It’s no secret that the world as we know it is changing at an incredible scale. Since the pandemic delivered new challenges to organisations on a global scale, the way we work has been irrevocably altered. Flexible, remote, and hybrid workplaces have taken the world by storm, even in industries previously disconnected from such business architecture.
However, global pandemics aren’t the only factor capable of prompting a massive change to the workplace. As businesses in the manufacturing sector continue to grow and evolve, embracing new technologies and partnerships, they can also encounter a variety of new concerns.
Leading manufacturing company, LIXIL, is well aware of how crucial it is to maintain strong communication and collaboration in a changing landscape.
The global water and housing products brand currently operate around 270 subsidiaries and affiliates across 150 countries. As the business began to expand through strategic acquisitions, it developed an urgent need for new, more flexible communication tools.
Here’s how Workplace from Meta helped to transform LIXIL.
Finding a Unified Solution for Communication
LIXIL’s massive global presence and distributed team presented a significant communication issue for the business long before the pandemic struck. Over the years, the company invested in a number of strategic acquisitions to help expand its global footprint, and connect with new customers.
As many business owners know, while Mergers and Acquisitions can be extremely valuable to a company’s roadmap, they also have their own unique challenges. For instance, the acquisitions completed by the LIXIL team were prompting an increase in distributed and siloed communication systems across the workforce.
Introducing the Workplace from Meta solution in 2018 was one of the ways the organisation aimed to overcome the challenges of managing a distributed workforce. However, initially, the solution was introduced as one of a series of pre-existing communication tools, which made managing the flow of information more complex.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, it placed additional pressure on the LIXIL team to build a strong, unified, and consistent communications environment. Head office leaders quickly realised there needed to be a more effective way of improving collaboration and communication between frontline workers and managers. As a result, the business decided to double down on its Workplace investment and start building a virtual hub for work.
Expanding Workplace Adoption in the Pandemic
According to the Chief People Officer of LIXIL, Jin Montesano, when the pandemic hit, Workplace had already evolved into the primary tool for internal communications among most staff members. However, since then, the tool became even more essential to the continued productivity of staff.
By increasing their investment in the Workplace environment, LIXIL was able to create a digital “watercooler”, around which employees could more easily connect and congregate. Technology became not just a tool for professional interactions but a vital part of company culture. With Workplace, LIXIL wanted to enhance and optimise internal relationships among staff.
Jin noted the ability to maintain communications between colleagues among distributed teams would have been extremely difficult without Workplace.
During the pandemic, Workplace quickly became a platform for giving frontline workers a voice anywhere in the world. CEO of LIXIL, Kinya Seto, as well as other leaders from various global locations, would frequently hold all-hands meetings and townhalls. Live video communications via Workplace made it quick and easy for leaders to share company updates and information.
