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Workplace for Law Firms
Remember when everyone used to joke that the creation of Facebook decreased productivity in offices. Except it really wasn’t that funny because it was totally true and a lot of employers have had to censor the social media site from their company computers because of it. Well, guess what guys? Facebook has made up for the havoc it caused for businesses by creating an amazing collaboration tool called Workplace.
Workplace has an interface much like Facebook, so basically it is user-friendly. It has a free version that is loaded with great features and the paid version is just a monthly fee of $3 per user. Most small firms and solo attorneys will not need the paid version.
Let’s Be Work Friends
The most basic way I can put it is – it is Facebook for work. It’s like it takes all of Facebook’s features and uses them for good instead of evil. I mean for productivity instead of entertainment. 🙂
All users have their own page. The page looks similar to a Facebook Page. You have a place to upload a profile photo and a cover photo. If it has been a while since you have started a new job, you may have forgotten how overwhelming it is to remember everyone’s name, title, department and even face. Workplace has made all of those issues old news.
Personalized Profiles That Work
You can add skills to your page as well. So let’s say you are the go-to person for all things discovery. You can add discovery as a skill. Not to mention you can add all of the areas of law you assist with on your page as skills.
When the new receptionist gets a call from another law firm asking to speak to the family law paralegal, all she has to do is search, just like she would on Facebook, the term “family law.” The search will populate all things, including profiles with those terms. And there is a place for all of your contact information there as well.
Let’s Co-Lab
You can create a group for anything. Your groups can be public or private. You can create groups with other businesses who aren’t even on Facebook. For example, you can create a group for a specific case. You can share documents in that group.
All communication can be done via WorkChat in the group, keeping you organized. You can upload all exhibits. I love giving a really contentious case it’s own page. Then if I have to get a trial notebook together, I have all the info I need right there in the group.
This Is Why Its Hot
You can see who has seen your posts in the group, so no obligatory “Got it. Thanks!” emails. This feature brings me much joy!! Now every time I get one of those emails or I have to send one, I just fill up with resentment and wonder why we are not all on Workplace??? And succumb to the fact that I will forever need ten minutes a day to clean emails and still never have a clean inbox.
Do you need to get everyone in the office’s take on something? On Workplace you can easily create polls, tag coworkers and add gifs. Yes, work gifs. I am sure there is some evidence somewhere to prove that gifs decrease work stress. Make law firms happy places to work again…
Buh-Bye!
But not even compared to how organized the WorkChat feature makes your Workplace communications. How many of us are scared to death to delete our emails because we know someone emailed us a link, a password, the secret to the meaning of life – some extremely important information – and it’s just buried in our email???
Well you have a chat feature in each group, or just a general chat. So it categorizes your chats.
Buh-bye Slack. 
GSuite & Workplace Are Friendly
All of this works with GDrive too. Which every law firm, big or small, should be utilizing. If you are not using GSuite, click here to get your free 14 day trial and head over to our Resource Page to learn how to get 20% Off. We threw all these Kinsta and Monday ads in here because between Workplace, GSuite, Kinsta and Monday.com, you have everything you need to build your business into what you envisioned it to be.
Workplace has been integral in upping Paralegal Power’s onboarding and training game.
And we have never paid a dime for it. It has been free since we started using it almost two years ago now and it’s still free. They have added a premium option for enterprises that is $3 per user. But most businesses will get by just fine with the free version. Keep posted to this blog to learn how to use Workplace to organize firm-wide training.
Evolve Or Die
Am I extra dramatic in this post or what? lol Seriously though, this really is about technological evolution. We have grown up and figured out a way to use Facebook to get things done. This collaborative tool keeps us connected and lets our email inboxes be email inboxes. It puts a face to a name and adds specialties and contact information as well. It allows everyone to group video chat from their computers and so much more.
They continue to improve it too. The url has been updated so it no longer has “facebook” in it at all. This allows businesses to keep the facebook.com domain restricted to their employees but still use Workplace.
While you are doing your research to see if Workplace is right for you, you might find this read interesting, “Wild & Interesting Facebook Facts.“
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About the Author
Valentina Zapata Harris
Mother | Advocate | Blogger