Until a few years ago, sending a message to a superior or a client/supplier with an emoji or a smiley face was pretty frowned upon. These little tokens were mostly the prerogative of teenagers through their intense IM discussions.
Except these teenagers are now grown up and of working age. And they brought their habits with them to the business. Some will regret it (depends) but emojis have clearly taken their place in professional exchanges.
Quite massively even as according to an OpinionWay study* conducted for Slack, 75% of surveyed workers use emojis in their professional exchanges (including 13% systematically). This figure rises to 85% among those under 35 years of age. 68% do so in response to messages from their peers. On the contrary, 24% never do.
Make a “more efficient” exchange
For their followers, emojis reinforce the feeling of closeness and coexistence. Above all, according to 70% of those surveyed, they humanize communication in an environment where digital exchanges have increased by illustrating the expression of a feeling or an emotion that is easy to decipher (for those who have the key).
55% also find they make communication more effective, 63% believe they make exchanges more productive, whether you’re a manager or an employee. And 63% say that sending a message without an emoji feels like an unfinished message…
They swarm everywhere. In exchanges through instant messaging, of course (61%), but also emails (62%), professional social networks (55%) and, of course, SMS (72%).
And its use has been more important since the health crisis, underlines the study. One of the consequences of the generalization of teleworking where electronic exchanges have grown. Thus, 41% of those surveyed confirm this increase, even 11% believe that it has doubled.
The risk of misinterpretation
The use of emojis, however, varies (fortunately) according to the hierarchical level of the correspondents, whether they are internal or external colleagues, and according to the age range.
Thus, while the majority of employees (76%) use emojis to communicate with colleagues in the same hierarchical rank, only one in two (48%) uses them when it comes to exchanging with hierarchical superiors and 38% for clients. .
In fact, almost 3 in 4 workers (74%) believe that it is not appropriate to use emojis with their boss. And 65% indicate that they rarely send any to their superior.
It must be said that these symbols are subject to interpretation, and that is their danger. 44% of those surveyed acknowledge having been taken by surprise by emojis that can be interpreted in various ways.
*: The survey in Slack was conducted by the OpinionWay polling institute between June 3 and 10, 2022, via a self-administered online questionnaire. It was carried out with a sample of 1,051 people representative of the French active population aged 18 or over. The survey was constituted according to the quota method.
Source: BFM TV
