Why it’s a bad idea to bar employees’ social media use at work
A study from Pew Research Center reveals that although employees sometimes use social media at work for personal reasons, many use it in ways that can help your business.
For years we’ve been trying to answer the same question: Why do organizations bar employees from using social media at work?
Such organizations might not be as prevalent as they were four or five years ago, but there are still companies out there who block employees from accessing social media sites while on the clock. Heck, I’ve had marketing clients who had to get special exemptions to visit YouTube and Facebook.
Organizations block social media sites for two primary reasons:
1. They’re a drain on employee productivity.
2. They’re a drain on IT resources, such as bandwidth.
However, a recent Pew Research Center study confirms what many of us suspect: Not only should organizations refrain from blocking social media sites, but they should actually encourage employees to use them.
Take a peek at a few nuggets from the survey:
The hey takeaway is that many people use social media to enhance their performance and solve problems at work.
Big surprise, right?
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