By Steve McCaskill
RBS will make Facebook At Work available to all of its 100,000 staff so they can work together on projects and communicate more rapidly.
The enterprise version of the social network has been in a closed beta since January and in development for nearly 18 months. RBS has been testing the platform since July and will have made it available to 30,000 by March, and all remaining staff by the end of 2016.
Facebook at Work looks the same as its consumer counterpart, with events, status updates, photos, groups and personal message functions all available, but accounts are separate and information in each business network is closed so it is only accessible to colleagues.
Facebook at Work
RBS says the trial has allowed staff to work more efficiently together and respond to customer requests more quickly. It adds that employees were more productive, coming up with a wider range of ideas.
“I’ve already been using Facebook At Work while we test it and it’s been so useful – allowing me to exchange information and ideas quickly and securely with all my team on a wide range of projects,” said Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer. “I’m excited about how bringing people together from all across the bank through Facebook At Work can help our employees do their job better—whether it’s being able to find answers to customer queries much faster or helping us come up with bright new ideas.”
Facebook hopes its work platform will wrest market share away from the likes of rival business social networks LinkedIn and Yammer. It had been reported that Facebook At Work could be made available to the public later this year.
“We hope Facebook At Work will help RBS, which employs 100,000 people, bring staff closer together and allow them to collaborate on projects much more effectively,” added Sean Ryan, vice president of Platform Partnerships at Facebook.