Meta announces the integration of Workplace with WhatsApp to help organizations better reach their frontline workers, as new research shows prevailing disconnect and the Great Resignation continues to loom.
Frontline workers are vital for organizations. They may be out of sight from headquarters (HQ) but all over the world, these are the workers who are providing essential services and interacting with customers daily.
When the pandemic hit, many organizations faced the challenge of connecting with their frontline workforce, due to them not being connected by email. This internal comms challenge soon became a boardroom problem and the latest research from Meta reveals the problem is not yet solved.
The Deskless Not Voiceless: The 2021 Frontline Barometer1 – which examines the views of 7,000 frontline workers and 1,350 C-suite executives in 7 countries – reveals that only 55% of frontline workers surveyed feel a connection to their company’s HQ. Other respondents (75%) don’t completely trust their organizations to be transparent about company news and updates.
Since the Great Resignation started in early 2021, the trend seems to continue with 45% of workers surveyed considering leaving the frontline altogether. Considering these trends, many organizations need to work on their internal communications to connect with the employees and help frontline workers feel part of their organization which can result in the attraction and retention of the best talent.
As a result of these challenges Meta expects to empower frontline workers by giving them the tools to connect. The integration of Workplace and with WhatsApp is expected in 2022.
The integration expects to allow organizations to be able to ensure that information and updates reach frontline workers where they are in real-time. To find out more about how Workplace helps keep frontline employees connected go here.
Ujjwal Singh, Workplace’s Head of Product, said: “At Workplace, we strongly believe that the most successful organizations empower their frontline employees to make a difference and listen to their ideas. So it’s disappointing to see there’s still a clear disconnect between frontline and HQ in 2021.”
“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.”
1 “Deskless Not Voiceless: The 2021 Frontline Barometer” by Coleman Parkes: Workplace from Facebook commissioned study of 7,000 frontline workers and 1,350 C-suite leaders in the UK, USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Mexico and Australia), September-October 2021
