The other day I came across a question on LinkedIn about the role of social networks in office productivity. The person asking the question seemed to be getting at the benefits of social networking by employees as a means of building the brand’s social campaign which is a great topic but what I’m going to talk about, and most of what I responded to, was the perception of social networking and its impact on productivity. Most of what follows is taken directly from my answer with a little further clarification.
The other day I came across a question on LinkedIn about the role of social networks in office productivity. The person asking the question seemed to be getting at the benefits of social networking by employees as a means of building the brand’s social campaign which is a great topic but what I’m going to talk about, and most of what I responded to, was the perception of social networking and its impact on productivity. Most of what follows is taken directly from my answer with a little further clarification.
So here goes… Keep in mind this is an answer to a question about an individual’s client and is written as such.
Question: I recently suggested to a client that to add value to his new website – he needs a Facebook and MySpace presence for his company … a recruitment and temporary staffing business. His reply was that he was turning off access to them because his staff waste[s] to[o] much time there. How do I convince him to balance the benefits with the distractions?
My response: Does your client forbid employees from talking? How about from using email? Does he expect them to spend their days in front of their monitors without pause? Is he looking to foster a culture of people that work to get paid or one in which people work as a part an organization they enjoy? Does he want his employees engaging people in their fields to learn and promote or to sit alone and isolated?
I ask these questions because whenever this comes up it’s important to realize that this discussion is not new, only the medium is. The simple reality is that our employees are human and as such, they crave interaction and distraction. This distraction can mean checking email, planning a vacation, messaging on FaceBook, taking a smoke break or chatting by the coffee machine. All of these appear to detract from productivity but can also boost it and all of these have been talked about for years. Before the internet it was the water cooler and smoking breaks, with the internet it was email and now social networking and interactivity. Like the offline examples, there’s a lot more to it that just getting people to focus more and slack less.
In my experience, employees who are denied the opportunity to communicate have less attachment to their employee and a whole lot less reason to stick around – which is a huge problem. As a blog posting at Web Ink Now mentioned the other day, restricting access can also limit a company’s ability to be in the market place (see link below). What if employees want to read blogs about their field? What if they want to discuss ideas? Where is the line between social (my friends) and networking (my business contacts… a la LinkedIn)? In some groups, FaceBook is used for business contacts as much as personal ones, should it still be banned?
There’s no doubt that employees spending time on other websites are not doing their work at that exact second. But let’s drive a level deeper… what do the employees actually do? Even if they do serve a function which is all about constant production, do we expect them to work without pause and even if we’d like them to do that, do we really think it’s reasonable to assume they can or could?
I like to look at my employees and teams as self-accountable individuals. This goes for high level professionals and call center employees, I’ve worked with both. If someone has 10 tasks to accomplish and has accomplished all 10 thoroughly, gone off and concepted something new without prompting, and started in on 11, 12 & 13 aren’t they ahead regardless? If my in-bound call center agent has no inbound calls to take and no notes to write up, do they really just need to sit there playing thumb war? My stance is no, they don’t. If people get things done and go above and beyond then they are great contributors to the team and if they want to post to a social site, talk to a coworker, check email, etc…, so be it because they will regardless and giving them freedom helps build our relationship while giving them another reason to value their position in the organization.
In my experience, if people are “slacking”, stopping them from using a website doesn’t fix anything. The problem isn’t that FaceBook takes all their time, it’s that they chose to put it above other things and can’t find a balance. The problem is a management one, not a social networking one. And let’s be honest here… no one really spends 8 or 10 hours stuck in front of their desk without distraction every day of the year, yet most of us are productive. Employees who aren’t being productive need to be worked with to understand issues, resolve challenges and be encouraged to succeed. Denying them access to websites is like telling a first grade bully not to beat up kids and then leaving them in class, you’re not fixing the issue. You may be helping to cut off their vice but you aren’t fixing the issue and unless they agree that they should be banned because they just can’t stop (which I’ve seen people ask for), what have you solved?
Your client is absolutely right to want to insure his team is productive but he also needs to consider what his team is accomplishing today and what is reasonable to expect from them. Furthermore, he needs to consider the implication of slapping wrists and limiting people… being told no can be deeming or insulting at the least and at some point it becomes a reason to leave for a place that sees your value and doesn’t worry about how you spend a few minutes of your day. Let’s not forget, people have iPhones these days so what you deny them through their web browser they can get elsewhere.
Of course many of us know this yet many of us are banned from websites or have to sell this idea to our executives and I think the only way is to outline the reality of the situation.
There are lots of management types out there and some don’t want to accept that people aren’t glued to their monitors… breaking them of that means presenting them with evidence. Discussing quotas and goals and helping them realize that things are being done and more then the basics are being covered. Reminding them that problems exist with or without social and interactive sites and that management has to play a role in addressing productivity is also key. Good employees in an open-market economy are ones who want to be product, not people who are forced to be.
For those managers who are more willing to accept the distraction argument and get that we aren’t all glued to our tasks 24×7 and that we expect some freedom in exchange for our hard work and getting the job done, there’s still a lot for be said about discussing true impact and reality of social networking, blogs and other websites on the company. It’s often overlooked but these sites connect employees much like conferences (but without the travel budgets and gas bills). Social connectivity allows us to learn, to answer, to exchange ideas and information and to improve our ability. The notion that it is all bad is simply wrong, if it was all about fun and slacking, this blog would have no visitors after all.
P.S. Last week I saw a great post over at Web Ink Now which addresses this issue and caused me to think a lot about it prior to this question being asked. I’ve clearly picked up a few ideas from that post and really suggest reading it as it talks not just about the productivity impact but in depth about the positive benefits and contributions employees make when they get social through networks, blogs and the likes. There’s some great examples in there and I clearly like it enough to plug it big time so please take a look.