There were 140 percent more people working from home this year than there were 15 years ago—and that was before the Covid-19 virus changed everything.
Even before the pandemic, remote working had become more of an expectation than a perk, especially for younger employees. Last year, 52 percent of employees worldwide were working from home at least once a week. That made sense to companies looking at the numbers. Businesses reported they could reduce turnover by 25 percent when they allowed remote working. Twenty-four percent of employees said they were more likely to be happy and productive if they could work remotely at least once a month.
Now Covid-19 has made remote working critical. Technology is a major driver—it’s much easier when all that’s needed is a mobile. That’s certainly true with Workplace, which combines chat, video collaboration, and companywide updates to connect people even when they’re apart. Here are the four big challenges Workplace can help tackle:
1) How Do Teams Collaborate More Effectively?
Video collaboration is probably every company’s most important tool for remote workers to keep projects on track.
But traditional video collaboration isn’t straightforward. Even the slickest software requires plug-ins, installers, and meeting IDs, to say nothing of the infrastructure costs of running high-quality virtual meetings at scale. Poor video collaboration is penalized even more by a loss of productivity, a lack of innovation, and patchy access to information.
At Workplace, it’s effortless.
Workplace Rooms is a virtual meeting space to connect with up to 50 people, even if they’re outside the company or don’t have a Workplace account.
Or connect with Workplace Chat via the iOS or Android mobile app or on a desktop. Simply type a colleague’s name and tap the video icon. No plug-ins, no codes, no confusion. It’s really that simple.
2) How Do Businesses Better Communicate With All Their People at the Same Time?
Remote working makes it more challenging than ever to communicate with an entire organization simultaneously. But live video can provide an answer.
However, traditional live video has significant limitations. Most companies don’t have the infrastructure, equipment, or agility to do it at scale. Streaming companywide events can quickly saturate a network and paralyze a large organization. Poor sound or image quality can mean misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and missed messages.
Live video on Workplace relieves the stress by enhancing broadcast quality, accessibility, and interactivity.
Live Producer lets companies stream reliable, high-quality video straight from a phone, computer, or professional studio to teams or an entire global organization.
Leaders can hold live Q&A sessions while utilizing automatic captions and translations, so company communications are more accessible for more people on more devices.
3) How Do Companies Centralize All Information?
Quickly finding the right company information is key to improving knowledge, productivity, and collaboration. With Covid-19, it’s vital. Even when seeking out basic company policies, employees often waste time searching different drives and hunting down old passwords or requesting new ones.
On Workplace, Knowledge Library gives companies one place to store static content alongside their dynamic comms. It’s where people go to access important company information—like HR policies or advice on working from home—on a mobile or desktop without switching apps.
In addition, a feature like Mark as Important allows you to pin dynamic updates and key announcements to the top of group posts, so they’re the first things group members see when logging on.
Across Workplace, comms can be targeted to the entire company or to specific teams. That means audiences can be managed and engagement tracked.
4) How Do Companies Understand Which Messages Work and Which Need Changing?
With all the uncertainty, stress, and worry caused by Covid-19 and returning to work, it’s now vital for companies to check that their communications are working. Leaders worry which messages are viewed, what their employees are feeling, and whether engagement differs by departments or regions.
Now, with Workplace Campaigns, leaders can track the impact of multiple communications on the same topic. This feature gives out-of-the-box insights on individual posts and engagement levels by team as well as captures views, comments, and reactions.
With the use of advanced filters to drill into the data, engagement can be tracked by the proportion of negative, neutral, and positive comments; by job title, location, or department; and more. So messages can be reworked to focus on what resonates best.
Workplace is a communication tool connecting everybody – especially remote workers. For more resources on being apart together, visit our Remote Working Resource Hub. Find out more.