Should Companies Ban Social Media at Work?

It’s an odd question, really, when you consider how many companies are shifting some of their advertising dollars to social media. Even when it makes good business sense from a sales perspective, sometimes leadership doesn’t see it that way for employees. In fact, what other new business tactic can you think of that companies don’t want employees to participate in?

I came across this article from Sharon Gaudin with some interesting stats on social media and productivity:

According to a study commissioned by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm, 54% of U.S. companies say that they have banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace while on the job. The study also found that 19% of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes, while 16% allow limited personal use.

Only 10% of the 1,400 CIOs interviewed said that their companies allow employees full access to social networks during work hours.

So what message does that send to employees?

Well, it’s a trust issue. And the message is pretty clear: we don’t trust you. But are employees truly blocked from social media? Hardly, at least if you have a smart phone. So while a company may block social media, half the people may have access social networks anyway through their iPhone or BlackBerry.

It becomes a matter of how employees use these tools. While there are plenty of legitimate business reasons for participating in social media, the perception is still that social media is just games or personal interest. Overcoming this barrier is the turning point for many companies. As Alan Richardson pointed out on our LinkedIn discussion group, companies trust employees with corporate credit cards. So why not social media?

But isn’t there a business case to be made for banning social media?

Of course. But the reality is that no employee is 100% productive all of the time (Take it from the episode of The Office where Dwight says he isn’t wasting any company time, so Michael follows him around with a stopwatch).  The truth of the matter is that even if employees aren’t “wasting time” looking at Facebook, they are probably “wasting time” in other ways (And a side note, I think there’s tons of productivity and valuable knowledge sharing out there in social media). A coworker told me that she knows someone who works in an office where they have to grab an IT person to get access to the website. No web browsing in that place. So what’s an employee to do when he or she needs to rest their brain for a second? “I just stare at the wall,” said the employee.

Is staring at a wall more productive than social media?

I’d like to think not. LinkedIn is an incredible networking tool, and Twitter allows people to follow thought leaders in nearly every industry imaginable. Social networking has proven itself to work when it comes to engaging people, and companies that leverage that knowledge—even, and perhaps especially, if done internally—will see results in the future.

But all this thinking has tired me out. I guess I’ll just stare at the wall for a minute and relax.

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