By WP BrandStudio

A single parent is struggling to balance remote work and caring for their rambunctious toddler, whose preschool has been closed due to the pandemic. Their DMs and emails to colleagues in recent weeks have taken on a somber tone and include disparaging comments about teammates, mentions of leaking or stealing information and references to self-harm.

The above scenario is hypothetical, but it’s representative of a trend that is playing out across the country. With employees spread out and away from the office IT infrastructure, HR leaders and legal teams are struggling to ensure that employees are upholding the company code of conduct.

The urgency is clear. Many employees are still working remotely as companies across the globe push their return dates into summer 2021 or offer employees the option to work from home permanently. These employees have settled into a new normal of trying to get it all done while sharing workspace with spouses or balancing work with full-time childcare.

 

 

 

It’s this new normal that experts say is contributing to more mental health issues—and worrying human resources managers, who are charged with the health, well-being and safety of their employees. “We believe that culture is perhaps the most important driver of business success,” said Joe Whittinghill, corporate vice president of talent, learning, and insights at Microsoft. “When we are able to come together with empathy for one another’s lived experience, we are more agile, we innovate, our products are more inclusive, our customers are better served and we are able to achieve our mission.”

Unfortunately, employee wellbeing is more volatile than ever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40 percent of American adults are struggling with mental health in recent months.^[1] These issues are something that every employer must be thinking about to avoid trouble in the virtual workforce.

 

 

Liz Walker on the use of technology to ensure adherence to a company code of conduct

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Human resources, with help from compliance and legal, will need to craft a code of conduct that reflects this new era of communication and preserves the company culture.

Without the ability to provide in-person support to employees, business leaders have the opportunity to consider leveraging technology to help them ensure that employees are adhering to the company code of conduct and mitigate any risk to protect their employees and the company at large.

Keeping a virtual eye on work communication

Many HR departments already have listening practices in place, but the job has become exponentially more difficult with employees out of the office and on their own devices or tech infrastructure.

This is why organizations are turning to machine learning to uncover hidden signs of workplace risk such as inappropriate messages or emails, threats of self-harm or actions that would negatively impact employees and the business. By identifying patterns and violations, this technology can flag risk while intervention is still possible. Microsoft 365’s Communication Compliance tool uses contextual natural language processing and machine learning to detect key words and phrases out of millions of daily signals, identifying hidden risks. Using either predefined or custom policies, it can scan anonymized communications to identify words that relate to employee mental health, potential loss of data, theft of intellectual property, harassing conversations and sharing of inappropriate images.

It also goes past simple keyword matching to include intent. “Using keyword matches just for ‘bad words’ doesn’t work because that would yield too many false positives,” said Christophe Fiessinger, principal program manager of communication compliance at Microsoft. “You really need to look at intent—someone communicating with specific intent to harass or to hurt or to make fun of someone’s religion, race or gender.”

 

 

 

 

Liz Walker on fostering safe and inclusive work communication

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That’s where the machine learning solution is particularly unique. It can identify the difference between a phrase used in targeted harassment, or a harmless sentiment which may share some of the same simple words (for example, congratulating a colleague on a successful presentation by saying they “killed it,” versus an actual physical threat).

The workflow for identifying this risk is a four-part approach. First the organization—HR and legal, in particular—must decide on its policies for governing workplace communications, preserving employee privacy and organizational culture, while complying with applicable regulations.

The next step is setting up the AI to identify specific conditions—such as threats or harassment—which can be done through pre-configured templates or customized to meet unique needs. Organizations will also need to identify the scope of workplace communications to be included and excluded. Microsoft 365’s Insider Risk Management solutions, for example, offer organizations the option to include workplace communications across several platforms such as Microsoft Teams, SMS text messages and Slack.

Part three is detection—the tool will create alerts that escalate potentially harmful situations. Microsoft 365’s Insider Risk Management and Communication Compliance solutions allow organizations to anonymize the inflowing data, so companies can protect employee privacy. It’s only when the risk level warrants escalation to human resources or legal that an employee’s identity is passed along.

The final step is remediation. Once the issue is brought to the attention of HR or legal, they can offer the necessary resources for employees in crisis, or stop a leak of sensitive company data before it happens.

 

The technology is useful for more than just finding one-off employee issues, too. It can give organizations a broader view of trends related to personnel and culture, said Raman Kalyan, Microsoft’s director of product marketing.

 

Liz Walker on the importance of workplace wellbeing

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“Machine learning can provide a way for the organization to take a look at issues more holistically,” he said. “Instead of just looking at data piecemeal by violation, they can identify a broader potential mental health or code of conduct problem and address it immediately. If it’s a policy issue, the company can launch a deeper set of training. If it identifies an employee in crisis, HR can offer support.”

Mutual benefits

Studies have shown that employee satisfaction is good for business. On average, happy employees are 13% more productive than their counterparts.^[1] Part of building that culture is protecting all employees from risks posed by colleagues and other trusted insiders.

Proactively protecting employees who are on the receiving end of disturbing or offensive content is a key advantage of Microsoft 365 Communication Compliance.

Companies can also protect employees suffering from the strain of this new normal by identifying repeated warning signs in their work communication and providing support where it’s needed. For example, if an employee posts messages in Microsoft Teams about “coming to the end of their rope,” or “feeling like they just want to give up,” those messages can be flagged for the HR manager to review immediately.

 

 

 

In the end, machine learning technology can be a tool that helps to create a healthy and mutually beneficial environment. “It’s one thing for an organization to say they won’t tolerate racism or harassment or discrimination,” said Fiessinger. “But it’s another to enforce those policies. That’s where our solution comes into play.”

–Learn how to effectively manage a broad range of communication risks with Microsoft security and compliance

–Learn more about Microsoft 365’s intelligent insider risk management solutions 

 

^[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” August 2020.

^[2] Oxford University + BT Global Services, 2019.