Today’s CEOs often juggle multiple tasks: run an agile business, align a dispersed workforce and engage employees with purpose and inspiration. Meanwhile, they must keep an eye on future trends and position the business for success amid ever-changing market dynamics. Factor in a global pandemic and the only constant is change.

Part of that change is where people are working.
‍

Today’s working environment is almost unrecognizable compared to the office of the twentieth century. Video conferences and remote employees make up a significant part of organizational workforces. With demands to increase mobile and deskless capabilities, Workplace from Meta meets you where your work is.
‍
If you’re leading a fast-growing company to success, then you’re no stranger to these complex challenges. How do you share your company’s business and strategic goals?  How do you make dispersed teams feel connected? How do you communicate with them in a timely manner? How do you build a culture of trust and transparency, two key success factors of any organization?
‍

‍

Five years ago, ServiceRocket, like many growing global companies, faced the challenges of effectively communicating change to offices in multiple time zones. Our goals were to; forge alignment around company goals, improve collaboration across dispersed teams, and instil a unified company culture.

While there was no silver bullet, our CEO, Rob Castaneda, selected Workplace from Meta as the company’s new workstream communication platform. Within a month, there were immediate results and its impact was felt across the entire company.  Today, ServiceRocket is both a happy customer and proud partner of Workplace from Meta.

A Familiar Tool Means Faster Adoption

One of the most challenging parts of rolling out any new tool to your company is getting everyone on board. Changing people’s working habits isn’t easy, but those behavioural changes can pay off in big ways. The convergence of traditional and remote has also put the mobile workforce in the spotlight like never before. While mobile workers have always contributed to a share of the workforce, there is now an appreciation for the scope of challenges that Workplace provides solutions for.

80% of the global workforce is now deskless.

Mobile workers within that category require unique tools and processes for success.

With Workplace, the familiar nature of the features lends itself to high adoption and engagement. This means better access to knowledge and information, improved reach for internal communications and more opportunities to build relationships across teams and locations. Hold a quick conversation in Workplace Chat, make HD video calls at the touch of a button. Talk to anyone in any language with Auto-Translate or hold deeper conversations in Groups, all with the same look and feel your teams are used to with the social Meta interface.
‍
In the last decade, technology has re-written the principles underlying our working lives and connected the previously unconnected workforce. 

So how does Workplace help companies do all this?  Let’s break it down. 

Improve Alignment and Engagement

A study by MIT reveals that the most engaged employees are well informed about their company’s strategy and have more direct communications with their managers and superiors. But in most companies, only a small fraction of the workforce is fully engaged. Fifty one percent of employees are unclear about the direction of the business, while 84% say that they don’t get enough information from their leaders.
‍

Workplace from Meta is packed with features that create alignment across hundreds of geographically remote and deskless workforces, and facilitate coaching and mentoring for all employees directly from the CEO, CHRO, and executive leadership. 

Tips from ServiceRocket’s experience:

• Leverage the Live Stream feature for company meetings: Live video creates immediacy, is more personal, allows people to ask questions, comment, and react in real-time. Accessible to all offices simultaneously, it eliminates the need for emails and wordy communications. An example of how we use this feature at ServiceRocket is through our “town halls” or company-wide meetings, critical for CEO communications and allows our CEO to speak to employees in a more personable and accessible way.
  ‍

• Live stream to a WorkPlace Group: The Live Stream feature takes it a step further on Workplace by always being available through the Group. If it’s 2 am in an office, employees can watch during work hours. Questions and ideas about the content can be captured for everyone to see and share with timestamp comments or questions. As a dispersed workforce, ServiceRocket enjoys this feature to keep employees in the loop in a way that fits their schedules.
  ‍
  

• Gather insights and real-time feedback with Polls: Polls are a great way to gather insights and build a relationship with your workforce and it is a great way for executives to interact with their employees. Engage people wherever they are and get real-time feedback through Polls. A cool way we use this feature at ServiceRocket is during AMAs (Ask Me Anything), employees can ask our CEO anything they want through the Poll feature. The top 3-5 questions voted upon by Rocketeers get answered live. This further breaks down the barriers between company leadership and employees.
  ‍
  

Improve Collaboration to Drive Innovation

Cross-team collaboration can be challenging when everyone is in the same location. It is compounded exponentially when you factor in remote workers and offices in different locations across various time zones.

Tips from ServiceRocket’s experience:

• Create Knowledge Libraries: Knowledge Libraries are a smarter way to store and share information in Workplace. The Knowledge Library makes your employees more productive by bringing it all together in a single place. Use simple tools to create content, attach files, share links and customize what people see - on desktop and mobile. Whatever your employees are looking for, Workplace is where they’ll find it. At ServiceRocket, we use Knowledge Libraries as a single place to create, store and share static content, so company knowledge is accessible and discoverable.
  ‍
  

• Groups: Groups enable the sharing of ideas across teams - whether you’re looking to communicate with the right people or collaborate on projects, everything on Workplace starts with a Group. Groups also provide private spaces to discuss projects, manage information, and securely share documents with colleagues or clients. At ServiceRocket, one of the very first things we did was create groups for each team and groups for projects like Finance Gurus, Growth Team, Kudos, or Free Music Fridays.
  ‍
  

• Post and comment in team Groups: Posts and comments are a great way for immediate answers and a good way to connect with your employees. As teams work toward company goals, leadership has visibility into the process and can comment or ask questions. Or, save time trying to meet with teams and instead leverage Scheduled Posts as we do at ServiceRocket. This lets our CEO draft updates for the global team and allows him to schedule it to go live at a suitable time.‍

Workplace increases knowledge sharing between individuals, teams, and departments, allowing employees to work together seamlessly. As an experienced Workplace partner, we help customers leverage these features to foster collaboration and quick feedback. By creating a safe space for employees to share their ideas, not only does it help with engagement but also fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Communicate Faster and More Effectively

In order for a distributed strategy to work, communications must be the glue that binds everyone together. CEOs and their leadership teams need to get the right information to the right people in a timely manner, to build alignment and engagement around business strategy and goals. Today, employees increasingly expect better, more direct communication with company leadership.
‍

Tips from ServiceRocket’s experience:

• Updates or status updates: By posting in a group, executives quickly deliver their message to a specific audience in the company and solicit feedback. Employees comment or ask questions, and executives can clarify, follow up, and continue the conversation. At ServiceRocket, the use of Official Groups to communicate with a team or region and make sure important updates get to the right people and listen to feedback through comments and reactions on posts.
  ‍
  

• Video selfies: Executives can post a video selfie to communicate any message. The video selfie helps leaders ensure their message is getting across to employees directly. Our CEO typically does these to further break silos and help the workforce understand the bigger picture.
  ‍

• Asynchronous communications: As the leader of a fast-growing organization, time is one of the most important assets you have. Workplace leverages the ability for asynchronous communications, where your managers and employees can post information, record videos, and leave messages that you can pick up or respond to later on. Executives can feel comfortable never missing a beat. At ServiceRocket, due to our dispersed workforce, we confidently rely on this feature for information, context, and updates on projects or company news.

“We were looking for a solution to improve business communication efficiency and effectiveness. Workplace was a perfect match for us.
It’s a collaboration platform that integrates with tools teams already use. Workplace is reshaping the future of business communication.”

Bill Cushard, General Manager, ServiceRocket

Build a Company Culture Focused on the Employee Experience

Building culture often puzzles executives because much of culture is anchored in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns. Add in a dispersed hybrid workforce and culture becomes an even bigger conundrum. Many leaders either let it go unmanaged or rely solely on human resources to manage culture. This is a mistake. Company culture starts with the CEO and leadership teams. When properly cultivated and managed, culture attracts and helps retain top talent. 

Tips from ServiceRocket’s experience:

• Live stream video: In today’s hybrid working world, you need the tools to reach everyone in your organization, no matter where they are, with communications that are personal, engaging, and accessible. With Live Stream video in Workplace, you can broadcast anything, from company announcements to panel discussions with executives or external guests. At ServiceRocket, our CEO uses this opportunity to live stream casual conversations with employees in the hallway. By using a mix of personal and business-focused questions, company leaders enable a true connection, further breaking down hierarchies and silos.
  ‍
  

• Questions and Polls: Workplace from Meta makes it easy to share information but is also a great place for employees to share their thoughts and reactions to information. You can create polls in groups to generate instant feedback on any topic, from future project ideas to employee sentiment after company-wide announcements to where you'll hold the next team event.
  ‍
  

• Workplace Chat: Workplace Chat is ideal for quick conversations, allowing you to contact anyone in your business, and communicate with GIFs, stickers, emojis, or the iconic thumbs-up. Send voice clips, run polls, and even share your current location with colleagues if you're on the road.

Business is better and employees are happier when large companies feel smaller and more connected. Not only does Workplace allow employees to be more knowledgeable and empathic with what might be happening in a colleague’s home country, but Workplace can also be leveraged as means to instill cultural values of making everyone feel welcome, ensuring everyone has a voice, and making sure they are comfortable to share that voice with the leadership team.

Is Workplace Really Worth the Investment? Absolutely.

Forrester released a study titled “The Total Economic Impact of Workplace from Meta”. The study aimed to better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with the investment of the platform. Some highlights of the study include:

‍

Workplace meets the highest data safety standards and is regularly audited for security and compliance. In fact, Workplace exceeds industry standards with ISO27018, ISO27001, SOC2, and SOC 3 certifications.

Workplace is Where Work Happens

After more than half a decade of using Workplace from Meta, ServiceRocket has realized the benefits, value and agility this workstream platform brings. Workplace’s ability to share the vision, goals, and guidance of our executives is unlike any other business workstream platform.  It is quite literally the tool that brings us all together. Regardless of where a Rocketeer lives and works, Workplace is our common office.

Workplace from Meta can profoundly impact how a company communicates, works together to achieve company goals, fosters a mindset of innovation, and creates a culture focused on the employee experience.

Leadership plays a key role in the success of Workplace within the organization. Highly visible, consistent usage by the CEO and leadership team is critical in accelerating adoption and engagement by employees.

ServiceRocket, as a Workplace Partner, is here to help you develop a customized plan to implement, launch, and ensure successful adoption and usage.