Workplace: for a more cross-functional, collaborative administration

By making Workplace accessible to all employees, the Prince’s Government is modernising communications within the administration using a private, internal social network.

First rolled out to 30 volunteer teams on 6 November 2018, Workplace (by Facebook) is now available to all Monegasque Government employees. Introduced at the instigation of Country Chief Digital Officer Frédéric Genta, the tool provides all civil servants and government employees with access to information.

Workplace combines new technologies with functionality that is easy to use and adopt, in order to make communication more cross-functional and less vertical, contributing to a stronger internal culture.

Promoting cohesion and giving employees a voice

“In the digital age, the Prince’s Government is building the administration of the future,” emphasises Frédéric Genta. Workplace is one of the new solutions introduced by the Digital Transition Office to improve the everyday work of civil servants. It is one of the cornerstones of a collaborative, people-centric ecosystem that encourages mobility while continuing to ensure security.

The Government’s goal is to promote agility and cohesion, and give employees a greater voice by providing the opportunity for everyone to create publications, test out ideas using surveys, open up discussion spaces or engage in dialogue via an internal instant messaging service (WorkChat). All of this can be done from any type of workstation, including smartphones and tablets.

Sharing information with everyone is difficult. Getting everyone together in the same place is sometimes impossible. So this ecosystem offers the ability to:

• easily access information about the administration and each employee’s own team
• share information on common areas of interest with people throughout the administration
• engage in real-time discussions (via WorkChat) without creating a torrent of useless emails

Breaking down organisational silos

Sharing information and, consequently, expertise in this way also helps to break down organisational silos and promote changes to the corporate culture. Workplace encourages openness, feedback and diversity to engage staff. The network increases interaction through likes, comments and reactions in real time. Today, FAQ groups mean that questions can be put directly to experts, facilitating access to information.

An internal communications accelerator

The Tourist and Convention Authority (DTC) has been one of the first departments within the Monegasque Government to commit to using Workplace. With teams dispersed right across the world, it immediately took to this new way of communicating. One DTC employee reports that she has cut her email use by 30%, now sending information directly to her team’s group instead.

Workplace promotes paperless working and helps employees to adopt eco-friendly habits: it will never replace email, but it does significantly reduce the number that are sent, thereby contributing to the Government’s zero paper policy.

Other countries and cities have also been won over by Government Facebook, with Singapore and Oslo having adopted the system alongside Monaco.