Companies draw line for WhatsApp-y employees

NEW DELHI: One can’t resign, ask for leave or send office work on WhatsApp, human resource folks at popular companies are telling employees.

NEW DELHI: One can’t resign, ask for leave or send office work on WhatsApp, human resource folks at popular companies are telling employees.

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Companies are discouraging the use of WhatsApp for office communication, as they fear sensitive data may be leaked. They say the instant messaging app owned by Facebook can be used only as an informal and unofficial mode of interaction.

“Companies have no control over information that employees have in their WhatsApp account, especially after they left the organisation. If an employee loses her phone, the app can be misused,” said Rituparna Chakroborty, co-founder of staffing firm Teamlease Services.

WhatsApp — with over a billion global users, a tenth of that in India — promises “end-to-end encryption” of all data shared over the platform. The app is focusing on enterprise communication with features that allow users to create groups, and share videos and documents.

But employees think the app is an intruder, especially when somebody is on leave.

“Managers expect an immediate response to queries on WhatsApp (if the message is read). That’s unfair and we are undertaking sensitisation drives among employees and managers … The app is not an official channel of communication,” said Biplob Banerjee, executive vice-president, human resource, at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the operator of Dunkin’ Donuts and Domino’s Pizza in India.

Apart from Jubilant, Adidas India, Amway India, Hero Cycles, and RPG Group are firms that have introduced office policies on WhatsApp.

Adidas mentions in its social media policy that SMS and other messaging tools cannot substitute an official channel, such as emails.

“We encourage employees to use internal communication and messaging platforms for work-related interactions. WhatsApp can’t be that,” said Arijit Sengupta, senior HR director, Adidas Group India.

The companies think WhatsApp may never become an official communication tool as it is not connected to a company’s server, like in the case of emails.