BEHIND THE IC SCENES BLOG

In October 2016 Facebook announced that a beta version of its social platform for companies called Facebook at work changed its name to Workplace by Facebook and is now available for all the companies interested in this solution. There is a company in Poland which was in a group of 1000 companies around the world chosen by Facebook, which got a chance to test the beta version of Facebook at work. It is Trans.eu.

Read an interview with Justyna Skorupska, Public Relations & Employer Branding Manager at Trans.eu and Agnieszka Haładus, Board Office & Corporate Communication, who will present this case at IntraTeam Event in March in Copenhagen.

Justyna Skorupska, Public Relations & Employer Branding Manager at Trans.eu

Agnieszka Haładus, Board Office & Corporate Communication at Trans.eu

 Workplace by Facebook at Trans.eu

Maja: Before you tell us more about Workplace by Facebook, tell us a few words about your company, please.
Justyna Skorupska: Trans.eu Group is one of the European leaders in supplying IT business solutions for the logistics field – carriers, forwarders and shippers. Our Group operates in 10 different countries, employing almost 500 people. Our HQ is in Wroclaw, where we employ almost 350 people taking care of the development of the IT system, customer service based on building positive experience and maintaining the whole infrastructure for a network of companies in a group to ensure a better security of information and to enhance communications between companies.

Maja: How is internal communications organized in your company? Who is responsible for it?
Justyna: We make an effort that all employees are responsible for our internal communications. Our task – as the Board Office Team – is to supply them only with relevant tools and make sure that all important pieces of information reach people who are interested in receiving them. I would call this role as being a moderator. It’s also in accordance with our corporate value system, which has been in our company for years. DRAGON – this is the name of it – it’s a shortcut of: delivery, respect, awareness, growth, openness, now with passion. It’s really important for us and we focus on it.

 DRAGON – a corporate value system at Trans.eu

Maja: Which IC tools do you use in Trans.eu?
Justyna: Currently, the whole IC is run by Facebook Workplace. Additionally, we’re implementing Urve, a system for screens management which are located in our company.

Maja: Agnieszka, where did the idea to implement Workplace by Facebook come from?
Agnieszka: We were looking for a relevant tool to use as an intranet for a long time. It meant to be intuitive, simple and – at the same time – meant to give us not one-way communication, but rather to encourage all employees to share knowledge, successes, ideas, and hesitations. Our CEO rejected all proposals saying it was not a tool that we’re looking for yet. So we kept looking. We found out about Facebook preparing a beta version for companies to try out. We sent many emails and messages with a request to join Facebook at Work as it was called back then, but without any response for a long time. Such opportunity appeared in August 2016 and in the middle of that month we got registered and started testing it.

Maja: Did you use an intranet in your company before?
Agnieszka: Before we implemented Workplace, we’re using an intranet based on Wordpress. TransInside – that was the name for our corporate bulletin – built and developed for years. It had many defects all the time and it didn’t give us what we did care about the most: it didn’t encourage interactions. The communication was mainly one-way.

Maja: And how did the implementation of Workplace look like? Did Facebook help you?
Agnieszka: In the mid of August we got an invitation to take part in a webinar where the idea, layout and main functionalities were presented. We also got the information what and untill when should be done to join the Early Adopters programme. We had to provide Facebook with a list of our employees with their data. We got an access to the platform and tips how to prepare for the implementation. There was also the second webinar where we got practical tips about the best ways to create groups. We also got technical support from the IT department. The date of the implementation was imposed and we had about 3 weeks for that. At the early stage a dedicated administrator answered all our questions about technical aspects and supported us. The moment we got the access to the platform, the communication was transferred to an international group on this platform and IT problems were sent to the admin.

Maja: How did you inform your employees about the new tool? Did you prepare any promotional campaigns?
Agnieszka: We had 3 weeks to implement everything, it isn’t a lot of time. We used teasers to get the attention of our employees. A few days before the start, all the employees saw screen savers with The game of thrones’ motive: Brace Yourself, Winter is coming. We used the sentence: New blog is coming. After that our employees got a mailing and the pop-up and finally the old blog was covered by a landing page linking to Facebook at Work.

 A screen saver which promoted the new tool at Trans.eu

The day we launched Facebook at work each employee found a muffin with a card on their desks encouraging them to log to the new platform. We prepared a welcome video with our CEO and a few quizzes. Moreover, one of our teams – which is responsible for preparing news and videos for our external platform for a logistics branch – recorded a humorous special edition video to inform about the start of our new tool.

 Muffins for all employees to promote Facebook Workplace

A video (in Polish) encouraging the employees of Trans.eu to check the new platform (You Tube)

Maja: What were the first reactions of your employees?
Agnieszka: At first we’re in a communicative shock – everybody was interested in the new tool. Suddenly a lot of content appeared there, so a part of employees was dizzy. The welcome video with the CEO was accessed very positively. Especially, a warm welcome Facebook at work got from our international teams, which finally felt integrated by our internal communications.

 A promotion of Facebook Workplace among the employees

Maja: How do you organize the new tool? Are there, e.g., groups with corporate news where all employees have to belong to?
Agnieszka: There are no ‘mandatory groups’ on Workplace. There are only the groups where all the employees may be signed to, but each person may leave those groups freely. We created one group for all the employees, also those from the international branches. We try to publish posts in English there about our product, results, progresses, etc. There are also smeller groups divided into locations where we work in and groups for the branches. We treat this division as a test. It’s possible we’ll modify that.   

 Workplace by Facebook at Trans.eu

Maja: What do you like the most in communication on this platform? What is worth improving?
Agnieszka: Comparing to our former tool, we like the dynamics of this communications. We see that because it’s easy to use and our employees know this tool well, it encourages their constant activities and engagement. It’s great that because of the mobile app we can publish news from our business trips, conferences or trainings. Talking about disadvantages – we see a lack of place to gather links  (Slack has it) or no integration with Google Docs.  
We organized a research among our employees and they complained they aren’t able to react quickly because of a lack of notifications when a browser is closed. That is why many of them prefer using Skype. But the mobile app called Work chat works perfectly. The possibility to add longer posts seems not to be perfect as well. It’s possible to create esthetic and notes pleasing to the eyes with pictures, but you aren’t able to publish them from a group level. Our employees also said that it would be useful to have such functionalities like a company structure, a calendar or a program to project management. Those who are used to using such functionalities are sceptical to plan and discus tasks via Workplace. They may be persuaded by a planned integration with Asana, an app to project management which Facebook plans.  

Maja: What role does Workplace play in your company now?
Agnieszka: This tool is great for big companies with multi locations. The communication is easier between employees from those branches – we write and talk more to others, so we know more about each other.

Maja: Justyna and Agnieszka, thank you for sharing your experience.

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Agnieszka, good luck at IntraTeam Event. And if you consider the implementation of the ESN in your company, you may also be interested in David Kennedy’s session. He will talk about Workplace by FB at Save the Children International. Check the details below.

This post was prepared in the cooperation with IntraTeam.

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This interview was originally published in the extended version in Polish on my blog Behind the IC scenes (Polish: Komunikacja wewnętrzna od kuchni) on Oct 13^th, 2016. To read it in Polish – go here: Facebook Workplace w polskiej firmie – case study Trans.eu. After publishing it, I contacted Trans.eu with Irmina Szczepaniak from IntraTeam and… if you join their conference on Feb 28^th- Mar 2^nd, 2017 in Copenhagen, you’ll have an opportunity to listen to this case presented by Agnieszka from Trans.eu. Irmina, thank you for the cooperation.

Graphics & pictures: Trans.eu
Graphic of the event: IntraTeam