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26 Oct 2009
Consultancy firm Morse has renewed calls on firms to create and enforce tighter acceptable usage policies, after new research found that unregulated use of social networks could be costing UK firms over £1.3bn a year in lost productivity.
The firm polled over 1,400 office workers and found that 57 per cent use social networking sites during the working day for personal reasons, while three-quarters said that their employer had not issued specific guidelines for Twitter use.
"Social media can be good for business, helping to extend ties with customers and employees, but organisations don't seem to understand that it's not being used predominantly for business but for personal use. This is a massive productivity black hole," said Morse consultant Philip Wicks.
"Companies need to reinforce a corporate usage policy to ensure that people use their PCs responsibly and predominantly for business purposes."
The survey also highlighted the worrying dangers of staff posting potentially sensitive information on social networking sites. Morse found that 84 per cent of workers believe that it should be up to them what they post online, despite the potential damage to reputation or even share price.
"Acceptable usage policies need to be drawn up by businesses, but they also need to be enforced by IT. It has to be collaborative," said Wicks.
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An old problem...
Hi Phil. You make a good point, but companies have had policies on personal use of the company phone and email for years. I really don't think social media is any different. The issue of guarding against sensitive or inappropriate information going onto the social web is another matter, but again not entirely new. Employees have been trusted for years not to get drunk and naked at business lunches with clients - so it stands to reason that they know how to behave online. The main thing that companies need to do is to ensure that all employees KNOW this. Training and education is essential - and if you get this right, you can have the fantastic benefit of having all your employees working in the same direction online, ie giving you a social media presence that helps you! Here at Powwownow, we are trusted and encouraged to speak up on issues that interest us (eg productivity, business efficiency, green issues) and the presence we help create by doing this helps our company to increase its brand awareness. So the £1bn needs to be compared to the billions companies lose on personal phones calls, and it should also be harnessed, wherever possible, to help support everything else the company is doing online. But nice post, Phil. And thanks for letting me get it off my chest!
Posted by: Powwownow_green 26 Oct 2009