RBS staff get social with Facebook At Work

Royal Bank of Scotland today said it has become the first bank in the world to adopt the Facebook At Work social networking service for its employees.

RBS has given the thumbs up for Facebook At Work

The Edinburgh-based lender said the business-focused version of the social network will be available to its 100,000-strong workforce, from back-office workers to branch-based staff, to help them work together “faster and more efficiently”.

Facebook At Work was launched to a limited number of companies at the start of the year and state-backed RBS said it has already run a pilot of the service with some workers, who it said were able to answer customer queries more quickly and update colleagues on their work “in a much more engaging way”.

The service looks and feels similar to the social network used by hundreds of millions of users every day, with staff able to post photos, create groups and events, update their work profiles and send private messages to colleagues. The version being used by RBS will be separate from workers’ personal Facebook accounts, so information will only be accessible to other colleagues within the bank.

Simon McNamara, chief administrative officer at RBS, said: “I’ve already been using Facebook At Work while we test it and it’s been so useful – allowing me to exchange information and ideas quickly and securely with all my team on a wide range of projects.

“I’m excited about how bringing people together from all across the bank through Facebook At Work can help our employees do their job better – whether it’s being able to find answers to customer queries much faster or helping us come up with bright new ideas.”

Sean Ryan, Facebook’s vice-president of platform partnerships, added: “Facebook is a simple way for people to connect, share ideas and organise events. We hope Facebook At Work will help RBS, which employs 100,000 people, bring staff closer together and allow them to collaborate on projects much more effectively.”

RBS said the service will be rolled out to 30,000 employees by end of March, with its 100,000 staff using it as part of their everyday job by the end of 2016.