Connecting Frontline Employees: Turning Communication Gaps into Competitive Advantage

What if your biggest workforce segment is the least connected? In this episode, Toby Mildon speaks with Peter Durkin, CMO at Blink, about the hidden risks of overlooking frontline employees—and how organisations can turn connection into a strategic advantage.

They explore why traditional communication tools fail deskless workers and why solving this challenge requires more than just new technology. Peter introduces the concept of a “frontline connection methodology” and explains how organisations can move beyond surface-level fixes to drive meaningful engagement, productivity, and inclusion.

Key takeaways:

•  Why 80% of the workforce is often excluded from workplace communication 
•  The risks of treating employees as a cost rather than a competitive advantage 
•  Why technology alone won’t solve frontline engagement challenges 
•  The importance of change management, digital identity, and adoption strategies 
•  How better connection drives inclusion, productivity, and employer brand 

Guest: Peter Durkin, Chief Marketing Officer at Blink

•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdurkin/
•  Website: https://www.joinblink.com/

If you're enjoying this episode and looking to boost equity, inclusion, and diversity in your organisation, my team and I are here to help. Our team specialises in crafting data-driven strategies, developing inclusive leaders, designing fair recruitment processes, and enhancing disability confidence. With a blend of professional expertise and lived experience, we're ready to support you on your journey. Reach out to us through our website. 

If you want to build a more inclusive workplace that you can be proud of please visit our website to learn more.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Inclusive Growth show with Toby Mildon. Future-proofing your business by creating a diverse workplace.

Peter Durkin: 0:16

Hey there. Thanks ever so much for tuning into this episode of the Inclusive Growth Podcast. I'm Toby Mildon, and today I'm joined by Peter Durkin, who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Blink. And I came across Blink years ago when I was working in digital accessibility, and I got really intrigued about the platform because the platform initially was really designed around communicating with remote employees. So think about bus drivers or people working in a remote setting. And now that I've been running my own workplace inclusion consultancy, I've been working with a number of clients that actually do face the challenge of communicating with remote staff. So think about a large chain of pubs and restaurants that I worked with. They have difficulty in communicating with people that are working in kitchens and on restaurant floors that don't necessarily work in head office or have a company email address, or a large nationwide charity that's got schools, care homes, charity shops, again, communicating with staff that work in those locations rather than working at head office. So it is a real challenge for businesses in being able to communicate with these remote employees, especially when you're trying to foster a culture of belonging and inclusion and you're trying to inform your employees about all of the efforts that you're making about creating a more inclusive workplace. So it's really great to be sitting down with Peter today to learn more about the technology, what it does, and actually how it's developed from when I first came across it a few years ago. So, Peter, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us. Toby, great to be with you. This has been a long time coming. So excited to finally be sitting down with you.

Toby Mildon: 2:09

Brilliant. And I am a bit of a geek at heart, so any excuse to talk about any sort of app or gadget or technology, I'm in my element.

Peter Durkin: 2:17

Amazing. Well, hopefully we can talk a little bit about that today, but also about the frontline connection methodology that is just as an important part of introducing these types of platforms.

Toby Mildon: 2:31

Brilliant. So, Peter, what problem did you first see in organisations that led to Blink being developed in the first place?

Peter Durkin: 2:43

Great question. To start with, let's get right back to the beginning and the why, and maybe that's helpful context for listeners. So I've been at Blink now for eight and a half years, so definitely started looking for those specific patterns and problems that our prospects were facing and have continued to do that. And listen, I mean, the headline is that we saw the fact that most technology, communications technology included, has been designed for desk-based workers who, like you and I, are sitting here talking to one another through a laptop. But 80% of the global workforce is deskless and often those folks don't get a company email address, let alone a company device. So these platforms that have been bought for a particular part of the workforce were not actually reaching those that needed it the most. And that created significant challenges within businesses from disengagement, communication, lost productivity, poor culture and so on. So there really was a gap in these deskless environments that was manifesting itself into business problems across sectors.

Toby Mildon: 4:02

And why is it that frontline workers often get overlooked in communications and cultural efforts that companies are trying to make?

Peter Durkin: 4:11

Yeah, I think there's a few answers to that, right? It would be easy to say that one of the reasons is sort of the people making decisions about technology platforms are often desk-based workers themselves that don't necessarily fully understand or empathise with the fact that these channels aren't built for deskless workers. I think that that was probably true a few years back. Certainly most of the people leaders within businesses that I speak to now have got deep levels of empathy for the constituents they're trying to reach. So I'd say the reasons kind of changed. I'd say now the reason they get overlooked is this is difficult. This isn't just about buying another platform to reach people. If anything, the technology is more and more, especially with the advent of AI, getting commoditised. The reason they get overlooked is that this is a significant change management and transformation project that requires cross-functional collaboration, economic discipline about business cases, IT security buy-in in order to solve the problem once and for all. And the honest answer your question, Toby, is I think some organisations put it into the "that's a too difficult" bucket.

Toby Mildon: 5:37

Yeah. And by putting it in the "too difficult" bucket, what do you think is the risk that they're exposing themselves to by just sitting there and not acting?

Peter Durkin: 5:49

I appreciate that question because I think it's definitely something that we are talking to organisations about all the time. Like, being reductive to prove a point, you've kind of got two different types of companies, right? You've got those that understand and act like their people are their competitive advantage because they are closest to their products and customers and services than anyone else, because they are seeing it every single day. And their boardroom strategy is to unlock the potential of that workforce in a way that is going to give them a compounding competitive advantage over the next 5 to 10 years. And then you have those that continue to believe and act like their workforce is a cost base to be managed. And maybe they're paying lip service to the idea of employee connection, but not really wrestling with it as a strategic imperative or opportunity. And in those organisations, you see a number of third-order consequences from that, right? This isn't just about discretionary effort and disengagement dropping. It's about productivity, manager efficiency, employer brand, how people talk about you in the market, the competitive edge that you have when it comes to differentiating your service offering, the repeat business you get from your customers because of how your people show up every day. These concepts can be quite difficult to quantify sometimes, which is why often they're not widely discussed and they're lesser understood. But the businesses that we talk to have all got a choice to make about whether they want to be in the first camp and understand the route to addressing frontline connection in a sustainable way, or those that, for a number of reasons, believe it's too difficult and run the risk of being the Blockbuster or Kodak story as we embrace a total revolution in employee experience, which ultimately, of course, has been ushered in by AI.

Toby Mildon: 8:12

Absolutely. And you previously mentioned about leaders perhaps being more empathic nowadays around engaging with remote employees. Do you think that the pandemic has had any effect on that? Because people have changed the way that they work. More and more people are working remotely as a result of COVID-19.

Peter Durkin: 8:36

Yeah, definitely. Listen, that entire period clearly put key workers and frontline workers into a spotlight which previously was dimmed down. I think there is more of an understanding and appreciation and, therefore, a higher degree of empathy for the challenging roles that so many frontline and key workers play. And I think that that's certainly helped. I think that's helped leaders to understand and empathise with how difficult those roles can be and start to consider ways that they can make the lives easier of those people who are the face of their companies.

Toby Mildon: 9:18

So when organisations get frontline connection good, that's really badly worded question. What does that look like in practice? I'm thinking about my clients. So I've mentioned the nationwide hospitality company with pubs and restaurants, people working in kitchens and restaurant floors; a nationwide charity with people working in charity shops and schools and homes. I've also worked with an electricity infrastructure company, so they've got people out in vans fixing wires and things like that. If those organisations that I've worked with are getting frontline connection well, what does that look like in practice, do you think?

Peter Durkin: 10:04

I think it means that they are addressing the root cause and not the symptom. Let me try and unpack that slightly for the visual learners out there, myself included. The iceberg metaphor always comes into view. And I think that most organisations treat this when they first start thinking about it as an opportunity to address the thing which is on top of the iceberg, the thing that they can see, which is no way to communicate with people, that resulting in some disengagement. But ultimately, what those organisations are doing is treating the symptom of disengagement rather than its root cause. And what I mean by that is the root cause is no methodology for frontline connection. So these organisations could go and buy a platform to communicate with people, but on its own, that will not address what is a larger challenge around frontline connection. And those organisations, to your point, who are doing that well, they're going to the bottom of the iceberg. They're understanding that first and foremost, this is about understanding the cost of doing nothing, the real business case to invest in change, and making sure we've got some key metrics that we're trying to track and improve as a result of frontline connection. Following that, it's really about change management. How do you align not just the executives on your business case, but IT security around changes they might need to make to the architecture, unions about why a change like this is going to benefit the employees that work within the company, and line managers who ultimately are going to have to communicate about this change too, why it's happening and the benefits for their employees. But beyond change management, time and time again, we talked about the fact that folks don't have a company email address, let alone a company device. So we need a digital identity strategy. From a technology security point of view, how are people going to get in and claim accounts? How are we going to give them access to all of the other systems that they might need? So that might be things like payslips and shifts and booking holiday. That needs to be underpinned by a digital identity strategy that a lot of companies don't wrestle with because it's quite detail-oriented. In our mind, that is a key part of the methodology for really turning on the lights when it comes to frontline connection. Beyond that, though, you also need a really clear adoption strategy. Why is this something that people are going to download on their personal device? How are we embedding other services that actually make their lives easier because it's giving them five minutes extra with their kids in the or letting them leave their shift on time each day because we are giving them access to the things which previously they had to go and speak to a manager or sat behind a username and password that they'd forgotten? And are there gamification or incentives sitting in there as well, which also drive that flywheel of adoption? It's only at that point, once you have a clear conception of the business case and the cost of doing nothing, that you've brought all stakeholders on the journey, you have a robust answer to digital identity, and you know why people will download the platform because it's making their lives easier. That is the point that you reach the surface and the piece on top of the iceberg that then allows you to unlock the potential of authentic connection and human communication because you've built your frontline connection on firm foundations that means it's bigger than just communication. It is a methodology for frontline connection that allows you to reach people with any service, system, or initiative that the business has today or in the future.

Toby Mildon: 13:57

So I first came across Blink a few years ago when I was working in digital accessibility and usability. And back then, I think it was seen as very much like a communications tool. And I know it has evolved since over the last few years. So how has your platform evolved into a wider platform for tasks, access, and AI support?

Peter Durkin: 14:22

Yeah, definitely. And I sort of lived through this personally and professionally. I think that we definitely started observing that there was a communications gap that organisations wanted us to fill. And I think through that journey observed that actually, to my earlier point, this wasn't just a communications gap, this was a frontline connection gap. And organisations weren't just looking to reach people with communications, but actually you get feedback time and time again that nothing lands in ops. Any kind of business change initiative or any new enterprise system that we're trying to roll out requires a coordinated change management effort. And we understood that actually Blink could become the vehicle not just for communications, but also content, enterprise systems, workflow, and now AI agents. And this is a fact that is consistent with our product strategy, really. We started as being this digital front door for all communications, then becoming a digital front door for content, bringing sources like SharePoint and OneDrive and Box and content management systems that people were already using but wanted to extend that to their workforce. And then we became a digital front door for applications. So whether it's your HR app, your rewards, your recognition, financial well-being, shifts, your entire employee value proposition and any operational systems, we became the front door for employees to access those too. Not replacing them, but acting as that all-through-one app for systems. Obviously, now the big change that's happening in the workplace is the number of AI agents that different companies are trying to engage workforces with. And this is a natural evolution for Blink in being the front door for delivering those AI agents to frontline employees at scale. So staying true to the mission of being the user experience layer and acting as the last mile for everything that frontline employee needs.

Toby Mildon: 16:35

And what has Blink learned from working with lots of complex organisations over the years? What would you say are your kind of top two learnings?

Peter Durkin: 16:46

I think certainly one of the ones that always comes up for us is that leaders are often surprised by what's happening on their frontline. So a big part of the way that we engage is trying to demonstrate a return to organisations before we ask them for any investment, right? So from a commercial point of view, that often looks like running either frontline diagnostics and or running sort of pilot experiences so that leaders can actually understand, "All right, I see your vision on this slide deck, but go and actually prove this to me." And being able to come back into the room to demonstrate to them actually the life of one of your frontline managers today looks something like this, and telling them a story about what is typically a crippling yoke of over-reliance that is placed on middle managers because their employees can't self-serve and don't have access to the things they need. And bringing these stories to leaders in a very emotive way, grounded in their reality, I think is something which always surprises those in the room because I don't think that they really did truly understand how disjointed user journeys can be in their organisations. That's the first thing. I think the second thing is definitely about the multi-stakeholder nature of these programs. This is not a comms project, this is not an IT project, it's not a HR project. It is a structural transformation in the way that you connect with your employees. We often say this, like, although we're selling change from the outside, these companies are selling change from the inside, and it requires an internal coalition to really commit to the opportunities that something like this presents. And often large, complex organisations fall over one another whilst trying to figure out a governance structure and an ownership structure that can actually allow them to do this. So that's definitely a key learning. The extent to which people can manage change well internally has a huge impact on the extent to which they can land a project like this. You asked for a bonus one, which of course I'll provide. I think the other thing that I've learned from large, complex organisations is there is no substitute for the very human nature of these projects. And what I mean by that is spending time when you are launching platforms like this on-site with the employees day-to-day who are going to be using this platform, explaining to them what it is, how it's going to benefit them, and ensuring that you've demonstrated you've walked a mile in their shoes and this is a platform that is going to make their lives easier. And when I say employees, I also mean workers' councils, union representatives. That cannot be replaced by the best spreadsheet, business case, or presentation to an executive. Ultimately, if you want to unlock the potential of a workforce, you need to walk the walk and have spent time with them personally, demonstrating that you understand some of the challenges that their working lives encounter. And this is a platform that is designed to help. It is not another thing that's being thrown at them that they're expecting to catch in and amongst all their other priorities. Because at the end of the day, people are suspicious of change, and unless you respect that, you will create problems for yourself.

Toby Mildon: 20:33

Thanks for sharing those three things. I mean, as you know, I'm a workplace inclusion consultant. And how do you see platforms like Blink being able to enable businesses to support their equity, belonging, and accessibility endeavours?

Peter Durkin: 21:22

Yeah, and there's a few different ways I can answer that. It goes without saying that a key part of our product strategy is accessibility, and the accreditations that Blink, as a company, holds itself accountable for is a big part of why and how we've partnered with some of the biggest charities across the UK. I think that there's many ways to define inclusion. I feel as though the traditional sense of the definition will talk about inclusion of gender, we'll talk about inclusion of age demographic, we'll talk about inclusion from an accessibility point of view. I think about inclusion also, though, as inclusion of role. And when you think about the total difference in employee experience that, to use the traditional terminology, white and blue-collar workers have experienced over the years, that has presented a fundamental lack of inclusion because you have a contingent of the workforce who are totally left out when it comes to accessing the same opportunities, accessing the same level of support, accessing the same level of rewards and recognition, principally because they have no means of accessing these things. Companies believe that they do, and they might have invested in platforms that allow them to, but the ground reality is very different. So I think one of the ways that Blink tries to support inclusion is ensuring that companies are leveling the playing field when it comes to employee experience and not bifurcating one part of the workforce against another with an employee experience that is inequitable.

Toby Mildon: 23:24

And what's in store for Blink's future? Where are you taking the platform and the business?

Peter Durkin: 23:33

Yeah, for sure. And I think that, like most things in life, it can be a natural evolution of where we've come from based on some of the paradigm shifts that you're seeing within the market. And I'd say a few things here. I think, first and foremost, as we've discussed over the course of this podcast, companies need help in trying to begin projects like this. This is not just about selling some software. This is about creating a change in the way that the companies interact with their employees, and that's structural. So really leaning into that fact and bringing more resources to both the company and the market that allows companies to initiate projects like this without making commitments to vendors like us, more so engaging on a consultancy basis to help articulate the cost of doing nothing and why companies want to be part of that winning group that we spoke about at the start and not be left behind. I think we have empathy for our buyers, that this is challenging, and we want to try and do something to help. That's the first thing. The second thing, though, is really leaning into this idea that there are more Gen Z employees in the workforce now than there are boomers and bringing a far more modern social approach to the way that companies can engage with their employees. Really from a product perspective, trying to make the experiences that have been served up to us in our personal lives from consumer apps really the bar to remove any kind of barriers to entry for interacting with the platform. But the biggest one by far is really taking this concept of the intelligent experience layer far further within businesses. As I said earlier, this is not just about providing a front door into different enterprise systems, but into different enterprise agents as well. How can we demonstrate that Blink can be the last mile in your digital transformation? And actually it's the missing piece. So many companies have invested millions, frankly, in HCM platforms for HR workflows and ITSM platforms for self-service and support and operations platforms to run the business. But they haven't seen the return on the investment they were promised because none of their frontline employees are regularly interacting with those platforms. So embedding those enterprise systems and the agents that they come with into the Blink experience to stay true to that maxim of being what we call the frontline intelligent experience layer, always ensuring that companies have got a connection methodology to reach their people with whatever they need.

Toby Mildon: 26:36

So this is the Inclusive Growth show. And what does inclusive growth mean for you? How does that also link to you being a software as a service and trying to foster those connections with frontline people?

Peter Durkin: 26:52

It's an interesting question and obviously it's a topic that's quite close to my heart. I think that there are lots of organisations out there who perhaps celebrate revenue targets and growth and so on, while their frontline colleagues, the ones driving it, are one offer away from leaving. Thinking about ways that all contributors and constituents within a company can feel and celebrate growth in an inclusive way, for me, is still an opportunity that I don't think a lot of businesses have taken. To points that we've discussed, often frontline workforces are still seen as a cost base to be managed. And if these companies are going to grow in an inclusive way, then always thinking about how key company milestones can be celebrated such that those employees feel part of something bigger than themselves is a big part of what's kept me here for the last nine years. Quite frankly, I do feel as though Blink has a mission-led ethos.

And when we're in a bus depot at 5: 28:08

00 in the morning, or when we're in an NHS hospital or at a care home,

or when we're on the frontline with a retail organisation at 9: 28:15

00 at night, we're there because deep down we believe that there is a portion of the workforce that's been left behind, not just by digital transformation, but in many cases left behind by their companies up until that point. And trying to play a small role in establishing a connection infrastructure such that when that company grows, the employee feels like they too are growing, that's a big part of what gets us all out of bed.

Toby Mildon: 28:52

I love that mission that you're on. It's really, really powerful. Just before we go, if the person listening to us right now wants to learn more about Blink and maybe they're looking at some solutions for connecting with their own frontline or remote employees, how can they learn more about the software and how you might be able to help them?

Peter Durkin: 29:16

I would invite people to connect with me on LinkedIn. Yes, that is the best way to get hold of me. It'd be great to have a coffee, have a catch up, and just a conversation with anyone that's interested this methodology for frontline connection. Yeah, I'd say that's the best way, Toby.

Toby Mildon: 29:31

Brilliant. And you've got your website as well, joinblink, where people can...

Peter Durkin: 29:36

Thank you. Yes. Clearly you can tell I'm growing into this CMO role. That is the website.

Toby Mildon: 29:43

You forgot your own website. But yeah, there's the website and obviously that human connection, because Blink is all about that human connection. So let's do that. I had a boss once who said, "Let's eat our own dog food." So yeah, let's eat our own dog food and do those human connections on LinkedIn as well by reaching out to you, Peter Durkin, on LinkedIn. Well, Peter, thanks ever so much for joining me today. It's been fascinating to sit down with you because actually I've learned that my first thought was Blink is a software solution, but actually you've opened my eyes into thinking that you can't just turn on a piece of software if you want to connect with your remote employees. Like that iceberg analogy, you have to go a lot deeper.

And also I really liked how you distinguished the two types of organisations: 30:37

those that have that genuine motivation to form meaningful connections with their employees because there is a return on investment there, and those that are just playing lip service to it. And actually the risk of just sitting there and doing nothing is far greater than leaning into that "it's the too difficult box" and to come up with a proper, well-thought-out strategy for your organisation. So I really appreciate your insights on that and thanks for bringing that to our awareness.

Peter Durkin: 31:10

Spot on. Toby, I appreciate you. Thanks for the discussion.

Toby Mildon: 31:13

You're welcome. And thank you for tuning into this episode of the Inclusive Growth podcast with myself and today's guest, Peter. As Peter said, if you want to learn more about what Blink does, reach out to him personally on LinkedIn. Let's do that human connection. Let's use LinkedIn to enable that. And if you just want to, in the comfort of your own office chair, just have a look at what Blink does, just go to the joinblink website and have a look at what they do and if they can help you. Until then, I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the Inclusive Growth show, which will be coming out soon. Take care. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Thank you for listening to the Inclusive Growth show. For further information and resources from Toby and his team, head on over to our website at mildon.co.uk.