Compliance meets Slack and Zoom

As with nearly everything he does, Elon Musk’s now-abandoned quest to buy Twitter sparked a flurry of discussion in recent months.

Most of the news coverage focused on whether the deal would actually go through and if so, what that would mean for the company’s business, its shareholders and the current leadership team. Yet much of coverage also zeroed in on the potential implications of Musk’s stated intention to remove existing content guardrails and create a forum dedicated to protecting free speech.

Twitter, at its best, is a great place to connect, exchange views and stay informed. At its worst, however, the platform is a toxic mix of sexism, racism and misinformation — and over the years, one constant source of criticism of the company has been its unwillingness or inability to do much about it.

Many feared the problem could worsen if Musk were to take over Twitter. While that’s no longer an issue, the concerns speak to a problem an increasing number of companies worldwide are now confronting.

With hybrid work models now permanent across many industries — including financial services — collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams have replaced email as the primary form of internal communication. And because some act out on such platforms, it begs the question of whether firms are taking the necessary steps to protect themselves and their employees, and ensure the best internal culture possible.

FILLING EXISTING COMPLIANCE GAPS WILL HELP

Unlike other businesses, financial firms and banks don’t have a choice regarding archiving and capturing internal business communications — it's a regulatory requirement. Even so, many organizations still have massive compliance gaps in this area, gaps that also complicate efforts to build and sustain a positive workplace culture.

In part, plugging them comes down to whom and what their policy guidelines cover. Is it just communications among regulated users (i.e., advisers and staff) and their interactions with clients? Or do the guidelines consider all conversations on all platforms, regardless of who's involved? Remember, anyone can misuse and abuse communication tools, even senior leaders who don't interact with clients.

That’s why the best approach is to capture and archive everything. Beyond preserving a healthy, respectful internal culture, consider the issue of legal discovery, something that's a reality of doing business in this industry.

A DELICATE BALANCE

At the same time, no one wants to work with Big Brother looking over their shoulder. So how can firms assure that they're not actively combing through every message to use it against an employee or an affiliated person?

The first step is to be proactive. Just as firms must clarify what behaviors are unacceptable, they should define which communications tools are permissible for business use and, importantly, which are prohibited. Transparency is key.

Even so, these steps won’t prevent bad behavior entirely. That’s why it’s crucial to access tools that help pinpoint restricted words and phrases across any communications source allowed for business use.

Even better, however, is being able to apply natural language processing capabilities to detect not just words but also language patterns. That would help firms be more precise in identifying employee policy infractions and reduce the false positives that could result from harmless internal chit-chat.

ENSURING THE STRENTH OF A FIRM'S CULTURE

Every financial firm, regardless of size, strives to have a distinctive and strong culture. Many, in fact, portray themselves as one big, cohesive family, from the CEO on down. However, the reality is that every business tends to have culture-killing code of conduct violators.

Before the pandemic, bad behavior was unmistakable, whether it was someone who was habitually late to the office or a verbally abusive manager. But now that hybrid remote-work models (and the accompanying communication tools) have become entrenched, misconduct can take other forms, including “textual” harassment, Slack bullying or Zoom bombing, and can be harder to detect and preserve.

With hybrid work models here to stay, expect the volume and variety of messages flowing through digital collaboration channels only to increase. With this in mind, a solid, comprehensive and adaptable internal communications archive and capture program is paramount in meeting firms’ regulatory obligations and preventing those channels from engendering a toxic work environment, while rooting out abusive and other corrosive behaviors that can torch internal morale.

Robert Cruz is vice president of information governance for Smarsh.