Extract from Aidan Randle-Conde’s article “An Update on Hanzo’s Innovate UK Grant: Identifying HR Risks and Patterns of Inappropriate Behaviour on Slack”
I wrote a blog post last fall about the grant that Hanzo received from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund and how we were planning to use the funds. These grants seek to support and rebuild businesses in the UK that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For our part, we’re looking for ways that we can extend Hanzo Hold, our purpose-built Slack ediscovery tool, to address the new workplace risks that accompany the abrupt transition to remote work.
This month, I want to give an update on the model we’re building to detect human resources risks on collaboration platforms.
Defining the Risk
Now that most knowledge workers are—for at least the foreseeable future—working from home, organisations need to devise new ways to supervise and monitor their working conditions. Companies can no longer count on the physical proximity of colleagues who might overhear threats, bullying, or discriminatory language or see uncomfortable interpersonal relationships. Instead, those interactions have, in large part, shifted onto collaboration platforms like Slack, where bad behaviour can fly under the radar. This can result in discrimination, harassment, bullying, and other policy violations that ultimately create an unpleasant, unproductive, or even hostile work environment. This can even present legal risks to an organisation.
