The Shift | August 22, 2024

Hello and welcome to The Shift, Blink’s bi-monthly newsletter for frontline champions. Coming up in this issue:

• Creating an employee experience your frontline will love
• The state of workplace happiness — and how HR leaders can improve it
• A step-by-step guide to migrating from Meta’s Workplace platform

UPCOMING WEBINAR FOR FRONTLINE LEADERS

Creating a Domino’s effect of employee engagement

When it comes to improving the employee experience, investing in internal communications doesn’t just benefit the workforce — it can create a domino effect that benefits business.

Join us for a live fireside chat on Thursday, September 5 with Ellie Moore, internal communications manager at Domino’s Pizza Group U.K. and Ireland, to hear how she has simplified and unified internal communications across the Domino’s organization.

With more than a decade of experience leading HR and internal communications functions at multinational organizations, Ellie will share her key takeaways for people leaders looking to create a more connected and empowering communications strategy, including:

• Facilitating easy access to critical company information and updates
• Bridging the communications gaps across the supply chain
• Retaining and engaging employees through recognition initiatives
• Boosting operational efficiency and performance

Register today for this can’t-miss conversation on how to create an employee communications strategy that leads to better financial, operational, and organizational outcomes.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

Unifying your frontline workforce experience

More technology does not necessarily mean more connection.

The modern workforce is working across different locations and juggling more platforms and logins than ever. These challenges — already hard on desk-based, computer-connected office workers — are amplified for the frontline workforce. Recent data has revealed that deskless employees are less trusting of their managers and people leaders, less engaged in general, and more likely to experience burnout than their desk-based coworkers.

Bringing employees together through a unified workforce experience helps to close these experience gaps between the frontline and the front office:

1. Provide frontline-facing technology

Just 10% of frontline employees say they have enough access to the tools, tech, and opportunities they need to connect and advance in their workplace. The most effective tech takes the frontline’s needs into consideration: It’s fast, easy, and streamlined, with minimal logins and no need for a company email address.

2. Communicate over one cohesive channel

Frontline organizations have usually tried various methods of internal comms — break room posters, flier handouts, personal texts and calls from managers — with limited success. Communicating in one comprehensive digital channel can ensure all employees have equal access to timely and relevant information and power better two-way communication.

3. Conduct regular employee surveys

To improve engagement and bring your workforce together, you need to truly understand what’s going well — and what isn’t — by giving employees a voice. By using a combination of annual, quarterly, and pulse surveys, leaders can get the feedback they need to make targeted improvements to the employee experience.

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

The state of workforce happiness

How happy are employees feeling at their organization today — and how does satisfaction stack up by size, by industry, and year over year?

New research from BambooHR reveals a steady decline in workforce happiness since 2020. Between May 2020 and May 2024, the score dipped from 44 to 35.

Zooming into how satisfaction has changed in the first half of 2024, workforce happiness dipped in a number of industries, including healthcare, travel and hospitality, technology, and the restaurant, food, and beverage sector.

The study also shows that workers at smaller companies (1-24 employees) tended to be nearly twice as happy than those at bigger companies (76+ employees).

So what can HR leaders do to reverse the trend and boost employee happiness?

• Prioritize open communication and employee feedback
• Create a positive and supportive work environment
• Support employees through workplace transitions
• Show empathy for worker well-being
• Imbue workers with a sense of purpose

It may seem simple, but the impact is immense: Build a workplace that prioritizes individual well-being and satisfaction, and employee happiness and productivity will follow.

Read about Stagecoach , one of the largest transit companies in the U.K., who increased employee satisfaction by 46% with Blink’s employee super-app.

WORKFORCE TECHNOLOGY

A guide to migrating from Workplace

If you’re one of the thousands of organizations using Workplace from Meta to power your internal communications, you’re probably starting to explore alternatives and figuring out how you’re going to switch vendors as Workplace begins sunsetting in 2025.

Migrating your team and data to a new platform may seem daunting — but it doesn’t have to be.

Our step-by-step guide to Workplace migration takes the guesswork out of planning and gives internal comms and HR leaders the tools to minimize disruption and create a seamless employee experience during the change.

Important steps you need to take when migrating from Workplace include:

1. Scoping and planning your migration so that your Workplace data can be optimized for the best user experience and maximum impact
2. Creating a detailed migration matrix that outlines data mapping and factors in criteria like permission levels, roles, and privacy settings
3. Activating and engaging users in the new platform through help bots, migration leaderboards, on-site launch support, and more

Learn how you can check “Meta migration plan ” off your to-do list and make the switch easy on your workforce.

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