It’s no secret that office life is changing. Across industries, the silos that technology helped create are being torn down to increase productivity and knowledge sharing. This transition is clearly for the better, but many organizations in regulated industries are struggling to have their compliance programs keep pace with the demand for more mobile-centric communication tools like text messaging and collaboration platforms such as Workplace by Facebook and Slack. With these modern communication tools enabling employees to be more efficient and productive, their physical location matters less each day. As organizations grow more geographically dispersed, and workplace demographics change, organizations are becoming aware that a shift is taking place without knowing how or why they should  accommodate it.

As technology has made it easier for organizations to find talented employees regardless of their zip code, it’s no surprise that between 2013 and 2016, the overall percentage of employees who spent most of their time working from remote locations leapt from 24 to 31%¹. The financial services industry alone saw the percentage of remote workers rise 8% between 2012 and 2016². This untethered workforce is proving mutually beneficial too, as companies that promote flexible working arrangements regularly report increased productivity. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing either—employees working remote three to five days per week demonstrated the highest level of engagement³.

However, as workforces become increasingly dispersed, email inboxes have become flooded with short-form messages and multiple versions of the same document. These important (and often time-sensitive) messages are also buried among a flood of alerts, sales messages, and informational FYIs, so it takes more time than ever to get through an email inbox. While email is not necessarily going anywhere, as there will always be a place for long-form communications, more and more employees are tuning out their inboxes in favor of modern communication and collaboration platforms that unify the organization.

This move to collaboration tools is part of a larger digital transformation that is partially attributable to a massive demographic shift in the workplace. In 2016, Millennials surpassed Baby Boomers as the United States’ largest living generation⁴. This generation, alongside the preceding cohort of tech-savvy Gen Xers, now account for approximately 63% of the United States workforce⁵. With Millennials now ranging between 21 and 37 years old, the last of them are exiting college while many are on their way up the ladder into leadership positions next to their peers from Generation X.

As the largest generation in the workforce, Millennials are leading the consumerization of IT and changing the way we conduct business both as employees and clients. With 75% of Millennials rating teamwork and collaboration as “very important⁶,” it should come as no surprise that employees are bypassing the IT department and launching their own Slack channels to communicate and conduct business. Though Slack channels are for internal communication and collaboration, this isn’t the only type of “shadow IT” that raises challenges for companies supervising business-related communications for compliance, risk, or e-discovery.

Text messaging is a part of life today, and its ubiquity will continue to blur the line between personal and business communications. In 2017, 88% of 30-49-year-old Americans owned a smartphone (99% owned any cellphone)⁷. As more companies are taking advantage of this by offering work phones or adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, employees can stay connected and work more efficiently via mobile work and messaging apps.

As new communication platforms continue to proliferate, businesses must ensure that they provide clear guidelines to how employees should be using these tools. For those in regulated or high risk industries, it’s also important to ensure that all relevant business communications make their way into your recordkeeping and supervision process.

Staying Ahead of the Conversation

With generational shifts fueling a digital transformation in the workplace, it’s crucial that organizations stay ahead of new communications tools that seemingly emerge faster and faster over time. By allowing these modern collaboration and communication tools, and adopting a “capture it all” electronic communications policy using innovative technology, organizations can become better aligned and more productive while still meeting regulatory requirements and minimizing recordkeeping, legal, and reputational risk.

Learn more about how Smarsh can help enable compliant productivity with comprehensive archiving here.

¹ State of the American Workplace, Gallup, (accessed January 17, 2018).
² Id.
³ Id.
⁴ Millennials Overtake Baby Boomers as America's Largest Generation, Pew Research Center, (April 25, 2016).
⁵ Millennials Surpass Gen Xers as the Largest Generation in U.S. Labor Force, Pew Research Center, (May 11, 2015).
⁶ Workplace Collaboration Statistics 2018, Hubbion, (May 7, 2017).
⁷ Mobile Fact Sheet, Pew Research Center, (January 31, 2018).