The Workplace New User Guide

6 steps to get set up and start working in Workplace.

New to Workplace and not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place.

Workplace can help you collaborate with your team, get the latest company announcements, stay up to date on work being done by other teams and departments, and connect with more people across the company. That sounds like a lot—we know—but Workplace is actually pretty simple. This guide will walk you through how to:

Activate your profile
Download the Workplace and Workplace Chat apps
Set up your profile
Join, create and connect in groups
Communicate with coworkers through chat
Manage your notifications

1. Activating your profile

Activating from email

If you have a company email address, look out for an email inviting you to join Workplace. Click on the link and follow the instructions to activate your profile. You can also download the directions to activate your profile here.

Activating with an access code

If you don't have a company email, your employer probably supplied you with an access code. Follow these instructions to activate your profile:

Go to the Workplace.com website and click on Login from the upper right hand corner. If accessing from mobile, select login from the menu at the top right.
Select Create an Account with an Access Code.
Enter your access code.
Set your username and create a unique password.
Join groups and follow your colleagues.

Your organization might have more than one Workplace you can join. You’ll have a unique profile for each of these accounts and you’ll need to activate them separately.

2. Mobile apps

The Workplace and Workplace Chat mobile apps make it easy to stay connected to your team in and out of the office. Download the apps from the Apple and Play Stores to make sure you never miss an important update.

iOS:

Android:

3. Your Workplace profile

Setting up your profile helps your coworkers find the right people to talk to when they have important questions. Add a professional photo to help people put a face to a name, and add your skills to highlight your strengths. You can also add a short bio to tell your coworkers a little more about yourself.

Here’s an example of what your profile can look like:

4. Workplace groups

Groups are the building blocks of Workplace. They are spaces for communication and collaboration that help you stay informed and connected. Watch the video below to get a quick overview of Workplace groups:

Want to share this video in a Workplace post? You can download it here.

You might have already been added to some groups, you can see some of them in your Home menu here:

To see all the groups you’re a member of, you can go to your Home menu and click on See More. Then, click on Groups.

Creating groups

Anyone can create a new Workplace group but before you get started, make sure to use search to see if that group already exists. If it does, join it. If it doesn’t, you can create one. Here are a few things to consider when creating a group:

Group purpose

Workplace groups are typically created for:

Company, regional and office-specific announcements
Departmental announcements like new launches, marketing campaigns, sales wins, etc.
Team and project collaboration
One-on-one communication between a manager and a direct report
Social communication, to help you connect with your coworkers over shared interests and experiences

Privacy setting

There are 3 different privacy settings for Workplace groups:

Open: Anyone can find an open group, join and see posts.
Closed: Anyone can find a closed group but only members can see posts.
Secret: You have to be invited to join a secret group. Non-members can't find secret groups and won't be able to see any posts.

Note that your organization’s system admin will be able to see all groups, including secret groups.

This table can give you an idea of what privacy settings work best for each group type:

Table with groups listed by purpose, privacy setting and examples of group names

Have more questions? Check out Group Mastery 101, a self-paced course that covers all the ins and outs of Workplace groups.

Communicating in groups

Communication in groups happens through posts. Posts help keep discussions organized via comments, and are easy to find again days, weeks and months down the road. For a quick overview of Workplace posts, watch the video below:

Want to share this video in a Workplace post? You can download it here.

Here are a few tips to help you create engaging posts and make sure they’re read:

Use post formatting options to break up big walls of text and highlight important information.
Add images, videos and files to your posts. People will be able to see previews of your files in your post and, if you add a PDF, they will actually be able to add comments and feedback as annotations. Plus, any file added to a post in a group will be automatically stored in that group’s Files tab, so it’s easy to find again later.
Tag people to trigger notifications, it’s the best way to make sure people see your post.
Try not to post outside of working hours. Instead, schedule a post to publish the next day.
If your post is really long, try creating a Note. With Notes, you can embed photos and videos, allow group editing and add a cover photo to catch people’s attention.

For even more tips and best practices to help you master the art of the Workplace post, check out Fundamental Theories of Postology.

5. Workplace chat

In Workplace, asynchronous communication happens through posts. Posts are best when you don’t need an immediate response, and want to make sure the information you share is easy to find again later. For synchronous communication, you have Workplace Chat. Chat is best when you need an answer fast or just want to have a casual conversation with coworkers.

You can start a chat with one person or a group of people and share files, photos, videos, GIFs and more. Or, jump on a quick audio or video call to make decisions faster. Groups with 250 members or less can have their own chat too, so staying in touch with your team is easy. Watch the video below for a quick overview of Workplace Chat:

Want to share this video in a Workplace post? You can download it here.

Chat conversations tend to move quickly. Here are a few tips to help you stay on top of the important stuff:

Save a chat message to come back to it later
Set reminders for time-sensitive chat messages
Pin important messages to the top of your chat so you can refer back to them easily
Pin chat conversations so they always appear at the top of your inbox

Check out this guide for more tips and tricks on working with Workplace Chat.

6. Managing your notifications

As you continue working in Workplace, you’re probably going to join more groups, and that’s going to mean more notifications. We know some notifications matter more than others, so Workplace makes it easy to modify your notification preferences to help you stay on top of your workload. Watch this video for a quick overview of the tips outlined below:

Want to share this video in a Workplace post? You can download it here.

Modify your notification settings

Click on your profile picture icon and select Settings. Then click on Notifications to edit how you receive notifications (in app and/or email) and what you get notified about.

Edit notifications from specific groups

Some groups, like team and project groups, are going to require more attention than others, like social groups. Your notification preferences for groups are automatically set to Highlights, but if you ever want to modify those preferences you can do that in two ways:

Individually from each group page, by clicking on the … button and selecting notifications.
In bulk, by going to your Groups page in the Home menu and clicking on Bulk Manage Groups.

Managing notifications from several groups at once in the Groups page

Prioritize your most important groups

Prioritizing a group means that any notification you receive from that group will appear at the top of your notifications inbox, and new posts will appear at the top of your News Feed. Learn more about how to prioritize your most important groups here.

Filter your notifications

Try starting your day by narrowing down your notifications to Tags & Replies. This will help ensure you don’t miss posts you were specifically mentioned in, or any questions or comments on a post or comment you’ve made. After that, switch to Unread to get caught up on everything else.

For more tips on managing your Workplace notifications, read this guide.

More resources

To learn about all of the Workplace help and education resources available to you, check out this guide.
Visit the Workplace Academy to find interactive learning experiences like live training, product demos, self-paced courses and more.
Check out the Ways to Work to discover new ways to use Workplace to get your work done.
Join Workplace Communities to gain insights from other organizations that use Workplace.