Workplace has revealed plans for an integration with WhatsApp to help businesses reach frontline workers.
The tie-up will allow businesses to share posts from Workplace, a business version of Facebook, in WhatsApp messages.
The announcement comes as Workplace reveals research which found that 45 percent of frontline workers feel disconnected from the organisation they work for.
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”
Workplace said that the integration is expected to be available this year, first focusing on messaging but with other functionality in the pipeline.
Elsewhere in its research report, it claimed that more than half of frontline employees feel they are less appreciated than office-based staff, as well as believing they receive inferior work perks.
Christine Trodella, global director at Workplace from Meta, said: “We’re at a critical juncture of the employer-frontline relationship and the Great Frontline Resignation is a very real threat.
“While it’s clear from this year’s report that business leaders recognise the fundamental role frontline workers play in their organisations, actions speak louder than words.
“Now is the time for leadership to listen, learn, and more importantly, take action to build a workforce that is inclusive of the workers who brought them through the pandemic.”
Both Workplace and WhatsApp are owned by Meta (previously Facebook).
Workplace has seen success with large enterprises over recent months, including the renewal of a huge deal with Vodafone. It has also announced deeper partnerships with Teams and Webex.
