In 2018 communications company Moneypenny revealed a £15m headquarters to rival those in Silicon Valley, designed after consultation with employees.
Complete with treehouse meeting room, pub, sun terrace and subsidised restaurant, the 91,000 sq ft Wrexham office was focussed on employee wellbeing and was designed to be the “happiest workplace in the UK”.
The firm, which works with major tech clients including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, provides telephone answering, outsourced switchboard, live chat and customer contact solutions.
Now, as the firm moves to working from home, its CEO Joanna Swash explains how it is replicating its in-office culture through Facebook Workplace.
Like Facebook, its Workplace platform offers groups, instant messaging and a News Feed centrally managed by the employer. Employees set up a separate, professional profile from their personal account.
It is one of many platforms being quickly adopted as workplaces disperse – notably Slack, Microsoft Teams and Monday.com.
“Right now, as our staff are working remotely in light of COVID-19, we want to make sure that we can continue to create an amazing community for our employees and support them more than ever,” said Swash, who first introduced Facebook Workplace more than two years ago.
Swash said its employees’ familiarity with Facebook allowed them to quickly on-board with the platform, which it uses to manage both work and social matters in the form of critical communications and uplifting news and messages.
“It enables people to still feel very connected to work, even though they are not physically together with no need for extensive training or complicated log-ins,” she said.
“Not only can we provide real-time updates for employee peace of mind, we can also provide a safe forum to allow people to share tips on mental wellbeing and emotional support if someone is having a difficult day.”
In 2018 Swash told BusinessCloud that staff engagement on the platform was at 99%. Since working from home, its employees are now using the platform to stay up-to-date with one another on their hobbies and interests.
“What’s great is we’re seeing lots of bottom-up activity, where our fantastic employees have created new ‘Working from home’ groups where they can share cooking recipes, what exciting things their pets are getting up to and home workouts,” said Swash.
“It’s great to see that even though our employees aren’t together physically, they’re together virtually, helping each other through this tough time.”