Launch Communication Strategy

Get people excited and on board with communications that emphasize the value that Workplace will bring to the organization.

Why it's important
Why it's important
Educating your coworkers on why Workplace is being launched and how it will be used is key for long-term adoption and buy-in at all levels. A clear plan with communications before, during and after launch will help you launch successfully and onboard employees faster.
To help you develop your strategy, we've created a templatized plan containing key communications that should be shared for every large-scale Workplace launch. You can use the Launch Communication Plan as-is. but we recommend you customize it to meet the unique needs of your organization. Download it here.
Tactical how to
Tactical how to
We recommend creating a plan that has three phases:
Pre-Launch
In the weeks before launch, your communications should be centered on two primary goals:
  1. Ensuring alignment from champions, people managers, and executives. You'll need their support to promote Workplace to the rest of your organization.
  2. Announcing your upcoming launch and explaining why it is a significant change for your organization.
The pre-launch stage involves a series of communications from leaders, giving details on when and why Workplace is launching. But your pre-launch promotion shouldn't be limited to email. Amplify your upcoming launch using all of your existing channels, including newsletters, posters, SMS, TV screens, intranet and more. You can find a library of promotional assets in the Workplace Launch Kit.
Launch
The best way to get employees engaged is by making your launch day fun. Here are some tips for launch day activities that will get your employees on board:
  • Plan a launch day event in your office. Provide snacks and other incentives for people to attend and make activating your Workplace profile the ticket to the event.
  • Hold friendly activation competitions and provide prizes such as catered lunches to teams and departments with 100% profile activation.
  • If you can, consider donating $1 to charity for every profile activation.
  • Plan a Workplace treasure hunt. Instruct employees to find 5 things in Workplace such as the Thanks feature, a social group, their benefits information, the CEO’s profile, and the Org Chart feature. The first person to post a photo of all five will receive a prize.
Beyond celebrating, use this day to make sure everyone knows how to activate their profile, get set up, and get started as a new user. You can do that in a few ways:
  • Share detailed profile activation instructions through your existing channels
  • Share resourcees like the New User Guide and Workplace User Essentials with all employees.
  • Set up an IT booth on launch day where people can get support with setting up their profile.
Post Launch
Launching Workplace is just the beginning. In the first 4-6 weeks, run a regular series of communications on Workplace to maintain activity and engagement while people develop new habits to sign-in regularly.
We recommend enlisting your leaders to take part in engagement campaigns. Some ideas include highlighting connectedness through Workplace, inviting innovation and ideas from everyone, celebrating your culture, or re-aligning your co-workers to a single company mission. You can find template campaign kits and other downloadable internal comms inspiration here.
It's also a good idea to provide a series of helpful tips on how to use Workplace effectively, particularly around notifications, groups, profiles and types of posts.
  1. Create an open Workplace group called “Workplace Tips + Q&A”. Employees can use the group to get answers to their questions or report issues.
  2. Enlist the support of your champions and make them group admins,
  3. Pin a post in your group, inviting employees to post their Workplace questions and encouraging everyone to answer one another’s questions when possible.
  4. Have champions monitor the group and provide assistance as needed.
  5. Ask the IT team to monitor the group as well to provide troubleshooting support when it’s required.
  6. Use the assets included in the Workplace Adoption Booster Kit to share a seady stream of Workplace tips and tricks.
Key takeaways
Key takeaways
  • Use all of your existing communication channels, including digital channels (intranet, SMS, TV screens, device homepages), print media (posters, hand-outs, physical stands) and face-to-face channels (manager meetings, champions in each location, executive town hall meetings).
  • Create a communications plan (pre-launch, launch, post-launch) and promotional strategy to build up excitement for launch and maintain engagement after launch day.
  • Having your leaders validate Workplace's role in your organization will empower your colleagues to join the platform, engage and contribute. Leadership teams are busy so we recommend engaging them early to give them time to prepare!