Social
media and the workplace
Even
some of the most professional institutions are relaxing access to social
networks and social-media sites. Ann Bednarz wonders whether that’s a good
idea.
When Socialware surveyed 144 financial
advisers this year, 84 percent said they use social networks for business
purposes, up from 60 percent in 2010. Another 10 percent said they plan to use
social media in the future.
The public sector, too, is lifting
access restrictions and wading deeper into social media across the globe. Among
us government employees with access to social media, for instance, 37 percent
are permitted to represent their organisations using the platform, and another
30 percent are allowed to do so with some restrictions.
A lot of businesses, small arid large,
are moving away from the restrictive model of blocking social media to a more
liberal access model.” Chenxi Wang, vice president and principal analyst at
Forrester Research, summed up earlier this year.
Inside organisations, the pressure to
expand social-media horizons is coming from multiple sources. Sales and
marketing teams want to engage customers through social-networking sites, users
want to access personal accounts from the workplace, and HR want to be able to
recruit, hire and retain social media-savvy employees. But it’s IT pros who
have to administer the rules.
Just over halt (51 percent) of 1400
CIOs polled in May by Robert Half Technology said they allow employees to use
social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook on the job, provided that it’s
for business purposes, up from 19 percent in 2009. Conversely, 31 percent
prohibit it in the office. The remainder said social networking is allowed for
limited personal use (14 percent) or any personal use (4 percent).
The disparity between what staff say
they’re doing with social media and what IT departments allow isn’t unusual.
Software security vendor Clearswift received mixed messages about social media
when it polled 1529 employees and 906 managers for its annual research report,
WorkLifeWeb 2011.
According to Clearswift, the
proliferation of high-profile data breaches is leading businesses to clamp down
on social- media use. Its survey found 19 percent of companies worldwide are
outright blocking employee access to social media sites, up from 9 percent in
2010. A significantly higher number of managers said their companies are
selectively monitoring internet activity and blocking access to certain social
sites.
Security fears are behind this
retreat from social media. Half the managers surveyed think employees are
oblivious to security concerns, and almost as many are worried about the
leakage of confidential data via employees.
Andrew Wyatt, Clearswift’s COO, said
the backlash is a short-term reaction to some highly publicised data leaks. “The
research provides evidence that businesses do recognise the importance of new
technologies, which leads me to believe that this is a knee-jerk reaction rather
than a long-term trend”, said Wyatt.
Attempts to suppress social-media
activity wouldn’t sit well with staff. Nonetheless, for the sake of security,
risk management and regulatory compliance, firms need to craft and enforce
acceptable use policies for social media.
These days, such policies are common,
but security controls are lacking. In a recent Ponemon Institute survey, only
29 percent of firms had security controls in place to mitigate or reduce the
risk.
In the end, letting the reins out on
social-media use is tough because it requires trust. While it’s critical for it
departments to address security and compliance, social-media thrives on
uncensored communications. Finding the right balance is key.
