Walmart joins Facebook Workplace

Facebook on Tuesday announced that Walmart, the world's largest private employer, has joined its enterprise collaboration platform Workplace.

Nearly a year after its launch, there are more than 14,000 companies globally using Workplace. Walmart is the biggest US customer on the platform. It's also significant given the way the company is using the platform to connect its increasingly mobile and dispersed workforce, Julien Codorniou, VP of Workplace, told ZDNet.

Walmart's use of the platform, he said, represents "a validation of the vision we had when we started Workplace that we could build an app that could connect everyone in the company -- not just the headquarters, not just the knowledge workers." Walmart, he continued, shares Facebook vision of "giving everyone a voice," including those without a PC or dedicated workspace.

The retailer is using Workplace in a variety of ways. It created a Workplace group, for instance, to connect its Emergency Operations Center with the rest of the organization, providing updates on the company's response to events like the recent hurricanes. Meanwhile, Sam's Club employees are posting pictures to Workplace to share best practices for in-store product displays. Also, leaders at Walmart use features like Live to connect directly with employees.

While major companies like Walmart and Starbucks are using Workplace to effectively connect all employees, Codorniou said the platform also works well for companies that are growing quickly.

"For a fast-growing company that needs to scale the culture, the values of the company, and needs to make sure employees are onboarded quickly... it's a very different use case and reason to adopt Workplace than Walmart's," he said, "but it also shows what the product can do to help scale the culture and make sure everyone understands who they work for... even if they don't speak the same language or work in the same building or in the same time zone."