Workplace by Facebook is a tool used by companies to connect, collaborate and communicate across desktop and mobile (think Slack, Trello and even Skype). It does so using chat, groups and video calls.

Workplace recently announced a safety feature in the event there is an emergency at your office and it’s called Safety Check. In this feature, specific Security personnel or Human Resource staff can be designated as “Safety Operators”.

These operators are responsible for sending out notifications to potentially affected employees, who will receive notifications via push message and email via the Workplace application. The process continues until all affected employees have been contacted and accounted for.

This is a potentially life-saving device as it helps companies ensure everyone has been evacuated from an emergency site and then accounted for via the application. Current evacuation procedures tend to be noisy and use outmoded pen-and-paper procedures to ensure headcount.

Workplace for Facebook is currently in use by 30,000 companies. Recently, companies like Vodafone, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Telefonica and Chevron have started using Workplace as well.