When your small enterprise workforce members are scattered across the office and juggling dozens of various duties, a texting app could make it simpler to verify in together with your workforce all through the day and share work-related information and updates from anyplace.
A device like WhatsApp could appear to be your finest guess for workforce communication: It’s a simple, cost-effective app that allows you to textual content particular person workforce members, create group chats, and share information, photos, movies, and different media.
However selecting WhatsApp to be in contact together with your workforce means you may be lacking out on business-specific options and integrations that may preserve your on a regular basis operations extra environment friendly. Plus, it may imply placing what you are promoting and your workforce in danger relating to safety, compliance, and well-being.
Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at how WhatsApp works, discover its execs and cons, and supply solutions on efficient, budget-friendly workforce communication options you must contemplate as an alternative.
Why WhatsApp may fall quick to your small enterprise
Whereas WhatsApp could also be a handy method to keep in contact together with your busy small enterprise workforce, it will not be the most suitable choice to your future. You might discover that it’s laborious to maintain administrative management over group chats, which signifies that important information and updates can simply get misplaced and staff could begin to really feel info overload.
Should you’re anxious about compliance, you may additionally change into annoyed with how troublesome it’s to save lots of and preserve observe of important worker information on WhatsApp, particularly throughout varied group and particular person chats. As an illustration, it will likely be laborious to make sure new hires keep in mind to signal and return paperwork over the app as your workforce will get larger.
Additionally, contemplate that WhatsApp isn’t designed with small enterprise communication in thoughts, so their customer support workforce could also be unable that will help you handle your business-specific technical points.
Homebase’s workforce communication function is a more sensible choice for small enterprise homeowners and their hourly staff. With Homebase workforce chat you’ll simplify day-to-day communication with an app that may:
- Customise group chats and use pre-created group channels to be in contact together with your complete workforce, managers, staff in particular roles, and everybody working immediately or tomorrow.
- Share onboarding paperwork and get computerized affirmation that workforce members have reviewed and signed important paperwork.
- Obtain auto-reminders for upcoming shifts, clock-outs, and schedule updates.
- Get notifications and alerts when workforce members are late for his or her shifts.
- Empower workforce members to rearrange shift swaps independently — then managers solely must approve or deny requests.
Execs of utilizing WhatsApp for workforce communication
The wonderful thing about WhatsApp is that lots of your workforce members could already be utilizing it to speak with family and friends, in order that they’re possible already conversant in the way it works. Let’s take a look at the opposite benefits of utilizing the app to speak together with your employees.
Handy immediate messaging and real-time communication
While you’re constantly speaking about altering schedules, shifts, and workloads, WhatsApp is helpful as a result of it’s straightforward to create group chats or message workforce members one-on-one. Plus, messages on WhatsApp are time-stamped, which will help you resolve office disputes and make clear previous conversations.
WhatsApp additionally enables you to create customized teams for particular groups, like your waitstaff, gross sales workforce, or managers. That means, workforce members aren’t overwhelmed by irrelevant notifications and texts. Nevertheless, if you wish to ship an announcement to a number of folks whereas avoiding recipients getting spammed with everybody’s responses, you should utilize WhatsApp’s Broadcast Lists perform, which helps you to ship the identical message to a number of people concurrently.
Utilizing WhatsApp may show you how to create a extra approachable, casual work tradition, which can be very best if you wish to foster a extra collaborative, informal working setting.
Accessible and user-friendly
WhatsApp is a cheap choice for everybody — staff can use it anyplace they’ve an web connection and keep away from utilizing mobile information. As a result of it’s out there on cell and desktop units, it’s nice for workforce members that work from a number of places or off-site, and the truth that it’s iOS and Android suitable means anybody with a smartphone can use it. And whereas they’re off-site, workforce members can share their location with their managers as an added safety measure.
WhatsApp additionally has a simple interface that most individuals are already conversant in, so workforce members gained’t want coaching to make use of it.
A wide range of methods to speak
With WhatsApp, staff aren’t restricted to texting alone. Workforce members can name and video chat with one another and ship voice and video messages. Managers may ship important paperwork and information for workers to signal and submit via the app. Then, they will confirm that staff have learn their messages with learn receipts.
Cons of utilizing WhatsApp for workforce communication
Sadly, the disadvantages and potential dangers of utilizing WhatsApp to remain in contact together with your workforce members far outweigh the benefits. Listed below are just a few examples.
Info overwhelm
Staff that use WhatsApp to speak with family and friends could discover it laborious to separate work-related conversations from private chats. They might additionally get simply overloaded by notifications, which may result in them lacking key updates and bulletins.
Restricted administrative management
With WhatsApp, you don’t have a lot energy over the teams that staff create or the conversations they’ve over the app. For instance, workforce members may select to create a separate group with their coworkers you could’t entry, which suggests you gained’t be capable to intervene if group chats change into disrespectful or poisonous.
On the similar time, you might need issue holding information of vital conversations, which may put what you are promoting in a weak place should you run into HR and compliance points.
Safety and privateness issues
Whereas WhatsApp affords end-to-end encryption and information privateness, it’s laborious to miss the truth that its dad or mum firm, Meta, has run into authorized points within the latest previous for the unauthorized assortment of person information. And WhatsApp nonetheless shares some person info with Meta, so staff could really feel uncomfortable sharing delicate information on a third-party platform.
Lack of integrations
WhatsApp could not combine with the instruments you employ to create workforce schedules, observe time, and rent new workforce members. That may result in points with double information entry for managers and confusion for workforce members who’ve to change backwards and forwards between apps to confirm their schedules and commerce shifts with teammates.
Alternate options to utilizing WhatsApp for workforce communication
The good information for small enterprise homeowners is that there are higher workforce communication apps which have a extra skilled really feel, rival WhatsApp’s user-friendliness, and will help workforce members create higher work-life boundaries.
- Homebase workforce communication — Homebase was designed to help small enterprise homeowners who make use of hourly, shift-based staff. With our messaging app, workforce members can talk with one another with out having to trade telephone numbers, permitting them to maintain their private and work lives separate. Plus, our chat device makes it straightforward for workers to coordinate shift swaps with one another and submit a request for his or her supervisor to just accept or reject.
The most effective half, although, is that Homebase’s workforce messaging app integrates with our hiring and onboarding, scheduling, time monitoring, worker happiness, HR and compliance instruments. Which means:- New staff get added to the chat app as quickly as they’re employed.
- You should use the workforce communication app to ship and obtain onboarding paperwork, which will get saved routinely in every workforce member’s profile.
- Staff get notified by way of textual content once they have an upcoming shift.
- Managers are notified when an worker is late for a shift.
- Teammates can ship one another shout-outs for a job nicely achieved.
- Microsoft Groups — A part of the Microsoft Workplace 365 suite, Groups affords chat, video conferencing, and file sharing. It’s out there on Android and iOS, and it integrates seamlessly with different Microsoft apps.
- Slack — Slack is a widely-used workforce communication platform that means that you can create completely different dialogue channels for various subjects. You too can use it to ship direct messages and begin group chats, share information and paperwork, document and depart voice messages, and host video calls.
- Wire — With an additional concentrate on privateness and safety, Wire is a collaboration and communication platform utilized by governments and enterprises seeking to safeguard their most delicate communications.
Simplify communication with Homebase
As a texting app, WhatsApp has its upsides. It’s well-known, used all over the world, and means that you can talk in quite a lot of methods. It might be a sensible choice for brand new small enterprise homeowners who’re nonetheless rising their groups.
Nonetheless, we don’t suggest it as a long-term resolution. Over time, your workforce members could have a tough time separating work from private chats, and, with little administrative management, you could have a tough time sustaining an expert, respectful setting. And when you think about the authorized points WhatsApp and Meta have confronted surrounding person information, is it actually definitely worth the threat?
With Homebase’s workforce messaging app, it’s simpler to foster a constructive, skilled workforce spirit and talk effectively. With our app, premade group chats show you how to reduce down on pointless notifications for workers, and computerized reminders and alerts forestall no-shows and late clock-ins. And, as a result of it integrates with our suite of instruments, like our scheduling and HR and compliance options, it means that you can ship and obtain onboarding paperwork, and it lets staff swap schedules with little effort out of your managers.
In the end, Homebase is the fitting choice for small enterprise homeowners who wish to simplify their each day operations and enhance the work expertise for his or her complete workforce.
