Bitrix 24 specialists analyzed tens of millions of user reactions. And they deduced certain patterns between emojis and employee engagement, and also compiled a rating of the most emotionally reactive countries.

A like in a work chat has long been used as approval, approval, or taking note. This saves time and does not clog up the information background. And what can a "thumbs up" in a work chat say about the mentality of a company or even a country?

Emotionality in chat rooms: from Fiji to India

So, over the three reporting months, users of Bitrix24 portals in 104 countries used 65 million different emojis.

Regional observations show that in the area with the Russian language of communication, the variability of reactions ("laughter", "anger", "admiration") is less than in other countries. However, other countries are heterogeneous and have significant differences.

There are three island countries in the top in terms of the variety of emotions: Fiji, Bermuda and the Philippines. Bermuda uses more different emojis than just likes, as in Nigeria. And there are countries where there are a lot of reactions to messages, but low variability, which indicates a formal approach to using emojis. Among them are Japan, Iraq and Myanmar.

"Emotional countries" (lots of emojis and/or lots of different emotions) are contrasted with "non-active" ones, where all indicators are low. There are 4 European countries in the top 10 in terms of emotional reactivity: Hungary (1st place), Estonia, Bulgaria and Portugal. And three island countries: Fiji, Bermuda, and the Philippines (because of the diversity). As well as Mongolia, Nepal and Iraq. India and Saudi Arabia are in the last places.

Kazakhstan also made it into the top ten most "non-active" countries, along with its CIS neighbors: Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Emojis and religious holidays

Based on the data, more religious countries can be identified. The ratio of positive and negative reactions shows two spikes: December 24 (Catholic Christmas) and January 1 (New Year). For example, in Poland, the ratio of positive reactions at Christmas is 5 times higher than usual, and almost twice as high as on New Year's Eve. In the USA, the ratio is higher on New Year's Eve than on Christmas. Vietnam has the highest level of positive reactions on January 29, when the Vietnamese New Year is celebrated.

Monday is the most negative day

On average, a user leaves 42 reactions per month, of which 35 are neutral likes (84%), 6 are emotions of laughter or admiration (13-14% in total), and 1 reaction will be negative (~2%). The average number of reactions per message is ~0.12, which means that an average of 8 messages must be sent to receive one reaction.

On one portal, 60% of all users send messages, and only a third of them (20% of all portal users) respond to them. The average number of reactions to channel posts is higher than to chat messages.

Trends by day of the week show that the total number of positive reactions increases from the beginning of the working week to Saturday, and Monday is the most negative day: the difference in the number of positive and negative emotions is minimal. The greatest variety of reactions falls on Saturday, and the general background on this day is the most positive.

On weekends, users use the work portal less often, but if they do, what they read causes a greater emotional response.

What do emojis say about the company's work?

Companies that have been using corporate portals for longer (earlier than in 2020) have higher rates of emotional engagement. The proportion of employees using reactions is higher. This also applies to the average number of user reactions: the general trend is also not in favor of companies that have been using portals for work relatively recently.

On the one hand, the increase in engagement over time on the platform may indicate that Bitrix24 has become a familiar communication tool for individual companies. And over time, employees begin to use the various advantages of the messenger more often. On the other hand, employee engagement can serve as a "prediction" of a company's continued existence: organizations with active employees tend to function longer and remain Bitrix24 users.