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Transcript for Think Emoticons are NSFW? Think Again.

Emoji could be the key to helping workers convey emotion in digital communication.

What Workers Aren't Saying

81% of workers struggle to convey emotion in professional digital communications

Despite countless digital communication tools for work, there's still something missing from the conversation: the tone, inflection and non-verbal cues that help us convey emotion.

Nearly 1/2 of these workers don't feel emotionally connected at work.

The following information is presented in a bar graph:

Emotions workers struggle to express digitally

• 57% Frustration
• 39% Disappointment
• 35% Urgency
• 28% Happiness
• 27% Gratitude
• 27% Excitement
• 25% Agreement

Negative emotions are the most difficult. (39% Disappointment and 57% Frustration)

Emoji for the win!

Workers are turning to emoticons to more clearly express themselves in digital

Though they've yet to be fully adopted in work communications...

• 89% Emoji use at home
• 76% Emoji use at work

...there's little change in how they're used during or outside of work hours.

• 75% Emoji use outside of work hours
• 71% Emoji use at during work hours

75% of workers would be willing to use emoji more at work.

But they have a few requests ;)

• 37% want a more casual platform (like mobile messaging)
• 35% want others to do it first
• 28% want a larger variety of emoticons

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to using emoticons in digital communications.

Workers choose emoticons most often to express positive emotions

• 64% The happy face emoticon
• 16% The thumbs up emoticon
•  7% The winking happy face emoticon
•  3% The frowning face with open mouth emoticon
•  3% The heart emoticon
•  3% The sad face emoticon

The thumbs up emoticon is used more than twice as much in professional communication.

Men and women prefer different emoticions to express themselves.

• Men are more likely than women to use thumbs up
• Women are more likely than men to use happy face emoticons

More than a quarter of workers who are willing to use emoji more at work wish there was a wider variety of options.

Maybe some of these would be a good start?

[shows the images of a stapler, a paper airplane, and a trotting unicorn]

Welcome to the future of work communication.

This survey was conducted by Kelton Global between March 21st and April 1st, 2014 among 1,015 employed Americans ages 18 and over who own a smartphone, using an e-mail invitation and an online survey. The margin of error is +/-3.1%. Cotap.com