10 online collaboration activities for remote teams
Discover simple but effective online collaboration activities and exercises that can help your remote workforce improve performance and team spirit.
Jess DeVore
Published:
September 6, 2023
Last updated:
October 8, 2024
What we'll cover
Study after study has shown the importance of collaboration at work. Companies that get collaboration right are more likely to beat competitors and have a highly motivated, engaged workforce.
But fostering collaboration can be a challenge when most of your employees don’t work from the office. If your employees work on the front lines or from their homes, they won’t have the same bonding opportunities as desk-based workers.
What can you do about this? Invest in creative ways to build effective virtual collaboration into your culture and promote teamwork.
One such way is to conduct online collaboration activities. These exercises provide remote employees the chance to socialize with peers whom they rarely get to meet in person.
So in this post, we’ll walk you through some of the best online collaboration activities we have hosted or seen working recently. But before we get to that, let’s see why virtual collaboration is so important.
Why is online collaboration important?
2500% more companies globally are investing in remote collaboration initiatives in response to Covid-19.
The media has bombarded us for years with stories of isolated, self-made geniuses. But whether you’re an individual or a business, you need to work with other people and teams successfully to get positive results.
You and your workers need opportunities to develop rapport, understand each other’s abilities, and communicate effectively as needed.
It’s teamwork that lets employees put out a collective effort and get things done — things that cannot be carried out alone.
But as we said before, remote work deprives people of the chance to interact with their coworkers beyond the scope of work. If you’re part of a dispersed team, there’s little chance that you’ll ever bump into another colleague near the water cooler, or talk about a hobby.
Because of this, virtual teams often lack the human connection that is critical to job satisfaction and employee retention. And without emotional bonds, team members are less likely to be engaged at work.
That’s where online collaboration activities fill the gap. You can use them to enhance relations between employees and boost motivation. The remote collaboration exercises below will help your workers feel closer than ever, improving their overall well-being and happiness.
Online collaboration activities for remote teams
When picking the following online collaboration activities, we have ensured they are easy to implement and effective. And that they can be adapted to remote work environments using any well-known video conferencing tools.
Plus, if an activity requires a whiteboard, you can share your screen and use any online whiteboard or note-sharing software for each person to see a live, editable page. Let’s begin.
What’s on your bucket list?
Sharing our dreams with another person is a great bonding experience. In this online collaboration example, you’ll give each employee a few minutes to think and make a list of their goals.
Specifically, these would be the things they want to do in the next 12 months, or at least once in their lifetime.
Then, every worker will share the list they created in a video conference. If some employees have the same things on their lists, they can continue the conversation offline to discuss and plan together.
Online coffee meeting
Call for a short, stand-up meeting at the start of the day. Each team member finds a coffee shop nearby, or brews a fresh cup on their own if they are home.
During the meeting, they can talk about the work they have planned for the day while enjoying their morning coffee. If mornings are not possible, you can apply the same concept to evening coffee breaks.
Be careful with this activity though. It’s very easy for it to become a strictly formal, work-related conversation. Make sure to keep the chatter light and fun.
Wall of fame
This online collaboration exercise helps employees facilitate clear communication and recognize each others’ strengths.
Divide workers into teams of two. Now ask each employee to take two minutes and share a work-related accomplishment they have had recently. You can set a particular time frame, such as last year, quarter, or week.
These could include successes such as handling a client, reducing the time it takes for a task, or gaining new insights.
After a worker is done speaking, the other person on their team will summarize to make sure they have understood the value of this achievement. Then repeat the same process for everyone in the meeting.
Photo of your life
Ask your distributed employees to take or share a snap of something meaningful from their personal life.
For example, it can be:
A family portrait
A picture from their recent vacation
A shot from their daily routine
Something they recently purchased
Whatever it is, it should shine some light on their personality and interests. Then schedule a video meeting where workers can show and talk about their pictures. They can say why they chose the image and what it means to them.
Memory board
The memory board is an amazing way to bond over past events, and it helps immensely with virtual team building.
Create a list of some work-related subjects and post them as notes on a whiteboard. For example:
My favorite team member
First day at work
Client presentation
You can then have each worker pick a topic and share a memory related to it.
Two truths and a lie
This is a great collaboration example for newly formed remote teams. Typical introductions based on “say something about yourself” can feel awkward, boring, and uncomfortable.
But with this remote team-building activity, you can give workers a fun, alternative way to introduce themselves and improve future communication.
Before calling an introduction meeting, ask employees to prepare three statements — two truths and one lie — about themselves. The lie should be conveyed as realistically as possible. It shouldn’t be easy to spot.
Each worker will then disclose their three statements in the meeting when delivering their introduction. And other team members will guess what’s the lie and what the truths are. Once they are done, the worker will tell the team members if they were right or wrong.
You can also make it more fun by awarding points to people who hid the lie successfully or who guessed it correctly.
Guess the phrase
This team-building activity has gained so much momentum over the years that companies like Hasbro have turned it into an electronic game.
Create a list of words or phrases. These could include celebrities, expressions, objects in the office, or movie names.
Then assign one to each employee. No one should know the word apart from the worker whom it’s assigned to.
Next, ask each employee to describe the word given to them without actually mentioning the word. And other team members will guess what the word is.
Online lunch and learn
Breaking bread together is an obvious connector. And lunch and learns have been one of the classic online training activities to promote collaboration in physical workplaces. So there’s no reason they can’t be adapted to the virtual world.
Get your team members on a video call and invite a subject matter expert to teach something that everyone can use. The topics may include productivity, problem-solving, and of course, working remotely.
You can schedule the event during lunchtime, allowing workers to enjoy their meals while absorbing new knowledge. If budget is not an issue, you can also offer to pay for the food.
Survival on an island
In this virtual team-building activity, give your team a hard situation. For example, let’s say they were going somewhere in a plane and it crashed on a deserted island, or a zombie apocalypse has made its way into their region.
Then share with them a list of objects that might help with their survival and eventual rescue. Next, ask them to rank each item based on its importance, first individually and then as a whole group.
It’s a great way for everyone to reflect and compare their personal decisions with collective choices. And it may give them new perspectives on collaboration.
Online recipe showcase
It’s not just eating. Cooking too can lead to an effective online collaboration exercise. With the popularity of remote work, more and more people are cooking at home.
You can start an online event where workers share their culinary favorites or experiments with food. And you can also run a challenge where employees will try each others’ recipes and take pictures of what they made.
Over to you: 10 online collaboration activities
Online team building doesn’t have to be difficult. It can be just as fun for workers to get to know each other virtually as physically.
As you can see, there are many online collaboration activities that are quick and easy to arrange. And they are essential to creating a digital employee experience fueled by teamwork and positive working relationships.
Not just that.
Online team-building exercises help you leverage the unique strengths and perspectives of each and every employee, resulting in a better output at work. So incorporate them regularly in the virtual workplace, and the harmony you’ll create is bound to help your business excel. Consider it one of the best practices for employee engagement you need to follow.
Plus, having the right technology, like one of the best employee engagement tools or an all-in-one team collaboration platform can foster collaboration to an even greater level. Request a free Blink demo today.
Study after study has shown the importance of collaboration at work. Companies that get collaboration right are more likely to beat competitors and have a highly motivated, engaged workforce.
But fostering collaboration can be a challenge when most of your employees don’t work from the office. If your employees work on the front lines or from their homes, they won’t have the same bonding opportunities as desk-based workers.
What can you do about this? Invest in creative ways to build effective virtual collaboration into your culture and promote teamwork.
One such way is to conduct online collaboration activities. These exercises provide remote employees the chance to socialize with peers whom they rarely get to meet in person.
So in this post, we’ll walk you through some of the best online collaboration activities we have hosted or seen working recently. But before we get to that, let’s see why virtual collaboration is so important.
Why is online collaboration important?
2500% more companies globally are investing in remote collaboration initiatives in response to Covid-19.
The media has bombarded us for years with stories of isolated, self-made geniuses. But whether you’re an individual or a business, you need to work with other people and teams successfully to get positive results.
You and your workers need opportunities to develop rapport, understand each other’s abilities, and communicate effectively as needed.
It’s teamwork that lets employees put out a collective effort and get things done — things that cannot be carried out alone.
But as we said before, remote work deprives people of the chance to interact with their coworkers beyond the scope of work. If you’re part of a dispersed team, there’s little chance that you’ll ever bump into another colleague near the water cooler, or talk about a hobby.
Because of this, virtual teams often lack the human connection that is critical to job satisfaction and employee retention. And without emotional bonds, team members are less likely to be engaged at work.
That’s where online collaboration activities fill the gap. You can use them to enhance relations between employees and boost motivation. The remote collaboration exercises below will help your workers feel closer than ever, improving their overall well-being and happiness.
Online collaboration activities for remote teams
When picking the following online collaboration activities, we have ensured they are easy to implement and effective. And that they can be adapted to remote work environments using any well-known video conferencing tools.
Plus, if an activity requires a whiteboard, you can share your screen and use any online whiteboard or note-sharing software for each person to see a live, editable page. Let’s begin.
What’s on your bucket list?
Sharing our dreams with another person is a great bonding experience. In this online collaboration example, you’ll give each employee a few minutes to think and make a list of their goals.
Specifically, these would be the things they want to do in the next 12 months, or at least once in their lifetime.
Then, every worker will share the list they created in a video conference. If some employees have the same things on their lists, they can continue the conversation offline to discuss and plan together.
Online coffee meeting
Call for a short, stand-up meeting at the start of the day. Each team member finds a coffee shop nearby, or brews a fresh cup on their own if they are home.
During the meeting, they can talk about the work they have planned for the day while enjoying their morning coffee. If mornings are not possible, you can apply the same concept to evening coffee breaks.
Be careful with this activity though. It’s very easy for it to become a strictly formal, work-related conversation. Make sure to keep the chatter light and fun.
Wall of fame
This online collaboration exercise helps employees facilitate clear communication and recognize each others’ strengths.
Divide workers into teams of two. Now ask each employee to take two minutes and share a work-related accomplishment they have had recently. You can set a particular time frame, such as last year, quarter, or week.
These could include successes such as handling a client, reducing the time it takes for a task, or gaining new insights.
After a worker is done speaking, the other person on their team will summarize to make sure they have understood the value of this achievement. Then repeat the same process for everyone in the meeting.
Photo of your life
Ask your distributed employees to take or share a snap of something meaningful from their personal life.
For example, it can be:
A family portrait
A picture from their recent vacation
A shot from their daily routine
Something they recently purchased
Whatever it is, it should shine some light on their personality and interests. Then schedule a video meeting where workers can show and talk about their pictures. They can say why they chose the image and what it means to them.
Memory board
The memory board is an amazing way to bond over past events, and it helps immensely with virtual team building.
Create a list of some work-related subjects and post them as notes on a whiteboard. For example:
My favorite team member
First day at work
Client presentation
You can then have each worker pick a topic and share a memory related to it.
Two truths and a lie
This is a great collaboration example for newly formed remote teams. Typical introductions based on “say something about yourself” can feel awkward, boring, and uncomfortable.
But with this remote team-building activity, you can give workers a fun, alternative way to introduce themselves and improve future communication.
Before calling an introduction meeting, ask employees to prepare three statements — two truths and one lie — about themselves. The lie should be conveyed as realistically as possible. It shouldn’t be easy to spot.
Each worker will then disclose their three statements in the meeting when delivering their introduction. And other team members will guess what’s the lie and what the truths are. Once they are done, the worker will tell the team members if they were right or wrong.
You can also make it more fun by awarding points to people who hid the lie successfully or who guessed it correctly.
Guess the phrase
This team-building activity has gained so much momentum over the years that companies like Hasbro have turned it into an electronic game.
Create a list of words or phrases. These could include celebrities, expressions, objects in the office, or movie names.
Then assign one to each employee. No one should know the word apart from the worker whom it’s assigned to.
Next, ask each employee to describe the word given to them without actually mentioning the word. And other team members will guess what the word is.
Online lunch and learn
Breaking bread together is an obvious connector. And lunch and learns have been one of the classic online training activities to promote collaboration in physical workplaces. So there’s no reason they can’t be adapted to the virtual world.
Get your team members on a video call and invite a subject matter expert to teach something that everyone can use. The topics may include productivity, problem-solving, and of course, working remotely.
You can schedule the event during lunchtime, allowing workers to enjoy their meals while absorbing new knowledge. If budget is not an issue, you can also offer to pay for the food.
Survival on an island
In this virtual team-building activity, give your team a hard situation. For example, let’s say they were going somewhere in a plane and it crashed on a deserted island, or a zombie apocalypse has made its way into their region.
Then share with them a list of objects that might help with their survival and eventual rescue. Next, ask them to rank each item based on its importance, first individually and then as a whole group.
It’s a great way for everyone to reflect and compare their personal decisions with collective choices. And it may give them new perspectives on collaboration.
Online recipe showcase
It’s not just eating. Cooking too can lead to an effective online collaboration exercise. With the popularity of remote work, more and more people are cooking at home.
You can start an online event where workers share their culinary favorites or experiments with food. And you can also run a challenge where employees will try each others’ recipes and take pictures of what they made.
Over to you: 10 online collaboration activities
Online team building doesn’t have to be difficult. It can be just as fun for workers to get to know each other virtually as physically.
As you can see, there are many online collaboration activities that are quick and easy to arrange. And they are essential to creating a digital employee experience fueled by teamwork and positive working relationships.
Not just that.
Online team-building exercises help you leverage the unique strengths and perspectives of each and every employee, resulting in a better output at work. So incorporate them regularly in the virtual workplace, and the harmony you’ll create is bound to help your business excel. Consider it one of the best practices for employee engagement you need to follow.
Plus, having the right technology, like one of the best employee engagement tools or an all-in-one team collaboration platform can foster collaboration to an even greater level. Request a free Blink demo today.
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The best modern intranet platforms for organizations ready to move beyond SharePoint
SharePoint has been a mainstay in the enterprise toolkit for over two decades. It’s a powerful document management system, deeply integrated with Microsoft 365, and often the default choice for storing and sharing internal files.
But here’s the problem: SharePoint was never built to be a communications platform.
While it excels at managing content libraries and handling compliance-heavy workflows, SharePoint often falls short when it comes to engaging employees, delivering real-time updates, and building a connected culture across modern, distributed teams.
In a world where employees expect internal tools to be as intuitive and engaging as the apps they use outside of work, SharePoint can feel clunky, outdated, and hard to navigate—especially on mobile.
That’s why more organizations are seeking SharePoint alternatives that are easier to use, faster to deploy, and actually drive adoption. Whether you’re leading HR, IT, or Internal Comms, this guide will help you find a platform that fits how people work today—not how they worked in 2005.
Below, we break down the top 10 SharePoint alternatives in 2025—from modern employee apps to full-featured intranet platforms—so you can choose the right solution for your team.
#1. Blink
Best for modern organizations that want one app for everything work-related
Blink is a next-generation employee platform that combines intranet, internal communications, and essential tools in one mobile-first app. Unlike SharePoint, Blink is designed with the end user in mind—delivering a personalized, social-style experience that’s as easy to use as your favorite consumer apps.
It works across all employee types—desk-based, remote, frontline, and hybrid—giving everyone a single access point for updates, resources, and action.
Standout features:
Personalized feed with dynamic content
Native mobile and desktop experience
Chat, surveys, micro-apps, and file sharing in one place
Fast rollout with minimal IT dependency
Rich analytics to track engagement and reach
Instagram at work features like Stories
Ideal for: Mid-to-large organizations ready to unify communications, culture, and tools in a single platform. Limitations: Not focused on traditional document-heavy intranet use cases.
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#2. Interact
Best for internal comms teams building structured, branded intranets
Interact is a well-established intranet platform known for its structured content management, branded design options, and targeting capabilities. It helps internal comms teams deliver timely, relevant content to the right audiences, while offering tools for feedback and measurement.
Standout features:
Drag-and-drop design tools
User segmentation and targeting
Feedback features (likes, comments, polls)
Integrations with Microsoft 365 and other tools
Ideal for: Communications teams in mid-size organizations. Limitations: Mobile experience isn’t its strongest suit.
#3. Staffbase
Best for enterprise comms with campaign-style messaging
Staffbase is built for centralized internal communication at scale. With a branded employee app and features tailored to top-down messaging, it’s a strong choice for large organizations where internal communications is a dedicated function.
Standout features:
Personalized content feeds
Internal email and newsletter tools
Branded mobile apps
Communication planning and analytics
Ideal for: Enterprises with large, distributed workforces and centralized comms teams. Limitations: More focused on broadcasting than collaboration.
#4. Happeo
Best for Google Workspace-based companies
Happeo is a sleek, modern intranet designed to integrate deeply with Google Workspace. It blends intranet content, social channels, and G Suite tools into a unified interface that’s especially popular with remote and digital-first companies.
Standout features:
Real-time Google Drive integration
Team channels and social intranet feed
Drag-and-drop intranet page builder
Easy onboarding and admin
Ideal for: Teams using Google Workspace who want a polished UX. Limitations: Less relevant for Microsoft-heavy environments.
#5. LumApps
Best for complex enterprise needs and deep integrations
LumApps is an advanced intranet and employee experience platform with a strong focus on personalization, multilingual content, and integration across enterprise systems. It's a go-to for global companies that need a highly structured, configurable solution.
Standout features:
Rich personalization based on user roles
AI-powered recommendations
Microsoft and Google integrations
Multilingual and multi-brand support
Ideal for: Large enterprises with global teams and complex requirements. Limitations: High cost and long implementation time.
#6. Simpplr
Best for AI-driven content delivery and lifecycle comms
Simpplr’s strength lies in making large volumes of content feel personalized and accessible. With built-in AI and lifecycle capabilities, it helps organizations deliver the right information at the right time—especially useful for onboarding, change management, and HR comms.
Standout features:
AI-powered content targeting
Lifecycle campaigns (e.g., onboarding)
User-friendly CMS
Engagement analytics and sentiment tracking
Ideal for: Enterprises that want smarter content delivery. Limitations: More focused on desk-based teams than mobile workers.
#7. Igloo
Best for governance and compliance-focused content management
Igloo offers a more traditional intranet experience with emphasis on document control, structured spaces, and knowledge management. It’s well-suited to organizations with strict compliance, approval workflows, or audit requirements.
Standout features:
Version-controlled document repositories
Approval workflows and access control
Wiki-style knowledge base
Integration with cloud storage systems
Ideal for: Legal, finance, and regulated industries. Limitations: Interface can feel dated; not mobile-first.
#8. Jive (by Aurea)
Best for peer collaboration and internal communities
Jive prioritizes community-driven engagement. It’s a feature-rich platform that encourages social interaction, collaboration, and internal networking, with robust forums and group spaces for employee-led discussions.
Standout features:
Community and interest groups
Discussion threads and forums
Recognition and gamification
Advanced user activity analytics
Ideal for: Knowledge-sharing organizations with a culture of collaboration. Limitations: UI feels less modern; slower updates and innovation.
#9. ThoughtFarmer
Best for small-to-mid teams that want a clean, simple intranet
ThoughtFarmer focuses on usability and simplicity. It offers enough flexibility to meet most intranet needs while staying easy to use for both employees and admins. It’s known for its approachable design and personal touch.
Standout features:
Easy intranet editing tools
Staff directory and org chart
Localized content targeting
Light project and task tools
Ideal for: Mid-sized companies that don’t need enterprise complexity. Limitations: Not ideal for global scale or highly mobile teams.
#10. Basecamp
Best for teams focused on projects, not pages
While not an intranet in the traditional sense, Basecamp is a viable SharePoint alternative for small, project-driven teams. It consolidates file sharing, team comms, tasks, and scheduling into one easy-to-use platform.
Standout features:
Message boards, to-dos, and docs in one place
Calendar and schedule management
File versioning and access control
Notification control and auto-check-ins
Ideal for: Startups and small teams prioritizing execution over content architecture. Limitations: Lacks structured intranet features like targeting, workflows, or internal news.
Final thoughts: Choosing the right SharePoint alternative
The best SharePoint alternative isn’t just about replacing software—it’s about enabling a better employee experience.
Ask yourself:
Does this platform work for all employees—across roles, devices, and locations?
Is it engaging, personalized, and intuitive?
Will people actually use it?
If you want an intranet that employees love—not just tolerate—Blink is a powerful alternative worth exploring.
New employee journey maps can take time to develop. But when adding more smiley faces isn’t enough, how do you get an employee journey map to work better for your organization?
The concept of employee experience maps has been gaining traction as a way to boost employee engagement and improve your onboarding process.
The template follows a pretty straightforward path from hiring, through training, and eventually exiting, but it’s the way you use these maps that makes them valuable.
You know your workers will have training at a particular stage, but how helpful is it? Do you see an increase in turnover at any stage? These are the types of questions your employee journey maps should help you answer.
Why use an employee journey map?
An employee journey map can be a helpful tool for improving the employee lifecycle. This concept visualizes the entire employee experience through your organization, from onboarding until their last day.
There are a few different ways to name each stage of the journey, but every employee experience map follows the same basic flow:
Recruitment and hiring
Onboarding
Engaging and training
Development
Progress and performance
Exit or offboarding
These employee journey touchpoints describe the main stages a worker might be at within the company.
You can track the average time it takes to complete each step, assign different training and feedback for different stages, and look for patterns within your journey maps.
An employee journey map can help with engagement as you can better address the needs and concerns a worker will have by knowing where they stand in the organization.
Making the most of this tool will help you actually get some use from it.
How to make a better employee experience journey map
Don’t worry. Not all good employee experience journey maps lead to Manchester. They just have to lead to happier workers.
Whether you already use an employee journey map template or are just starting to look into the idea, there are some steps you can take to make your maps work better.
They are the following:
Create different maps for different roles. The map for a frontline manager will look different from a warehouse worker, with different training and onboarding for each position. Depending on your organization, you may need a few maps or a few dozen.
Analyze your employee journey maps and look for patterns. Do many employees have trouble at the same part of the training? That may become more obvious when you compare maps and visualize the issue at hand.
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an average tenure of 4.1 years, and 22% of workers had been with their current employer for a year or less.
Looking up industry-specific numbers can help you further pinpoint areas to focus on when planning out your journey maps.
Time feedback to the stage in the journey your employee is at. Look for onboarding feedback while the process is still fresh in their mind.
Provide appropriate feedback to your employees as well. Let them know how they’ve improved after training, or likewise what they could concentrate a bit more on.
Remember, journey maps are a tool that can help predict how an employee’s experience will look, but it’s not set in stone. There can be unexpected events that change their journey map.
Like a global pandemic that reduced working hours by 17.3% in 2020. Most of us are still trying to get back on track after that one.
Make sure your organization learns from the tool. These aren’t coloring book pages for employees to fill in while HR processes their paperwork. Learn from them.
Did you know only 12% of employees strongly agree their company did a good job at onboarding?
Using an employee journey map, you can analyze your new hires at this stage and see why they might feel that way.
Wrapping up — Making employee journey maps better for your workers
Employee journey mapping is one of those tools with lots of potential. It can help you improve different processes in your organization, increase employee engagement, and create an easy-to-follow workflow for various roles.
Or you can spend an entire quarter making everyone fill these in and then promptly lose them in a subfolder that was last opened three years ago.
Just keep in mind that creating an employee journey map is the first step. You also need to make it easy to access for employees and have them provide feedback.
Today’s employees routinely use digital tools to manage their personal lives — for banking, shopping, fitness, and even dating — and now expect a similar level of convenience and connectivity in their professional environments.
Forward-thinking organizations are meeting these expectations through employee experience software platforms that transform how teams communicate and engage. Solutions such as Blink’s employee experience platform enable staff to feel more connected, motivated, and loyal to their company by simplifying communication and recognition.
Frontline teams, in particular, benefit from a unified employee experience solution. The “frontline connection gap” often leaves these employees isolated from leadership and peers, reducing both satisfaction and retention.
A mobile-first employee experience platform, such as Blink, bridges that gap by bringing everyone together wherever they work. It gives each employee a stronger sense of belonging, supports regular recognition, and creates continuous communication that makes work more fulfilling.
This guide from Blink outlines some of the best employee experience software platforms available today — helping you identify the right solution to connect your workforce and elevate engagement across your organization.
Whether your organization has frontline, desk-based, or hybrid teams, an employee experience software platform like Blink’s employee experience platform helps you meet and exceed modern employee expectations and deliver measurable improvements across engagement, operations, and culture. Here’s what effective employee experience software can help you achieve:
Enhanced employee engagement
Low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion, according to Gallup. Employee experience platforms like Blink enable two-way communication, recognition, and collaboration that increase loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity.
Streamlined HR processes
The best platforms automate repetitive and time-consuming HR tasks such as time tracking, performance appraisals, and routine communication. By handling these automatically, HR teams free up time for human-touch, value-add work that improves the overall employee experience.
Improved talent management
Around 65% of frontline employees are unsure how to progress in their careers. Employee experience software provides continuous feedback, coaching, and development tools that help managers identify high-potential talent and guide employees toward advancement.
Data-driven insights
Comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities enable organizations to measure engagement, sentiment, and performance. Blink’s platform, for example, supplies real-time insights that support better decisions, highlight trends, and surface issues early.
Employee recognition and empowerment
Employee appreciation and self-service tools make staff feel valued and informed. Access to essential information anytime, anywhere fosters a sense of support and connection across the organization.
A positive company culture
Transparent communication and meaningful connection — both core features of leading platforms like Blink — build positive company culture. When employees feel proud of where they work, satisfaction rises, churn decreases, and employer branding strengthens.
Key things to look for when choosing an employee experience software platform
Now that the benefits of an employee experience software platform are clear, it’s important to identify the key capabilities that define an effective solution. When choosing your platform, consider these essential features — many of which are core to Blink’s employee experience platform:
User-friendly interface
The best employee experience platforms minimize the learning curve. They should feel intuitive and familiar from day one, encouraging quick adoption across all teams.
Personalization and customization
Every organization is different. Choose a platform that lets you tailor tools and workflows to your company’s structure and employee needs.
Employee self-service
When employees can access the information and tools they need independently, HR teams spend less time handling routine requests and more time on strategic, people-focused initiatives.
Integration capabilities
For a seamless employee experience, ensure your platform integrates smoothly with existing business systems — from scheduling and payroll to communication tools. Blink, for example, integrates across multiple systems to provide a unified digital workplace.
Mobile accessibility
Frontline workers and remote employees often lack equal access to company tools. A mobile-first platform like Blink enables engagement and communication anywhere — whether on the shop floor, in the field, or during a commute.
Analytics and reporting
Select software that delivers robust analytics on engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Data-driven insight helps HR teams make informed decisions and address trends early.
Comprehensive feature set
To reduce the need for multiple apps, look for a platform that combines employee engagement, feedback, rewards, performance management, and learning and development. Blink’s platform consolidates these into one accessible hub, simplifying management and improving the overall employee experience.
15 best employee experience software platforms
1. Blink
Blink is a leading employee experience app and communication platform purpose-built for frontline teams. As a mobile-first solution, Blink unifies dispersed workers and connects them with leadership through an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.
Users can quickly launch pre-loaded or custom employee surveys, add mandatory reads to a shared company news feed, recognize colleagues for outstanding work, and access real-time insights on engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
Built around frontline accessibility, Blink’s Hub centralizes essential information, including pay stubs, schedules, and key documents. Its interface encourages high adoption and consistent daily use — ensuring every employee stays informed, valued, and connected.
Even after identifying the right employee experience management software, securing senior leadership buy-in remains essential. Before presenting your case, gather evidence and insights in the following key areas — all central to the successful implementation of a platform like Blink.
Developed by the team at Blink, the platform brings together communication, engagement, and HR functionality in one secure space. It’s designed to strengthen connections and alignment across all levels of an organization while reducing the administrative burden on HR teams.The essential guide to executive buy-in for frontline employee experience
Scalability: Evaluate how your chosen platform will adapt to your company’s future needs, including long-term growth and an expanding workforce. Blink’s platform is designed to scale seamlessly as organizations expand, supporting larger teams without adding administrative complexity.
Implementation: Assess how straightforward it is to deploy your software and integrate it with existing systems. A solution such as Blink simplifies this step with pre-built integrations and guided onboarding.
User adoption: An employee experience platform only delivers value when employees actively use it. Confirm that your software has a proven record of adoption. For example, 97% of employees at Care Synergy now use the Blink app, demonstrating how intuitive design drives engagement.
Vendor reputation and support: Review customer testimonials and case studies to verify a provider’s reliability and service quality. Blink’s long-term partnerships and customer success programs help ensure ongoing performance and satisfaction across industries.
Case study: Elara Caring
Elara Caring employs more than 32,000 caregivers who provide in-home and hospice support to patients across the United States. The organization faced a significant communication and coordination challenge:
Without company-issued phone numbers or email addresses, caregivers felt disconnected from both colleagues and headquarters.
An outdated manual scheduling process left hundreds of shifts unfilled each week.
The existing HR platform failed to meet employees' operational and engagement needs.
To close these gaps, Elara Caring implemented Blink’s employee experience platform, developed by joinblink.com. The mobile-first platform unified essential communication, scheduling, and feedback tools into a single, secure, accessible application. Managers and caregivers could now share updates through a company news feed, manage shifts in real time, and recognize great work — all from their smartphones.
The impact was immediate. Workforce efficiency improved, communication bottlenecks were eliminated, and employees felt more connected to both their teams and leadership. Ninety-five percent of employees now report stronger connections to Elara, and 96% would recommend Blink’s platform to others in their field.
Culture Amp is an excellent choice if you want to improve your performance tracking process. You can set and track employee targets, create personalized L&D plans, and access historical conversation and 1:1 data so managers can provide actionable feedback.
This employee experience management software also gives you access to a ton of data. This provides a great basis for analysis and insight. And the platform even does some of the hard work for you too, using employee engagement stats to predict staff turnover.
Key features
Reporting and analytics
Turnover prediction tool
Performance reviews
Goal tracking
Pricing
Contact sales team for prices
3. Bonusly
Bonusly is a great option for employee recognition. Employees meet personalized targets and build up points, which they can then use to claim a selection of rewards, all via the platform.
Whether you want your team to go above and beyond for customers, meet their sales quota, or simply engage with a request for employee feedback, Bonusly helps you to promote and recognize the employee behavior you most want to see.
Key features
Peer-to-peer recognition
Employee rewards
Goal setting
Reporting and analytics
Pricing
Core: $3 per user/month
Pro: $5 per user/month
Contact sales team for custom plans
4. Lattice
With Lattice, you’ll find it easy to launch employee surveys, celebrate employee wins, and get real-time experience data with the help of the platform’s Pulse feature and sentiment analysis. Lattice also supports employee development opportunities. It connects individual work to business outcomes so employees can view their progress easily.
Key features
Reporting and analytics
Employee surveys
Employee recognition
Goal management
Pricing
Performance Management + OKRs and Goals: $11 per user/month
Engagement: +$4 per user/month
Grow: +$4 per user/month
Compensation: $+6 per user/month
5. Qualtrics XM
Qualtrics XM offers several products, one of which they’ve designed specifically for people teams. The employee experience platform uses AI and automation, so you can continually gather and assess employee feedback and get to know employee views at every point in the employee life cycle.
Data analytics tools help you to connect employee feedback to customer experience and business outcomes – so you can target employee experience improvements where they stand to make the most difference.
Workhuman is built around social recognition. Team-based social feeds support peer-to-peer appreciation. Employees gain recognition points, which they can exchange for personalized and locally sourced rewards. And an AI-powered Inclusion Advisor gives real-time feedback on recognition posts to prevent unconscious bias and promote a culture of belonging.
Key features
Employee recognition
Performance management
Translation into 34+ languages
Community building
Pricing
Contact sales team for prices
7. Mo
Mo is one of the best employee experience software platforms for team communication and appreciation. It allows you to share successes, recognize results, and reward good work.
Standout features include the Mo assistant, which helps people managers to remember work anniversaries and prompts them to appreciate employees who haven’t had a pat on the back in a while, and the social feed, where you can start conversations, prompt employees to start conversations, and ask for employee feedback.
Key features
Team appreciation
Social feed
Employee feedback
Insights
Pricing
Starter: $3 per user/month
Level Up: $5 per user/month
Contact sales team for custom plans
8. Motivosity
Motivosity provides tools for every stage of the employee journey. From recruitment to onboarding to development to career progression and even an employee’s company exit experience. The basic plan gives you access to a company social feed, great for important announcements and getting to know co-workers. Add-ons include Recognition and Rewards, Manager Development, and Employee Insights.
Key features
Social feed
Employee recognition
Manager training
Surveys and insights
Pricing
Motivosity: $2 per user/month
Recognition and Rewards: +$2 per user/month
Manager Development: +$2 per user/month
Employee Insights: +$2 per user/month
9. WorkTango
WorkTango (formerly Kazoo) allows you to highlight the strengths and skills of peers and employees, while a points and rewards system incentivizes key behaviors. It’s one of the best employee engagement platforms for teams who want to make recognition an integral part of their company culture.
Key features
Employee recognition
Goal setting and feedback
Surveys
Analytics and reporting
Pricing
Contact sales team for prices
10. 15Five
15Five is one of the best employee experience software options if you’re looking to connect employee work with business objectives. Managers and employees can create career paths that motivate performance. Employees can identify their strengths and how these align with their goals.
Key features
Goal setting tools
Feedback
Employee recognition
Manager coaching
Pricing
All of the following prices are billed annually:
Engage: $4 per user/month
Perform: $8 per user/month
Focus: $8 per user/month
Total Platform: $14 per user/month
11. Leapsome
Leapsome is a solid employee engagement software, particularly if you’re looking for a solution that can scale with your company. You can select the modules you need, adapting the software to the size and budget of your organization. With Leapsome, you can run meaningful, well-structured meetings. You can also congratulate co-workers publicly and share private feedback too.
Key features
Employee feedback
Learning and development
Goal setting
Employee competency framework
Pricing
Pricing starts at $8 per user/month with the option to add on the extra features you need
12. BambooHR
BambooHR provides a huge range of HR tools. Teams can use it to track payroll, hours worked, and paid time off. The platform offers recruitment and L&D tracking tools.
As well as making life easier for HR teams, BambooHR has a couple of features designed to improve the employee experience. Wellbeing and eNPS surveys help teams to understand the employee perspective, while performance tracking tools support employee progression.
Key features
Performance reviews
Time tracking
Payroll management
Applicant tracking system (ATS)
Pricing
Contact sales team for prices
13. Officevibe
If you’re looking for an easy and effective employee survey tool, Officevibe is an excellent choice. Officevibe is just one of the HR products available under the Workleap umbrella and this offering is laser-focused on employee experience.
The platform gives managers tools to become better leaders and build happier teams. Pulse and customized surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, and 1-1 meeting tools that guide meaningful and productive conversations are all at a manager’s disposal.
Key features
Surveys
Employee feedback
Employee recognition
Performance tracking
Pricing
Free: $0 per user/month
Essential: $5 per user/month
Pro: $8 per user/month
14. Workvivo
Another good employee experience management software, Workvivo helps organizations streamline their communications and showcase their company culture, even when teams work remotely. When posting on the social feed, employees can link their posts to company values and goals. And with the Badge Feature, managers can recognize employee achievements publicly.
An intuitive platform with a quick and easy setup process, Jostle is another popular employee engagement platform. It works to connect everyone within an organization, providing a social feed and a space for shared documents.
Managers can set tasks and then use built-in chat functions to track progress. They can also separate the social feed by location or team, ensuring that the right information reaches the right people.
Key features
Social feed
Surveys
Peer-to-peer recognition
Document and policy sharing
Pricing
Prices depend upon the number of employees you have. For an organization with 15-50 employees, prices are as follows:
Bronze: $5 per user/month
Silver: $9 per user/month
Gold: $12 per user/month
Smaller organizations can expect to pay more per user. Larger organizations can expect to pay less. Prices for the Platinum plan are available from the sales team.
Additional considerations for HR teams
You may already be sold on a particular employee experience management software, but getting senior leadership buy-in is a vital next step. Before entering conversations about the type of tool you’d like to implement, be sure to gather information on all of the following:
Scalability – Find out if and how your chosen platform will respond to your company’s future needs, considering long-term company growth and an increase in the number of employees.
Implementation – Determine how easy it is to implement your chosen software and whether it integrates with your other existing systems.
User adoption – An employee experience platform provides very little value if employees don’t use it. Check whether your chosen platform has a user-friendly interface and a history of high adoption rates. We’re proud that 97% of employees at Care Synergy are now using the Blink app. Find out more by watching our on-demand webinar.
Vendor reputation and support– Take a look at customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies to find out whether your software provider has a good track record in terms of product quality and client care.
Case Study: Elara Caring
Elara’s 32,000 carers spend their workdays caring for patients in their homes or in hospice settings. The company faced a million-dollar communication problem:
Without company phone numbers or email addresses, carers felt disconnected from their co-workers and head office
Carers wanted shift opportunities but an inefficient manual system meant hundreds of shifts went unfilled each week
The company’s existing HR platform was failing to meet the needs of employees and the wider organization
Elara saw a solution in Blink. Our platform gathered all the information and tools that employees needed in one easy-to-use platform that everyone could access from their smartphones. Employees and managers had access to a social feed, shift scheduling, employee feedback and employee recognition tools.
The result? Improved workforce efficiency and streamlined communications. Thanks to Blink, Elara has transformed the employee experience. 95% of employees now feel more connected to Elara and 96% would recommend the platform.
With shifts in working patterns over the past couple of years, maintaining employee productivity has seemed like an uphill battle for many employers!
The good news: your employees genuinely want to do good work. If you provide them with the right tools, environment and support, you’ll get great performance in return.
The slightly-less-than-good-news: you need to do this amidst ongoing uncertainty around COVID and potentially figure out the ramifications of permanent hybrid and remote working arrangements.
This isn’t always easy – but it is doable. Gallup reports that it recorded its highest ever percentage of engaged employees in 2021. Given the links between employee productivity and engagement, this is a really solid starting point for your efforts.
This 101 guide will help you understand a little more about employee productivity, how to increase it and its ties with employee engagement.
What is employee productivity?
‘Employee productivity’ is a measure of performance which tracks the amount of output each employee creates per unit of work.
If that sounds a little fiddly to you…you’re absolutely right.
Unlike ‘workforce productivity’ (also known as ‘labor productivity’) which measures the output of your workforce as a whole, employee productivity is a completely individual measure.
What does that mean?
Firstly, it’s more difficult to define. Each of your employees plays a vital role in the success of your business. What constitutes a ‘unit of productive output’ for your marketing team? What about your frontline retail staff or your drivers?
Secondly, it’s more difficult to measure. You can measure the output of your workforce as a whole relatively easily. Because not every employee will work in a position with an easily definable output, you’ll need to seriously consider how to adjust your approach for different positions in your organization.
How to improve employee productivity
Investopedia identifies three key factors that increase labor productivity:
Physical capital
Technological progress
Human capital development
We think that exactly the same applies when you’re trying to increase employee productivity. After all, the output from each of your employees adds up to the output of your business as a whole. Employee productivity is the individual building block of organizational success.
‘Technological advancement’ feels particularly important with the drastic rise in hybrid and remote working caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2021 study found that home workers dealt with a gruelling four tech problems a week on average, whilst 24% said they didn’t have adequate tools to do their job.
Equally, whilst tech is a major factor in keeping employees productive, it’s not a cure-all. You can invest in all of the latest collaboration tools – AI note-taking tools, augmented reality conferencing solutions, the rest – but it won’t make a difference if your workforce is directionless, confused, and unmotivated.
Here are a few steps you can take to improve employee productivity – both tech and people-focused.
Set clear goals, expectations and priorities
Having solid goals to work towards helps employees remain focused and productive. If they have a clear idea of what to expect, they can figure out how to meet those expectations and prioritize accordingly.
Set deadlines, but contextualize them. “I need this done by Wednesday lunchtime” comes across as needlessly authoritarian and creates stress for the sake of it. “I need this by Wednesday lunchtime so that we can pass onto the production team in time for our to-market target” draws your employees in by emphasizing how important their work is to the wider organization.
Invest in your workforce
In the USA, there are now 5 million more unfilled job vacancies than there are unemployed workers. Getting the most from your existing workforce has never been more important.
Invest time and capital building your workforce’s skills. Offering training – whether in person or e-learning – both allows your employees to do their job more effectively and shows that you’re invested in their long-term career development. Employees work harder and get more done as a result.
Work on building employee trust
Can you trust your direct report to follow instructions and complete tasks on time?
It’s a valid question, but it’s really only half of the equation.
Can they trust you to support them in their goals, be transparent about company developments, communicate effectively and respect their time (such as by approving leave requests promptly without follow up)?
Trust in any relationship goes both ways. If you uphold your end of the bargain with support and respect, you’ll see increased morale and productivity as a result.
Identify issues first. Then find the tech that helps
Since the pandemic began, the market for productivity apps & tools has exploded. It’s tempting if you’ve seen productivity levels dropping, to dive right in and rectify the problem immediately.
Take a step back. Before you commit to anything, work out which issues are currently barriers to employee productivity and look for tech solutions for those specific problems.
For example, virtual kanban boards like Trello can make managing large, desk-based departments much easier with notifications and deadline reminders, immediate visibility into task completion and an easy-to-follow visual layout. Would it offer the same benefits to rapid-fire ER healthcare teams, whose work priorities and tasks shift rapidly throughout the day?
Employee engagement and productivity
Setting clear goals, investing in your workforce, building employee trust and providing time-saving tech solutions all increase employee productivity.
Why?
It’s because they also increase employee engagement – and engaged employees are 17% more productive than non-engaged employees. Understanding how these two concepts are linked is essential in building employee productivity in the long term.
‘Employee engagement' has been a fundamental concept in people strategy circles for the past decade. There’s no absolute definition, but we like global advisory firm Gallup’s for its simplicity and directness:
“Employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.”
If we had to simplify it even more: employee engagement measures how much your employees buy into your organization. Do they support your organization’s goals, see their work as meaningful and see their career developing at your business over time? Or, are they disinterested, doing the bare minimum and about to jump ship?
Highly engaged teams are more productive. If employees feel involved, respected and needed in the workplace, they innovate more, collaborate willingly and are significantly more motivated – and they’re much less likely to leave, which your hiring budget will thank you for.
How to measure employee productivity
As we discussed above, there isn’t a catch-all approach to employee productivity measurement
As such, your line managers will need to be involved in measuring employee productivity from step one, setting goals and analyzing performance from their direct reports to find effective ways to motivate each individual employee.
Here are a few tools your managers can use to get started.
Percentage of goals met
If you offer clear objectives and goals for each employee, check in on how effectively they’re completing these. Measuring the percentage of goals met gives a good baseline understanding of overall employee performance.
Benchmarks and targets
Businesses now hold more past performance data than ever before. Use this data to set realistic targets and benchmarks for employees, taking into account seasonality and external conditions.
Revenue per employee
How much revenue did you make last quarter? Divide it by the number of employees to give an average of revenue generated per hire.
Employee productivity software: how to track employee productivity
It isn’t easy to track employee productivity at the best of times. With the increase in home-working and virtual collaboration, the employee digital experience makes this even harder.
Employee productivity tracking software is a great way to get insights into how your team is performing, particularly in remote and hybrid environments. You may find some employee experience software has this built in as standard.
The key to success here is not to use tracking software completely negatively. It’s as effective at identifying the habits of top performers (and allowing you to reward and share them) as it is for picking up potentially disengaged employees.
And, when you do use it to identify which employees are lagging behind, you can target coaching to their specific needs to address any potential weak spots and turn their performance around.
When you’re looking for employee tracking software, these features are must-haves:
You might have figured out by now that increasing employee productivity will need time, effort and potentially investment on your part.
What does this get you, in the long term?
The simple answer is: more revenue. Two welcome words for any key decision-maker!
Engaged, productive employees care more and put in more effort as a result. This gives more scope to innovate, more drive to provide great service and better performance across the business in general.
The effort you put into improving employee productivity will more than make its money back as remote and hybrid works become ever more established. If you haven’t already, now’s the perfect time to start.
Unily is a powerful platform—but for many organizations, it’s overly complex, difficult to manage, and time-consuming to implement. From rigid intranet structures to costly customizations, it often demands heavy IT involvement just to get the basics right.
If you're looking for something easier to use, faster to roll out, and more engaging for employees, you're not alone.
In this guide, we cover the top 10 Unily alternatives—platforms that deliver the same core benefits (communication, connection, and culture) without the complications. Whether you're in HR, Comms, or IT, these options are worth considering for a modern employee experience.
Blink is the employee experience platform designed to eliminate the friction that comes with legacy intranets like Unily. Where Unily often requires months of setup and technical oversight, Blink delivers immediate impact with a consumer-grade UX, built-in tools, and zero learning curve.
Why Blink is the smarter choice:
No IT bottlenecks: Blink is designed for self-serve teams—get started in weeks, not quarters.
Mobile and desktop ready: Unlike Unily’s more rigid intranet framework, Blink works wherever your employees do.
One simple platform: Comms, chat, surveys, document sharing, and app integrations—all in one place.
Instant engagement: Push updates, target messages, and track results in real time without needing an admin army.
Pros:
Rapid deployment and intuitive for any user
Eliminates the complexity and silos of traditional intranets
Higher adoption and engagement rates
Streamlined pricing and low total cost of ownership
Cons:
Fewer deep customization options compared to Unily (by design)
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#2. Staffbase
Staffbase offers an employee communications platform designed for corporate messaging and internal branding. It supports newsletter creation, a mobile app, and intranet functionality.
Pros:
Strong employee app for internal comms
Designed for global organizations
Supports multiple languages
Cons:
Requires training and onboarding time
Some advanced features locked behind higher-tier pricing
#3. Firstup
Firstup is focused on employee journeys and automated campaigns. It’s especially suited for organizations with complex audience segments and large enterprise needs.
Pros:
Advanced audience segmentation and targeting
Automation capabilities for content delivery
Cons:
May require dedicated resources to manage campaigns
Less intuitive for smaller or mid-size companies
#4. Simpplr
Simpplr positions itself as a modern intranet platform with a clean design and AI-powered search. It’s focused on streamlining communication and enabling a sense of belonging.
Pros:
Strong content discovery and search tools
Integrated org charts and people directories
Cons:
Pricing can be steep for growing teams
Limited mobile functionality compared to other platforms
#5. Workvivo
Designed to blend communication with culture, Workvivo gives employees a platform to share stories, celebrate wins, and stay informed. It supports both leadership updates and peer-to-peer engagement. The interface feels familiar to social media, driving higher adoption.
Pros:
Social-media-style interface
Culture and engagement features built-in
Cons:
Collaboration and productivity tools are limited
Can feel more like an engagement layer than a full intranet
#6. Interact
Interact offers a feature-rich intranet solution with a strong focus on content governance and compliance. It’s ideal for organizations with strict security or industry regulations.
Pros:
Rich permissions and content management controls
Good for highly regulated industries
Cons:
Can be complex to configure
Slower time-to-value compared to more modern platforms
#7. Haiilo
Formerly Smarp, Haiilo is a social intranet and advocacy platform. It focuses on content sharing, social collaboration, and employee voice.
Pros:
Social interaction features
Integrates with Microsoft 365
Cons:
Not a full digital workplace platform
Focus is heavier on communication than productivity
#8. Microsoft SharePoint + Viva
If you're deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, SharePoint paired with Viva can be turned into a digital employee experience platform—though it often requires heavy customization.
Pros:
Seamless with Microsoft 365 apps
Highly customizable with IT support
Cons:
Often needs consultants or developers to manage
User experience can feel clunky without Viva add-ons
#9. Jive (Aurea)
Jive is a legacy enterprise social platform with collaboration, communities, and knowledge-sharing tools. It remains a viable choice for large, complex organizations.
Pros:
Good for internal communities and knowledge bases
Mature platform with years of enterprise use
Cons:
Outdated user experience
Less support for mobile and modern UI
#10. LumApps
LumApps integrates directly with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, offering a centralized hub for company knowledge, news, and social collaboration.
Pros:
Strong integrations with cloud suites
Personalization and targeting features
Cons:
Requires IT involvement for deployment
Learning curve for admins and content creators
Final thoughts
Unily has long been a popular choice for enterprise intranets, but today’s workforce needs faster, more flexible, and engaging tools. If you’re rethinking your digital employee experience, platforms like Blink offer a modern alternative that’s easier to deploy, simpler to manage, and proven to engage employees across the board.
Cut through the noise with attention-grabbing internal communications
We’ll come clean. The idea that humans have an 8-second attention span is a myth. But — as with any enduring story — it’s a myth with its roots in truth.
In a technological age, we’re bombarded with more information than ever. And people looking to convey a message — be they marketers, influencers, or internal comms teams — have very limited time to grab our attention.
As such, the 8-second rule provides a useful frame of reference when designing employee communications content, particularly if you’re aiming to engage frontline workers or Gen Z employees, who prefer short, snappy instant messaging.
By drawing employees in quickly and effectively, you’re more likely to land critical messages. You cut through the noise and improve engagement across your internal communication channels — plus, you help to build a more captivating workplace culture.
Here, we explore all the ways your internal communication strategy can stop the scroll with attention-grabbing internal comms.
The attention economy at work
How many notifications do you get on your smartphone each day? Between news alerts, personal instant messaging, and work memos, there’s a lot of information competing for our attention.
To stand out, your internal communication app needs to adopt the tactics of the most effective players in the game. We’re talking social media platforms, with their rich multimedia content and addictive algorithms.
These platforms provide ample inspiration for internal communicators. They also establish employee communication expectations.
Away from work, employees are used to content that is dynamic, interactive, and concise. They’re accustomed to mobile-first communications and content that attracts their attention in a split second.
This is the challenge for internal communications teams. How do you replicate that experience and level of engagement in the digital workplace? How do you make sure your content is seen, read, and remembered?
How to create attention-grabbing internal communications
To make your employee communications heard above the noise, you need modern internal communication tools with content that attracts employee interest within seconds. Here’s how.
Make your content snackable and visual
Short-form content is everywhere these days. And it tends to resonate well with modern employees.
Workers don’t always have time to read a long, text-based email, scan a PDF, or try to navigate your dense company intranet. Plus, this type of communication and document-sharing are unlikely to spark employee interest anyway.
With bite-sized content, employees can read and digest need-to-know information on the go. Think snappy company news feed posts, pulse checks and employee surveys, and employee recognition shout-outs — all in a single platform with a user-friendly interface.
Visuals are also key. They help you say more with less and, because they appeal to our senses and emotions much more effectively than a plain text document, they’re a surefire way to foster an engaged workforce. Try incorporating micro-videos, carousel posts, and behind-the-scenes photos into your company comms.
Hook ‘em with your headlines
With just a few seconds to convince employees to view your content, you need headlines and subject lines that do much of the heavy lifting.
Your headlines should be short and simple. They need to provoke curiosity without resorting to clickbait tactics — and they should hint at the value employees will gain by reading further.
To craft engaging headlines:
Keep it short and specific. Use a maximum of 40 characters in your subject lines. And ensure your headlines accurately reflect the rest of your content.
Adopt an employee-centric mindset. Make employees the hero of your headlines. Figure out what is most important to your workers, then lead with that.
Avoid corporate language and jargon. Use simple, easy-to-understand language and your headlines will be more engaging and quicker for employees to digest.
Create urgency or intrigue. When crafting urgent updates, mention upcoming deadlines to improve message open and read rates. Also, pique employee curiosity by hinting at what lies within.
Here are a few examples of high-impact internal message headlines:
Create a sense of exclusivity and intrigue
Not this: What you need to know about the new product launch next week.
But this: Be the first to see our new product!
Empower action and counter known hesitations
Not this: Please fill out the latest employee engagement pulse check survey.
But this: Have your say — share your feedback in minutes.
Focus on clear benefits with simple language
Not this: Sign up for our newly implemented training programs to improve your productivity.
But this: Career goals unlocked! Discover new training programs.
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Embrace the Stories format
The Stories format has been popularized by Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. It provides an easy way to share short-form video content, a current favorite among social media users, in a way that highlights human connection.
The beauty of this type of video format is the ease with which you can create it. It doesn’t have to look polished and professional. In fact, DIY, smartphone-filmed content has an air of authenticity that boosts employee engagement and trust, particularly with Gen Z employees.
When exploring this format with your internal communication tools, you can feature daily updates, employee recognition and spotlights, and even shift announcements. Make Stories available on mobile and give your deskless employees a quick and engaging way to access the latest company content, too.
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Make your communications a two-way conversation
Interaction and engagement go hand in hand. So — to create compelling internal comms content that positively impacts the employee experience — you need to prioritize two-way communication and team collaboration.
You can do this with the help of key features like:
Polls and quizzes. Quick, easy, and engaging. Polls and quizzes allow you to gather instant employee feedback and insights while giving employees the chance to make their voices heard.
Emoji reactions. A simple way for employees to interact with your news feed content, emoji reactions allow them to express opinions and show support on company updates.
Employee-generated content. The ultimate in interaction, employee-generated content is sure to attract the attention of co-workers and offers a centralized platform for employee content creators too.
Manager video updates. Leadership and management posts break down barriers and make comms more personal, particularly if you throw in the occasional Q&A.
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Harness the power of FOMO and urgency
The best marketers understand consumer psychology. They know what makes prospective customers sit up, take notice, and take action.
Internal comms teams can harness this psychology to maintain high levels of employee engagement across communication channels. Here are a few ideas:
Time-limited content. Content — like Stories — that disappears after 24 hours is great at grabbing employee attention. It also encourages regular use of your employee app or internal communications platform, because employees don’t want to miss out on the latest company news. A quick video from the CEO, a behind-the-scenes look at an event, or a snapshot of a team milestone feels more valuable when it’s only available for a limited time.
A sense of urgency. As with the 24-hour news cycle, regularly posting real-time updates creates a sense of urgency. Employees want to check in with your internal comms to find out what’s new. Deadlines are also effective. So launch limited-time challenges — and use time-sensitive language like “now,” “today,” “don’t miss out,” and “last chance” — to spark interest and encourage participation when it comes to urgent updates.
Exclusivity. We’re drawn to content that creates a sense of prestige. So offer “sneak peeks” and “first looks” at new products, initiatives, or instant messaging from leadership. Positioning messages to employees as exclusive makes employees feel valued and part of an elite group. It also taps into employees’ natural curiosity and desire to stay in the loop.
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Adopt a mobile-first approach
The best internal communication tools are mobile-first. They make it easy for employees to comment, react, and participate in real-time conversations.
For a mobile workforce without desktop access and for Gen Z workers who live on their smartphones, mobile-first communication approach supports quick social interactions without a significant time investment.
Make your internal communication platforms available on employee smartphones and you also have the option to use push notifications — the ultimate attention-grabber.
But be careful — don’t overdo it. To prevent notification fatigue, reserve alerts for priority messages and allow your employees to customize their notification preferences, particularly when it comes to lower-stakes content like internal newsletters and direct messaging.
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Measure, learn, and iterate
When adapting your comms so they catch the attention of employees, it takes more than guesswork. You need to measure your success by tracking engagement metrics, views, and interactions.
You can also make like your marketing team by A/B testing your internal content. Switch up images, thumbnails, colors, headlines, and calls to action to find and roll out the most eye-catching options.
Using the data on employee behavior and gathering feedback you get from your internal communication tool — along with real-time feedback from employee surveys — you can evolve your internal communications strategy to better spark the interest of employees.
Does your comms content meet the 8-second rule?
Attention-grabbing internal communications are short, visual, interactive, and mobile-first. They communicate key information — and draw recipients in — in a matter of seconds.
In a time when it’s hard to maintain the edge in the attention economy, content like this stands out. It helps you share important information and urgent updates with employees and keep everyone on the same page.
Not only does this foster more effective communication, it also improves the employee experience. When people feel informed and connected to their organization, they enjoy higher levels of employee satisfaction.
So do you accept the challenge? Will you strive to meet the 8-second rule with your internal comms?
Audit your current content, explore the capabilities of your internal communication software, and experiment with new formats to find out what works for your entire organization. Because, by going beyond old-fashioned, text-based comms, you stand to make a big impact on your audience and create a more engaging company culture.
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