Exploring how Walmart, Sunlife Financial and others are working smarter at Transform NYC
We invited Workplace customers, partners and other organisations interested in learning more about Workplace to Transform NYC. Here are some of the highlights of the day.
Transform is our biannual event that brings together Chief Workplace Officers and those pioneering new ways of working. Fellow customers take attendees on an exclusive tour of their very own Workplace communities, offering a first-hand view of how they're putting Workplace into action at their organisations. Here's what we talked about in New York.
Why Workplace?
Straight out of the gate, we meet Dan Kneeshaw of Walmart. As Senior Director, Global Communications in Corporate Affairs, Dan takes us through some of the reasons why Walmart decided to deploy Workplace. It's a punchy list and Workplace ticked the right boxes. Namely:
- Familiar
- Mobile-first
- Real-time
- Engaging
He has some good advice for companies at the beginning of the Workplace journey, too. Walmart wanted to avoid deploying Workplace as a traditional platform roll-out.
"We needed it to be organic. We wanted to build a groundswell of stories and support on the platform", says Dan. This helps build a sense of value. "The idea that you have access to information and insight you never have before."
Organic adoption in this instance gives better results and helps make the roll-out more successful.
"Getting the mobile experience right is critical."
– Dan Kneeshaw, Walmart
Connecting people and productivity gains
Next up is Jami Lamontagne – Senior Director, Communications at Sam's Club
.
We learn how sharing updates through Workplace groups is uniting people through the power of storytelling.
It's also building a stronger sense of community. "Using groups is helping boost peer-to-peer recognition", says Jami, "and it's eliminated the need to produce time-consuming newsletters".
Turning companies into communities
And building communities is also top of mind for Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer who drops in to talk to the Transform audience.
Mike shares his thoughts on personal fulfilment at work, Workplace origins and how using Workplace can fundamentally help organisations build communities in their companies.
"What's great is when technology enables me to hear from people I haven't heard from before. And that applies, even more, when it happens in Workplace. That connectivity, that conversation – it can be transformational for organisations."
– Mike Schroepfer, CTO, Facebook After the lunch break, two customers take us through some specific ways they've used Workplace to make a quantifiable change to the company.
Using Workplace to reduce staff attrition by 20%
First to the stage is Nikita Bhappu – PR and Social Media Manager at Valet Living.
The company uses Workplace to raise awareness and excitement about new internal promotions and future opportunities. Teams are also using groups to go big on new sales and create a buzz across the organisation.
These efforts have been so successful that Valet Living has reduced staff attrition by an amazing 20%.
Workplace the email killer (Well, by 25% so far…)
When asked the question Why Workplace? Critical Mix co-CEO Keith Price wasted no time. "We want to kill email…"
But it was clear they got much more than that. Better productivity. A repository for company IP in secure, closed and secret groups, and the automation of mundane and time-consuming tasks using bots.
Not only is this helping Critical Mix and SMEs everywhere "act bigger than they are from day 1". It's also led to a reduction in email traffic by 25%. A great result.
Using Workplace to save over USD 300K
And we close with Memorial Health. Cathy Strukely, Manager of Communications and Digital Services, shows us how they're planning to use Workplace to streamline event organisation.
Connect is a one-hour information session where the CEO and COO give an update on the mission and the vision. It's a popular event that Memorial currently host 22 times in Spring and 22 times in Autumn. The sheer number of hours this involves for the senior team and the organisers equate to over USD 300K.
Using Workplace is providing a better and smarter way. The team plans to move the event to an open Workplace group. It's fun and interactive with the team using polls and posting videos to engage with group members.
It makes information available to everyone without having to attend a meeting in person. And it's going to save Memorial Health a significant amount of money, which it can invest in other areas of the business.
Real impact and real digital transformation. And that was just a taster!
We'll be back with some more transformation stories from customers Sunlife Financial, SUNY and more.
