At Blink, we’re constantly evolving our employee experience platform to meet the dynamic needs of organizations and their employees.
As part of our commitment to empowering great employee experiences from the frontline to the front office, we’re excited to announce our latest suite of product features designed to improve the way employees engage with their organization and with each other.
From fostering deeper social connections and real-time interactions, to improving platform security and content protection, discover 6 new features designed to help you create an engaging, reliable, and thriving workplace.
#1. Stories: Share snapshots of your company culture
In today’s fast-paced world, the need for real-time connection and engagement has never been more important — and that includes at work. That’s why we’re excited to bring Stories, a first-of-its-kind feature, to Blink. With Stories, teams can easily share moments, celebrate wins, and keep the workplace experience fun and dynamic.
Much like Stories on the social media platforms we know and love, employees and team leaders can share temporary posts that live at the top of the Feed, keeping internal content relevant and up to date.
Why you’ll love it:
- Instant sharing: Whether it’s celebrating team achievements, giving updates on project milestones, or sharing everyday moments, Stories offer a personal touch that helps foster a connected culture.
- Boost engagement: With the ability to share everyday moments and add a personal touch using image-editing tools, Stories make it easier for employees to connect and engage beyond formal communications.
- Keep content fresh: With a 72-hour shelf life, Stories are a great way to share timely messages and encourage frequent, social snapshots of your day.
With Stories, organizations can bring a fresh yet familiar approach to their internal communications strategy, engaging employees not just in critical communications but throughout their everyday work lives.
#2. Communities: Modernize your employee resource groups
As part of the reimagined Connect section, which brings Groups, Teams, and Contacts into one cohesive view, we’re excited to introduce Communities. This new feature allows employees to connect and collaborate over shared interests and hobbies.
With Communities, which are open for anyone to explore and join, employees have an intuitive and interactive digital space to foster deeper connections that go beyond day-to-day work tasks.
Key benefits:
- Personalized experience: Employees can join Communities based on their interests, passions, or hobbies, creating a more inclusive and engaging workplace.
- A dedicated space: Each Community comes with its own unique Feed, Channels, and Resources, creating a dynamic virtual hub for content and communication.
- Cross-company connection: Communities provide an opportunity to engage with colleagues across the organization, helping to bridge the gap between teams, departments, and geographies.
From Parents at Work and Home Chefs, to Dog Lovers and LGBTQ+ Crew, Communities open up new opportunities for social connection, workplace collaboration, and community-building.
#3. Moderation: Enhance control over your digital spaces
In order to ensure organizations can create and maintain a positive digital environment, we’ve enhanced our platform moderation tools. Administrators can now better manage and control content in Blink through new reporting and moderation functionalities.
New capabilities:
- Report a comment: Users can now report individual comments, in addition to posts, making moderation more precise.
- Report reasons: Users can provide specific reasons for reporting content, enabling admins to make more informed decisions and take quick action.
- Streamlined admin workflow: Moderation tasks are now part of the admin task list, ensuring that no report goes unnoticed.
These improvements give admins more transparency and control, allowing them to better maintain a respectful and focused communication environment.
#4. Mobile version control: Improve security for frontline teams
We’ve added mobile version control as an additional security measure to help organizations protect sensitive content on Blink’s platform. With this new feature, admins now have the option to require that devices meet a minimum OS version requirement, across iOS and Android, to access specific content and resources.
Why it matters:
- Improved data security: By controlling OS versions, companies can add an additional layer of security to any sensitive resources housed in the Content Hub.
- Tailored policies: Admins can customize their security settings to include OS version requirements, helping to meet BYOD (bring your own device) policies and ensuring compliance.
- Prompted updates: As part of this feature, Blink will alert employees in-app whose devices don’t meet the minimum OS requirements and prompt them to update their device. Blink will let me know I need to update my device’s operating system.
This update is crucial for companies prioritizing security, especially those with frontline, hybrid, or remote workers who often use their personal devices.
#5. Custom profile fields: Tailor your employee inputs
In addition to our 15 out-of-the-box user profile fields like “Name” and “Location,” we’re excited to roll out customizable profile fields.
Admins can now set up custom profile fields to gather the data they need and expand Blink’s usability, paving the way for admins to design a truly tailored Blink experience for their organizations and employees alike.
A closer look:
- Customization: Admins can now create custom fields to collect and manage unique user data, offering more tailored experiences for employees.
- Scalability: Whether you’re managing teams in retail, healthcare, or any other industry, custom fields make it easy to track data points that matter most to your organization.
- Extensibility: This is just the first step! Soon, custom fields will be integrated across more Blink features, making it easier to manage employee information in a way that works for you.
With these customized fields, you can gain deeper insights, streamline processes, and capture workforce data that aligns with your organization’s unique operational needs.
#6. ServiceNow notification integration: Stay on top of IT updates
Lastly, but certainly not least, we’ve expanded our integration capabilities. Our seamless notification integration with ServiceNow enables employees to receive real-time updates on their IT tickets directly within Blink.
How it works:
- Real-time notifications: Whenever an IT ticket is updated or resolved in ServiceNow, employees receive instant notifications via the Feed.
- Improved efficiency: This integration reduces the need for employees to switch between platforms, keeping everything in one place and ensuring they stay informed about their requests.
Enhanced integrations like these ensure that Blink can continue to be the central hub for all of your employee communications and task management needs.
Bring your consumer-grade employee experience to life.
As workplaces continue to evolve, our goal remains the same: to provide the tools that foster connection, enhance productivity, and create a seamless and exceptional experience for every employee — no matter what they do and where they work.
These product enhancements are our next step in empowering organizations to meet — and exceed — the expectations of a modern and digitally savvy workforce.
