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Firms Mull Ban On Social Networking Websites
BY AMENA BAKR
You’ve been in your work cubicle staring at the same financial report for over an hour and just can’t seem to make any headway. Just then, an e-mail alert pops up telling you a buddy you haven’t seen since high school has added you as a friend on Facebook. You’re naturally curious to know what they’re up to, so you log in and browse their profile and pictures. No harm done, right?
Wrong, according to many employers, who view social networking websites such as MySpace, Friendster and Hi5 as time-consuming distractions that keep employees from doing their assignments. International studies suggest that social networking websites are a “procrastinator’s paradise,” costing companies millions of dollars in productivity losses. One study that surveyed 3,500 firms in the UK estimated that 233 million work hours are squandered each month by employees “wasting time” on social networking sites, costing British companies more than £130 million per day.
Dozens of sites have been implicated, but none so much as Facebook, where users can create profiles visible only to other members, organize groups based on common interests, upload and view photos, and exchange messages. Launched in 2004, Facebook claims to have 47 million active users worldwide and is adding 200,000 new users a day. The social utility now accounts for one percent of all worldwide Internet traffic.
Facebook’s explosive growth can be attributed in part to the voyeuristic aspect of the site, which offers an entertaining escape from mundane office work. But the preoccupation of office workers, particularly twentysomethings, with viewing photos and exchanging messages on Facebook and similar sites has created concern among employers. Companies in North America and Europe began taking steps to block or restrict access to these sites after noticing the large amounts of time their employees were spending on them. In the UK, where a study found British users spend an average of 191 minutes a month on Facebook, logging on to the site during office hours can be grounds for dismissal.
And in Egypt, where social networking is just the latest in a string of time-consuming internet addictions including instant messaging, chat, streaming videos and games, companies are already taking steps to curtail so-called cyberslacking. “We are aware that social networking sites as Facebook and others, as well as chatting programs, can waste a lot of time and result in a decrease in a company’s staff productivity,” says Magdy Ghobrial, strategic and PR manager at mobile phone operater Vodafone Egypt.
Vodafone’s network firewall, which filters out spam, adult content and viruses, was tweaked to block well-known social networking sites and their various backdoors. The closure came after managers noticed that employees elsewhere were wasting an inordinate amount of time during working hours on these sites. Yet the policy is under review. “Managers in all departments are exploring the possibilities of using these type of sites to benefit the business,” says Ghobrial. “If this is the case, we will open them up.”
But productivity loss is not the only reason that companies are restricting access to certain websites. IT experts say their chief concern is the huge burden download-intensive sites place on a company’s IT infrastructure and the potential risks they pose. Social networking sites, along with streaming video and music sites such as YouTube and LAUNCHCast, gobble internet bandwidth and slow local area networks. “When employees decide to mass download items from the Net it costs the company more in terms of buying additional bandwidth,” says Emad El Kady, managing partner and IT specialist at Al Jezeera Exhibitions, a regional event-planning firm.
Osama Saleh, information systems manager at automaker General Motors Egypt, concurs. “The main reason we block theses sites is that there is no clear business value for using them and [they often] waste valuable resouces,” he says. To conserve IT resources, GM employs a network application that blocks all programs and sites that fall under the “internet communication” category.
But increasingly, the argument is that social networking sites pose a threat to corporate security. And corporate image. In fact, according to a recent survey by UK-based IT security firm Sophos, more than 66 percent of respondents feared their staff and colleagues are sharing too much information on Facebook. Some managers fear their employees’ indiscretion and personal web photos could reveal corporate secrets or harm the company’s image. Moreover, the sites give disgruntled employees a powerful soapbox.
But while Saleh sees very little business use for these programs, he says it is important to remain flexible. “We trust our employees, and if I get a special request from one of the managers to open one of these sites for their staff for work purposes, we’ll listen, evaluate business needs and discuss alternatives,” he adds.
Angus Blair, head of research at Beltone Financial, insists no restrictions have been made at his firm. “We operate on the base of trust and generally it’s not a very positive thing to completely ban sites,” he says.
Two things have worked in Beltone’s favor, he admits. Firstly, the company’s open office floor plan makes it easier for managers to detect employees that are misusing the Internet. And secondly, the hectic pace of the financial sector keeps employees busy during office hours, and beyond. “We didn’t block access to any of the social networking sites, but due to the nature of our business, our workload is increasing and people don’t have time to spend on these sites,” he says.
Yet Blair recognizes the intrinsic advantage of some communication tools, such as MSN Messenger, a text and voice messaging device that the company employs internally to share information between departments, and externally to contact clients. “Using MSN [Messenger] helps save us a lot of money on phone calls, especially when we are communicating with individuals in the international market,” he says.
In some sectors, social networking in the workplace is not only tolerated, it’s encouraged. “We’re in the field of public relations and we find that social networking sites, given the popularity of Facebook, can help us promote our events,” says Randa Nassar, general manager at public relations firm Promoseven.
She explains how Facebook’s networking tools help notify guests of clients’ events, and encourage them to provide feedback on their clients’ goods and services. “Most of the people that we target and are interested in hearing feedback from have profiles and are regular users of Facebook, so to us this is one of the ways to build a stronger bonding with them,” Nassar says.
Promoseven’s account managers have set up special groups on Facebook to promote corporate events. Other tools, such as messaging software, are also used in the company as a means of communication with clients. “We allow access to MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger so that our employees can easily contact our clients both inside and outside of Egypt,” says Nassar. “As you know, these days people are more reluctant to answer a phone call than send an instant message on a messenger program.”
Many employees Business Monthly spoke to admitted they had circumvented their company’s firewall by using proxy websites to chat, view social profiles and stream music and videos. “Managers must understand that there is no point in banning these sites because we can always find new ways to open them,” says one employee at a multinational IT firm. “So the key is to monitor the use of these sites and not to completely ban them.”
El Kady agrees. “There is no use blocking these sites because employees will waste more time finding ways around them,” he says. “We have to accept that no matter what we do, [slackers] will find ways to waste time, whether on the Net or by doing anything else.”
For him, social networking online is just the latest in the evolution of office distractions, which has seen time wasters gossip by the water cooler, take extended cigarette breaks or bide their time listening to music on their iPods. While it may frustrate managers, El Kady believes even chronic workaholics needs a distraction every now and again. “Small breaks are necessary for a healthy working environment.”
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THE BUSINESS MERITS
Social networking sites might seem like a waste of company time but that doesn’t mean that companies can’t use these sites to benefit their business. Sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are always evolving to provide users with the ability to chase down old friends, make new ones or find groups with common interests. But these same tools make social networking sites powerful utilities for business. Here are a few potential applications:
- Team building: Employees and management can establish groups on social networking sites to discuss issues pertaining to their company in a non-threatening environment that might not necessarily be available in a meeting room. Groups can be open to all staff, or restricted to invitation only.
- Communication: Company employees can create groups to discuss their products or inform users of changes affecting products and answer client queries. In essence, the sites become a marketing tool for companies to assess the perception of their products and communicate directly with clients.
- Advocacy: Users of social networking sites can create groups to petition for certain products or services. The group provides companies with information on the demands of its members, which the company can use to assess its strategic planning for the product or service.
- Charity/CSR: NGOs can use social networking sites to recruit volunteers or solicit charitable donations, while companies can promote their CSR agendas by putting links on their pages to their NGO partners.
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