I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the PRSA Communications Connect Conference in Denver, Colorado. It was an excellent conference filled with 250+ of the smartest minds in internal communication, focused on how communicators can stay current in today’s rapidly evolving technology and social media landscape.
My session was about Workplace by Facebook and how Ketchum is using the platform across our global network. My co-presenter, Anand Dass from Facebook and I spoke about trends in technology and communications, how Workplace is solving some of the challenges around connection and collaboration in modern organizations, and Ketchum’s story of how we use the platform.
Implementing an enterprise social network, such as Workplace, in your organization, can lead to benefits that include…
A More Borderless Organization. Workplace allows employees from around the world to instantly connect. On a daily basis, we have employees sharing case studies from their local markets, brainstorming through group posts to come up with the best campaign-leading ideas, and using video chat to have face to face discussions with those outside of our local geography. Workplace breaks down silos and enhances collaboration as a global agency allowing us to produce the best work for our clients.
Increased Employee Engagement. A recent study reported that as many as 74 percent of employees feel like they are missing out on company information and news leading to a disengaged workforce. Workplace helps organizations to engage with employees in a new and novel way. For instance, when we win an award, we post it on the platform so we can celebrate together. Many groups do their daily announcements and we often host large Workplace Live announcement / town hall sessions on the platform. We share real-time learnings from conferences and client events. We share images, videos and live footage on the platform fostering a culture where our employees are involved and in-the-know.
Ability to Generate More Diverse Ideas. As a recent survey on sources of creativity by Ketchum and Fast Company shed light on, getting different groups of people together to collaborate helps to create better, more diverse ideas, which is a clear benefit of the platform. Also, Workplace accommodates different styles, which is increasingly important in our industry. It allows for both written and visual communication two methods to express ideas that are not always accommodated in an office environment. This helps our agency come up with more diverse strategies and ideas.
As with any new platform or change in communication methods, it is important to create a strategy and develop a plan for the rollout and adoption process. Companies often invest in new technologies, yet fail to achieve their goals due to lack of user awareness, understanding or buy-in. As a Workplace implementation partner with Daggerwing Group, we help organizations successfully actualize the platform.
From my experience at Ketchum, Workplace has been a game changer for how our employees interact and get things done. Workplace is proving to be an incredibly effective collaboration tool and is changing how Ketchum works. Our goal is to continue to leverage the platform to increase the sharing of ideas and best practices and strengthen employees’ relationships with each other, whether they are in London or LA.
