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The organisational implications of using employee messaging for data science
This article is a fairly technical take on the organisational challenges of using employee messaging like email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Facebook for Work etc. This article is aimed at CTOs, DPOs, People Analytics professionals and vendors, and discusses the operational and compliance challenges of corporate message analysis. The context is primarily based on EU data protection and employee law.
Massive amounts of implicit and explicit corporate knowledge is contained within employee emails and digital messages, and companies are starting to wake up to the benefit of analysing this data. The metadata of emails (who is sending emails to whom, how quickly they respond, what emails are forwarded etc) can give insight into the hidden networks within the business, identifying key staff and teams (sometimes known as Organisational Network Analysis or ONA). The content of emails, when parsed, can contain information about projects, morale, employee satisfaction and even threats to the business through data leakage. There is substantial value to the company in understanding this rich source of data.
Employees, especially those in the EU who are subject to GDPR, have a right to expect that their emails are treated with respect and privacy. There are balancing laws to protect…
