7 February 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Recent research has suggested that frontline 'desk-less' workers in retail, hospitality and entertainment industries are turning to unapproved messaging apps such as Facebook messenger and WhatsApp for work-related communications - often without the HR department's knowledge.
The study by private entrepreneur social network Speakap stated that over half of global frontline workers said they used messaging apps up to six times daily for work-related communications.
Of those surveyed, 68 per cent of the respondents said they would stop using messaging apps and social media sites if their companies provided an internal communications platform to help them keep up to date on company/product information and learnings with fellow colleagues, teams, office staff and management. Also they regarded document management/access and clearly communicated timelines for their work more important than AI, video or voice recognition technology.
Letting workers continue to communicate on popular apps could also compromise a firm's data security, undermine employee well-being because of the 24/7 nature of such apps and potentially cause a company to fail an audit even if a data breach does not happen especially in highly regulated industries. For instance, Deutsche Bank banned the use of SMS, WhatsApp and other messenger services as of January 2017 owing to the stringent documentation obligations that fall on banks for regulatory compliance.
So this month we ask: is your internal communications system good enough or do workers rely too much on popular messaging apps?
a) Yes it is good enough
b) No, it is not
c) It is getting there
Complete the survey here.
Please email [email protected] with any longer comments.
