Flag Toxic Messaging
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden was dismissed following a report by The Wall Street Journal he sent an email containing racist language, which eventually led to uncovering additional numerous toxic messages. This situation poses two problems for your business in detecting similar such toxic language potentially present in your employee messaging systems:
- The original email in question was sent in 2011; a full 10 years went by before its detection.
- Companies don’t want this to end up in The Wall Street Journal.
Email, chat and other messaging platforms are vital to effective employee communications. They became even more vital with the widespread adoption of remote working options due to COVID-19 and which are likely to continue post-pandemic.
Messaging that contains threats of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, aggression, workplace conflict and insider threats, however, all contribute to a toxic workplace that is not productive, tarnishes brand reputation and risks loss of intellectual property. All this adds up to costing U.S. workplaces $528 billion annually.
Toxic communications must be flagged and dealt with before they cause harm to employee well-being, company reputation and assets. But how can you possibly monitor these communications to promote employee well-being, preserve your brand and intellectual property? And how do you ensure your employees don’t feel they are working for Big Brother?
In this post, let’s take a look at:
- The benefits of employee well-being
- How to preserve brand reputation
- How to protect intellectual property
- The challenges of maintaining a safe employee messaging environment
- How CommSafe AI mitigates risk and promotes a safe workplace messaging culture
Benefits of Employee Well-Being
It goes without saying that people want, expect and deserve respectful treatment. Besides just being the right thing to do, businesses that promote employee well-being enjoy numerous benefits. These include:
- Higher employee morale leads to higher productivity. Workers who feel valued and respected perform better.
- Lower turnover. Employees who feel a sense of accomplishment and respect for their accomplishments are more loyal. It is increasingly difficult these days to attract and retain talent; it is also very expensive to continually recruit and train new employees due to a high turnover. According to a study by the Society of Human Resource Management, the cost of turnover due to a toxic workplace culture exceeds $223 billion over a five year period.
- Better decision making. Employees in a positive workplace are less stressed and more confident in their ability to make better decisions.
Employee well-being is obtained through salary and incentives, paid time off and healthcare benefits, flexible work schedules, generous family leave time and team building events.
Above all, a workplace that feels safe, free of intimidation and improper behavior, is a workplace where employees feel well at ease and dedicated to the work at hand.
Preserve Brand Reputation
Brand reputation makes or breaks a business. Nobody wants to buy a product from a company with a tarnished reputation, let alone work for one.
Quality brand reputation results from:
- A good understanding of what customers want and providing the products/services that fulfill their needs and exceed expectations.
- Marketing campaigns that reflect community and customer values
- Quality products and services
- Exceptional customer services
Additionally, and maybe even most importantly, providing a great place to work is a place with a great brand reputation. Employees who feel well-treated are more motivated to promote your brand with customers as well as with potential new hires.
Protect Intellectual Property
Your intellectual property (IP) is literally the lifeblood of your business. There are a number of way to protect IP, including:
- Security measures to restrict physical and electronic access to IP materials and information
- Confidentiality agreements with employees, partners and suppliers
- Product licensing, copyrighting, trademarking and patenting
One of the biggest threats to IP is the disgruntled employee who feels in some way belittled, unvalued, and/or intimidated. A workplace free of such threats significantly lowers the chances of an employee attempting to gain “revenge” by disclosing IP secrets to competitors or cyber criminals.
The Challenge: Detecting and Responding to Toxic Email and Messaging Communications
How many emails pass through your organization daily? How many Slack messages? How many chats?
Too many for anyone to track. So unless someone makes a complaint, there’s no way of knowing for sure that someone might be stepping over the line of what constitutes appropriate business behavior.
One approach is to assume that all employees are acting properly, and until you hear otherwise, why think that is not the case?
The problem with that thinking is, unfortunately, it is often wrong. And, just like the case of the Las Vegas Raiders coach, toxic communications continue and fester. No one wants to report in fear of retaliation or embarrassment. Meanwhile, the well-being of your employees suffer, your brand reputation is affected and your IP might be threatened.
Because even if company leadership is unaware of toxic messaging, you can be sure affected employees and their peers, and possibly also customers and partners, are talking about it among themselves.
The Solution: CommSafe AI Mitigates Risk and Promotes a Safe Workplace Culture
CommSafe AI is a smart, scalable tool to capture toxic email and chat communications among your employees. And it does this in real time. Not days, weeks, years later when the damage is done. But to stop harassment in its tracks and prevent it from spreading.
Employees needn’t fear that Big Brother is watching over them and every little word they write. CommSafe AI employs AI algorithms not only to scan and flag abusive or toxic words, but also inappropriate sentiment or tone. Nor is it necessarily the case that what CommSafe AI flags automatically results in remedial or even punitive action. All flagged messages are reviewed by your professional HR staff to determine the next course of action. Additionally, CommSafe AI works with your organization’s systems and methodologies and easily integrates with your tech, case management system, and workflows.
It’s the intelligent solution combining machine learning and human judgement and experience to better ensure employee communications are free of toxic behavior. Best of all, it’s simple. See for yourself how CommSafe AI is used to ensure employee well-being, preserve brand reputation and intellectual property. Or contact us to discuss how CommSafe AI can help you achieve a safer workplace.
