Can you put a figure on the Covid-19 effect in terms of use of Workplace by Facebook?
Julien Lesaicherre - We don't have any figures for the Covid-19 effect, but what is clear is that we are receiving a lot of requests from customers, and that our teams are working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. With the majority of French people who found themselves in teleworking from one day to the next, a large number of our customers had to suddenly adopt teleworking in theemergency and large scale. The need for employees to be connected, to be informed, to share and to be able to work from the most unexpected places has never been greater. And this is even more true for employees in the field who, having no email, desk, computer or intranet, are often the most disconnected. Companies have realised that it is essential to communicate directly with all their employees, wherever they are. In uncertain times like these, communication is essential to help businesses protect their employees, cope with the unpredictable and maintain a sense of belonging.
Do employees and their companies make use of specific functions that are different from a normal period?
Julien Lesaicherre - Use of the tool remains the same when teleworking. The tool doesn't change. But it is true that certain functions, such as the instant chat and the live function video are used more than others at this time of year, in order to maintain as close a link as possible with the organisation. Danone's management also uses video regularly to disseminate information. This enables them to communicate with their foreign employees in a way that's as close as possible to their home country. subtitling adapted to the language and produced in real time. In particular, we have seen many initiatives being put in place, such as the creation of open groups to provide a single source for daily updates and safety recommendations. Companies are also using multi-enterprise groups to extend remote working capabilities to all partners and customers.
Could the tool draw on this experience to incorporate improvements that have emerged as a result of this particular context?
Julien Lesaicherre - We currently offer a number of integrations that enable organisations to create bots that meet their specific needs. For example, the airline Scoot Airlinesbased in SingaporeThe company uses workplace chat in combination with Prepp to send out daily surveys via the bot to select staff in high-risk positions travelling to specific countries. In their messages, they check the staff well-beingwith a response rate of almost 100 % every day. We are constantly listening to our customers and supporting them in the development of the tool to get the best results. For example, we have heard the need for emergency services to be connected in these times of crisis, so we recently made the Workplace Advanced service available to them free of charge for one year.
How has the Workplace platform evolved since its launch, and what are the areas for development?
Julien Lesaicherre - The work version of Facebook has been available since October 2016. Initially called Facebook at WorkIt was renamed Workplace by Facebook to better reflect the product's philosophy. Almost three years to the day after our launch, we reached the three million paying usersThat's a million more in eight months. Today we also have more than 150 companies more than 10,000 employees who connect and collaborate on Workplace. Last year we also refined our offering to allow organisations to choose the features and level of support they need. We're helping companies predict costs, and making it easier to connection between employees in the field and the rest of the company. We're constantly listening to our customers' feedback and rolling out new features on a regular basis, always with the same objective in mind: to connect everyone in a company, including workers in the field. Our roadmap is focused on communicationthe collaboration and the cultureand we want to continue to improve on these three priorities, in particular by continuing to make the most ofartificial intelligence and the growth in consumption of online video.
Can Workplace be integrated with other business tools?
Julien Lesaicherre - Of course it does. Workplace connects to traditional business tools so that teams can work faster. Our growing directory of integrations, including Office 365 and G Suite, means you can share, keep up to date and simplify processes. Some integrations extend the functionality of the Workplace editor to the web and mobile devices, making it easier for users to share content from other tools and services. Other integrations enable Workplace to generate a secure preview of private links shared on Workplace. Integrations that enable bots in Workplace Chat can send urgent notifications, for example, when a visitor is waiting at reception, and allow you toautomate routine tasksIt is also possible to activate an option so that content from a number of media publishers is automatically published in a group, or to configure a customised feed from a tool or service that supports RSS or Atom feeds. It is also possible to activate an option for content from multiple media editors to be automatically published in a group, or configure a custom feed from a tool or service that supports RSS or Atom feeds.
Travel managers can be involved in discussions with Workplace to maintain the link with travellers, and even ensure communication in the event of a crisis.
Who are your contacts within the company? Who manages the Workplace 'file', with what objectives, and what criteria do you use to choose between Workplace and other tools such as Slack?
Julien Lesaicherre - It depends on the company and its size. Obviously, the boss has to be involved in the project. But most of the time, deployment is driven by the human resources, communications or IT directors, with whom we are in regular contact. The travel managers can also be involved in discussions with Workplace to maintain the link with travellers, or even ensure communication in the event of a crisis such as an earthquake, terrorist attack or health crisis. In general, when our customers turn to Workplace, it's because they want to put in place a tool that goes beyond a simple corporate social network. They are generally looking for a place where all the tools they use on a daily basis are connected, enabling all employees, including field workers, to share ideas, think and achieve more together. Many companies use our tool as a complement to other solutions, which have different purposes.
How can Workplace meet the needs of business travellers and travel managers?
Julien Lesaicherre - Workplace is designed for mobileThis gives employees access to the people and information they need, whether they're at head office or out in the field, on a business trip for example. Because of their size, many of our customers are geographically dispersed. This is the case, for example, with Club MedDisneyland Paris, or Transavia. We also know that half of Danone's employees work at the head office in Paris, the other half in factories or shops. And when you consider that only 16 % of employees in the field are convinced that they have a voice within their organisation, you realise that it is all the more necessary for all employees to share the same tool. For delivery drivers, factory production staff, shop assistants or travelling sales representatives, instant messaging tools or, better still, video conferencing, are excellent ways of communicating. Managers can, for example share their thoughts and lessons learned from business trips in real time with employees back in the office.
Social networks have emerged to bring together employees of a large group who are in the same destination at the same time, or to facilitate feedback. Could you also explore this avenue?
Julien Lesaicherre - These forms of networking are essential for business travellers. On Workplace, it's perfectly possible for them to have access to internal groups dedicated to advice on how to optimise the organisation of a business trip. Employees who travel can also use multi-company groups with the customers or partners they are going to visit, so they can share information more easily.
Does the Workplace platform intend to position itself more strongly in the videoconferencing segment?
Julien Lesaicherre - Video is a strong counterpart to Workplace, and is a real lever enabling us to fulfil our mission of bringing people together to create a community, even at work. Our video offering includes Live, which allows managers to speak to their teams through live video broadcasts and real-time feedback in the form of comments or reactions. Thanks to a dedicated application, Workplace users can also use Portal to make video calls that can bring together up to 50 participants. Finally, we recently announced a number of new features for videos: subtitling, the translation automatic in a choice of 14 languages, or the new architecture that speeds up video transmission.
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To what extent is each account's personal data linked to Workplace? Is there a link between the consumer version and the pro version?
Julien Lesaicherre - In many respects, Workplace is similar to the Facebook accessible to the general public: events, news feeds containing information shared by network members, groups, messaging, etc. This is precisely our strength: everyone knows how to use our servicewhich is very close to a social network that already has over 2.5 billion users. On the other hand, as a SaaS start-up within Facebook, we have a very close relationship with Facebook. business model that belongs to us and is totally different. Each employee's Workplace account is independent of your personal Facebook accountThis means that information is only relayed within a network defined by the company, and the company retains control and access to all shared information.
Exactly how does Workplace address the issue of data confidentiality, for which Facebook has been singled out?
Julien Lesaicherre - Questions of security and support are absolutely essential for any player who claims to make software for businesses. We have invested heavily in this area, since our company and our products comply with the strictest security standards. safety standards which are constantly being revised and improved. Above all, we have proved our reliability The fact that players such as Danone, Kering, Astrazeneca, Vodafone, Telefonica, Walmart and Starbucks have decided to go live with Workplace and roll it out to all their employees means that they are able to put a stamp on the seriousness of our solution.
Do you think that this experience of confinement will permanently transform the relationship with the office, by replacing human contact with a virtual link, such as a company e-mail system or videoconferencing?
Julien Lesaicherre - There is a real need for employees to feel involved, but there is also a real need for managers to be able to push information out to them. We see this in episodes such as the coronavirus: information arrives on an almost daily basis, and will have an impact on the lives of employees, the life of the business and the lives of the company's partners. We're not even talking about the impact on sales, we're talking about the impact on the the very safety of employees. In this situation, knowing how to communicate is essential. We've seen our customers develop some remarkable innovations to support their organisations today, including welfare and daily check-in robots, and we're confident that these kinds of innovations will continue to support businesses in the future, however they choose to work. This is where we see that the impact of the digital workplace is to be able to connect all employees from head office to the factories, to the shops. This is not an option, whatever the context.
