Corporate governance concerns among companies have been growing — according to a 2024 survey by the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC), the private sector showed an average adherence of 66% to the practices recommended by the Brazilian Corporate Governance Code, a 1.6 percentage point increase compared to 2023. State-owned companies and publicly traded firms also show steady growth.
Despite this, some common factors still hinder good governance practices, according to Andréa Migliori, CEO of Workhub Digital, an HR Tech provider of corporate portal solutions. “The pillars of governance are equity, transparency, integrity, sustainability, and accountability. For all of them, communication is key, and unfortunately, there are many challenges in this area among companies across all sectors,” she explains.
The CEO illustrates this with the most commonly used methods for sending information within organizations: emails and WhatsApp. “Although they are very useful and widely adopted tools, both bring risks and delays that can impact the company’s entire communication.”
The first negative point raised is the issue of organization and access to information segmentation. With conversations and documents scattered across hundreds of emails or WhatsApp groups, it becomes very difficult to track who said what and when. This also leads to different people having access to different information, creating inconsistency in decision-making. On its own, this situation disrupts daily business operations and team productivity but can also cause specific complications during audits, which require traceability.
Another risk is data vulnerability. Partly because some email providers and messaging apps may not have the best security certifications, and partly because decentralization can expose confidential matters to people who shouldn’t have access, through copied recipients or WhatsApp group members, for example.
Andréa also points to information overload as another common difficulty. “Channel saturation leads to wasted time and loss of focus, with teams spending more energy trying to organize themselves than actually working. It’s not unlikely for data to get lost in such cases, which directly affects governance practices,” the professional emphasizes.
One of the main solutions to this ‘chaos’ is using a single communication channel capable of centralizing and organizing company information, serving as the ‘backbone’ of internal communication strategy and enabling secure information and document exchange. This is the purpose of intranets and other corporate communication systems, especially those offering integrated solutions so everything is recorded within the same program.
“A good system can meet all internal communication needs while also providing ease during audits, with transparency and practicality,” explains Andréa. But she also stresses: “It’s as much a cultural change as it is a tool change. People need to adapt, and it’s essential that the entire team understands the reasons behind the new approach and uses it accordingly,” she concludes.
