Cast the first stone at the company that does not use WhatsApp as the main internal and external communication tool in their daily operations. If we were to propose this challenge to Brazilian organizations, we would hardly see any stones.

According to a study conducted in 2023 by Yalo, a conversational commerce platform, which included data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), WhatsApp is indeed the most used app for corporate communication in Brazil, with 95% adoption among companies. And there's more: the research reveals that the use of this resource is expected to grow by 30% by 2025!

With these numbers, one can imagine the volume of messages exchanged between employees of a corporation and with third parties on a daily basis! That’s why corporate WhatsApp groups were created, to facilitate internal conversations and interactions with clients and suppliers.

The issue is that it is not enough to create a group, appoint administrators, and fail to have monitoring in place to ensure compliance with best practices. It is high time for organizations to become aware of the importance of governance over the conversations conducted on this app and the risks that interference in messages poses to the corporation's image.

What is the responsibility of companies in WhatsApp groups?

Creating work groups on WhatsApp is inevitable, regardless of the number of employees in the company. While it speeds up the exchange of information and the sending of files and documents, this practice is challenging because it involves people and potential misconduct, which can generate internal relationship crises and risks to the company's image and credibility, as well as legal issues.

There are, however, some protocols that companies should adopt to prevent controversial situations and dissatisfaction among employees. We highlight some initiatives that the organization should implement:

• If employee participation in a company WhatsApp group is mandatory, this rule needs to be included in the company's internal policies and expressed in the contract;
  
  

• If the rule has been recently adopted, it is necessary to educate existing employees about the importance of being in these groups to facilitate work dynamics. Emphasize the drawbacks that absence can cause, not only in task updates but also in the internal relationship with the team and managers, which hampers individual performance;
  
  

• The company should provide training on appropriate language, etiquette in using the app, and establish a time for exchanging messages, which should be restricted to business hours;
  
  

• The company can monitor conversations, as long as this practice is communicated and authorized by the employee. In this case, user privacy regarding personal conversations must be ensured. No employee should be exposed or have their data disclosed;
  
  

• Monitoring messages should have as its main objectives the detection of professional misconduct, non-compliance with corporate policies, the occurrence of harassment of any kind, and the prevention of leaks of confidential data from the institution;
  
  

• Personal conversations should be restricted to personal accounts and the private devices of each individual.

If the company decides to supervise conversations on the corporate WhatsApp, it is advisable that all tracked content is stored with maximum security, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Law.

Secure archiving, intelligent monitoring, and risk analysis in conversations are features available in the Zapper platform, exclusively for companies. With it, it is possible to identify occurrences through keywords present in the conversations and receive an immediate notification of the situation, allowing for a rapid intervention by the manager.

If your company cannot do without the agility provided by communication via WhatsApp, you cannot neglect the governance of this communication. You need ZAPPER!

Click here to schedule a demonstration of the tool now!