Companies' concern with corporate governance has been increasing — according to a survey by the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC) in 2024, the private sector showed an average adherence of 66% to the practices recommended by the Brazilian Code of Corporate Governance, a 1.6 percentage point increase compared to 2023. State-owned companies and publicly traded companies also show steady growth.
Despite this, some common factors still hinder the good exercise of governance, according to Andréa Migliori, CEO ofWorkhub DigitalHR Tech solutions for corporate portals. "The pillars of governance are equity, transparency, integrity, sustainability, and accountability. For all of them, communication is a key point, and unfortunately there are many challenges in this area across companies of all sectors," he explains.
The CEO exemplifies the most commonly used methods for sending information within organizations: emails and WhatsApp. "Although they are quite useful and widely disseminated tools, both carry 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 identify who said what and when. This also leads to different people having access to different information, which results in inconsistency in decision-making. In itself, this situation hampers the daily operations of the business and the teams' productivity, but it can also lead to specific complications during audits, which require traceability.
Another risk is data vulnerability. Partly because some email operators and messaging apps may not have the best security certifications, and partly because decentralization can lead confidential matters to people who should not have access, through recipients in copy or presence in WhatsApp groups, for example.
Andréa also indicates information overload as another common difficulty. "Channel saturation leads to wasted time and focus, with teams spending more energy trying to organize themselves than actually working. It is not unlikely that data is lost in such cases, which directly affects governance practices," emphasizes the professional.
One of the main solutions for this "chaos" is the use of a single communication channel capable of consolidating and organizing the company's information, serving as the "spine" of the internal communication strategy and allowing secure exchange of information and documents. This is the purpose of intranets and other corporate communication systems, especially those that offer integrated solutions to ensure everything is recorded within the same program.
"A good system can meet all internal communication needs and also provide ease during audits, with transparency and practicality," explains Andréa. But she also emphasizes: "It's a change of tool as much as it is a cultural change. People need to adapt, and it is essential that the entire team understands the reasons behind the novelty and uses it accordingly," she concludes.
