Item: Workplace from Meta
Rating: 9
Author: Laura Gillenwater

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workplace by Facebook is now pretty much our company's main way of broadcast communication (outside of email, which is still used especially for very important or time-sensitive info) and for different types of "themed" groups to share updates and info with one another. We have Workplace groups at the all-company level, for various sites, for various areas of work (both by department areas, such as HR, which has groups at both the country and global level, and by interests, such as for our DEI groups), for groups that may share an initiative, such as the Technology Employee Champions, a "secret" group for folks interested in testing and promoting new technology, etc. We also use the companion Workplace Chat as our DM application throughout the company. Workplace has allowed us to drastically decrease the amount of internal email sent, to support and create communities of interest, to stay connected as we all work remotely (we have fun on Workplace, too!), and we use Workplace Live to broadcast and record our large-scale meetings, such as our "town hall" meetings. We use Workplace to share tips with one another, share personal life experiences (creating a Workplace post about one's sabbatical experiences is a requirement of our sabbatical program), and many other things.

Pros and Cons

Bring groups of people together to share info, stories, updates, etc.
The chat app is pretty decent.
Workplace Live is a good large-group meeting broadcast platform.
It's pretty intuitive to use for anyone who's used Facebook.
It provides different levels of "security" for groups, allowing you to have open, closed, and "secret" groups.
It's easy to paste images into your posts and comments, without having to necessarily go through the process of saving an image as a file, etc.
It has search capabilities for finding old information.
It's available for both desktop/laptop and mobile devices.
It's secured to allow only those within the company to see company-related info (but it also has a few inter-company groups, which can be useful, too).
Workplace Chat has the ability to set it to Do Not Disturb.
You can set notifications, including email notifications, if you want to be alerted to new activity in your groups, etc.
You can use Markdown to format your text

Workplace Chat is not reliable in terms of being able to delete a comment you sent...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
When viewing a Workplace Live event after it's over, the comments don't always show all of them and in order, even when you choose that option.
Your "status" (on vacation, in a meeting, whatever) is a bit too subtle and easy for folks not to notice. We've created "badges" to use in place of our profile photo as a workaround for that, but it would be nice if Workplace had provided something like that itself.

Most Important Features

Groups
Workplace Chat
Workplace Live
It's easy to use

Return on Investment

It has been terrific at helping us to feel connected as a company during the pandemic, while (almost) everyone has been working from home.
It's been great at making us more connected globally and at supporting various special interest groups.
It's provided a useful alternative to Zoom for very large-scale meetings, like company "town halls."

Alternatives Considered

I was not involved in the selection process, so I'm afraid I can't be of much help with this. I do know that my company is a stickler for security, though, as well as for making sure that the vendor is financially stable, so I would assume that Workplace by Facebook passed both of those evaluations or we wouldn't be using it! Also, it helps that Facebook is already a widely used platform, making adoption of Workplace much faster and smoother than another product might have been.

Key Insights

Do you think Workplace from Meta delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Workplace from Meta's feature set?

Yes

Did Workplace from Meta live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Workplace from Meta go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Workplace from Meta again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Zoom, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Snagit, Lectora, Adobe Presenter, Audacity, Vyond (formerly GoAnimate)

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Workplace by Facebook is a great communication vehicle for any mid-sized to large company. (Since it's more groups-oriented than "regular" Facebook, it might not work well for smaller companies.) I also don't have any idea what the cost is for having it, but that also be a reason that it wouldn't be worth the expense for smaller companies. For larger companies, I think it's a terrific way for folks to communicate with one another and for "the powers that be" to communicate with employees. Facebook Live is only suitable when you have a limited number of people who need to be on screen and it wouldn't really be suitable as a vehicle for instructor-led online training -- it's really most suitable for presentations (although, via the comments area, does allow for questions to be asked in writing).

Terrific Way to Stay Connected!

Overall Satisfaction with Workplace by Facebook