Workplace communication platforms, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, have funnelled discussions between colleagues away from email and into the direct message (DM) inbox. Although DMs may seem sensible for quick and easy intra-office communications in the digital age, they have had unintended consequences for some employers.
For Matthieu Rouif, co-founder and CEO of PhotoRoom, an AI photo-editing app, the reliance on DMs presents a problem.
Rouif was working at Stupeflix when it was acquired by GoPro in 2016, leaving him the only team member based in Europe – everyone else worked in the US. Operating in different time zones was challenging and frequently left Rouif feeling detached from the rest of the team.
Mikael Nilsson, head of people at PhotoRoom, explains: “These experiences led him to consider why we send so many direct messages at work. He started to think about the potential benefits of keeping communication open.”
When Rouif co-founded PhotoRoom in August 2019, he hoped that implementing a no-DM policy would encourage greater cross-team collaboration and bring some elements of the office experience to the distributed working environment, like the one he endured at GoPro. His idea to link up staff in different locations looked particularly prescient when Covid started to spread at the end of 2019.
“If you’re in an office, you can walk up to a bank of desks and choose to listen to people’s conversations, ask questions and share your opinion,” Nilsson says. “That’s what we wanted to replicate by opening up all the Slack channels and team conversations.”
Training staff on Slack etiquette
Although PhotoRoom’s no-DM policy is not strictly enforced, Nilsson trains all new joiners on the company’s unique Slack etiquette. Core rules include keeping replies in threads, tagging people in messages they need to read and sharing important information in the company-wide channel.
This has meant that staff are not inundated with Slack notifications, even as the firm’s headcount has grown. “We have rules that we stick to and it really helps to remember these as we continue to grow,” Nilsson says.
Everything is shared completely openly
Naturally, there are some conversations that must be kept private. “Anything related to an individual’s performance, health concerns, private matters or salaries, isn’t something that needs to be discussed publicly,” Nilsson explains.
But almost every other direct message is met with the response, “this could be public”. This even includes discussions about business strategy and company finances, as well as conversations between board members. “Everything is shared completely openly,” Nilsson says.
How to take full transparency offline
More recently, PhotoRoom’s leadership has held in-person meetings to discuss strategy and ensures that these conversations remain transparent by sharing recordings of the meetings and transcripts.
“We’re trying to find new ways to ensure every discussion remains public, so there’s no sense of ‘us and them’ and people continue to see the reasoning behind each decision,” Nilsson explains. “If we didn’t, that would ruin what we’ve built, so we’re taking a lot of care to avoid that.”
Although disagreements arise in public channels, Nilsson says these are not uncommon even in an office setting.
“If you’re not used to that it can feel like some interactions are a bit tense, but disagreement is a normal part of doing business,” he adds. “I don’t want the policy to make people hold back and do less work or feel anxious. It’s obviously a work in progress but I think the upsides are infinitely greater than any downsides.”
Breaking down silos
Despite the relatively hands-off enforcement, PhotoRoom’s employees appear to be adhering to the no-DM policy. Three-quarters of messages sent on its Slack group are viewed in public channels, while 19% are direct messages and only 7% appear in private channels.
The change has been particularly effective at breaking down silos. Transparent communication makes it easier to see the work that other teams are doing and to provide input.
This enables a range of perspectives to be heard, Nilsson adds. “Many companies say they value diversity of thought, but how are they enabling that?” he asks. “How are you enabling an engineer to have an opinion or to ask questions to your commercial team, for instance?”
All employees want to know more about what’s going on in their company, so try and give that to them
The policy has also improved trust throughout the organisation. “If people in a company can see that the senior leadership team is not hiding anything and their decisions are discussed in public, this will build a lot of trust,” Nilsson says.
Transparency is particularly valuable for junior staff members, he adds, as it allows them to learn from more senior employees and see how decisions are made.
And, for new starters, the no-DM policy means that answers to most questions can be found by simply searching public channels. Reflecting back on his own experience of joining the business, Nilsson says: “I could go back and look at the discussions around the company’s parental leave policy and see the reasoning behind the annual leave policy. It made me feel as if I were part of the discussion at the time.”
The push for transparency
PhotoRoom is not the only company to experiment with improving the transparency of internal communications. In 2013, Stripe, the fintech company, made all internal emails public and searchable to ensure everyone is kept informed of company updates and reduce the number of meetings. PhotoRoom has taken inspiration from Paris-based startups Dust and Alan in devising its own policy.
While it can take new staff some time to adjust to PhotoRoom’s communication policy, Nilsson insists people feel a real sense of ownership once the benefits are explained to them. “It makes people feel more connected to all parts of the business and creates a sense of belonging,” he says.
The policy has also had positive unintended consequences, according to Nilsson, such as fostering a wider culture of transparency and reducing employee attrition. He claims there has been “virtually zero” voluntary staff turnover since the no-DM policy was introduced.
It’s for these reasons that Nilsson believes more businesses could benefit from increasing internal transparency. “There’s not much of a downside with transparency from an employee point of view,” he says. “All employees want to know more about what’s going on in their company, so try to give that to them.”
