Can u tweet @ work?
By CRYSTAL LINDELL - clindell@nwherald.com
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| Sarah Evans, owner of Sevans Strategy, works Friday from her Elgin home. One aspect of Evans' company is to broaden companies way of they connect through online communication. She is partnering with Macy's on their Path to Peace program. (Lauren M. Anderson – landerson@nwherald.com) |
The more than 1,300 employees at the McHenry County Government Center have to get special permission to tweet, re-tweet and poke.
That’s because social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are blocked – even for those at the top, such as Administrator Peter Austin.
“I don’t know that we can say that we actively came up with the policy,” he said. “It’s [just] been a policy of our [information technology] department.”
However they arrived at the stance, they’re not alone. According to a survey released in October by Robert Half Technology, 54 percent of employers prohibit using social media at work.
Reasons range from security concerns to productivity problems. But Scott Poole, a University of Illinois communication professor, said companies should be careful how they broached the topic – especially with younger employees.
“If you’re under 30 or under 35, you ... have grown up multi-tasking,” he said. “There is evidence that maybe it’s not the most efficient way to work, but frankly people prefer to do it. And it can really get your mind back on focus, so long as you’re not overly distracted.”
That’s an outlook Sarah Evans, of Elgin-based Sevans Strategy, adamantly promotes. She’s a new media consultant who helps companies navigate the worlds of virtual friendships.
Evans said she worked with two types of organizations – those that launch an online strategy and then develop policies as they go, and those that do it the other way around.
“And the companies who jump in with a strategy first ... they see much more success,” she said.
Her outlook is exactly the opposite of Tony Steadman, part-owner of Woodstock-based Stan’s Office Technologies. His 24 employees aren’t only barred from using social media on their work computers, they’re also barred from using the Internet for anything not related to work, and from text messaging on the clock.
“If they’re doing personal tasks instead of what they should be doing, that’s a productivity concern,” Steadman said, adding that he has a computer in the lunch room that employees can use on breaks.
Evans admits that excessive use could be problematic, but she compared it to not allowing staff to send 100 personal e-mails each day. In other words, regulation should fall under “common sense.”
“You’ve got to have employees who value work-life balance,” she said.
Even if an employer could block every site, many would turn to their Blackberry or iPhone to check their friends’ latest updates, Evans added.
“Unless you say, ‘Anyone who is using these sites at work ... will be penalized,’ but then you have to devote time to monitoring,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like an effective use of resources.”
Ideally, online interactions should be viewed through a public relations lens, Evans said. For example, Zappos, an online shoe company, encourages employees to share stories of their experiences working for the company.
“I’m not saying that social media is right for every company and organization, because it’s not,” she said. “If you’re working on national security, it’s probably not a smart idea to have people talking [about] their experience there. But for anything that’s customer driven ... it’s another extension of your PR arm.”
And public relations is one of the reasons county employees soon might find themselves with more access, Austin said. Officials decided to create a new policy for the sites, after they saw benefits such as the health department using social media to convey information on H1N1.
“It’s fair to say we’re just kind of dipping our toes in this,” he said. “It’s just another way of communicating and I don’t think it’s going to go away, so we’re going to have to adapt.”
Poole said employers with that approach probably were on the right path.
“These technologies can’t be stamped out,” he said. “And a really visionary company thinks of a way they can use it to their advantage and thinks of ways they can use it to keep their employees happy.”
