I was speaking to journalist Dermot Corrigan the other morning about Facebook.
He was writing an article for yesterday’s Sunday Business Post on how companies have started blocking access to Facebook for their employees. This is presumably on the back of articles like the one in the Telegraph recently which claimed that:
More than two thirds of employers are banning or restricting the use of Facebook and similar sites over fears that staff are wasting time on them when they should be working
This is an unmitigated load of cobblers frankly, and raises a number of issues, namely:
- If I’m an employer, I either trust my employees, or I don’t trust them. If I trust my employees, there is no need to block sites like Facebook. If I don’t trust my employees, blocking Facebook is the least of my problems!
- If I am an employer I have a responsibility to monitor my employees’ productivity. If it has demonstrably dropped as a direct result of using sites like Facebook then my first step should be to review my firm’s Internet Usage policy. We DO have an Internet Usage policy, don’t we?
- The vast majority of employees are responsible and hard-working. If they spend an hour someday on Facebook or a similar site, they will make that hour up during lunch by staying late, or by taking work home with them
- Speaking of taking work home, as an employer have I ever impinged on my employees time outside of work hours? If so, I can hardly complain if they bring some of their personal life to work!
But, instead of thinking negatively about it, how about turning it around and asking is there a potential benefit from having employees on FaceBook? Absolutely there is.
One asset any employee brings to his/her employer is their network. Conversations in networks result (directly or indirectly) to sales leads, which, if handled properly, result in sales.
Networks build profile and trust which should again bring about an increase in sales.
Networks also help fill vacancies and networks can be leveraged to get answers to difficult questions, reducing time spent on problem solving.
The main asset a company has is its employees. By exposing employees to their peers on channels like Facebook (and blogs, podcasts, etc.) companies get to show just how good their staff are. And if the staff are impressive, the company consequently as their employer, looks good too.
Companies who block sites like Facebook do so out of fear and ignorance - these are the same companies who blocked employee access to email early on, and who blocked access to the web when it started to become popular; for the same reasons now being given for blocking social networking sites.
Eventually these companies will realise that they are losing out and will quietly roll back the ban. However, I suspect that the longer they leave it, the more likely they are to lose their best employees to more progressive companies who allow open access to social networking sites.
Whilst employers shouldn’t ban Facebook, it’s probably a good idea to lay down some ground rules about its usage…i.e., what/how much is appropriate within work hours…if employees can be trusted (a big ‘if’ in my opinion) then they need to know what is appropriate behaviour
Sorry Tom, but that’s a load of crap.
I fail to see how ‘Mary Smith is happy about the sunny day’ and sending each other crappy invitations to stupid groups or applications which turn you into a zombie are any use to any employer. That’s about the extent of Facebook’s usefulness.
I’d restrict access to it in a flash. It’s a time waster, nothing more. In fact, I’d fire any employee I found using it. They should do it on their own time, not company time.
say’s he, with tongue in cheeky!
No, not at all. Perhaps for some webby based companies it might possibly have some merit but for your average Joe who has internet access in work there’s no need to use it and brings no benefit to the company.
@David - the ground rules for its usage could probably be covered by the companys Internet Usage policy. I don’t see a need for a FaceBook-specific policy.
@Twenty - from a HR perspective, the message you are sending out to potential employees when you block FaceBook is:
New trends = taboo at our company (we fear change)
We don’t like the Internet
We don’t trust you
From a sales perspective, people put lots of personal info into their FaceBook profile - this, properly used by sales staff should greatly increase the chance of landing sales!
Turn it around (if you want to be that paranoid employer) and if all your employees are on FaceBook, what better way to get to know them then by reading their FaceBook profiles!
Btw LifeHacker has a post you might be interested in listing productivity apps in FaceBook so you could, in fact, use it to make your staff more productive!
But most of what’s on Facebook is completely irrelevant to most companies and employees.
If I block Facebook it means I want my employees, the ones I pay, to do whatever their work is and not fanny around on some website that’s little more than a toy.
@Twenty, most of what is on YouTube is irrelevant, will you block that too?
In fact most email and most of what is on the Internet is irrelevant, why not block those too?
You don’t block those because you trust your employees to use them productively. Why should FaceBook be any different?
Yes, I would block YouTube and personal email.
You don’t block those because you trust your employees to use them productively
How can any employee use YouTube productively? And if you think the majority of people are using Facebook in a way that benefits their company then I think you’re wrong.
They use it to chat to friends and to idle time away - not to improve their work.
Seriously, it’s 99% fluff and crap and while some people might use it to arrange a meeting or something the majority certainly do not.
I’m with Tom on this on - worse case scenario, it’s healthier than fag breaks; best case, it’s another channel for building and reinforcing business networks without having to leave the office. Bad news for golf players, good news for the rest of us.
…probably not a Facebook specific policy (unless the world goes more facebook crazy than it already is), but possibly an opportunity to reassess an organisation’s general internet usage policy with specific reference to social networks…I doubt that such policies are reassessed regularly, rather only in reaction to a crisis
I think all companies should block access to Facebook, YouTube, personal email and, in fact, any site outside of a tightly moderated list of websited which are deemed useful to the company.
I also think cameras should then be installed to document what happens, as I think we have all forgotten how we wasted time before the internet came along.
It’s ridiculous to block facebook and other sites. I use facebook to look at pictures of my son that get posted when I am at work. Also to keep in touch with family over my lunch hour. Sure, block facebook and other such sites, if you want company morale to go way down. People deserve to have a little fun. Most of us work very hard and we should be allowed to use our breaks in whatever way we want. I work in a very stressful career field (child welfare) and used to really enjoy using my breaksto look at pictures, catch up with family and friends on facebook. Now they have taken all that away, and are sucking the life out of us. We work during our lunch hour often enough, and I don’t hear any employers complaining about that.