Facebook Workplace is five years old this week, with the company’s professional platform now helping more than 7 million employees, at hundreds of companies, stay connected to key internal updates, and collaborate on projects in new, and evolving ways.

It still seems like something many businesses would avoid, especially given the various controversies around the company. But the momentum of Workplace is growing, with the platform seeing a 40% increase in users amid the COVID pandemic.

As explained by Facebook:

“Since 2016, some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including Walmart, Vodafone, Banco Galicia and Vision India Foundation, have now experienced that Workplace effect. In the past year we’ve welcomed companies including BT, C&A, English National Opera, Petco, Sephora and Virgin Australia along with countless local businesses.”

The shift to hybrid work models, with employees balancing their time between home and office, has helped boost momentum for the app, while Facebook has continued to add more functionality into its Workplace offering, with an increasing array of utilities and tools to help maximize productivity.

In essence, Workplace is Facebook, but only for your internal communications and engagement. That saves businesses a lot of time in training, as the vast majority of people are already familiar with Facebook’s tool and communication options, while the added capacity for live-streaming, file-sharing, internal announcements and more provides significant benefits, right off the bat.

But as noted, there are concerns linked with the Facebook branding.

As Facebook notes:

“Five years ago, this was a hard sell. It took early, visionary leaders to trust us and come onboard. It was hard to explain the 'Workplace Effect' - you just knew it when you felt it. But we saw our customers empowering people to turn their companies into communities and had faith that the rest of the world would soon see it, too.”

I mean, ‘Workplace effect’ is a bit of hyperbole, but the essential consideration is that Workplace has helped many businesses improve their collaboration, and communication, via familiar, effective tools that can be easily adopted into business.

And whether you’d trust Facebook with your internal data or not, many businesses now do, and it does seem that in the post-pandemic world, there will be increased demand for such tools, which will see Workplace adoption continue to rise.

Basically, Facebook looks set to become an even bigger part of our day-to-day lives, in all aspects, with Workplace’s utility providing more ways for businesses to enhance connection, and maximize community in the app.