Why frontline engagement projects are just another empty party
We all know why we’re here. Frontline workers are quitting en masse: more than 55% of the US frontline left their posts in 2021. With many contributing factors, employee engagement remains an important part of the solution.
Unfortunately for C-suite execs at frontline organizations, unless decisive action is taken quickly, things will only get worse.
While the problem of frontline turnover has many contributing factors, from salary competition to changing workforce demographics, one important part of the solution remains constant: employee engagement.
And here lies the problem: most of the time, it doesn’t work.
“If you build it...they won’t actually come”
Frontline businesses have invested in engagement solutions and projects before, but regardless of the type of organization, these are generally met with tepid responses.
The list of fallen soldiers here is considerable: town halls, employee surveys, intranets, ERGs. And often, the response sounds something like this:
“Great, another thing to remember”
“It’s not a natural part of my day”
“It’s a one-off thing”
“It’s too hard to use”
Hours of time from leadership, People teams, Internal Comms functions and supervisors go into projects that rarely succeed in their mission. This is like the birthday party where the decorations are up, the cake is ready and the music’s on – but nobody’s showed up.
The result? Frontline workers aren’t sustainably engaged, the cycle of attrition continues and there’s little meaningful data in order to understand exactly what to do to fix it.
The solution: chips and dips
Turning this around warrants changing the way we think about employee engagement. For most businesses, employee engagement is a thing that we ‘do’ - it’s a project, an initiative, even a tool or an app. But this is where we’re going wrong.
The solution lies in approaching frontline engagement as something that we ‘earn’ - it’s an outcome, not an output.
To illustrate this, let’s return to our party. Anyone who’s ever been to a house party will be able to tell you exactly where most people end up: the kitchen. And why are they in the kitchen? Because that’s where the drinks, the mixers, the snacks and the ice is. There’s useful stuff there, and so they gravitate there, and the good times start rolling.
So to return to frontline engagement: put out the ‘chips and dips’. In other words, focus on providing frontline workers with services and tools that not only fit into their busy days, but make them better – and use that space to invite engagement.
How it works: chips, dips and paystubs
Blink is a new type of frontline engagement app that the average worker opens ten times per day! Blink brings the processes that frontline workers and their managers need all into one place – from payslips to scheduling and critical documents, all with one login. This is our ‘chips and dip’.
For leaders and managers looking for engagement, this is the time to swoop. The whole of the frontline’s eyeballs are on the app, which means that surveys get seen, important messages from the CEO and HQ are read, and the work being done to improve the working day gets cut-through.
If a once-yearly employee engagement survey is the equivalent of putting out samples at Costco in the hope that a nameless stranger will take a drive-by snack, this is the equivalent of the work cafeteria – the place where the whole companies gathers, day after day.
How to be a good frontline host: Elara Caring’s story
Elara Caring – one of the largest US-based providers of personal care, home health and hospice care – had a frontline engagement problem when we first met them last year. With a 62% turnover rate of their more than 32,000 personal care attendants (PCAs), the leadership team needed sustainable engagement badly.
In adopting Blink, Elara looked to empower its PCAs and make their lives easier – and get engagement and loyalty in return.
They used Blink to remove the burden of paper-based admin: Elara’s PCAs had to constantly fill out expenses and other forms on paper. Blink’s solution was to integrate these manual processes and systems into a single app. Payslips, expenses and mileage reporting, key information from Sharepoint, schedules and rotas were all suddenly available to Elara’s PCAs at their fingertips.
The benefits for Elara’s PCAs? Time savings, with more attention devoted to their “real jobs” than ever before.
The benefits for Elara Caring? Sustainable engagement, with 95% of employees saying that they now feel more connected to the company. PCAs have begun to use Blink to create a community – and sub-communities – within the organization, creating the connection and cohesion that makes them stay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINw_Y7CjWQ
In conclusion: good parties don’t skimp on the guac
In a war for a diminishing talent pool, the need to directly address frontline engagement has never been more acute. But it’s also shown where there are failings in trying to get engagement from the activities and programs that work for desk-based, white-collar workers. The key to success for the frontline is to not only fit into frontline life, but to make frontline life better and easier – and use that digital space you’ve created to finally connect your people.
Unfortunately for C-suite execs at frontline organizations, unless decisive action is taken quickly, things will only get worse.
While the problem of frontline turnover has many contributing factors, from salary competition to changing workforce demographics, one important part of the solution remains constant: employee engagement.
And here lies the problem: most of the time, it doesn’t work.
“If you build it...they won’t actually come”
Frontline businesses have invested in engagement solutions and projects before, but regardless of the type of organization, these are generally met with tepid responses.
The list of fallen soldiers here is considerable: town halls, employee surveys, intranets, ERGs. And often, the response sounds something like this:
“Great, another thing to remember”
“It’s not a natural part of my day”
“It’s a one-off thing”
“It’s too hard to use”
Hours of time from leadership, People teams, Internal Comms functions and supervisors go into projects that rarely succeed in their mission. This is like the birthday party where the decorations are up, the cake is ready and the music’s on – but nobody’s showed up.
The result? Frontline workers aren’t sustainably engaged, the cycle of attrition continues and there’s little meaningful data in order to understand exactly what to do to fix it.
The solution: chips and dips
Turning this around warrants changing the way we think about employee engagement. For most businesses, employee engagement is a thing that we ‘do’ - it’s a project, an initiative, even a tool or an app. But this is where we’re going wrong.
The solution lies in approaching frontline engagement as something that we ‘earn’ - it’s an outcome, not an output.
To illustrate this, let’s return to our party. Anyone who’s ever been to a house party will be able to tell you exactly where most people end up: the kitchen. And why are they in the kitchen? Because that’s where the drinks, the mixers, the snacks and the ice is. There’s useful stuff there, and so they gravitate there, and the good times start rolling.
So to return to frontline engagement: put out the ‘chips and dips’. In other words, focus on providing frontline workers with services and tools that not only fit into their busy days, but make them better – and use that space to invite engagement.
How it works: chips, dips and paystubs
Blink is a new type of frontline engagement app that the average worker opens ten times per day! Blink brings the processes that frontline workers and their managers need all into one place – from payslips to scheduling and critical documents, all with one login. This is our ‘chips and dip’.
For leaders and managers looking for engagement, this is the time to swoop. The whole of the frontline’s eyeballs are on the app, which means that surveys get seen, important messages from the CEO and HQ are read, and the work being done to improve the working day gets cut-through.
If a once-yearly employee engagement survey is the equivalent of putting out samples at Costco in the hope that a nameless stranger will take a drive-by snack, this is the equivalent of the work cafeteria – the place where the whole companies gathers, day after day.
How to be a good frontline host: Elara Caring’s story
Elara Caring – one of the largest US-based providers of personal care, home health and hospice care – had a frontline engagement problem when we first met them last year. With a 62% turnover rate of their more than 32,000 personal care attendants (PCAs), the leadership team needed sustainable engagement badly.
In adopting Blink, Elara looked to empower its PCAs and make their lives easier – and get engagement and loyalty in return.
They used Blink to remove the burden of paper-based admin: Elara’s PCAs had to constantly fill out expenses and other forms on paper. Blink’s solution was to integrate these manual processes and systems into a single app. Payslips, expenses and mileage reporting, key information from Sharepoint, schedules and rotas were all suddenly available to Elara’s PCAs at their fingertips.
The benefits for Elara’s PCAs? Time savings, with more attention devoted to their “real jobs” than ever before.
The benefits for Elara Caring? Sustainable engagement, with 95% of employees saying that they now feel more connected to the company. PCAs have begun to use Blink to create a community – and sub-communities – within the organization, creating the connection and cohesion that makes them stay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINw_Y7CjWQ
In conclusion: good parties don’t skimp on the guac
In a war for a diminishing talent pool, the need to directly address frontline engagement has never been more acute. But it’s also shown where there are failings in trying to get engagement from the activities and programs that work for desk-based, white-collar workers. The key to success for the frontline is to not only fit into frontline life, but to make frontline life better and easier – and use that digital space you’ve created to finally connect your people.
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“Dear Employee, your GTK forms are now Available in the YTG portal, Please fill them by Thu so they can be processed by MONDAY. Thank you!!!!”
Internal messages like these are liable to confuse your audience.
Grammar mistakes, inconsistent capitalization, and workplace jargon make internal communications confusing. A lack of personalization and an ill-defined tone of voice make it unengaging.
The result? Your audience doesn’t understand your message — or chooses to ignore it because it holds no interest.
We know that ineffective communication costs businesses up to $15,000 per employee per year. So consistent, effective, and engaging communication has to be the standard.
An internal communication style guide helps your communicators post content that ticks all these boxes. Let’s look at what a style guide is — and how to create one — so you can ensure clear employee communication and a positive employer brand image.
What is a business communication style guide?
A business communication style guide is a document that details the content and writing standards you want internal communicators to stick to.
It includes rules on things like grammar, formatting, writing style, word choice, and tone of voice. It offers guidance on how to make content more interesting, relevant, and easy to digest. It may also provide information on how to create and format multimedia content.
Your internal communicators can refer to these standards whenever they create content, ensuring that everything is kept consistent, no matter who is writing or posting.
This makes your internal messages easier for employees to understand. It also supports your internal communication strategy. Because when employees are used to receiving clear and relevant messages, they’re much less likely to switch off from employee communications.
A style guide keeps everyone on the same page at all times. And it embeds a shared understanding of internal content creation throughout your company.
How to write your internal communication style guide: a template
Internal messages should be as concise as possible. The same goes for your internal communication style guide.
Nobody in your company wants to spend hours reading through a list of rules before they publish an internal communication message. So don’t be tempted to write reams.
It may help to look at style guide examples and templates — like the one we’ve included here — as inspiration. There’s broad consensus on what good internal messaging looks like. So most style guides contain a lot of the same information.
However, you will need to add company-specific guidance relating to your brand personality, tone of voice, and any particular language you want to use or avoid.
With all that in mind, here are the basic components you’ll need to include in your workplace communication style guide, along with some tips.
Introduction
The first section of a style guide is the introduction. It explains the basics of the guide, like how to use it, why it’s important, and what it includes.
The VA.gov style guide hits on all these points. It provides a straightforward experience for everyone, regardless of whether they’re viewing the guide for the first or tenth time.
To ensure people can use your guide as a reference, create a list of contents and use linked subheadings. That way, users can jump straight to the information they need.
A few internal communication principles
A good business communication style guide doesn’t just cover specific rules for workers to follow. It also shares the underlying internal communication principles behind those rules.
With knowledge of these principles, content creators can make the right editorial call, even in situations the guidelines don’t cover.
Here are some of the golden rules to include for content creators in your internal communication style guide.
Stick to the four Cs: Internal communication should be correct, clear, concise, and conversational. So fact check each piece of content. Ensure your primary message shines through. Say what you want to say in as few words as possible. And write in a way that reflects how real people talk to one another — using everyday words and phrases.
Understand your audience: Plan your content before you start writing. As you form an outline, ask yourself:
What are the key things you want to convey?
Who is this message for?
What will the target audience want to know?
What is their likely state of mind when consuming the content?
This will help you write cohesive content that gets to the point and answers employee questions.
Be clear and helpful: Break down complex messages into simple, bite-size chunks. Put the most important piece of information at the start of your content. Also, break up paragraphs and sentences to make them more digestible for readers.
Make it human: It’s much easier to connect with individual people than with an inanimate organization. So use words like “we” instead of your company name. And use the word “you” to talk to employees directly.
X Blink is looking for employees who want to volunteer with a local charity.
✓ We’re looking for employees who want to volunteer with a local charity.
X Employees can get involved by clicking this link.
✓ You can get involved by clicking this link.
Write inclusively: Only refer to a person’s disability, age, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation if it’s relevant to the context of your content.
Grammar and punctuation
The third part of your internal communication style guide is all about the mechanics of writing.
Of course, you can’t cover every single grammar rule here. But you can give guidance regarding the most common grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Here are some ideas.
Ampersands: Don’t use ampersands (&), whether in titles, subtitles or the body of a message. Use the full word “and”.
Commas: Don’t forget to add the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma), in lists of three or more items.
X In his award speech, Tom Cruise mentioned his parents, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.
✓ In his award speech, Tom Cruise mentioned his parents, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Contractions: Contractions make your writing feel less formal. So use them in all your internal communications.
X We will have more news for you soon.
✓ We’ll have more news for you soon.
Be careful with common contraction errors. Writers often confuse “its” with “it’s”.
“Its” is used to show possession:
The HR team has its away day on Monday.
“It’s” represents the phrase “it is”:
It’s the HR team away day on Monday.
Also, avoid non-standard contractions like “should’ve” and “would’ve”.
Exclamation marks: Some writers are prone to using lots of exclamation marks. This can come across as overly informal or a little aggressive. However, the occasional exclamation mark can make a message seem more friendly. Be clear on whether and where you want communicators to use them.
Accuracy and spelling: Ensure that your content is free from errors. Use a spell-checker to catch mistakes you might have overlooked. And proofread everything before submitting it for publication or distribution.
Style and formatting
Style and formatting are all about how you want communicators to use language — and how you want them to present their message on the page.
Acronyms and abbreviations: These can cause confusion, particularly for new employees. So try to avoid them. When absolutely necessary, write the full version of the acronym or abbreviation the first time it appears in a piece of text.
For example:
The customer experience (CX) team achieved their target this quarter.
Then use the acronym or abbreviation throughout the rest of the text.
In some cases, when an acronym or abbreviation is commonly used in the English language, you don’t need to spell the full word out.
Some examples: Mr, Ms, Ph.D
Capitalization: Use sentence case capitalization for page titles, subheadings, text links, and buttons.
X The Ultimate Internal Communication Style Guide
✓ The ultimate internal communication style guide
Remember that proper nouns (names of specific people, places, or organizations) are always capitalized, wherever they appear. And ALL CAPS should be avoided at all costs. They make a reader feel like you’re shouting at them.
Dates and times: Dates are displayed differently in different countries. To avoid any confusion, write dates in their full format.
X 11/12/2026
✓ November 12, 2026
Don’t abbreviate days of the week or months of the year. For example, write “Monday” not “Mon” and “January” not “Jan”. Also, write noon and midnight, rather than 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.
Bullet lists: Bullet lists make content easier to scan and understand. If there are three or more concepts in a sentence, try putting them in a bullet list instead.
When writing bullet lists:
Capitalize the first letter of each bullet point
Keep each list item short (no more than one or two lines)
Use a parallel structure (start each point in the same way —for example, with a verb or a noun)
Links: The links you include in your content should feel natural and intuitive. They should show readers where to click and where the link will take them.
When creating links:
Use descriptive language
Hyperlink the most relevant text
Avoid making the hyperlinked text too long
Headings and subheadings: Use headers and subheads to organize your content. This breaks text up and makes it easier to read.
Paragraphs and sentences: Keep the majority of your sentences and paragraphs short. Long blocks of text can be overwhelming for a reader, particularly if they’re reading content on a small mobile device screen.
Here’s a quick rule of thumb:
No more than 25 words in a sentence
No more than three sentences in a paragraph
Numbers, weights, and measures: Write numbers one to nine as words. Write numbers 10, 11, 12, and so on as numerals. Write out fractions as words, using hyphens. For example, two-thirds or three-quarters.
Decide whether to write out or abbreviate weights, measures, and currencies. For example, decide between:
% and percent
kg and kilograms
€ and euros
Vocabulary: Highlight the correct form of commonly misspelled or incorrectly formatted words — particularly those your organization uses regularly. Ensure that your company name, company locations, and hyphenated words are written the same way across all content.
Context-specific formatting: Perhaps news feed posts shouldn’t exceed a specified word count. Or you don’t want communicators to use emojis in emails. Explain any style and formatting rules related to the internal communication channels you use.
Writing voice and tone
This is where your business communication style guide is likely to feature lots of unique content. It’s all about the brand personality you convey — and how you make employees feel.
Start by thinking about your brand personality and values. Then, imagine your brand as a person.
Ask yourself how that person would speak and the kind of words they’d use. Perhaps their speech is polished and motivational. Or maybe they prefer to talk informally, throwing in the odd joke.
In this part of your internal communication style guide, describe what your brand personality is and isn’t. Also, give written examples that show communicators how to convey this personality across internal communications.
But remember that — while brand voice is a fixed thing — your tone can vary.
You may like to adapt your tone according to each communication channel and message format — or for different audience segments. If this is the case, give examples of how to adjust the tone for different scenarios.
Beyond the specifics of your brand voice and tone, there are a few foundations of good internal communication to keep in mind.
Use active voice: Using active voice instead of passive voice makes your employee communication more engaging and energetic.
X The training day was delivered by Amy.
✓ Amy delivered the training day.
Be open and transparent: Transparent communication builds trust. This contributes to a positive company culture. So when creating internal communications, use a tone that is approachable and honest. Be as open as possible, particularly where mistakes have been made.
Also, invite employee feedback to respond to your communications. In doing so, you establish two-way communication, giving employees a voice and discovering useful perspectives.
Be respectful: As we mentioned earlier, inclusive language is essential for internal comms. Ensure you speak to all employees as equals. Don’t patronize and don’t highlight company hierarchy unnecessarily.
Be direct and to the point: Your employees want to learn the most important details of your message as quickly as possible. Keep your copy short without missing key information. Also, include a clear call to action so employees know what to do next.
Keep it positive: We’re not saying you should gloss over bad news. But where possible, use a positive tone when writing internal messages. Avoid cynicism and sarcasm.
Write with a conversational tone: Make text easy to understand by writing in Plain English. Pick short, simple words over long, complicated ones.
It can help to read your writing out loud. If you wouldn’t use particular words or sentence structures when talking to someone face-to-face, try editing your copy to make it more conversational.
For example:
X Blink is a software solution for frontline-centric organizations.
✓ Blink is an employee app for companies with a big frontline workforce.
Multimedia content
Text may be the foundation of internal communications. But multimedia content is incredibly engaging for employees.
If you regularly create content like videos, images, infographics, or audio, tell your team how this media should be presented. Here are some of the things you might like to cover.
Branding: If graphics and videos need to feature the company logo, company colors, or specific fonts, tell creators how you want them to incorporate your branding. Also, give guidance on whether stock photography is acceptable.
Quality and formats: Detail the minimum resolution of images, the maximum file size of multimedia content, the required quality of audio, and preferred file formats.
Accessibility: Give instructions on alt tags, contrasting color palettes, and any video caption requirements to ensure your multimedia content is accessible to all employees.
A final note on creating your internal communication style guide
An internal communication style guide acts as a reference. Your communicators can use it to improve your internal communication, making it more consistent, engaging, and effective.
Many of the guidelines in an internal communication style guide cover best practices. These can be applied to almost any organization. But you need to adapt your guide so it reflects your branding, your tone of voice, and the needs of your employees.
It can help to treat your guide as a work in progress. Once you have a guide in place, you can add to it. Any time you see an error or an inconsistency in your internal communications, update your style guide to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
We hope this template speeds up the creation of your internal communication guide. Good luck with your first draft!
Internal comms teams: It’s time to start thinking like social media managers
In today’s workplace, grabbing attention and building a sense of community is more challenging than ever. As Instagram has demonstrated, there’s immense power in blending visuals, brevity, and engagement-driven features to keep audiences captivated.
By embracing an Instagram-inspired approach, internal comms teams can turn traditionally static and monotonous updates into dynamic, employee-centric experiences, ultimately boosting engagement, experience, and retention.
And when we think about the newest generation of workers, a modern employee experience isn’t just nice to have — it’s a key differentiator: 70% of Gen Z employees would leave their job for better workplace technology.
Let’s dive into how you can create an Instagram-worthy internal comms strategy that truly resonates with — and retains — employees.
#1. #PicsOrItDidntHappen: Lead with visual storytelling
You know that old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words”?
In a corporate environment, where text-heavy comms are the norm and often leave employees feeling uninspired, it might be worth even more. On Instagram, visuals do the talking. They capture attention, convey emotion, and get users to linger. Imagine applying the same idea to your internal comms.
From photos of team achievements to video messages from leadership, visually rich content invites more interaction and gives employees quick ways to engage with company updates. Incorporate more images, infographics, and videos to help distill complex messages, celebrate moments, and build a visually engaging narrative.
Try a “day in the life” photo series from different teams, or showcase milestones with celebratory visuals. This not only humanizes the workplace but also helps employees feel more connected to their colleagues across the organization.
#2. #StorySawItFirst: Share the moments that matter
Stories — on Instagram, Facebook, and beyond — have changed how we consume content by making it quick, timely, and interactive. For internal comms, a similar approach keeps messaging fresh and to the point.
Consider launching an internal Stories feature, with short-form, time-sensitive updates. Whether you use video, images, or brief text, these snippets can recap highlights, recognize employees, or celebrate accomplishments in a way that’s easy to digest.
Launch a weekly Story roundup that features key updates and celebrates wins from across the company. These updates create anticipation and encourage employees to check back regularly for new content.
{{mobile-stories="/image"}}
#3. #POV: Embrace user-generated content
One of the reasons Instagram is so successful is because it breaks down the barrier between creators and consumers: All users have the power to create, post, and engage with content.
Bringing this into the workplace by encouraging employee-generated content (EGC) adds authenticity and makes employees feel like co-owners of the company’s story.
Consider how your team could prioritize EGC and what makes most sense for your organization. Maybe it’s creating a designated space where employees can post daily photos from their workday, or coming up with an internal hashtag campaign where employees can share short stories that showcase daily victories or moments of pride.
We’ve seen firsthand the power of EGC on building trust on external channels: Content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared on brand channels. Imagine the impact this boost could have on your internal comms strategy.
{{mobile-community="/image"}}
#4. #ForYouPage: Personalize your comms approach
If you spend enough time on social media platforms, then you’re deeply familiar with the omniscient algorithm — an underlying intelligence that recognizes which content you watch with most and, with increasing accuracy, serves it up to your news feed to create a more individualized and engaging experience.
Internal comms can take the same data-backed approach by using insights from their employee platform to segment audiences, gauging content effectiveness through metrics like engagement rates, and then tailoring content based on individual preferences
By surfacing hyper-relevant information to the right people — like recommended News Feed content based on team, or custom updates to specific departments and regions — you can make internal updates feel more targeted, help employees feel seen and understood, and prevent information overload.
Instagram is all about mobile-first, short-form content. It’s what makes the platform so easy to navigate and what keeps people coming back for more.
When it comes to modern internal comms, employees are similarly craving updates and content that are quick to access and even quicker to digest, wherever they are.
As you plan out your content strategy, ensure all internal messages are mobile-friendly, concisely written, and formatted for on-the-go reading. For example, consider formatting key announcements as brief bullet-point highlights — we’re talking 200 characters or less — with a link to read more.
By keeping updates short and to the point, complemented with visuals whenever possible, employees can stay informed without dedicating a large amount of time — helping to ensure key messages don’t get lost in the shuffle.
{{mobile-main="/image"}}
#6. #Influenced: Embrace the internal influencer
Influencers drive engagement on Instagram by speaking from an authentic, relatable perspective. By empowering internal champions, you can build similar trust and encourage peer-to-peer communication within the company.
Identify influential voices within the organization who can serve as communication champions and lead the charge for two-way communications. This might be leaders, long-term employees, or team leads who can add a personal, credible touch to internal updates and culture-building efforts.
Have these champions share company updates, promote engagement, or even host takeovers of internal channels to drive excitement and reach. Their familiar faces make messages feel more personal and authentic.
On Instagram, highlights create a curated space for special moments. In internal comms, a similar approach can spotlight achievements and milestones in a meaningful way. And this small effort can have a big impact on retention: 79% of employees who quit their job cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.
Create a virtual “highlight reel” to celebrate employee achievements, team milestones, and other noteworthy moments. This can be part of a monthly or quarterly roundup, creating a sense of shared success and recognition.
These small moments of celebration and success spotlights help employees feel valued and recognized within the larger internal community — and may even result in them staying longer at your organization.
#8. #LetsExplore: Make content easily discoverable
The Explore tab on Instagram allows users to stumble upon new and interesting content. Internal comms can take a similar approach by reimagining the outdated intranets of yore and making helpful resources easy to find and share.
Organize information in a way that allows employees to quickly discover and revisit updates, whether through tagging, keyword searches, or categories. A content hub can help employees catch up on past announcements or discover useful resources.
Create a centralized digital home for all internal updates, organized by topics like announcements, team wins, and resources. This lets employees browse based on their current needs or catch up if they missed a recent announcement.
Think beyond traditional communication channels
As employee communications move into the future, embracing creativity and interactivity — much like social media platforms we all know and use in our personal lives — can reshape the employee experience and build a more connected, motivated workforce.
By incorporating Instagram-inspired features into content strategies, internal comms teams can create a consumer-grade workplace experience that feels inherently familiar to employees, breaking down barriers for adoption and engagement.
Experiment with these tactics, prioritize authenticity, and watch as your employees become more empowered, creative, and excited to contribute to the company culture.
“Blink for Everyone" allows nonprofits to maintain connectivity and engagement
Boston – May 28, 2024 – Blink, the leading employee engagement super-app, today announced the formal launch of "Blink for Everyone," a program offering non-profit organizations access to its platform free of charge. This initiative builds on Blink’s commitment to support nonprofits with the essential tools they need to stay connected and engaged, especially during transitional times.
Meta’s decision to pivot away from Workplace has left many non-profits facing increased costs or a loss of critical connectivity. Blink for Everyone addresses this gap by offering a mobile-first, unified platform that enhances communication and collaboration among team members.
“Nonprofits are essential to society and our communities and we want to enhance their impact by offering access to an all-one-one people engagement platform,” said Sean Nolan, CEO and founder of Blink. “With the closure of Meta’s Workplace for Good, many organizations are searching for alternatives. Blink for Everyone is our commitment to help non-profits continue their vital work without the burden of additional costs. We believe in equality of access, where every worker, whether desk-based or deskless, has the tools they need to thrive.”
Nonprofit organizations using Blink have already reported significant improvements in their operations and employee engagement.
"Blink has significantly enhanced our organizational communication with its intuitive interface, leading to a positive shift within our workforce," said a representative from St. Amant. "Since adopting Blink, our dispersed teams have become more informed and connected, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration."
Chris Lawley, board member, Destiny Rescue remarked, “Blink has revolutionized how we connect, communicate and collaborate as an organization. As a globally dispersed team, we were struggling with keeping our teams connected in real-time. Blink's support for non-profit organizations allowed us to adopt their world-class technology without a license fee. Important information is now being shared seamlessly across continents, making our operations safer and more efficient."
Blink features and benefits
Two-way communications: augmented with an integrated activity feed and a centralized resource Hub.
Mobile-first approach: a single application for all company-focused interactions, ensuring accessibility for all employees.
Seamless experience: Facilitates smooth communication and engagement across the entire workplace.
Scalability and Configurability: Easily scales and supports organizations of all sizes, ensuring flexibility and adaptability.
Blink’s mission is "connect everyone, so everyone thrives." This initiative reflects Blink’s commitment to ensuring that all organizations, regardless of their size or budget, have access to the best tools for communication and engagement.
Nonprofits interested in Blink for Everyone can register their interest on Blink's website.
About Blink
Blink is a provider of a leading super-app designed for frontline organizations. The company aims to revolutionize employee work life by bridging the digital divide between deskless and desk-based employees, enabling effective communication and engagement in distributed organizations. Blink is used by industry-leading companies, including RATPDev, Elara Caring, and Domino’s. Each user opens the app an average of seven times a day, helping lower frontline attrition by up to 25%. Founded in 2015 and with offices in London, Boston, and Sydney, Blink is a Leader in the G2 Grid® for Best Employee Engagement Software. Visit Joinblink.com for more information.
At Blink, I am responsible for the ongoing success and happiness of our wonderful customers 🚀
I lead our brilliant global Customer Success and Customer Support teams. Together, we nurture our customers in every way possible. We work collaboratively with our customers and all the internal teams at Blink to ensure our users are getting the absolute best value out of our transformative SaaS platform.
I was born and raised in Camden Town, London. I left the capital to go to university but Camden is where my heart lives so I came straight back once I graduated!
I studied Anatomy & Physiology at the University of Manchester and my plan was to kick-off a career in Healthcare 🏥 After months of work experience at the MRI Hospital in the Oncology Gynaecology Department, I came to the realisation that a career in Healthcare sadly wasn’t for me. However, my respect, appreciation, and gratitude for how incredibly hard the nurses, technicians, doctors, surgeons, and supporting staff work on the frontline skyrocketed.
When I left University, I no longer had a career plan which was scary. All I knew was that I loved people – helping, communicating, and supporting people. So, I literally typed ‘jobs for people who love people’ into Google to see what opportunities came up! Recruitment was the top result and that’s how I fell into my first role 💙
My first job was a hybrid Business Development and Recruitment Consultant role within a large corporate company. I learned very quickly that a hardcore Sales role didn’t suit me and I wanted to have more of a positive and influential impact than I could within that corporate environment.
This is when my journey into working in start-ups began. I joined a small technology recruitment start-up whose mission was to change the way companies recruit for their product and engineering teams. I worked my way up from Talent Manager to Account Manager where I had my own portfolio of customers that I was responsible for. I worked with companies including Cazoo, MADE.com, dnata, Emirates Holidays, and many more to help them design, advertise, interview, and hire for their product and engineering teams.
When the opportunity arose to work for a company whose purpose is to make the work lives of the frontline easier, happier, and more connected, I leaped at the chance.
I joined Blink in November 2019 as the first-ever Customer Success Manager. I was responsible for all of our customers throughout their post-sales lifecycle. I single-handedly managed customer support, implementations, and customer success for all our customers.
Since then, we’ve grown from just me to three established global teams: Customer Success, Customer Support, and Implementation. I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to build my own teams, create our ways of working, take on increasing levels of responsibility and accountability, and achieve glowing success with our customers.
Now as Head of Customer Success, my role is much more strategic and focused on the leadership of my team.
There are three main reasons why I love what I do. The first is the people. I get to work with incredible people internally and externally every single day.
The second is the challenge. I’m learning, growing, and developing at a rate that I didn’t think was possible! And the best thing is that I get to share this with those around me, particularly my team.
The third is our mission. We’re all working together to make the working lives of the frontline easier, more efficient, more connected, but most importantly give them their voice and let it be heard.
Hi I am Fabien, I moved to London in 2012 from my home country France. I studied Business Management and prior to joining Blink in June 2021, I spent 8 years at Estée Lauder Companies as a Business Analyst.
In 2020, I took on a Software Engineering Bootcamp at General Assembly to start a new career as a Developer. 🚀
At Blink, I am a Full Stack Developer within the Solutions Engineering Team. Day to day, my job is to help our customers getting extra value out of Blink. ⭐️
Some of the projects I work on include building integrations with third party systems our customers use or creating digital forms within the app to replace existing paper processes our customers might have. ✅
I love working at Blink because we enable frontline workers from key sectors, such as healthcare or transport, to feel better connected to their organisation and we help them streamline some of the tasks they have to do on a day to day basis so they can focus on making the world a better a place.
If you want to make a difference, if you like to be challenged, if you are eager to learn and want to be part of an awesome team, Blink is the right place for you! 💙
When’s the last time you had a work-related question, opened your phone to Google it, and ended up down a rabbit hole of Tasty slow cooker recipe videos on Instagram?
If the answer is, “Not that long ago,” don’t worry. You’re not alone.
Many people consider social networks a productivity killer. Swiping through an endless stream of dog videos can make it hard to get work done.
Social media apps get a bad rap at work, but that’s because they’re so good at keeping people engaged and interacting.
What if you could harness the power of social media and use it to help your employees engage more at work?
You can use a social intranet to make your internal communications as engaging as a playlist of cats riding Roombas (well, almost).
With a social intranet, your employee network becomes more than a dumping ground for company documents — it’s a place where people can collaborate, learn, and feel connected to one another.
A social intranet is a private collaboration platform where workers can access content in one place. It offers social features like commenting and messaging so employees can interact and work together. And unlike traditional intranet solutions, social intranet software uses interactive elements to increase employee engagement and collaboration in the digital workspace.
Since intranets are networks only company employees can access, they serve as internal communications and knowledge management tools.
Why employee apps are the new intranet
Are intranets a thing of the past? In this eBook, learn how to engage with the deskless workforce effectively to build strong, happy frontline organizations.
Traditional intranet setups have more restrictions when it comes to posting and interaction. For most employees, it’s like having “read-only” access to company resources.
Yes, social intranets are still relevant — here's how to use one 1
On the other hand, social intranets give workers permission to create and engage with content. You can use social intranets to share company resources and encourage employees to connect with each other and the content.
Let’s take a look at some of the top benefits of choosing a social intranet over a traditional one.
Deloitte found that improving employee engagement can increase retention by up to 87%. The study also suggests that using social tools internally increases employee satisfaction by 20%.
Socializing intranet with features like instant messaging keeps your employees connected so they’re more likely to feel like they’re part of a team.
Better collaboration
Gone are the days when you had a question at work and you had to walk five desks over to get your answer. With remote working in a digital workspace, your employees may be spread over several states and countries. That can make collaboration a challenge.
Social intranets provide tools that make it easier for your employees to connect and work together by offering features such as status updates and commenting. Activity streams, which are similar to social media news feeds, keep everyone in the loop, and private instant messages (which work like, e.g. Instagram DMs) eliminate the need for lengthy email chains.
Increased productivity
If workplace interruptions get out of hand, they’re a killer on your team’s productivity.
Imagine your marketing department trying to work on a website update, but they keep getting calls from sales reps who can’t find the right assets. Or maybe your website developer is hard at work on that new layout, but they’ve got to field emails from marketing about text updates.
With a traditionally restricted intranet, your employees have to rely on constant calls and meetings to share information.
A social intranet with private messaging and commenting features lets your employees engage with updates on their own time, so they can focus on their priorities without interruption.
Enhanced security
Employees who can’t contribute to their intranet need to find other places to share documents and files. Unfortunately, file-sharing platforms like Google Suite or Dropbox aren’t as secure as your private network.
With a social intranet, you have an added layer of security on your internal knowledge and documents.
What your social intranet platform should include
As you review different social intranet platforms, look for features that help employees connect and collaborate.
Yes, social intranets are still relevant — here's how to use one 2
Here are some standard social intranet features to look for:
Commenting, tagging, and messaging for easy social interaction
Company news feeds and notifications for sharing updates
Information hub with powerful search capabilities for ease of access
Communities and forums for collaboration and knowledge-sharing
Polls and surveys for collecting feedback
Employee directory so people can get to know each other’s faces even if they haven’t met
Social intranet best practices
According to Prescient Digital Media, only 13% of employees use the company intranet every day. Most companies need to work harder to make their intranet useful for employees.
Here’s how you can set up your intranet to make sure your employees love checking in.
Make contribution easy
You can’t force employee engagement from the top down. Everyone in your organization has something to contribute, so make sure they can.
Businesses aren’t run out of a single headquarters anymore. Remote workers and frontline employees who interact with customers don’t always have access to a laptop or computer.
If you want a social intranet that everyone will use, it must be accessible to your entire workforce. Choose a platform optimized for mobile apps so your deskless workers still get the same online employee experience.
Look for a provider with analytics
How do you know if your social intranet is making a difference? Well, you won’t – unless you track its analytics.
Yes, social intranets are still relevant — here's how to use one 3
Marketers use engagement analytics to measure the success of every campaign. You should take the same approach to internal communications.
By tracking your workforce analytics, you can figure out what type of content works for your team and create more of it. Without them, you risk investing a lot of time for a small reward.
Final thoughts: what is a social intranet, and how does it benefit you?
Staying connected in the digital workplace is vital. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Businesses need tools that adapt to ‘new normals’ and still keep employees connected.
The best social intranet is also a modern intranet.
It helps you create an internal comms resource your employees will actually want to use. No matter where your people are, they can log on and feel connected to the company and supported in their work.
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