivity, communication, and business results. It leads to better problem-solving and decision-making.
It also supports your employee retention and engagement efforts by making your workplace an open and supportive place to be, improving the employee experience.
Face-to-face collaboration is trickier than it used to be. But with the right tech solutions, you can champion collaboration in your organization, no matter where your employees spend their work days.
Blink has everything you need to bring collaboration to your desk-based, remote-working, and frontline employees. Our mobile-first employee app provides:
Real-time communication via 1:1 and group chats, plus the company news feed
A resource hub, where employees can access company documents and forms
Deep integrations with the project management tools you already use
AI support that supports better workplace communication
Since joining Blink’s London office less than a year ago, our Data Analyst, Nikita, has already made her mark — tackling data-driven projects, collaborating across teams, and fueling the mission to empower frontline workers. She loves the energy of a smaller startup and finds real purpose in crafting tech solutions that make a positive impact.
Read on to learn how Nikita dove into the world of advanced analytics at Blink, why she’s proud of her work on the AEI tool, and what keeps her excited about the future!
What initially attracted you to join Blink?
I was really inspired by Blink’s mission to empower frontline workers. It was great to see technology being used for such a positive cause. I’ve worked at startups before and really enjoy the energy of a smaller company. Before joining Blink, I was at a slightly bigger startup, but I love our size and find what we’re doing here incredibly exciting.
What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?
AEI! I’m particularly proud of the Advanced Employee Intelligence (AEI) tool. I’ve been working on it with Izzy for the past few months, and it’s been exciting to provide customers with insights they didn’t have before. This tool offers actionable metrics, and it’s gratifying to see how our data can truly help other organizations.
How would you describe the company culture at Blink in three words?
I would say supportive, vibrant and energetic.
What's one thing you're excited about for the future of Blink?
I’m really excited about the coming year at Blink. We have a lot of great new customers on board, which means there will be even more data to explore. I can’t wait to see the insights we uncover and how they’ll help us continue innovating.
Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
I found the recent Frontline Heroes holiday campaign especially meaningful. It highlighted real stories from frontline workers who use Blink every day, and hearing their experiences was incredibly heartwarming. It served as a powerful reminder of the impact Blink can have on people’s daily lives, and it gave me a renewed sense of purpose in supporting our users on the frontlines.
Why do you work for Blink?
I’m early in my career, and one of the biggest benefits of working at a smaller company like Blink is getting exposure to so many different areas — Marketing, Customer Success, Product — you name it. I love the variety and the fact that I can see the direct impact of my work. Plus, Blink’s mission really resonates with me, so it feels great to contribute to something I believe in every day.
I started here as an Operations Support Analyst under Ana (Mason), which was a fantastic learning experience. But as I took on more analytical tasks, especially around the development of AEI, I transitioned into my current role in Data RevOps. I’m finding it incredibly interesting, and being hands on with such an important product is really rewarding.
Given how much I’ve already learned and how the company is evolving, I see myself staying at Blink for the foreseeable future. It’s a prime opportunity to keep growing, and I don’t want to miss out while I’m still soaking up knowledge at this stage in my career. I’m excited to see what new challenges and opportunities will come as Blink continues to expand.
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