Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way e. In the past few years, group chat has taken hold in many mainstream businesses. Platforms such as Slack and HipChat, once used mostly by Silicon Valley startups and small teams, are bubbling up and spreading organically. Their increasing popularity has prompted major tech players, including Microsoft and Facebook, to introduce their own group chat platforms, validating the medium and creating a lot of competition. But, like all technologies, it has drawbacks as well as advantages—and HR should play a key role in guarding against the potential pitfalls of online chat. The casual nature of this form of communication can lull employees into making off-color comments that could be construed as harassment, for example. And the always-on presence of the platform can be distracting and overwhelming. Workers may feel compelled to respond to a stream of never-ending requests and questions at the expense of tending to more-important priorities, which can fuel the symptoms of burnout. It has been gaining ground ever since. Independent statistics documenting the growth of group chat are hard to come by. Slack claims that its number of daily active users rose from 500,000 in 2015 to 5 million in 2017. In a survey of IT professionals this year by , a social network for techies, 42 percent said their companies were using group chat and more indicated that they were looking to adopt it. Skype for Business is the most common collaborative app used by U. Within two years, an additional 11 percent of respondents plan to deploy the Skype product, and another 17 percent expect to introduce Microsoft Teams. Among large corporations, 53 percent currently use group chat. Some chat vendors charge extra per user for premium versions, which include security features and administrative controls. Technologically savvy departments within companies are often the first to adopt the programs. Chat is also the favored tool of Millennials, many of whom view e-mail as so last century. It goes by many names: collaborative business chat, chat-based workspace, workstream collaboration tool, workplace application messaging, team messaging, digital workspace and even unified communications. They are trying to become digital hubs—to bring together information to make it simpler. If an organization sets up a virtual chat room—also called a channel—for a particular project, for example, then all pertinent project information can be found there. People can search within particular rooms, or throughout the entire platform, by topic, user and other modifiers. For example, HR could set up a chat room containing basic information on 401 k enrollment and have an HR person available to virtually field questions. The answers can be preserved in the chat stream, which is searchable, essentially creating an FAQ page as a permanent resource. They notify hiring managers when people arrive for interviews by sending messages on HipChat, while also forwarding resumes and other information. It saves a lot of time and keeps things moving, which is important because managers can have as many as 50 interviews a day, Olsen says. The platform also provides a good experience for the candidate, even after the interview. Group chat may flummox some people, especially those who are accustomed to using e-mail. Help workers understand how they can filter the content to get the information they need, advises Brian Kropp, HR practice leader for. CEB is an Arlington, Va. Customer service representatives, for example, might have a feature that alerts them of progress solving a customer problem. Chat often bubbles up from small groups. Strive to know about the use of chat platforms as soon as possible. Conduct an annual audit to determine what kinds of communication tools employees are using, suggests Nancy Flynn, founder and executive director of The ePolicy Institute, a Columbus, Ohio, training and consulting firm. Since this is a fast-moving technology, however, you might find multiple platforms being used by different groups, notes Daisy Hernandez, global vice president of enterprise collaboration at SAP Labs. The tech department may become aware of group chat use before HR does. Work together to ensure that there are some standards about which group chat programs to use and for what purposes. This should be a joint effort between HR and IT, says Jason Hite, founder and chief people strategist at Daoine Centric, an HR consultancy in Washington, D. It should include basic information and policies on how to use chat and field questions. Also explain when to use chat versus other forms of communication and differences in etiquette. Make sure employees understand chat nuances. Teach them how to create channels, invite others to join a chat and filter the information to find what they need. Dawn Sharifan, head of people at Slack, based in San Francisco, notes that the vendor offers two levels of training to employees: Slack 101, which covers the basics, such as how to create and organize channels and teams, and Slack 201, which includes the cultural aspects of chat, such as how to use emojis. Frequently remind employees of the policy, including the fact that group chats can be monitored and retained. The language of chat should be succinct and casual. Similar to text messaging, people often use abbreviations like OMG, emoticons and GIFs. Chat is typically used for communication that needs quick responses, but not always; sometimes a chat room is a forum for an ongoing discussion. E-mail, on the other hand, is reserved for more-formal communications, where spelling counts and full words, rather than acronyms, are the norm. The expected response time for e-mail can vary, depending on the topic and the sender. The amount and type of training required depends on the platform, the culture of the organization and the technical skill of the workforce. For example, leaders at Canadian Tire Corp. Workplace includes enterprise-level features to satisfy the needs of the organization, says Michelle Donnelly, manager of employee communications at Canadian Tire. The program has helped unify the organization, which has offices scattered across Canada, and increase employee engagement, she says. Now, the communications group can share news corporationwide on Workplace. And it has helped that team, whose members are in five different locations, to collaborate more effectively. Other employers take a more cautious approach. Ambalavanan, for instance, has worked in HR at law firms that tracked group chat. That might range from off-color jokes to sharing sensitive information. Most organizations save group chat transcripts just like any other electronic communications, which means they can be subpoenaed, Ambalavanan says. When one group of employees creates a private chat room, for instance, others might feel excluded, says Daisy Hernandez, global vice president of enterprise collaboration at SAP Labs LLC in the San Francisco area, which is a subsidiary of German software company SAP. That can lead to hurt feelings and inhibited work performance. Indeed, a May article in New York magazine documented instances of employees using Slack chat rooms to gossip and denigrate other workers. For example, one employee found a chat room of account managers bad-mouthing salespeople. Such incidences are good reminders to pay attention to what people are doing and offer guidance on how to use chat. But HR must strike a careful balance between exerting control to protect the company and allowing employees enough freedom to find the best way to use the tool for themselves. Illustration by Dan Baxter for HR Magazine. Was this article useful? SHRM offers thousands of tools, templates and other exclusive member benefits, including compliance updates, sample policies, HR expert advice, education discounts, a growing online member community and much more. Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way e.
