It’s no secret that the world as we know it is changing at an incredible scale. Since the pandemic delivered new challenges to organisations on a global scale, the way we work has been irrevocably altered. Flexible, remote, and hybrid workplaces have taken the world by storm, even in industries previously disconnected from such business architecture.
However, global pandemics aren’t the only factor capable of prompting a massive change to the workplace. As businesses in the manufacturing sector continue to grow and evolve, embracing new technologies and partnerships, they can also encounter a variety of new concerns.
Leading manufacturing company, LIXIL, is well aware of how crucial it is to maintain strong communication and collaboration in a changing landscape.
The global water and housing products brand currently operate around 270 subsidiaries and affiliates across 150 countries. As the business began to expand through strategic acquisitions, it developed an urgent need for new, more flexible communication tools.
Here’s how Workplace from Meta helped to transform LIXIL.
Finding a Unified Solution for Communication
LIXIL’s massive global presence and distributed team presented a significant communication issue for the business long before the pandemic struck. Over the years, the company invested in a number of strategic acquisitions to help expand its global footprint, and connect with new customers.
As many business owners know, while Mergers and Acquisitions can be extremely valuable to a company’s roadmap, they also have their own unique challenges. For instance, the acquisitions completed by the LIXIL team were prompting an increase in distributed and siloed communication systems across the workforce.
Introducing the Workplace from Meta solution in 2018 was one of the ways the organisation aimed to overcome the challenges of managing a distributed workforce. However, initially, the solution was introduced as one of a series of pre-existing communication tools, which made managing the flow of information more complex.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, it placed additional pressure on the LIXIL team to build a strong, unified, and consistent communications environment. Head office leaders quickly realised there needed to be a more effective way of improving collaboration and communication between frontline workers and managers. As a result, the business decided to double down on its Workplace investment and start building a virtual hub for work.
Expanding Workplace Adoption in the Pandemic
According to the Chief People Officer of LIXIL, Jin Montesano, when the pandemic hit, Workplace had already evolved into the primary tool for internal communications among most staff members. However, since then, the tool became even more essential to the continued productivity of staff.
By increasing their investment in the Workplace environment, LIXIL was able to create a digital “watercooler”, around which employees could more easily connect and congregate. Technology became not just a tool for professional interactions but a vital part of company culture. With Workplace, LIXIL wanted to enhance and optimise internal relationships among staff.
Jin noted the ability to maintain communications between colleagues among distributed teams would have been extremely difficult without Workplace.
During the pandemic, Workplace quickly became a platform for giving frontline workers a voice anywhere in the world. CEO of LIXIL, Kinya Seto, as well as other leaders from various global locations, would frequently hold all-hands meetings and townhalls. Live video communications via Workplace made it quick and easy for leaders to share company updates and information.
The real-time video interactions empowered by Workplace also allowed team leaders to collect insights from employees, listen to concerns, and respond to issues. As a result, front-line workers began to feel more recognised, boosting employee morale and engagement.
Staying Connected and Collaborative
To enhance the adoption of Workplace during the pandemic, LIXIL created an official “COVID-19” group within the social ecosystem. For many employees, this became the first line of communication when it came to learning more about the evolution of the pandemic.
LIXIL’s leaders found Workplace to be a simple solution for quickly sharing important information about new policies, guidelines, and safety procedures. They could also use the Workplace ecosystem to mobilize employees quickly to respond to any potential problems. This proved to be an essential benefit during the pandemic when speed was often critical.
Workplace also empowered the frontline managers in the LIXIL workforce with the introduction of diverse two-way communication methods for connecting with head-office leaders. The variety of tools on offer from the Workplace environment, such as video and audio conferencing, as well as messaging and commenting, were essential to breaking down silos.
By allowing employees to communicate in a multitude of different ways, LIXIL was able to give decision-makers a better view of all the facets of the company. According to the brand, this has led to better, more informed decision-making.
Workplace has even become an environment for internal team development and growth. Many Frontline employees within LIXIL now turn to Workplace to learn more about the functionality of different manufacturing sites. The guidance and tips shared on news feed also allow team members to discover new best practices and advice they can implement into their own site processes.
When team members face a problem with their manufacturing tasks, they can also turn to the community within Workplace instantly for assistance. Easy access to shared knowledge and specialists around the globe has had a fantastic result for LIXIL teams. The crowd-sourced approach to collaboration has boosted employee engagement and productivity levels on a massive scale.
Introducing a New Age of Work
While Workplace was already a significant part of the LIXIL communication stack before the pandemic hit, it became increasingly important as employees grew more disconnected and distributed. Leveraging tools like Workplace chat, groups, and Live video, LIXIL was able to create a more powerful and informed community of team members.
Today, employee engagement is 10% higher thanks to the influence of Workplace, and staff are sharing 400% more messages on a regular basis. Around 85% of the workforce is active on Workplace each month, highlighting incredible levels of adoption.
