5 Ways Workplace by Facebook improved our Internal Communication

© EasyWeb Recruitment 2017

Researched and written by:Adrian McDonagh, Founder/Chief Ideas Officer

& Olivia Scott, Marketing & Events Administrator

Whilst going through beta testing, Facebook at Work was being used exclusively by only 1000 companies worldwide. On 10th October 2016, it was finally made accessible to any company, under the new name of ‘Workplace by Facebook’. Offering companies a free 3-month-membership which would then be followed by a small monthly charge per active user, so we wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Although we were not actively looking for a new internal communications platform, we were beginning to realise that our limited supply of communication tools – which consisted only of Skype, group email and one WhatsApp group for our sales team – were not as effective as they used to be. With a growth in our number of employees, we knew we needed to find a way to get everyone more engaged with the company, and what better way to do this than by simplifying our communication channels. That’s when Workplace caught our attention.

We decided to look into what Workplace has to offer an SME like us (we are just over 40 staff), who were trying to eliminate insufficiencies within their employee engagement and company communication in one foul swoop. The following five features of the communications tool inspired us to give it shot.

The ‘Groups’ concept on Workplace operates in a similar way to groups on the standard Facebook that we all know so well. Members can post in the group to ask questions and offer information to other members of the group. This really helps to encourage discussion and interaction amongst a team.

When analysing how we could improve our internal communication, we realised that if one person is asking questions about a specific topic, then it’s likely that other team members may be experiencing a similar gap in their knowledge. Having these groups accessible to us, would not only improve the speed in which we could share and receive information but also encourage employees not to feel embarrassed about not knowing something. At the same time, it can reward other employees with the satisfaction of being able to help progress a colleague’s skills by sharing their own knowledge. Online recruitment moves fast and there are so many job boards, tools, and tactics currently in use it can be difficult for our staff to keep up. Below are a couple of examples from our team’s sharing…

1. Groups for each Department

Within Workplace, there’s also an ‘Announcements’ group, where you can reach the whole company for any company-wide messages - finally, an opportunity to say good-bye to the dreaded ‘staffall@blahblahMorePointlessEmails.com’, which have been cluttering our inboxes since before we can remember! Worried that having a News Feed for an Intranet might lead to important messages going unseen? Well don’t. Each group member is sent a notification for every post that goes into their group. Also, on each post you can see who has read it. If someone hasn’t yet seen a post which has vital information for them, simply tag them in the comments below and they’ll receive another notification.

The only way someone would miss an important update is if they were to not use the tool at all. I have an additional blog post coming shortly on the 4 tactics we used to ensure a successful roll out of Facebook Workplace that will ensure your staff are engaged with the product from day one. 

2. Workplace Chat

Workplace has an instant messaging component. You can message colleagues individually or create group chats, making it easier to instantly contact team members about things that you need a more urgent response for, or just for quick updates.

Although we already had skype for this, moving our instant massaging to Workplace simplified things further, by bringing all communication on to the same platform.

The mobile app is a great add-on of Workplace, making it easy for everyone to stay in touch with the company whilst on-the-go. With notifications going straight to our phones we’ll never miss an update, whether we’re traveling to a meeting or having to work from home.

There’s also a Workplace Chat app, meaning that we can maintain the instantaneous element of the Chat feature, even when we’re not sitting at our desks. This is great for our field sales team who are away from the office most days but can now stay connected to the conversations that are happening.

3. Workplace has a Mobile App

You can create company-wide or private / team events. This feature helps to make a big deal out of things that should be celebrated within the office. Whether it be the end of year awards ceremony, a celebratory lunch for the festive season or a colleague’s birthday. Hosting both work and non-work related events encourages employees to be proud of the company they work for, ultimately leading them to enjoying what they do. Which means that they’ll continue to perform well at work, or in some cases even better.

4. Events

Workplace encourages social activities within the company via the ‘Social’ group; a section of the tool, solely dedicated to encouraging employees to discuss non-work related topics. This helps maintain an engaging aspect throughout the office day. From the opportunity to post the occasional, funny meme to telling colleagues about Charity events the company or individuals may be participating in, or in EasyWeb’s case, filling everyone in on the latest Pool League updates. ‘Social’ gives employees the opportunity to develop their professional relationships in a more light-hearted manner. The social part of Workplace provides a great medium for our company values to flourish.

5. Social Aspect

Workplace provides lots of examples of our employees exercising these values

If you are interested in employee engagement you might be interested in the free employee engagement survey tool we have launched, see: www.easywebengagement.com EasyWeb provide a range of other services including: Free online recruitment training, Applicant Tracking System and an Agency service.  

If you are interested in employee engagement you might be interested in the free employee engagement survey tool we have launched, see: www.easywebengagement.com   EasyWeb provide a range of other services including: • Free Online Recruitment Training:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/easyweb-recruitment-320818116• An Applicant Tracking System: www.easywebats.com• Online Managed Recruitment Campaigns:

www.easywebrecruitment.com• Recruitment for Not-for-Profit Organisations:

www.easywebnfp.com• An Agency Service: www.easywebagency.com