Chat for work is essential for providing uninterrupted and reliable communication between employees, employers, customers, and business partners.
Deploying chat for work
There are various options for deploying a work chat program in the organization’s office:
- cloud services and storage;
- dedicated servers;
- self-hosting.
The last option is the safest as you control your workspace physically and digitally.
Implementing chat for work
It is not enough to install the safest application and expect it to work flawlessly. That is why taking human factors into consideration is very important. An organization should provide all the details about the software it uses for its employees.
People must know what data is collected from them, and how their work process is tracked. Training regarding chat usage would be helpful to avoid misunderstandings and unpleasant issues.
Some professional software provides useful tools such are logs, activity tracking, access rights, etc.
There are also unofficial yet important dos and don’ts when working with a work program.
Dos
- Be respectful. Work chat is not a public group somewhere over the internet — this is a place for professional people who want to complete tasks as fast as possible and go home feeling productive 🙂
- Be professional. Avoid insults, unnecessary confrontations, and too many slang words.
- Use chat tools wisely. Keep your work chat neat and use its features according to their purpose.
Don’ts:
- Don’t share too much information. Avoid sharing sensitive information or personal details. A company can be a target for hackers who are capable of stealing data and using it for personal purposes.
- Don’t distract your team. If you have free time it does not mean another person is having it too. Make sure you check a person’s presence status in the chat before sending a message.
- Don’t ignore messages in the chat. Some tasks are urgent, so do not leave a team on wait — that makes the whole workflow slow and ineffective.