Workplace from Meta to Launch WhatsApp Integration to Support Frontline Workers

Workplace from Meta, the workplace collaboration application built off the Facebook platform, has announced an integration with WhatsApp in a move designed to help organizations better reach their frontline workers. Meta owns the Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp platforms.

The integration is designed to enable companies to share posts from Workplace with employees, including frontline workers, over WhatsApp. The integration is not available immediately and is expected to launch this year (no specific timeline), according to a blog post today from Christine Trodella, director of client success at Workplace from Meta.

"By better connecting frontline workers and empowering them with information," Trodella wrote in the blog post, "we believe that organizations can help improve their ability to engage their people and deliver great service." Organizations will be able to ensure that information and updates reach frontline workers where they are in real-time, Trodella added.

Report Airs Frontline Workers Concerns

The product news today comes on the same day Workplace from Meta released its Deskless Not Voiceless: The 2021 Frontline Barometer report, which examines the views of 7,000 frontline workers and 1,350 C-suite executives in seven countries. Researchers found 55% of frontline workers feel connected to their company headquarters, and 75% don’t completely trust their organizations to be transparent about company news and updates.

The report finds nearly half (45%) of workers plan to leave frontline roles in 2022 and beyond. And, while 83% of the C-suite say they started to value their frontline workers more than they did prior to the pandemic, more than half of frontline employees (51%) still believe they are seen as less important than their headquarter counterparts.

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"With the Great Resignation continuing to loom and 45% of workers surveyed looking to leave the frontline altogether, it’s clear many organizations need to do more to build connected employee experiences that will help frontline workers feel part of their organization — and in turn have the potential to attract and retain the best talent," Trodella wrote.

Teams Integration Highlights Latest Meta Releases

Workplace from Meta acknowledged the elephant in the workplace collaboration room last fall when it announced integrations with competitor Microsoft Teams. Enterprises that use both Workplace and Teams would be able to communicate with each other easier, officials noted. The integration between Workplace and Teams gives employees access to content from Workplace within Teams without having to switch back and forth between the two apps. Workplace also added the ability to stream from Teams Meetings into Workplace groups.

What else has Workplace from Meta been up to? It debuted recently:

• New ways to connect users to events and broadcasts.
• A calendar integration that syncs Workplace events with Outlook, Gmail and other calendar tools.
• Metrics viewed in posts such as click-through rate, engagement rate and post completion rate. Creators can also track video content performance.
• New top posts list in the Insights panel to view top-performing content in the Workplace app.

“At Workplace, we strongly believe that the most successful organizations empower their frontline employees to make a difference and listen to their ideas," Ujjwal Singh, Workplace’s head of product, said. "So it’s disappointing to see there’s still a clear disconnect between frontline and HQ workers. Our integration with WhatsApp is designed to help fix that: helping bring frontline employees closer to their organizations and ensuring the information they need to do their jobs is at their fingertips.”

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About the Author

Gabrielle Rodgers is an editorial intern for Simpler Media Group, joining the team in the fall of 2021. Gabrielle is currently a digital media major at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and expects to earn her Bachelor’s in 2022.