Almost half of UK employees think it is appropriate to use emojis to give compliments in an office setting.
Research commissioned by Perkbox for last week’s World Compliment Day (1 March), which polled 1,000 UK workers, found that more than one in five respondents felt an emoji is more heartfelt than a simple “great work” email.
More than a quarter of respondents agreed using emojis in this way, as long as the respondent is a millennial.
Conversely, nearly one in four felt emojis are not suitable in a work environment and nearly a third would prefer an email of thanks.
Unsurprisingly when asked which emoji is the best way to convey a thank you, the “thumbs up” emoji came top.
Maddie Pozlevic, Employee Experience Lead at Perkbox says: “With emojis being an integral part of communication for younger generations, it’s only normal that over time they become more commonly used in the workplace. Technology like Slack is also enabling this. It’s often more time efficient to ‘react’ to a message with an emoji than typing a reply – especially when you’re on the go. We’ll likely see this trend growing over the coming year”.
Becca Gravell, Product & Training Consultant, PSI Talent Management said: “There is a growing body of research that suggests using emojis can help us to become more effective at work by increasing our Emotional Intelligence (EI).
“Communicating via or with emojis can help avoid or diffuse ‘generational differences’ in the sense that no one is limited by their vocabulary, language skills or job role. It creates equal opportunity for people to express themselves how they want to.
“Perhaps most interestingly is the argument that people have been using emoji-type languages for centuries without issue. In essence, emojis are simply an evolved form of ancient languages such as hieroglyphics and cuneiform and therefore are not just for the tech savvy amongst us.”
Ty Jones Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Engagement at law-firm DWF said: “Any quality interaction is first and foremost about knowing your audience. Internally, it can be a useful mechanism to engage an audience and potentially reinforce your brand values and culture, but you can have too much of a good thing, so occasional use is my rule of thumb.”
