“If we don’t block Facebook people will just waste their time on the site instead of working.”
Raise your hands if you’ve heard that gem bandied about in a management committee meeting, an IT policy development session or any other forum that seeks to define appropriate use of technology at work. Since the IT guys haven’t approved my request for remote control of readers’ webcams I’ll just have to assume there are quite a few hands in the air right now.
There’s a pervasive belief in many organizations that blocking sites that are deemed to be of no value to work is the best way to ensure a productive workforce. Ultimately, though, this is a people management issue more than a technological one.
Wasting time is not a new phenomenon
Let’s be honest. People who want to waste time at work will do so whether or not they have access to social media sites.
Will some employees misuse their access to technology? Probably, but this is not unique to social media. How many employees use their desk phone to make personal calls? How many use their work email address for personal correspondence?
At some point, we decided that the business rationale for these tools outweighed the potential for misuse. In most cases, the same applies to social media access.
Deep Throat didn’t need Twitter
The other big stumbling block for organizations is the potential for misconduct. If employees have access to social channels at work they may act in an unprofessional manner that puts their organization at risk or publish sensitive information.
Again, this is hardly unique to social media. Just as an organization doesn’t withhold pencils for fear that an employee might write on a wall, denying access to social sites for fear of what employees might do makes little sense in any modern organization.
This isn’t to suggest there aren’t legitimate concerns about how employees might use access to social media sites – indeed, social channels provide a more direct route to a much larger potential audience than traditional forms of communication. But, for most organizations, the potential benefits outweigh these risks.
Mitigate, don’t legislate
All of that being said, while simply throwing open the floodgates to see what happens may be the simplest solution, it’s not a realistic one for most organizations. Instead, the solution can be found in governance and policy.
We’ve written in this space about the benefits of the policy development process. Ultimately, when it comes to setting expectations for employee conduct in a socially-connected workplace, the cornerstones of your policy likely already exist in the form of an employee code of conduct or a values and ethics statement.
Adapted for a web 2.0 world, an employee code of conduct or similar policy mitigates the risk of access to social sites by setting expectations and defining what is and what is not acceptable. This isn’t usually rocket science. Don’t use your corporate e-mail account to sign up for a personal Twitter feed. Don’t profess to speak on behalf of the organization unless you have the authority to do so. Don’t let other projects lag because you’re spending time online.
Don’t ignore the reward because of the risk
Social channels open up new possibilities for engaging your customers, tapping into a wealth of knowledge and keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry or constituency.
If you can’t trust your employees to take advantage of these possibilities for fear of them acting inappropriately, you probably have far bigger issues in your organization than can be solved by blocking Facebook.
Besides, if your employees are truly connected to the social world, they’re already finding workarounds.
Want to know if you’re ready to be active in social channels? We’ve got a whitepaper that can help you decide. And if you’re looking for some help bringing social media into your employee conduct policies, well we can help with that too. Give us a call.
