LumApps vs. Workplace from Meta

LumApps is THE employee experience platform! With its customizable meta-data, I was able to create over 700 pieces of content to deploy a regionalized user experience for our global sales and customer success teams. No longer were employees inundated with content that did not apply to their region or market. With LumApps’ best in class functionality, the integrations that our organization uses, such as Google and Slack were easily integrated within LumApps to create a seamless user experience for a global audience.

I think Workplace by Facebook is a great communication vehicle for any mid-sized to large company. (Since it's more groups-oriented than "regular" Facebook, it might not work well for smaller companies.) I also don't have any idea what the cost is for having it, but that also be a reason that it wouldn't be worth the expense for smaller companies. For larger companies, I think it's a terrific way for folks to communicate with one another and for "the powers that be" to communicate with employees. Facebook Live is only suitable when you have a limited number of people who need to be on screen and it wouldn't really be suitable as a vehicle for instructor-led online training -- it's really most suitable for presentations (although, via the comments area, does allow for questions to be asked in writing)

Incentivized

• Offers simple addition of custom content types that give the ability to apply different access and distribution levels.
• The HTML widget allows for the simple removal of WYSIWG tools to simplify the view for content contributors.
• The ability to rearrange layouts is very simple.

Incentivized

• It is so easy to introduce to employees because it has the same look and feel as Facebook, which the majority of our employees are already familiar with.
• It's a communications, collaboration, and file/document sharing tool all rolled up into one. It eliminates the need for other software.
• Our HR team uses it constantly to keep employees up to date on company news and for polling to get feedback on new initiatives.

Incentivized

• The editing user interface is a bit wonky and occasionally glitchy.
• The back-end options are not organized super well, which can make it confusing to find the right settings.
• The customization options are somewhat limited without advanced CSS/dev skills, and the basic functions can be a bit challenging for some non-technical users.

Incentivized

• Limited project management options - no good way to track tasks or projects, so other tools are needed.
• Easy to dismiss for people who don't see the value - the Facebook-like nature of the tool can be a liability when it comes to wanting management to take it seriously.
• Chat interface has downsides - the standalone chat applications can be a bit buggy, and the chat interface within the web view is not ideal.
• No intuitive way to message a group - chat options like Slack are better at easily messaging a group or department, where in Workplace you have to be a member of a group to start a conversation.

Incentivized

The tool is easy to use. Even without a dedicated product owner we feel confident using the system for our needs.

Incentivized

As I said before, LumApps platform is not intuitive at all, people have a lot of trouble using the tool, the curve to learn is too high, mainly the style part, is so confusing what I am adjusting there, is the outside of the widget? What does the padding do, what does the margin does.

Incentivized

Having to download multiple apps just to use the tool is very cumbersome. Facebook would have make this better by wrapping it in as a main feature within their app, but having to use multiple apps to see discussions and walls is so frustrating.

Incentivized

Question and bug support are very helpful and quick. About the feature requests, we don’t have much visibility of the features that we suggested, or If they are going to implement some solutions or not.

Incentivized

Workplace by Facebook is an excellent fit in respect of support and documentation. It has excellent tutorials and documentation, as well. The UI and UX are already great as it is developed and maintained by Facebook, so most of the times, there is no need for any support or documentation.

Incentivized

It overall stacked up incredibly against all its competitors. Its customer service, simple to use format, and ease of implementation were hard to beat. We got up and running in about 6-8 months and it was right on schedule for implementation. It's feature set was smaller then it's competitors but even at first glance it was much easier to use for the amount customization it contained. We considered factors when purchasing like ease of use, adaptability, and look/feel overall as a product. No product came close to LumApps on these features.

We can compare Workplace in general from email communication (we use Bananatag tool for this). Our email communication and Workplace communication are sometimes competitors. RIght now, we have much higher analytics of email read rate/open rate than on Workplace activity. It may be connected with the fact that there is a lot of communication going on on Workplace. And with the emails we have a dedicated unit to monitor and balance the daily/weekly official email load on the associate. Workplace is a live network. Of course, we as admins balance the posts in official groups. But there are lots of other groups where people post whatever they want (like local communities or communities by interest). Why we keep focus on increasing Workplace engagement instead of email communication is definitely because of this instant feedback that we can get with posting. Email communication cannot create this feeling - it's always a one-way communication in our case.

Incentivized

• It is starting to reduce our reliance on email, and the overall volume of email.
• It has created a smoother induction process for new starters because it is a central place where all employees can go for the core information and resources they need to stay informed and do their job.

Incentivized

• Workplace offers a free version and a more enhanced, and really enhanced, paid version. The free version is a nice place to test the waters out and see if you can get it working at your company. We have only had a positive return on investment, measured in time.
• The on-boarding is where you will see the greatest positive gain. You will quickly be up and running and so will the staff. This will decrease the training and implementation period and for many that means a substantial cost savings.
• The only negative return that might be realized is if too much time is spent monitoring and policing the content. If trust is there, then employees can share and enhance the use of this tool to be a positive force. As with any communication tool, set guidelines and let the community police itself to some extent.

Incentivized