LONDON (Reuters) – Facebook on Thursday announced a global alliance with Deloitte to help companies to use the social media group’s Workplace tool to meet the challenges of remote working.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed work for millions around the world who have switched from being in the office to working from home, fuelling demand for enterprise connectivity platforms, such as Workplace, Slack and Microsoft Teams.
The proportion of staff travelling to work in Britain was only 59% in the last week, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday, with the numbers in London and other major cities lower still.
Major finance firms, for example, have ordered staff to revert to working from home as the government reversed a push to get people back into workplaces after COVID-19 cases started to rise again.
Deloitte will establish a dedicated Workplace practice within its Future of Work group to help clients use the platform to connect their organisations, Facebook said.
“Workplace passed the 5 million paid user milestone in less than three years, and in the current environment we’re seeing a greater increase in demand,” Workplace VP Julian Codorniou said.
“We’re excited to work with Deloitte to serve the growing need for digital transformation and tech tools that make everyone’s working lives easier.”
Workplace, which is developed and run from Facebook’s offices in London, was launched four years ago this month.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by David Evans)
