When Jim Loree, CEO of Stanley Black & Decker, worked to find and embed the company’s purpose throughout the organization in 2017, he turned to Workplace by Facebook to facilitate the discussion. With 58,000 employees in more than 60 countries, Stanley Black & Decker needed to connect people across time zones and language barriers in real time. Under the strategic launch leadership of Communications and IT, Stanley Black & Decker launched Workplace to thousands of employees at their first-ever global town hall meeting. Within a day, the engagement numbers were off the chart. But the question remained: how would an everyday employee use Workplace to get their work done faster and better?
238%
Increase in the number of messages sent on Workplace Chat
80%
Growth in comments made on posts, indicating deeper collaboration and engagement
55%
Increase in the number of posts made as users began to share openly and often
Challenges
- After an initial launch conducted independently, SBD employees needed help understanding the practical, daily use of Workplace beyond town halls and the CEO’s active participation.
- Important sales teams were using Chatter as well as Workplace, creating silos of information.
“Even though I’d been with the company for 17 years leading up to it, as the new CEO working to embed a new business strategy and company purpose through the organization, I knew we needed a new tool.”
Jim Loree, CEO, Stanley Black & Decker
Interview courtesy of Workplace by Facebook
What We Did
Stanley Black & Decker employed Talk Social to Me to flatten employees’ learning curve to accomplish day-to-day work on the platform. SBD’s Communications team had embraced Workplace for announcements — giving employees the chance to connect and react for the first time. However, the average employee wasn’t sure how to use Workplace to get personal work done. Talk Social to Me created and delivered small-team training about integrating Workplace into employees’ daily work routines, conducted one-on-one coaching about creating two-way conversations, and showcased effective, productive team usage of Workplace.
Further adoption of Workplace involved educating senior-leader-influencers on how introduce Workplace by Facebook to additional executives beyond the highly active CEO. This was an essential campaign to ensure that senior leaders had access to specific, tactical examples of how Workplace was changing the way Stanley Black & Decker works and collaborates.
Talk Social to Me also provided targeted training for the cross-business development Sales team to build proficiency in Workplace as they had recently discontinued using SalesForce Chatter. Very quickly, the Sales team’s daily work-related use of Workplace contributed greatly to a higher overall adoption of Workplace mobile apps. SBD saw a 238% increase in the number of Chat messages sent on Workplace, a 90% increase in the number of people who sent Chat messages, and a 145% increase of users active in Workplace Chat mobile app. The sales team exemplified how teams using Workplace are “productive and profitable” and “generating revenue,” according to Loree.
Results
During the six-month Talk Social to Me engagement, the community enjoyed increased participation as members became more comfortable with usage guidelines and using Workplace for work. Workplace saw a 55% increase in posts, an 80% increase in comments, and a 49% increase in reactions. The number of people commenting also grew by 51%, signaling that team coaching had a long-term ripple effect across the network. Stanley Black & Decker’s Internal Communications leadership had set a strong foundation and continued to create highly valuable content; this, paired with additional “working in Workplace” coaching, boosted employee confidence in participating in the network over the long term.