WhatsApp at work is a bad idea — make your business safer with yapster

Aug 31

In January 2021, a Guild study reported that around 41% of UK workers used WhatsApp at work. Although the app is intuitive and free to use, it may not be the best choice for your business. Here’s how to keep your data secure and your employees safe.

Using WhatsApp at work may lead to bullying, harassment, and GDPR breaches

According to TotalJobs, a whopping 20% of employees have experienced bullying and harassment at work through messaging platforms. From casual gossip to inappropriate images or chats, messages follow employees home after their shift. The inability to exert boundaries between one’s personal and professional messages and contacts may lead to severe stress and dissatisfaction amongst staff members.

Retail and hospitality workers commonly use WhatsApp at work, especially frontline teammates who often lack access to a professional email address. After all, WhatsApp is easy to access and comes at no direct cost to the company – but is it safe?

Surprisingly, WhatsApp themselves advise against the corporate use of their services. Their terms and conditions state that the app should not be used for ‘non-personal’ purposes. Ironically, using ‘free’ non-GDPR-compliant communication tools at work can come with a price. Data breaches are a serious matter – and can engender impressive costs. For instance, in September 2021, WhatsApp faced a €225 million GDPR fine.

As online business communication becomes prevalent in the workplace, this risk increases exponentially. Between July 2020 and July 2021, GDPR fines have grown by 124.92%. These do not only cause major financial losses to businesses, but they also irreparably damage their reputation.

On top of being unable to protect your company’s data, WhatsApp requires access to any user’s personal contacts and information. This may severely affect employees’ work-life balance as conversations continue outside work hours.

Make your business safer with Yapster

If you’ve ever struggled with communication in the workplace, Yapster can help make your business safer. Amongst GDPR compliance failures and the risk of bullying and harassment at work, giving employers the power to monitor their teammates' interactions can be a lifesaver.

In contrast to WhatsApp, Yapster is GDPR-compliant. Its features centre around making the workplace an environment in which employees and leaders can thrive through what we call ‘Social Leadership.’

Social media and communication platforms do not simply allow us to keep in touch with our colleagues. They carry a company’s values and can be used to enforce them. At Yapster, we’re the microphone and you’re the band. In other words, we support leaders so they can help their teammates unleash their highest potential and boost KPIs and sales.

However, how can a leader guide their team if the tool they use is completely out of their control? How can one ensure their team has a healthy relationship with work without the ability to disconnect? And more importantly, how can one trust a platform with sensitive data if it does not comply with GDPR?

Using WhatsApp at work renders leaders powerless in front of their employees’ interactions. Similarly, you cannot enforce anti-harassment policies unless the platform you use to communicate gives you the power to do so.

Because of that, we’ve carefully designed Yapster to ensure the safety of our users’ data while promoting healthy communication across frontline teams. Here’s how it works.

Quit using WhatsApp at work and communicate across frontline teams with Yapster

Do you want to make your business safer and communicate across frontline teams with Yapster? Here's a preview of our unique communication features:

Thanks to Yapster’s ‘Report as offensive’ button, team leaders can protect their workers from content that does not respect their policies. When reporting a post or message, an alert is sent to an email address previously set up by the team leader including all necessary details regarding the interaction. Messages can also be deleted within chats accordingly.
Yapster’s permissions features also allow team leaders to restrict access to the newsfeed to specific roles. This ensures that only relevant content is shared on a company level.
With Yapster, employees can ‘mute’ notifications outside of work hours, meaning they’re able to make the most of their free time and come back truly recharged. As most cases of bullying and harassment at work occur off the clock, this feature also ensures the safety of your employees.
At Yapster, we want our users to become the best Social Leaders they can be. In other words, team leaders can create chats between employees and communicate with them through the newsfeed to ensure relevant news reach all team members. With all work announcements in one place, employees get access to important updates in real time. Moreover, what better way to be a social leader than to ensure the time employees spend on their phones is productive? If you’d like to learn more about Social Leadership, check out this report.
Yapster is GDPR-compliant, meaning it protects your company’s data and that of your employees at all times. Therefore, you can rest assured knowing that your information is protected from breaches – and the heavy penalties that come with them.