Go-Ahead Group-owned Go South Coast has introduced the Blink internal communications platform for use across its entire workforce.
The operator – which runs Morebus in Bournemouth and Poole, Bluestar in Southampton, Southern Vectis on the Isle of Wight, Salisbury Reds, Swindon’s Bus Company, Excelsior Coaches, Damory Coaches and Tourist Coaches – has moved to the new system in a bid to enhance communications amongst its teams.
“We have always been big on staff engagement across all our operations – but we wanted something that would allow even more interaction with colleagues,” said Head of Communications, Nikki Honer.
“Blink is great because it allows us to create unique and secure chats among our individual operators, or departments. We have an overall Go South Coast feed, but our colleagues at, say, Southern Vectis also have their own group which allows them to keep up-to-date with developments and with each other’s news.
“And the beauty of Blink is that, whilst it gives our staff a single point log in to all their HR and employment facilities – like payslips, policies, annual leave bookings and training manuals – it also acts as a news tool that works like social media.
“It’s not all about work. Colleagues might want to share details of hobbies, or of their cooking triumphs – it’s entirely up to them. This is especially important right now. We know lots of colleagues have socialised together in our pre-Covid lives but, with current restrictions, this is not always possible. Blink is a great way for colleagues to stay in touch and support each other outside of their working hours too.
“It’s great to have a platform which facilitates conversations – not just one way traffic from managers. It’s a far more inclusive system than we’ve used in the past. Now, more than ever, we want everyone to feel valued and part of our team. We’re looking forward to engaging with them all via Blink over the coming months.”
