The company has said that Covid-19 accelerated its use of Workplace, with video updates now central to how it keeps its people – from frontline engineers to retail workers and call center operations teams – informed and connected. The platform enabled BT to respond to the crisis quickly and openly, uniting remote workers and celebrating achievements in helping connect the UK during lockdown.
BT said it uses to platform to bring its global workforce and group brands together for timely, open conversations. The company rolled out the platform last year and, in 2020 alone, BT’s people have already made 50 million connections through sharing and collaborating on Workplace.
Helen Willetts, director of internal communications at BT, explained, “Workplace was a simple choice for BT. Yes it’s mobile-friendly, easy to use and intuitive. But more than that, it’s culture-enhancing. Leaders can talk to their teams in a matter of seconds and the peer-to-peer benefits include enabling a sense of belonging, instant access to news and a way to solve problems collaboratively.
“Finally, and perhaps most importantly, having Workplace has made it so much easier for us to stick to our principle of ‘inside out’ - letting our colleagues know what’s happening, increasing trust and, in turn, advocacy. Sometimes we have a matter of minutes to reach our people – Workplace allows us to do that, and to do it well.”
BT has said its employees have created new Groups within the Workplace platform to connect and collaborate more closely, with three million reactions and 970,000 comments across the platform. The company feels Workplace ensures that every person at BT has a voice and the company can understand how its people feel about important issues.
Workplace VP Julien Codorniou added, “We build and develop Workplace for companies that want to be connected communities, and BT completely embodies this ambition. We are delighted to empower one of the UK’s best-known companies to connect its global workforce and support its transformation.”
Workplace has said that its partners benefit from business growth, team access and training and investment.