Workplace by Facebook

Opmerkingen: We do event planning and put on a lot of events through out the year. A lot of the other similar solutions were mainly geared towards product creation or project completion. We needed something that was familiar and would be easy to train employees. Since this is a Facebook product, we knew this would be easy for our group to pick up and start using. We are a non-for-profit and most of our employees are volunteers, so we needed a solution that would give us fast and immediate communication with our employees. We needed a way to post our upcoming events, and then poll our workforce to who would be available to assist. This was the perfect fit for what we were looking for.

Pluspunten: The software not only provides messaging. but also audio and video calling. There are two separate apps for this software. One is the Workplace app, which works the same as on your computer. The second is the Workplace Chat app. This app is very helpful in communication, as you can video and call via the app, as well as text message. File sharing can also be done via the chat.

Minpunten: The admin controls don't allow full access. Things like removing an employee, have to be done via email to support. You can deactivate an employee, which has the same effect, but simple employee removal is a must for most organizations.

Opmerkingen: What if Facebook was streamlined to essentials and free of excessive fat? That's Workplace. For a long time Facebook was a leisure outlet on the workplace - the one for wasting time and getting lost in-between tasks. With Workplace the dynamics had flipped and now it is a legitimate productivity tool where you can chat with your colleagues, exchange ideas, drop some stuff and discuss serious matters without distracting yourself to everything else in your newsfeed.

Pluspunten: Workplace combines the best features of Facebook, Slack and Basecamp and makes a case of a private social media application designed for productive communication and not time wasting.
It works really well as a company's general newsfeed and it allows to bond the collective in a more easy-going and informal manner.
On one hand, Workplace is a perfect working environment for human resources - streamlined, self-contained and direct. It really helps to establish solid internal Employer Branding and keep every member of the team on the same page. There are numerous features that allow various temperature checks of the teams via polls, discussions, etc. On the other hand, Workplace is a really good fit for onboarding of the new team members.

Minpunten: Since this is a Facebook product - there are certain concerns over privacy. When it comes to sharing some sensitive data - actions often proceed in a more trusted environments.
On the other hand, there is just too much of the stuff to do. The novelty of "Facebook but for work" wears off pretty fast and it makes Workplace more of a gimmick tool than an actual productivity tool.
As it often happen with Facebook newsfeed - it might get crowded and cluttered after a while, especially if the activity is relatively high. Aside from project related groups - it is often nothing more than a link dumpster.

Opmerkingen: Facebook for the office (i.e., via Workplace) has helped our company in terms of community and culture building, communication, collaboration, keeping up to date with the happenings across different departments and teams, messaging via direct chat, group chat, audio, video calls... there's a ton of features that make this a really worth it investment for any company big or small.

Pluspunten: Almost everyone (except the rather super senior employees) have been using Facebook social media app... They know how it works, its functionalities, and benefits for keeping in touch with the people that matter to them... now, we have exactly the same app.. for use in the office workplace. Therefore, no training needed. Everyone on-board right away. Workplace replaced many of our internal apps (repositories, messaging, collaboration portal, etc). We now use workplace for community building, direct and group/project messaging, sharing of files, photos, and updates, audio and video calls, and live streaming of office events (which also serve as a recording device for late viewing). Everything you love about social Facebook, now available for exclusive work and office use.

Minpunten: Data security is and will always be a concern for the modern digital man. Although we know that this is a paid service, hence the data is supposed to be private and secure because it is not meant to be used for ads, and what not... Security, especially of recent, is always a big question mark and concern.

Opmerkingen: Facebook as a social platform has matured a lot, with so many features available for communication and collaboration. It's no wonder why billions of people use it. Now, these same features are made available for our professional work. It's fantastic!

Pluspunten: I used Workplace when I volunteered on a project c/o a non-for-profit organization. We used it primarily as a Project Management tool to keep everyone in the loop for project planning, collaboration, execution, monitoring, and getting instant feedback. I have a personal Facebook account, and Workplace works in exactly the same way. We created Groups for our project teams. From there we could share files, make posts, create a common calendar, etc. What I loved the most is the use of the chat app for IM, voice and video calls. The live streaming is fantastic as well because we were able to cover our event, stream it live and keep a recording of it for future use.

Minpunten: For some of my teammates, they did not want the idea of having to maintain and look at two accounts (one personal/social and the other for work). Not sure if there is a way to connect the two accounts so that some of the posts/etc may be in sync. The mobile app is a bit clunky and updates quite often. I hope they create a "Lite" version similar to the Facebook app (esp for lighter data consumption and light on the smartphone requirements).

Opmerkingen: Overall experience was very good. Workplace was like a really cool place for different team members to discuss daily office work rather than using some mundane office software.

Pluspunten: The workplace is actually social networking for work. Its really convenient to use across the company and different team members can be tagged for any work to be assigned to them. The workplace posts can be directed to all the team members for passing on the vital information and discussions on the topic can be done using the comments section, just like the Facebook. The team events can be shared live on the platform also along with other facebook features available like chat etc.

Minpunten: The overall experience with software was really good but the one thing which is missing is keeping track of the tasks assigned to different team members by tagging them in a post.