WhatsApp for Internal Communication: 10 Use Cases for Better Productivity

In an era when employee experience is becoming more and more important to a company's success, the inability to secure frictionless internal communication can have detrimental effects. Given the exceptional success of instant messaging in managing customer relationships, we'll explore a variety of use cases for leveraging WhatsApp for internal communications.

Employee Communication: More Important Than Ever

Efficient organizational communication has always been a concern. Although today, it becomes increasingly so as studies keep confirming the direct correlation between employee and customer happiness. On top of that, poor communication is known as one of the fundamental causes of workplace demotivation.

Look at it whichever way you want, good communication matters.

Still, despite all the technological advances, when we hear “employee communications”, the first associations are not necessarily positive.

Many of us associate it with meetings, email chains, company newsletters, HR memos, complex intranets...

Did you know that people tend to neglect, or even avoid, communication if it comes via a device or channel they are not comfortable with? For a company, discomfort with the internal communication channel can spell a serious problem. Whether for employee satisfaction or the efficient functioning of key workflows.

Gone are the days when we only worked on desktop computers and relied on email. Nowadays, we are surrounded by tablets, smartphones, laptops, ultrabooks, notepads, smartwatches... technology through which we demand immediacy and convenience.

Want to make sure the information reaches and is read by your employees in a timely manner?

Why not let them communicate in the most natural way possible?

For the Millennial generation who will be 75% of the total workforce by 2025, that natural way of communication is chat.

In fact, many b2b-oriented apps successfully leveraged the chat culture, creating a flexible solution that freed internal communications from the desktop...

What Does WhatsApp Have Other Types of Internal Communication Don't?

But, what if you didn't have to make your employees adapt to any new channel, tool or intranet? What if that channel was something they already use daily?

This is the answer to the question heading this section. WhatsApp is familiar with it.

Actively used by 1.6 billion people each month, it's the most popular messaging app in history.

Most people, therefore, use the app daily and are intimately familiar with its interface.

Using the app in business communications removes the obstacle of making employees adapt to an unfamiliar system.

Quite inadvertently, it ensures received messages get reviewed on a regular basis.

In fact, since the launch of WhatsApp Business API, many companies have focused on using the app to reinvent their internal communication plan rather than offer customer service. This trend we observe mainly in e-commerce, travel and hospitality and real estate industries.

We believe integrating WhatsApp Business API into your internal communication strategy and policies can foster employee knowledge sharing. As well as, forge collaboration, streamline complex HR processes, and foster a positive company culture.

How to Use WhatsApp For Internal Communication

While types of internal communications vary across industries, as well as being heavily influenced by specific business objectives, we have identified 10 common use cases where using WhatsApp for employee communication can truly make a difference.

1. Provide Onboarding Support

The fast-paced working environment typical of any modern company makes the effectiveness of your onboarding processes a challenge.

However, it's important that you make the effort. The employee's first month is when the majority of habits and relationships are formed. A successful onboarding should educate, engage and ensure compliance...

But, even if you find the time to go over every aspect of the job, as well as the company's history and direction, it's clear that a lot of information simply won't be retained by your new employees. On top of that, they are often too shy to ask “stupid” questions or ask again if they forget some information.

Creating a WhatsApp bot as a support element in this process can relieve most of that pressure. Imagine an onboarding assistant that can instantly provide:

• Support relating to necessary HR documentation (e.g. guidance on how to fill out forms or explanations of additional contract clauses like intellectual property, etc.)
• Information about the company/team history, values, mission and current goals
• Information about the company culture, policies and rules of conduct
• Guides and support for company digital tools, etc.

2. Send Company Newsletter

Newsletters are nothing new. For years, they've been used to communicate things happening within the company to employees such as:

• New company goals
• Business strategy overview
• New hires
• Product/service innovations
• Latest achievements, performance and general progress

However, email communication has proven to be somewhat slow and passive for the technology-induced “instantaneous and interactive” culture.

Using WhatsApp for this type of internal communication can not only ensure a higher open rate, but also offers opportunities for interaction.

For example, in a personal chat, an employee can request more information on a particular topic that the corresponding bot can quickly provide. Or, the newsletter can be sent to a chat group of a particular department created by the company in which employees can share their opinions and initiate a debate.

3. Collect Employee Feedback

Feedback is an important part of ensuring employee satisfaction.

It allows you to identify and resolve issues before they become a more serious problem.

Consequently, the collection of relevant feedback helps improve the overall work culture and, by default, attracts the most fitting talent. However, getting feedback is not always so easy, especially if your employees don’t work (or very rarely do) at a desk.

Therefore, one of the best uses of WhatsApp for employee communication is to launch a feedback survey that is quick and convenient to complete.

4. Promote Workshops, Training, Follow-up Opportunities and New Openings

If your company has a culture of organising frequent workshops and training opportunities or, better yet, of hiring people to manage positions from within their own ranks... WhatsApp is the perfect channel to promote the events and job offers, as well as to collect sign-ups/applications.

Emails are often overlooked, forgotten or seen too late to be relevant. On the other hand, most people check instant messages within minutes of being received.

Using WhatsApp as the main communication channel is an excellent way to make your employees aware of the professional and educational opportunities your company can offer. This translates to a decrease in employee turnover.

5. Provide Teams with a Collaboration and Decision Making Platform

Chats are now a common way to discuss important matters and make decisions instead of talking orally, especially those that require an urgent decision-making.

Having everything in writing also makes the process and its outcome clear for both employees and their superiors.

Through WhatsApp groups or individual chats, employees and managers can better collaborate on matters that require quick action. Employees can receive the information they need more quickly.

Additionally, WhatsApp minimises the need to send several emails to different contacts which also take longer to respond.

Allowing employees to use a communication channel they are comfortable with is especially important if they work remotely or on the ground and face-to-face communication is impossible.

6. Foster Company Culture

WhatsApp for internal communication doesn't have to be all business. On the contrary, it’s a great tool to help you lay the foundations of a positive company culture.

So, in addition to collecting and listening to feedback to make your employees feel attended to, you can use the channel to:

• Send positive/motivational messages to unite teams
• Express gratitude for a job well done
• Foster and promote social events related and unrelated to work (charity cake sales or sporting events; friendly competitions; team-building and so on)
• Boost employee engagement through quizzes and competitions

7. Digitize Your HR

When it comes to HR, WhatsApp can do a lot to speed things up. It can become the HR FAQ bot or a channel that streamlines paperwork.

For example, if everyone in the company needs to update a form for HR, the chatbot can deliver a copy of that form, and remind non-respondents to sign and submit it in time. Alternatively, employees can use the bot to check their available holiday days, upcoming bank holidays and so on.

8. Share Schedules/Shift Plans

If your company's smooth running depends on efficient scheduling and always-changing shift plans for employees across different locations, WhatsApp is the right way to keep everyone organised and up to date.

The platform not only allows you to share the schedule with the whole team but also ensures last-minute changes are received and viewed quickly.

9. Sign-ups and Registration

Need to organise or gather a team of employees to help you run an event or need volunteers for the latest project or even an emergency?

WhatsApp is the perfect platform to send out your request and allow those interested to register on the spot using the app.

10. Alerts and Notifications

We save the most obvious use case for last. Regardless of domain-specific communication objectives... most companies need their employees to receive alerts and notifications about incoming leads, shipments, reports, inventory, sales, online traffic, security checks and so on...

The list can go on and on.

WhatsApp push notifications ensure your employees receive information wherever they may be, in real time. This makes the WhatsApp API solution an asset for people working in the field, like real estate agents.

Save your company time and money by inventing your own internal communication system or spending time teaching your employees to use it.

Is WhatsApp Right for Your Internal Communication Strategy?

To decide whether WhatsApp Business API is the right employee communication channel for your company, you mainly need to consider the level of adoption of the app in the country in which you operate. While WhatsApp is the most used messaging app in the world, present in 180 countries, the level of adoptions varies locally.

For example, WhatsApp is widely spread across South America, Mexico, most African countries, India, Saudi Arabia and, when it comes to Europe, in the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, etc... On the contrary, the app is not as popular in the US (yet).

Another factor to consider is the complexity of your internal communications.

WhatsApp is fast and omnipresent, but if you need a more complex office solution that, for example, allows group conference calls, you might want to consider using Slack or a similar service.

Are There Any Concerns About WhatsApp For Internal Communications?

WhatsApp's favourite feature has been the end-to-end encryption of conversations, which guarantees the privacy of your company's communications.

However, WhatsApp conversations have a bridging effect over employees' personal lives and, therefore, have an informal character. If not managed properly, it can become a serious source of conflict.

What to do?

It is essential that your messaging policies about what is and isn't acceptable are perfectly clear. For example, these policies can include non-harassment and non-intimidation clauses or any other policy that also applies to email, internet and social media communications.

Your employees must be aware that breach of these policies is as serious in a messaging app as it would be in the physical office or company emails and may lead to disciplinary procedures.

Additionally, managers also need to understand there are cases where WhatsApp should be used and those where it shouldn't. For example, pointing out an employee's performance issues to all members of a department or team group chat is not appropriate and can damage overall morale.

How to Get Started?

WhatsApp Business API opens a world of possibilities for your internal communications. If you don't have access to the API yet and aren't quite sure where to start... you can find out more about how to apply for the WhatsApp API, how to create WhatsApp message templates as well as create a WhatsApp bot and launch WhatsApp campaigns without needing to use our resources.

However, if you already have access or have already decided WhatsApp is for you, get in touch with us to find out how Landbot’s solution can help you achieve your WhatsApp communication goals.

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