Launch Communication Strategy

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

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 templatised 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 customise it to meet the unique needs of your organisation. 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 centred 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 organisation.
  2. Announcing your upcoming launch and explaining why it is a significant change for your organisation.
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 USD $1 to charity for every profile activation.
  • Plan a Workplace treasure hunt. Instruct employees to find five 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 resources 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 four to six 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 coworkers 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 steady 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 home pages), 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 organisation 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!
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