The 8 modern intranet features your company needs

Change is the only constant? It’s a phrase we hear a lot these days. But it’s definitely true of business. And it’s also true of internal communications.

As new generations enter the workforce, as technology advances, and as employee expectations shift, internal communication trends are liable to change.

Keeping up with those trends is essential if you want to maintain an engaged and productive workforce. Because internal communications is how you keep employees in the loop, connect them to company culture, and inspire them to go all in for your organization.  

So, as we approach the halfway point of 2025, we thought it a good time to recap the internal comms trends we’ve seen developing over recent months.

The latest internal communication trends

The five internal comms trends we’ll be looking at include:

1. Ask questions
2. Focus on employee-generated content (everyone is an internal communicator)
3. Prioritize mobile-first communication
4. More visual, conversational, and authentic content
5. Focus on employee wellbeing and mental health

Let’s take a look at these in more detail.

1. Ask questions

Employees want more than company updates — they want a voice within their organization. And while companies have traditionally focused on delivering top-down messages, there’s now increasing focus on two-way communication and interaction. 

Whether it’s regular pulse surveys, leader Q&As, listening tours, or a good old-fashioned suggestion box, more and more organizations are seeing the value of regularly checking in with their workforce.

They’re giving employees the opportunity to be heard. Asking them questions and seeking their feedback on everything from the employee experience, workplace changes, ideas for innovation, and even the quality of internal comms itself.

It’s certainly a rising priority, with some organizations, including financial tech company Intuit, even employing a dedicated Head of Employee Listening. 

So how do you make a success of employee voice initiatives? Here are a few ideas:

• Start by asking the right survey questions. Align questions with your KPIs. Base questions around areas that you’re prepared to take action on. Word your questions neutrally and don’t overwhelm employees with too many survey questions.
  
  
• Create a culture of psychological safety. You’re unlikely to get valuable feedback if employees don’t feel comfortable sharing their honest opinions. So train your managers in active listening and empathy. Champion open communication across your whole organization. And consider giving employees the option to give feedback anonymously.
  
  
• Close the feedback loop. Only 58% of organizations take action to improve after receiving employee feedback. This leads to a loss of faith in the feedback process. So close that loop. Thank employees for their input, tell them about your findings, and clarify what you plan to do next.
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• Seek feedback regularly. The yearly employee engagement survey doesn’t cut it in a rapidly changing workplace. You’re more likely to miss vital insights relating to the employee experience and retention. Quarterly surveys, supplemented with short pulse surveys and increased leadership visibility can give you a consistent and cohesive view of what is happening with your workforce.

2. Focus on employee-generated content (everyone is an internal communicator)

Next on our list of internal communication trends? It’s EGC — or employee generated content. 

Traditionally, creating internal communications content has fallen to marketing and communications teams. And while there's certainly still a place for that, internal communications professionals are increasingly taking on the role of curator. They’re enlisting the help of employees in the content creation process.

EGC is any content created by employees. It’s a way to share real, human stories from across your organization. And it can fit into any content category — videos, pictures, stories, blogs, a comment on a news feed post.

EGC is useful for a number of reasons:

• It brings employees into the company conversation
• It helps you publish authentic, relatable content
• It creates a sense of community, trust, and belonging
• It improves employee engagement with internal comms

Ultimately, EGC helps to improve company culture, employee satisfaction, and retention, while reducing content production costs.

There’s an added benefit. You can use EGC on your internal communication channels and externally too. Share employee success stories on your website and social media channels and you build your employer brand, which makes talent acquisition that bit easier.

So how do you make EGC part of your internal comms ecosystem? 

Recognition and incentives for contributors encourage more employees to take on the role of content creator. A short EGC playbook tells employees what to include and what to avoid in their content. You can also use internal communication tools with permissions and content moderation features so you can always be sure that EGC aligns with company values.

3. Choosing mobile-first communication

A surefire way to improve comms engagement in 2025? Mobile-first communication tools.

Just 52% of internal communicators are confident they have the right tools for reaching all employees, regardless of their location or work type. 

They’re struggling to provide an equitable comms experience for a dispersed workforce, with the hybrid and frontline experience lagging behind that of desk-based staff.

Another revealing stat. Only 45% of comms pros say their comms tools provide a good user experience for employees.

They’re competing with the engaging, customer-grade experiences employees enjoy on popular messaging apps away from work. Clunky, desktop-only communication tech pales in comparison.

There’s another challenge looming. The number of digital natives within your workforce is growing. By 2030, Gen Z is predicted to make up 30% of the US workforce.

This is a generation that leans toward mobile-first, real-time messaging tools. In fact, Gen Z workers actively dislike emails, with 40% of them saying that email restricts their ability to show their personalities at work.

To provide an internal comms experience that aligns with the needs and expectations of an increasingly dispersed and tech-savvy workforce, many comms teams are enlisting the help of mobile-first employee communication and experience tools, in the form of an employee app.

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An app makes internal comms available to every employee smartphone. It makes it easier for your teams to connect, collaborate, access workplace resources, and stay up-to-date with the latest company news, no matter where they work. And it supports a more engaging comms experience.

4. More visual, conversational, and authentic content

What do TikTok and internal communications have in common? Much more than they did a couple of years ago.

The “TikTokification” of internal comms is in full swing, with communicators taking inspiration from social media’s engaging, multimedia, mobile-first content.

We’re talking short-form videos, an interactive news feed, co-worker communities, and snackable, personalized messages. Employees have the opportunity to respond to content too, sharing, reacting, and commenting in a way that keeps the conversation flowing.

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There’s research to support this shift — and to prove that a social-media-style approach doesn’t just suit the younger members of your workforce. For example, we know that 83% of people, a huge majority, prefer watching videos over reading or listening to instructional content.

Interactive, multimedia messages are more engaging. Which means workers are more likely to tune into your employee communication channels and act upon your content. This approach can also revolutionize frontline comms, helping you reach workers who don’t always have the time to read a long email or policy document. 

The good news? You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to incorporate this internal communication trend into your way of working. Smartphones and a comms tool with modern social features are all you need to create Insta-worthy internal communications.

5. Focus on employee wellbeing and mental health

Just last year, “wellbeing and mental health” was the 9^th most communicated-about topic on internal communication channels. This year, it’s risen to 5^th.

This, unfortunately, is a fair reflection of how the workforce is feeling. 53% of workers in the UK say that the demands of their jobs cause them excessive stress. In the US, 76% of workers report at least one symptom of a mental health condition — burnout, depression, or anxiety.

Despite this epidemic, just 55% of workers say that their organization genuinely prioritizes wellbeing. This is despite 81% saying that they look for mental health support when choosing where to work. 

The takeaway? We need to do better.

Caring, empathetic communication helps keep your employees healthy, happy, and motivated. And you get the best results when your words reflect concrete action on employee mental health across your organization.

At Hilton Hotels, an employer renowned for its mental health and wellbeing support, they’ve made it easier, cheaper, and faster for employees to access their employee assistance program (EAP) and rolled out an education curriculum on topics like resilience, stress management, and grief.

At Safeguard Global, they discovered that workers were stressed and struggling with high winter heating bills. So the company stepped in and helped out with a monthly stipend, relieving their workforce of a major worry. 

Clear communication about the mental health and wellbeing support you have on offer is vital. And internal comms can help in other ways, too. Because a positive workplace culture (which comms can help build) has a positive impact on employee wellbeing. 

When your company culture incorporates appreciation, a sense of purpose, and opportunities for growth, the odds of employees experiencing mental health challenges decrease by up to 87%.

Ensure that everyone — including hard-to-reach hybrid, WFH, and frontline employees — experiences the same access to company culture and wellbeing support, and you experience these benefits across the board.

Put these internal communication trends into practice for a happier, healthier workforce 

In 2025, we’ve moved way beyond the desktop-based intranets and top-down, text-based comms of old.

Today, employees want a voice. They want authentic, mobile-first, social-media-style communications that they can engage with on the go. And they want employers to tackle the topics that matter most, with mental health and wellbeing top of the agenda.

Organizations that embrace these internal comms trends stand to improve company culture and the employee experience. They can count on better engagement with company messages and better staff retention.

The C-suite has an important part to play. Internal communicators who have collaborative relationships with leaders are more likely to meet or exceed their success indicators. 

Work together with your comms team and you can implement the communication tools, strategies, and cultural change you need to take your communications to the next level.

Blink. And upgrade internal comms with a modern, mobile-first employee app. 

In theory, everyone loves employee empowerment. Empowered employees are more productive and engaged, more likely to trust senior leadership and more likely to approach situations. What’s not to like? 

Equally, that initial process of letting go can be hard – and that’s nothing to be ashamed about. Employee empowerment is a relatively recent philosophy, and many of us will have progressed our careers with a top-down approach to workplace management. 

With the huge rise in remote and hybrid work, this approach is crumbling. As many workplaces are set to remain remote, and many others are losing employees in droves due to lack of career progression and low pay, it’s not a viable long term strategy. 

Your managers can add huge amounts of value to your business in the projects they oversee and the bonds they build with their teams. Micromanagement is wasting them as a resource.

Staff empowerment involves trading some control over various aspects of your work environment for higher productivity and greater job satisfaction. Here’s how to embrace letting go in return for these tempting performance gains. 

What is employee empowerment? 

Let’s turn to the Society for Human Resource Management for a useful top-level definition of employee empowerment:  

“Employee empowerment is a management philosophy that emphasizes the importance of giving employees the autonomy, resources and support they need to act independently and be held accountable for the decisions they make.” 

“Autonomy, resources and support” encompasses a range of things here, and could include: 

• Offering employees freedom over where they work (e.g. remote or hybrid working arrangements). 
• Offering employees freedom over how they work by building managerial trust and avoiding micromanagement. 
• Providing resources for skills development and career progression
• Structuring your organization in a way that allows employees some say in how it’s run, for example employee voice initiatives and shareholder schemes. 

Employee empowerment, engagement, and satisfaction…what’s the difference?

Employee engagement is the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward the work they do, their teams and their organization.

Employee satisfaction is a measure of how happy an employee is in their role, and with their place of work in general.  

Employee empowerment is providing the resources and support needed for your employees to act independently. 

If you’re the type for metaphors (don’t blame you, they’re super useful!), consider employee satisfaction and employee empowerment as two key building blocks for employee engagement. 

High employee engagement is the ultimate goal – companies with engaged employees are 21% more profitable than companies that aren’t. Workplace satisfaction and empowering employees with control over how they work are essential contributors to this. 

The benefits of empowerment in the workplace

Your workforce is more flexible

Empowered workforces can work across locations and time zones, innovate more, and find solutions to problems quicker. That’s a real asset across your business – you can create better products, offer a vastly improved CX and build watertight internal processes. 

Your workforce is more productive

Employees who feel trusted are more likely to get more done in the same space of time. This is partly because it’s easier to feel driven when you have autonomy over your work, and partly because micromanagement is a major time drain. Free your colleagues from this over-hierarchical hellscape and they’ll be more willing to go the extra mile. 

Your workforce trusts leadership more

Trust is a two-way street. You’ll find that if employees are trusted to manage their workloads and have a say in how your business is run, they trust senior leadership to make mutually beneficial decisions as a result. 

Research by the Great Place to Work Institute and Fortune suggests that trust between managers and employees is the main factor in the world’s best workplaces. Workplaces with the most mutual trust beat the average annualized returns of the S&P 500 by a factor of three.

How to empower employees in the workplace

Employee empowerment isn’t a bandaid that you can tack onto your existing workplace to make it better. It needs to be woven into the fibers of your company culture. 

Bad news: this takes time and effort. 

Good news: this investment will absolutely pay off in the long term. Creating new management practices, investing in new ways of working, sharing feedback regularly and creating a culture of recognition all help you maximize the value you get from employee empowerment as a business. 

Feedback: give it and receive it

The more feedback you give on performance, the more you empower your employees to work dynamically, creatively and independently. 

The more feedback employees share with you about the workplace, the more your workplace can meet their needs – and the more likely they are to stay. 

Recognition: little and often is key

Did you know that a simple ‘thank you’ just once per month to your employees doubles employee engagement, halves the risk of them leaving and triples the likelihood of them sticking with you in the long term?

By all means celebrate the big milestones, but don’t forget to create a supportive, encouraging atmosphere day to day as well. Self belief is empowering – let your employees know that they’re doing a good job and watch performance improve. 

Career development: make sure employees are working towards something

Career development motivates employees to act independently. Why take the risks that come with autonomy and decision-making responsibilities if there’s no payout? 

In a recent survey 63% of workers cited lack of career opportunities as a reason why they left their position – the joint most popular response alongside ‘poor pay’. To create an empowered workforce motivated to stick around for the long-term, take a look at your career progression structure. What could be improved? Or, if you haven’t got any formalized structures in place, how could you design them to support the needs of your workforce? 

Communication: two-way, not one-way

Watching your employees’ every move makes your workforce resentful and erodes trust. Instead of monitoring behavior, start thinking about how you can facilitate meaningful two-way communication between managers and employees. 

As well as the right software – employee apps, instant messengers and project management software are all useful here – take a look at shifting your concerns away from regulating behavior and more towards focusing on results. 

Responsibilities: avoid making things too top heavy

The classic scenario: managers are expected to maintain a huge degree of control over their teams, resulting in time pressures, delays and a lack of feedback for frontline teams. 

By sharing responsibilities across employees and teams, you reduce this pressure drastically and encourage employee autonomy. You also avoid gradual erosion of trust and performance stagnation, as you empower your managers to spend time with their teams and invest time in employee development. 

Barriers to employee empowerment and how to overcome them

Stuck on building a naturally empowering workplace? Check these common barriers to employee empowerment. 

Your remote employees can’t communicate

To empower employees in a remote environment, your communications strategy needs to be stronger than it’s ever been. 

If performance is suffering and deadlines are being missed due to confusion, invest in remote employee communication tools and make sure your managers are checking in at least daily. 

Fear of position loss

If your employees are increasingly autonomous, what’s in store for middle to lower management positions? 

Ease your managers’ concerns about this by communicating new expectations for different roles. If they know that employee empowerment is as much about reinvesting their time in meaningful work as empowering the workforce, they’re significantly more likely to get on board. 

Lack of clear goals

“Be empowered” won’t cut it. To maximize returns on your employee empowerment strategy, you’ll need to be specific about what these goals look like. This could include: 

• Employees handling specific tasks on their own
• Employees contributing regularly to strategic discussions
• Employees shaping their workplace via employee voice initiatives

Employee empowerment in different industries

Not all industries work in the same way. What empowers employees in one industry might be impossible in another. Your healthcare workers might not be able to work remotely, for example, or there may be a particularly rigid professional hierarchy in place that you need to work around.

No matter your sector or organizational structure, there are ways to empower your employees. If flexible working is difficult, or there are real limits on the responsibilities you can share, try focusing on: 

• Employee voice initiatives like surveys and focus groups
• Career progression – if your industry is hierarchical, work with it!
• Recognition – a little ‘thank you’ never goes awry

Employee empowerment resources

There’s no such thing as being “too nerdy” about the wellbeing, productivity and performance of your employees. If you’re up for a bit of further reading, take a look at these resources. 

Empowering employees before, during and after the pandemic (SHRM)

Examples of employee empowerment (Chron)

Source: theinvestorsbook.com

Blink resources – a few more friendly blog posts that might be helpful!

Employee voice in the workplace

Workplace culture: what is it and why is it so important? 

A complete guide to employee recognition programs

Managing remote teams: best practices and tips for virtual leaders

How to create a remote work policy in 2022

Why & how to empower frontline employees

And, don’t forget to check out our Frontline of the Future podcast! Listen here. 

Employee empowerment examples

Need some real-world empowerment inspiration? Take a look at how these three businesses encourage their employees to reach their full potential. 

Timpsons

British service retailer Timpsons is a renowned example of what happens when you trust your employees. 

The business’s ‘upside down management’ philosophy was borne of owner John Timpson’s realization that “the only way to provide truly great customer service is to trust our customer-facing colleagues with the freedom to serve customers the way they know best.”

Timpsons’ frontline team members are encouraged to do whatever they can to provide a brilliant customer experience, including changing prices, rejigging displays and paying up to £500 to settle a complaint – without having to justify themselves to anyone senior. 

John Lewis

If you’re looking for the ultimate employee empowerment strategy, look no further than employee ownership. Your employees become shareholders in your business, and get a share of annual profits and a say in how the business is run. 

It’s definitely a commitment, but UK department store John Lewis makes it work. According to recent figures, 84% of John Lewis retail partners recommend John Lewis as a great place to work and 86% of customers feel valued when they shop with John Lewis outlets. Positioning their workforce as partners rather than employees drives empowerment; the retailer regularly tops ‘best workplace’ polls as a result. 

Google

It’s no surprise that worldwide innovation leader Google expects the best from its employees. To facilitate this, Google invests a lot in building a creative work environment where employees are empowered to develop new skills at every turn. 

Google Cafes encourage employees to build connections across the business, whilst the Google Moderator management tool draws a wider audience into meetings with a range of interactive features. 

Google also allows its engineers to spend 20% of their working week on projects that interest them but show no immediate promise of paying dividends. Employees have the chance to develop new skills and work with their interests, whilst Google keeps ahead of the pack on long-term innovation. 

Employee empowerment: final thoughts

As how we work continues to change, employee empowerment is becoming essential. Your teams need to be flexible, adaptable and engaged if you want to remain competitive – particularly right now, as open vacancies soar and workforces are asked to do more with less. 

Employee empowerment will look different in different workforces. For example, you might not be able to offer flexible working, but you can still allow employees control over their processes and a say in how the workplace is run. Or, you might have strict protocols that need to be followed, but be able to offer some degree of time and location flexibility. 

Whatever staff empowerment means for you, encouraging meaningful communication between managers and employees, setting clear expectations and building a culture of mutual trust is essential to success. 

Blink is an employee app that enables two-way conversations, builds trust and empowers employees as a result. Get your free demo 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,”

said Christi Krizman, Director of Development and Training at Promises Behavioral Health. The company now has a 70% average engagement rate on Blink.

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.  

Shiny demos don’t guarantee adoption.

You can buy a tool that looks amazing in a pitch meeting. Then watch it gather digital dust a few months later because it doesn’t actually work for your company.

Asking the right questions up front avoids that frustration and a ton of wasted budget. It helps you find a solution that supports both employee communication and engagement — and fits seamlessly within your tech ecosystem.

Doing some software shopping? To find the right employee communication app for your organization, here are the 10 questions you should be asking.

Choosing an employee communication app: A 10-question checklist

1. Will every employee actually use this?

Okay, so priority number one is finding an app that your employees will embrace. Because if a good chunk of your workforce fails to get on board with your new software tool, you’re not getting good ROI.

The right app is:

• Intuitive. Employees can pick it up and start using it without having to trawl through a manual first.
• Accessible. It should be easy for every employee to log in, even on older phones or with patchy internet connection.  
• Free from friction. Everything just works — whether that’s search functions, voice calling, or integrations with other tools.

When assessing an app, keep your least tech-savvy employee in mind. If you think they’d use (and maybe even actually grow to love) this app, you can be confident it’ll work for the rest of your team.

2. Does it work for frontline teams?

A major benefit of an employee communication app is that it’s available on smartphones. So you can land messages with your hardest-to-reach employees — those who don’t sit at a desk all day.

To find the best solution, look for tools that understand and accommodate the realities of frontline work, including:

• Shifts and staggered schedules. The best apps support both real-time and asynchronous communication so employees can check in at a time that works for them.
• Busy schedules. With search, personalization, critical reads, and bite-sized content, the best apps let you share vital information in a format that’s quick and easy to digest.
• Frontline access requirements. Deskless staff don’t always have a corporate email address or access to a shared portal. They should be able to log in easily from their smartphones.
• Frontline vs. desk-based experience. Don’t accept one experience for office-based staff and another for frontline employees. Your app should have the same features and functionality across both desktop and mobile apps.

Ultimately, any frontline communication app has to be mobile-first and secure but accessible on personal smartphones. It also needs to provide an exceptional digital employee experience across all devices.

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3. Can it replace multiple tools?

If you’re relying on a patchwork of communication tools, your staff are probably feeling the strain. They’re spending nearly 4 hours each week — and 1,200 clicks per day! — toggling between apps. Or bugging IT because they forgot one of many sets of login details (again!).

The best employee communication apps don’t exist in a silo. They streamline your comms tech stack by combining essentials — like real-time messaging via chat, company-wide updates on a news feed, and documents in a content hub.

The best of the best go even further. They act as an all-in-one employee experience app and intranet platform, with personalized content pathways, employee recognition, and easy access to other workplace systems.

Think about the tools you’re currently using and how many of them your shortlisted apps could replace. Because the fewer tools you use, the easier and more streamlined work becomes.

4. How easy is it to manage and govern?

The front-end of an app can work like a dream. But what’s going on behind the scenes? You need to look beyond the glossy exterior to the nuts and bolts of the admin experience.

When an app is complex to manage and govern, the comms team ends up calling on IT. This creates a bottleneck. And it leads to stale content, clunky processes, and frustrated employees.

To ensure the best user experience and continued engagement with your employee communication app, you need clear permissions and content controls. You also need tools that make it easy to add, update, and personalize communication content.

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5. Is it secure and compliant?

Security is another top consideration when choosing an employee communication or employee experience app. You want a solution that meets enterprise-grade security standards, with security built in, not bolted on.

So look for things like:

• End-to-end encryption, in transit and at rest
• Secondary biometric authentication
• Function fencing, so workers only have access to the tools and controls they need
• Automated user provisioning, so it’s easy to add, manage, and remove users as necessary

If you work in a particularly regulated industry, like healthcare, you should also look for compliance with industry-specific security laws.

But bear in mind: heavy-handed security can harm the user experience, pushing your employees toward makeshift solutions, like WhatsApp.

So it’s all about getting the right balance. A good software provider should help you find that balance, achieving the best possible security while also ensuring a simple and streamlined experience for users.

6. Does it support two-way communication?

Internal communication is most effective when it goes both ways. The C-suite and managers speak to employees. But employees have the opportunity to respond.

A good employee communication app gives your organization the tools it needs to maintain a dynamic conversation:

• Instant messaging tools, for 1-to-1 and group chat
• A news feed where employees can react with comments, emojis, and GIFs
• Employee surveys and quick-fire polls
• Video and voice calling
• Interactive live streaming

Choose tools that support two-way internal communication, and you give employees a voice. That means stronger workplace connections, better collaboration, and employees who feel seen and heard.

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7. How quickly can we launch?

Time-to-value is important. The right app should be quick to deploy and easy to scale across multiple teams.

If you’re considering building your own comms app, know that this often requires months (or even years) of developing, testing, and iteration. So buying a ready-to-go tool is often the quickest solution.

Today, prebuilt doesn’t mean compromising on the end result. You can incorporate custom branding and tailor app features and functionality to the needs of your organization. You get speed, scalability, and best-in-class technology.

Ask providers about timescales so you have a clear idea of the setup and launch process. Here at Blink, most of our clients go live within 6 to 12 weeks.

8. Will it integrate with our existing systems?

A great employee communication app isn’t just a one-stop shop for internal conversations. It can also act as a digital hub, reducing friction and making life easier for employees in the process.

That requires strong integrations with the existing software you use. And single sign-on technology to give employees access to that software from one unified dashboard.

When you integrate an app into your digital ecosystem, employees can use it to tackle tasks like:

• Swapping shifts with coworkers
• Checking their paystubs
• Clicking a news feed post to go straight to online compliance training
• Completing a safety report on the go
• Submitting a time-off request
• Viewing customer details via your CRM

The result? Your employee communication app becomes a comprehensive employee intranet. A place where staff can catch up with the latest company news — of course.

But also a place where they can learn, receive recognition, give feedback, and access all the tools they need to do their jobs well.

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9. Can we measure impact and ROI?

To get the most from your mobile-first employee app, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. And to do that, you need analytics.

Find out what analytics and reporting features come with your shortlisted apps. Consider the internal comms metrics they allow you to track.

And expect more than just the basics. A good app won’t just provide data on platform usage and message read rates.

It’ll show you how internal comms KPIs relate to employee engagement, sentiment, and turnover. It’ll allow you to segment data by team, department, and manager. And it’ll present data in a way that’s super easy to understand and act on.

Clear analytics help you improve internal communications. They also help prove the value of employee communication to leadership, so you can justify continued investment in comms strategy and tech.

10. Does it feel human?

The final question to ask before choosing an employee communication app. Does this app feel familiar and fun? Or is it cold and corporate?

Employees are more likely to use your app when it offers the same consumer-grade experience they enjoy on apps away from work. If it lets them communicate in ways they’re used to (and in ways they enjoy).

Operational updates are important. But your app should also make space for informal, authentic connection. Tools like video stories, coworker communities, voice and video calling, live streaming, and employee-generated content make that possible.

Give people a modern social experience, where they can show up as their real selves, and engagement is sure to follow.

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The right employee app makes all the difference

Choosing an employee communication or employee experience app isn’t just about features or fancy demos. It’s about finding a tool your team will actually use — one that fits your workflow, feels intuitive, and makes work more connected, engaging, and human.

Ask the right questions up front. Consider the full scope of the app — the more functions it performs, the more value it brings to your team. Look beyond shiny user interfaces to the day-to-day employee experience.

When you do, you don’t just add another tool to your tech collection.

You get a solution that supports company culture, employee productivity, engagement, and retention. You build a space where employees can easily access the information they need and the connection they crave.

Meet your newest digital water cooler: Your employee intranet

Whatever happened to the workplace water cooler?

Water cooler conversations were never just about small talk. They helped build stronger teams, sparked collaboration, and made employees feel part of a welcoming company culture.

In today’s hybrid and frontline workplaces, these moments are a rarity. But the need for connection is stronger than ever.

‍83% of employees want their workplace to provide a sense of community, with more than a third willing to trade higher pay for meaningful workplace friendships or social enrichment.

Enter the modern employee intranet: A digital water cooler that supports seamless internal communication and boosts employee engagement. It’s a tool that amplifies company culture and gives all employees — no matter where they work — the connection and sense of belonging they crave.

Ready to take your intranet from dusty document repository to thriving social hub? Here, we look at how to upgrade the employee intranet — and why having a digital space for connection is so important in 2025.

The evolution of workplace connection

Remote and hybrid work have transformed employee communications. There’s less opportunity for organic office conversations, which means workplace relationships and employee engagement suffer.

This is nothing new for frontline workers who rarely step into HQ. Relying on paper memos and word-of-mouth messaging, they often miss out on essential company news and coworker camaraderie. 

But times are changing. Many employers now recognize the critical role connection plays in employee engagement, retention, and productivity. And they’re turning to corporate intranets to bridge the gap.

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Rethinking the employee intranet: From static portal to social hub

You may be wondering how the intranet — that clunky and outdated software — can solve the employee connection conundrum. Traditional intranets, often relegated to the dark corners of the tech stack, have functioned as a digital filing cabinet. Certainly not a space for water cooler conversation.

But internal communications have moved on.

The modern employee intranet is dynamic and mobile-first. It’s designed to connect employees across locations — offering a single source of truth and need-to-know company updates. But also a sense of belonging, a deeper understanding of company culture, and a more satisfying employee experience.

Imagine this: A delivery driver rarely crosses paths with his teammates. With limited access to an old, static intranet that he has to access via a shared desktop computer in the depot, he feels like he’s working solo.

But, thanks to a new and improved employee intranet and personalized experience, he can check the company’s social feed on his smartphone during breaks. In one central location, he can add a reaction to a recognition post for top-performing drivers and even join a group chat where colleagues swap route tips.

Suddenly, he’s part of something bigger.

Social features that make modern intranet software more interactive and effective include social feeds, secure chats, Polls, Stories, and peer recognition tools.

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How to make your intranet a go-to digital water cooler (paper cups not necessary)

Ready to turn your modern intranet solution into the digital workplace hotspot? Here’s how.

Make it social

The best employee intranets replicate your favorite experiences on social media platforms. When employees can comment, react to posts, and share their own content, you create more compelling user experiences and make your platform more engaging.

Use bite-sized, engaging updates

Keep it snappy. Use short and snappy videos, GIFs, and eye-catching graphics. This type of content attracts attention and fits seamlessly into the busy schedules of both desk-based and frontline workers.

Encourage leadership visibility

Have executives and managers actively post, share insights, and respond to employee comments. Employees are more likely to engage with your intranet when they see that leadership is invested in two-way communication.

Leverage personalization

Relevant content is engaging content. So ensure employees see content relating to their role, location, tenure, and team. When staff enjoy a highly personalized intranet experience, they're more likely to log in regularly — boosting key metrics like employee adoption.

Make it accessible

All employees should be part of the conversation. So you need an intranet that your frontline employees, remote workers, and desk-based staff alike. Streamline the experience, provide a user-friendly dashboard, and make all essential features available via mobile access to create a solution that works for everyone.

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Turning employees into active intranet participants

You can build it. But will they come? And will they participate?

To prevent tumbleweed moments on your intranet platform, employee interaction is essential. Here’s how you can nudge workers in the right direction and develop a modern intranet culture that employees are excited to be part of.

Interactive content

Ask questions. Launch polls. Create employee recognition posts and ask teammates to add their messages of congratulations. Coworker connection is much more likely when you invite employees to join the conversation.

Informal content

Company updates are an employee intranet essential. But to foster connection, you need to leave space for informal conversation. So create fun content — like caption contests, a question of the day, and photos of the latest team event — to make your intranet more relatable and appealing.

Employee-generated content

Nothing inspires the reactions and comments of coworkers like employee-generated content. You can encourage employees to post their own content with a company-wide content generation contest — or by identifying and supporting employee influencers.

Gamification

A spot of good old-fashioned competition can prompt the intranet behaviors you want to see. A points system, a leaderboard, or digital badges inspire employees to take a more active role in the company intranet.

Communities

With Communities, employees can build meaningful connections with a smaller group of coworkers. These community-driven spaces link employees to their teammates or to coworkers with shared interests — and they’re great at driving engagement and participation.

These social communities are especially beneficial for frontline and remote teams who rely on digital collaboration tools to sync up with their colleagues.

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Measuring success: Is your digital water cooler thriving?

Once your digital water cooler is a hive of employee interaction and conversation, it’s time to measure its impact. Use analytics and employee feedback to assess engagement and optimize employee intranet platform performance.

You can track internal communication metrics by looking at:

• Intranet adoption rates
• Number of likes, comments, and shares
• Number of employee-generated posts
• Number of daily logins

Supplement this data with employee surveys. Ask employees what they think about modern intranet features, functionality, interactivity, and the types of intranet content they prefer.

You can then use this information to make meaningful adjustments to your intranet solution, making it more engaging and keeping up-to-speed with evolving employee expectations.

Give workers the social connection they crave with a modern employee intranet

A modern, social intranet isn’t just a tool for sharing information. It’s a powerful driver of culture and connection across the entire company — and a strategic part of your digital transformation.

Populate your employee intranet with key features, functionality, and content, and it becomes the gathering space of your digital workplace. It offers water cooler moments that enrich the digital employee experience.

Your intranet strategy doesn’t just benefit your people — it benefits for your broader business goals, too. By creating a deeper sense of connection and a more inclusive corporate culture, you can improve employee productivity, engagement, and retention.

‍Blink. And create uplifting water cooler moments — with a new and improved employee intranet.

Boston, MA — May 18th, 2026 — Blink, the leading employee experience platform for frontline workforces, today announced it has raised $17 million in funding from Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI), the growth equity fund affiliated with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). Blink also announced a new global partnership with Shake Shack following a successful integration of its workforce management solutions.

As restaurants – and frontline-driven industries more broadly – continue to navigate high employee turnover, margin pressure, and an increasingly complex operating environment, Blink is helping organizations address some of their most persistent workforce challenges. By improving employee communication and engagement, Blink enables teams to stay connected, informed, and aligned – driving higher staff satisfaction, reducing turnover, and increasing overall productivity. Blink’s frontline workforce solutions empower employees to access critical company information, tools and communicate seamlessly across teams, from corporate to frontline staff, all in one unified platform. In 2025, adoption of Blink’s self-service employee tools, which enable team members to swap shifts, access pay stubs, and have more agency over their work, grew 300% year over year, and employees opened the Blink app seven times a day on average to stay informed, efficient, and connected.

“We are excited to partner with Danny and the EHI team and believe that their commitment to delivering Enlightened Hospitality is more relevant now than ever,” said Sean Nolan, Founder & CEO of Blink. “We also are thrilled to launch with Shake Shack, an industry leader who shares our commitment to a strong corporate culture that begins on the restaurant floor.  As we embark on this next chapter of growth, we look forward to partnering with forward thinking brands who are empowering their people to win in this competitive market”

Blink will use the funds to invest in its product and engineering teams and drive continued innovation across its AI-first platform, while also accelerating its go-to-market strategy to reach more customers across the hospitality industry and beyond.

“I have always believed that Enlightened Hospitality – the ethos that when you take care of your people, your people take care of your customers – is how to create sustaining success in any business" said Danny Meyer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Enlightened Hospitality Investments and Founder of Union Square Hospitality Group. "Blink’s technology puts people first by making sure team members are equipped and supported so they can, in turn, deliver their very best. Blink’s smart technology will help shape the future of restaurants." 

Blink IQ, the company’s AI workforce insights platform, gives management real-time insight into trends such as workforce feedback, productivity, sentiment, and turnover to help companies identify issues early, take action fast, and improve both engagement and operational performance.

“At Shake Shack, everything starts with our people. The energy in our Shacks and the Enlightened Hospitality our teams bring to life each day are what make us special,” said Luke DeRouen, Chief Communications Officer at Shake Shack. “As we continue to grow, we are focused on giving our teams simple tools that keep them informed, connected, and engaged. Blink will help us do exactly that, enabling a more connected and consistent experience across our Support Center and Shack teams.”  

Blink works with some of the world’s most recognized hospitality brands across the restaurant and hotel industry and continues to expand across verticals, including retail, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics. In 2025 alone, the company added over 700,000 users in the hospitality sector.

By centering the platform on the employee experience, Blink helps restaurants streamline operations, strengthen culture, boost retention, and elevate every guest experience. To learn more about Blink, visit www.joinblink.com.

To learn more about this partnership, read the announcement on Business Wire and Kristen Hawley’s exclusive coverage in Expedite here.
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About Blink

Blink is the mobile-first employee experience platform that connects your people, systems, and culture in one super-app. It bridges the digital divide between deskless and desk-based workers, supercharging employee communication and engagement at industry-leading companies like Shake Shack, McDonald’s, Domino’s, Booking.com, Dollar Tree, Nokia, easyJet, JD Sports, Carrefour, and Stagecoach. Blink is the top-rated Employee Communications Application on Gartner Peer Insights and a Leader in the G2 Grid for Best Employee Engagement Software. Learn more at joinblink.com.

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About Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI)

Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) is a value-added strategic growth equity firm affiliated with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). The firm was formed to leverage the brands, businesses and team at USHG to identify and invest in scalable businesses with proven category leadership and a commitment to building an employee, customer and community-focused culture. EHI partners with portfolio companies to provide strategic direction, operational experience, increased visibility and access to relationships to drive growth with our portfolio partners. EHI manages over $550M of committed capital and primarily focuses on hospitality and related technology businesses, but will also invest in other hospitality-related companies that share an employee, customer and community-focused culture.