Social Media at Work et eee ee eee, Sea eg re : 7 aly Se ee aad eae pene eee ae ee How you gonna keep ’em? Attempting to outlaw Facebook, Twitter and their lesser-known cousins may cruel your pitch with Gen Y staff. 6 millon Aust 30k profiles. Ifyou further take info consideration that people who acces This figure includes 8.1 mifon accounts supposedly being managed by and Twitter ont which is that the 21-90 year olds, maaring they have an averagy & founger people — ae twice as active ded a the rest ofthe ps ure fs crystal clear: socal networks fy pa tion and are 11.2 accounts each, | don't beleve that ths dscrepency is an accident ily becoming normalised ion. For oF evidence of Gen Y lazins people itis a completely normal en fact, you are In contrast, thera are 2.5 millon Facebook accounts forthe 44 milion "Ot 7 Facebook, you are ikely to be seen as a ite occ peopl in the fears age group, representing a take-up rate So, seeing Facebook and other forms of social networking as a of around 87 p 25 milion forthe 2.8 milion in the business threat i Ike ty one's proverbial finger in the dyke 15-60 years age group, represaning a take-up rate of around 45 per cent. to hod back portunity that social natworkeng objectives of focal government uring from person in-two chance that y The oorolary of which is, tat the have very tle or no 00k is all about (an The picture is crystal clear: social networks are idea about Tater, MySpace, Bebo, Yammer and the surfeit of othe an everyday part of life for the younger generation social networking sites) and why your kids, oranda and yes, staf, and are very quickly becoming normalised across ‘obsessed with it And they dearly are obsessed les rue DODO) Lats take a quick look at a fow stats. Fity per cent af Face ‘The default pastion af most nants fs to ban sock neck the ste every day. Ea erage of 1 ‘media and soc here isa ciferancs {and spends an average of 55 minutes per day checking out what thet itis not uncommon for councils to have a etworking sts (ye fault positon that rien 10. 'm nat etiely sure that | balove the average of 8 i banned untila business case can be made fort 10 be minutes on ste, but leaving asice my scepticism for a moment, tis unbanned. AS a former public servant | atu nal in general these stats would be driven down by the reatvely and exasperating, An analogy would be to have a whol of activity of. 1nd up by the very active use by the as siting on the shel, but oriy let you . ox ation, ‘ome to you for perission before aon of culture of misru stuf. What an extra 42 LGM October / Noveri LOMA Local Government Managers AustraliaItis kel that social network sites (paticulerly Facebook and Titer) ‘are among the most popular places for your community to tak about Your organisation. Ifyou are going to block these and so ensure you ‘cannot hear what the community is saying, you should probably cancel ‘the subscription to your mecka monitor, too. The same rationale applies to both, Do you worry that sta getting the local paper might waste tims reading articles not rlatad to ther work? Lets take @ moment to knock a few of the urphies about social networking on the hea, ‘The biggest and most obvious myth is that social networking wastes time, There is very tle real data on this subject and a great deal of ‘anecdotal supposition and leaping to unsupportabe conclusions ‘4.20089 survey of 287 employees across a range of industies by ‘Nucleus Research, a US-based IT advisory eervice, found that an ‘average Facebook user is 1.5 por cent less productive than a non Facebook user. From ths result, the researchers leat tothe conclusion ‘at organisations facing the prospect of thy prof margins shouid bo banning Facebook to ensure thar sural, What utter ubbisht How ‘many of us work at 98.5 per cent effcleney? In contrast, the results of a University of Mebourna study of {200 emoloyees suggests that employees who surf the ‘net’ during business hours on regular basis appear to be more productive that their counterparts. According to an interview published onthe online forum eNotAlone, the study's lead author, Professor Brent Coker, found that people who browse the web for less than 20 per cent of ther work time are more productive by nearty nine per cent than their on-browsing workmates. It is more productive, particularly in terms of employee relations, to focus on setting up formal policies for acceptable use. ‘So, who's right? On balance it seems to me that, f the best you ‘can come Up with as a downside risk isthe loss of 1.5 per cent Produetivty without considering any of the ussides, then you nave lost the argument ‘Another, rather flimsy, justification fs the potential or brand damage ‘due to employees making inappropriate comments that reflect poly (on the organisation, ‘Such comments couid be completely unrelated tothe organisation. For example, atthough Australian Olympian Stephenie Rice's advice via ‘Twitter to supporters of South ‘Afican Augby, folowing the Wallabies" memorable recent triumph, cid not mention her car sponsor, the good Poople at Jaguar nevertheless fet that it was dettimental enough to the brand to warrant ending the relationship. Or tne comment may be undeniably targeted at the workplace: ke the UK employee wha, forgating thet she had riended! her boss (on Facebook, decided to labo him a ‘ty por’ forall her frends to ‘ee, She was subsequently fred by that same boss via Facebook: a cious irony. 'No one is condoning this sort of behaviour, however normal itis in the real word of youthtl exuberance. But the solution isa twofold ‘Combination of engenderng a productive workplace cuture so that your ‘employees are unlikely to fee! the need to vent whether at home or st ‘work, and to provid structured advice, guidelines and, wien necessary, ‘counseling, rather than the introduction ofa totaterian regime, LGMA Local Goverment Managers Australia ‘The final basis for banning access to social networking inthe workplace ‘elatas to a range of organisational risks due to employees either over ‘sharing information about ther warkpiace or, more unusually, ering thomselves up as potential espionage subjects when they reveal their \workiace and role, While there are certainly ckcumstances in local government that require ciscetion and maintsnance of confidences, ‘We are not taking about the National Secrets Act. Clear guidlines ‘bout the do's and don'ts of employes use of social network sites can deal wth these crcumstances more than adequately. ‘Thete ae two final crical points | would make rogarcing the desire to ban social networking in the workpice “The first is practical ‘You can't ben your employees from using social networking sites in thei own te because, wel, you just can't. Furthermore, you can't ban your employees from using social networking sites when they're at Work because the spread of smartphones has made I impractical 10 «do so. This means that you can't stop them from taking less than two "minutes to downoad the social notworking application of thelr choice ‘and checking ther phone every once in a while to 220 it anything new is happening among their frendship group. The sacond is cut 's Itrealy worth the damage that such a policy i kay to be doing to your staf morale as a demonstration ofa lack of trust? A far back as 2008, aw fim Deacons pubished survey resus showng that, given a choice between two jobs equal in all ther respects, Gan ¥ would choose an employer that allowed access ‘0 sovial networking sites. A somewhat astonishing 91 per cent of social network users saw their socal networking 2s a benefit o thelr ‘employers; younger employees particulary took this wen. They saw benefits of employee access to social networking sites in terms of demonstrating trust fn employees, giving people a break from day ‘o-day work and allowing them to network with other employees, ‘customers an! suppliers. ‘A 2007 report by Bxitai's Tracie Union Congress noted that outight ‘banning of social networking sites in the workaca is an overreaction {nd that itis more productive, particulary in terns of employee relations, to focus on sting up formal policies for acceptable use, ‘Andrea Di Meio, an IT advisor and blogger out ofthe US, made the folowing observation recently about one of his clent companies: They are keeping an open minal on whether and how social media ‘can be benefclal to employees vito want to improve thoi work ‘effectiveness, They have no specific social media poicy in place, as they believe that thei Intanet far use potcy covers most ofthe ground, Further they are monitoring usage and just found out that Facebook ‘and other social mecta are responsible or less than 4 per cent of network trafic, considerably less than enlne newspapers | find tis approach very retteshing and grown un: let people use social "notworking sites and then figure out how much and for what purpose they are using them. You may find that it isn't anly Generation ¥ that thanks you for taking a more open approach, your ene workforce ‘may well breathe a sigh of rallef and your community might also be ‘ied that you are paying attention, Contact: Dr Crispin Butters ph, 1900 64 20 14 email crispinbangthetable.com October / Noverrber 2010 LGM 48