Facebook on Wednesday announced that it would be providing one-year free Workplace access to governments and emergency services globally.
According to Julien Codorniou Vice President of Workplace from Facebook, the offer “for these organizations, which are on the frontline of combating COVID-19, this will help inform, connect and safeguard their employees, allowing them to share critical information in real-time, provide updates on the health and welfare of their employees, and enable leadership to reach employees via live videos, posts, and more.
Workplace helps connect everyone in an organization, including frontline or deskless workers, and is deeply committed to supporting everyone within these organizations during this crisis. ”
The statement outlined the following important information regarding the free offering:
- This offer is available to all government organizations (at a country and local level) and emergency services (including ambulance, dispatchers and law enforcement) pending legal and compliance checks
- Through our platform, companies can instantly share information, live stream meetings or announcements, support two-way communication or even employ bots to quickly gather feedback from employees. The World Health Organization is currently using Workplace to share critical information about COVID-19 amongst its workforce, host staff seminars and create an open forum for employee questions.
- Workplace Advanced is built for connecting entire organizations. It will provide these organizations with familiar Workplace features, such as Chat, Live video and Groups, plus advanced admin controls.
Responding, Carey Kyer, Internal Communications at WHO, stated that “Workplace ‘ticks the box’ on our need to communicate, engage and connect real-time with our colleagues around the world, especially during this public health emergency of international concern.”
