After invading private conversations, they land in the office. Voice messages are increasingly used in a professional environment, by younger generations, but not only.
“I receive every week, it seems really practical because I often do not have time to answer the phone,” said Marie shoulduck, director of a recruitment firm and head hunters.
“I tell my clients to call me at Interfrief after their interview, if I don’t answer, they don’t use the answering machine, but spontaneously they make me a voice note on WhatsApp,” she says.
“I think that responds to a function”
“With us, employees use vocal notes,” says Geoffrey Fournier, Snow Group HRD, a spas construction company. And if there are no figures on the emergence of this type of communication in business, he points out that “more and more applications offer this functionality, including our internal communication software.”
The voice message gives explanations, sometimes a complete group, without interrupting its interlocutor with a call. We listen to it when we have time.
Even in the public service, where agents cannot use WhatsApp, some repeal of the rule. Elodie* Remember a very complex Excel table: “We did not have time to establish a niche because the task was urgent, my colleague made me vowel for a specific question about how to fill the image,” he says.
When this friend who makes us waste time becomes colleague
But she also sees the limits of this mode of communication. “We find the defects of the vocal notes sent by friends, some are struggling to express themselves, the sentences are marked by 50 ‘UH’ …”, is upset by this agent of the public administration.
“If the person had taken five minutes to structure an email, he could have made his request in a concise and clear manner,” said Elodie.
Hence the interest of using this functionality in moderation. “It should not be forgotten that we risk wasting time for our interlocutor. If you have exchanges of 10 voice messages, after a while you just have to talk to each other, otherwise it creates inertia,” recommends Geoffrey Fournier.
A submission letter replaced by a vocal note
He also advises against candidates who send voice messages during an application or ascending of a job interview. Except when the recruitment process is done for this type of communication …
Vincent Azouani created the Wapply job search application. It was designed to leave more space for the voice than in writing. In their profile, candidates and companies have the possibility of adding a brief audio presentation. The motivation letters were also replaced in a vocal note of a 30 minute.
He was arguing with the security agents that the idea occurred to him: “They explained that they were more comfortable orally, because they were afraid to make spelling mistakes in writing,” he recalls.
“Those who take it most are the youngest or candidates who do not have many diplomas or who are of foreign origin, are afraid to make mistakes or do not know how to write well,” explains Vincent Azouani.
He recognizes himself in this fear of doing wrong. “I am dyslexico, so I really have problems with writing, except that, as a business manager, it is complicated,” he says.
Even in his small company, he began communicating with voice messages with his teams. And they all got there. “I am more concrete when I express myself orally, it allows me to communicate better despite my invisible disability,” he concludes.
* The first name has been changed
Source: BFM TV
