Whether you actively use Facebook or not, you must admit that it has changed the world, reshaping the way humans interact. Will Workplace by Facebook have an equally profound impact on how we work with each other? One thing is certain: it will have an impact on how organizations approach communications compliance. In short, the platform will enable a much higher volume of complex interactions taking place between individuals and groups simultaneously, through IM, email, voice, video and probably even more mediums.

All this, consequently, adds heightened complexity to enforcing communications compliance. For regulated institutions, gaining a firm grasp on the compliance challenges presented by Workplace will not only inoculate them against a litany of potential fines related to regulations on employee communications, but will also open doors for increased efficiency and innovation by enabling employees to leverage the platform freely.

A platform that’s gaining ground, fast

Workplace for Facebook, which launched in October 2016 with 1000 users, last year more than doubled the number of organizations that are using it, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s now used by more than 30K organizations, including Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Stanley Black & Decker, and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and hosts more than 1M user groups.

What’s the appeal? In short, it looks, feels and runs like Facebook. In other words, you don’t need to spend a lot of time training people on it, as most are already thoroughly familiar with its consumer twin. Likewise, at a time when even Mark Zuckerberg is trying to get people to use the highly addictive Facebook less, you don’t need to spend a lot of effort driving adoption of Workplace. But, many of the same things that make it easy for employees to adopt also make it tougher to enforce compliance on the platform.

From Space Invaders to Call of Duty

If enforcing compliance on email is like playing a 2-D, single-player 80s video game like Space Invaders, then enforcing compliance on Workplace is like playing Call of Duty, or another 3-D, multiplayer game of both skill and strategy. In adopting this platform for your organization, here are three major challenges to consider:

Conversations are becoming more complex. Workplace by Facebook enhances the ability to communicate simultaneously through multiple channels, with multiple parties, using diverse communication methods. Users can join and leave conversations freely, while also changing or deleting posts prior to their being captured by compliance tools.

Groups offer an added dimension. Discovering communications between two individuals is one thing. But what if those conversations are taking place within a wider group? What does it mean that a larger audience may have been privy to a potentially illegal conversation? How do you discern between those who have culpability and those who don’t?

Context is difficult to discern. Due to the challenges listed above, it can also be much more difficult to decipher the context of a conversation that is interwoven between a convoluted web of groups, individuals and channels, and that contains not only words, but static and dynamic images and emojis as well.

Imagine, for example, that one of your employees mentions something on a group chat which is potentially in violation of a particular regulation. After a few exchanges with a couple of different folks, the individual posts “let’s take this offline” and switches to directly messaging one other team member. The conversation stops, and during that time a few videos, images and short messages are exchanged that appear to have nothing to do with the conversation. Then the dialogue appears to pick up again, only this time the conversation thread is over text, audio and video chat. And further, there are clues that some portions of the conversation may have taken place through another medium altogether–perhaps over personal phones, or even in-person – which is now being described as “channel jumping”. You can start to see how, in the event of a regulatory inquiry, providing this kind of information could be an e-discovery nightmare.

Getting a grip on Workplace by Facebook

How do you gain control over a highly unwieldy platform? Companies can start by ensuring that they can:

• Centralize and universalize data capture and retention. Companies need to be able to capture and store (in an unalterable form) complex metadata including third-party content capture, images, threaded comments, and user details, as well as associated content being shared through other channels as a part of those conversations.
• Visualize the context of the conversation. Taken piece by piece, the various instant messages, pokes, shares, etc. that occur on any social platform don’t make much sense. It’s only by connecting the various threads that a true picture starts to emerge. Doing this manually is too labor intensive to allow companies to achieve the quick turnaround required by regulatory agencies–they’ll need the ability to automate the process.
• Conduct rapid search. Teams need the ability to quickly search across the full range of communications to achieve a holistic view of what was said, when it happened and who was involved.

Of course, Workplace is only one stake in the compliance landscape. Enterprise social platforms are generally gaining ground, and IDC projects the worldwide market for enterprise social-networking and collaboration tools is expected to be worth $3.2 billion by 2021. Most notably, Microsoft Teams is used by roughly 125,000 organizations in 181 markets and Spiceworks projects that it may be the second most commonly used workplace messaging platform by 2018. The bottom line is that these platforms are turning enterprise communications upside down. Companies need a new playbook, and starting with these elements will lay a foundation for staying ahead of compliance in what will surely be a new era in workplace communication and collaboration.

Originally published on Actiance.com, March 6, 2018