UK Employers hesitant to embrace social networking
Recent research has shown that over three quarters of UK employers do not have a formal policy regarding employee use of external social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
By comparison, the independent research of over 2,100 UK employers revealed that one fifth of those surveyed (22%) said that they do have a policy in existence.
Of the employers that do currently have a formal policy regarding employee use of external social networks, the factors they cited as the main benefits of having such a policy in place were:
- Helping to avoid productivity loss
- Protecting company reputation
- Helping to protect intellectual property
- Protecting propriety of information
- Aiding recruitment efforts
- Protecting the company brand
These latest figures show that many companies are still refusing to jump on the social networking bandwagon despite its widespread popularity. This could actually be a missed opportunity for many businesses, as many benefits can accrue from using social networks such as:
- Increased collaboration between departments
- Increased brand awareness across new demographics
- Increased innovation
- Increased contact with customers and other stakeholders
- Lack of social networking presence may hint to others at a lack of commercial awareness
It is certainly in the interests of most businesses to create a social networking usage policy and it should be closely linked to the company’s overall behavioural guidelines. It is something that should be constantly changed as social networks evolve, but ultimately, the benefits of allowing employees to engage with others on social networks far outweigh the possible negatives. Any possible misuse of these websites can easily be monitored by internal IT departments if necessary and any examples of misuse would then be dealt with by the company’s social networking usage policy.
