Let’s face it: social media is here to stay.
It connects people, provides almost instant access to information and can be a great way to keep in touch with customers. Unfortunately, the line is sometimes blurred when it comes to what’s appropriate and what isn’t at the office. If you feel your employees are spending too much time online interacting with personal connections, what can you do about it?
The knee-jerk reaction is to ban all social media use at the office.
No more Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging on company time. Period. You can block sites, or check history to see where you employee has been “wasting time.” The problem with a blanket blackout is that it can also prevent people from accessing information they do need.
Small and large companies alike, use Twitter, LinkedIn and business Facebook pages to keep in touch with clients. Information gathered from reliable sources on the web can improve the quality of reports and provide up to date information. Industry discussion groups can help keep your business connections fresh and up-to-date.
So where do you draw the line?
The simplest way is to have a discussion with your staff and gather their ideas on what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Talk about how tempting it is to stay constantly connected with friends and family throughout the day, but in reality, there’s little time for this. Let them come up with suggestions to self-govern. There’s a good possibility those who respect the fact they are being paid to work will welcome the chance to establish some guidelines. (No matter how much someone thinks their actions go unnoticed, more often than not, others in the office know who spends too much time online.) The group might determine that personal social media use should take place over lunch or on official breaks.
The second thing to do is seriously consider why an employee has enough time to spend on personal business in the first place.
It’s sometimes easy to identify someone caught up in the social media whirl, as they tend not to realize how minutes add up to hours over the week when sharing thoughts and updates with friends. They can become frustrated at a perceived lack of time to accomplish tasks and feel they are so busy, they can’t take on one more project. Are they really that busy? Or busy looking busy? Set very specific goals and due dates if this is the case. And perhaps spend some one-on-one time with the person to follow how they allocate their day. Perhaps they are indeed overloaded and need guidance. Or the need to feel connected has become a habit and is eating into their day.
Bottom line…
The equipment and communication devices owned by your office are meant for company business, so you have every right to limit personal use. Before you implement a stringent policy, however, it’s worth encouraging your employees to come up with a reasonable guideline. Abusers will likely be leveled out by non-abusers and you might be surprised at the result.