80,000 BT employees globally now connected with Workplace

Learn more. Read the full BT case study.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION | 10 MINUTE READ

One of the world’s leading communications service companies - operating in 180 countries globally - is accelerating its use of Workplace.

When British Telecom (BT) used to make announcements or company news broke, there was always a delay before its own people knew about it. BT was determined to change that and wanted to move to a colleague-focused approach, making information accessible to its people as soon as possible and engaging them in discussions that matter.

That’s why today when BT company leaders have something to share they use video updates on Workplace, so they can speak face-to-face with BT’s global colleagues right away and get their response in real-time. Bringing its global workforce and group brands together for timely, open conversations is precisely why BT began its roll-out of Workplace last year. In 2020 alone, BT’s people have already made 50 million connections through sharing and collaborating on Workplace.

COVID-19 accelerated BT’s use of Workplace as video updates became core to how the company keeps its people - from frontline engineers to retail workers and call center operations teams - informed and connected during lockdown. The platform has enabled BT to respond to the crisis quickly and openly, while uniting remote workers and celebrating BT’s role in connecting the UK during lockdown.

“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,” said Helen Willetts, Director of Internal Communications.

Workplace is playing a major role in business communication at BT, bringing a more informal feel and helping to abolish lengthy company emails and internal newsletters. Instead, leaders can share updates unscripted, show up authentically, comment and react. Not only can colleagues access these important messages regardless of their location, job role and device, they’re able to take part in the conversation.

And take part they do. So far, a wealth of new Groups have sprung up, with BT seeing three million reactions and 970,000 comments on Workplace. This ability to participate is invaluable for ensuring that every person at BT has a voice and the company can understand how its people feel about important issues.

BT is currently using Workplace in 54 countries across all parts of the organization. It has a separate instance for Openreach, which runs the UK’s digital network, empowering field engineers with quick access to best practice and advice from colleagues when working on the frontline and out on jobs.

According to CEO Philip Jansen: “Workplace is enabling the culture we’re aiming for: One that is fast-paced, inclusive and empowering. We’ve seen many benefits including being able to share news instantly, gather feedback on subjects that our people care about, and enabling more authentic leadership communications. Even more importantly, it has strengthened our communities across BT and Openreach."

“Through Workplace, colleagues connect with each other on the things that matter, sharing ideas and problem-solving together in real time. That is hugely beneficial to our colleagues and customers, and therefore to BT as a whole” he continued.

Workplace VP Julien Codorniou said: “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.”

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