Social networking can improve productivity, but only with the right policies in place

For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's third law of motion might not have been written in response to the great man's observations on the use of social media in the workplace, but that doesn't mean they can't be applied there.

Yesterday, slackers and conscientious workers in need of a break alike rejoiced in news from Singapore, where researchers at the National University found that employees who are allowed to access social media sites are 39% more productive than those who are not. But before everyone does their bit to break the company bandwidth barrier with an extended spot of virtual farming, it's worth noting that for every report of this nature, there seems to be an equal and opposite one indicating that time wasted online is just that: time wasted. And that's before anyone's factored in the cost or, increasingly, the security implications of too free-and-easy an attitude to social media.

As with so many things in life, the truth rests somewhere near the middle. As Clearswift's WorkLifeWeb 2010 research found, cracking the whip on employee surfing time might give a greater sense of control over a delicate situation to some managers, but it has an unwanted side-effect of eroding employee job satisfaction and sense of trust. Add to this the reality that blocking a tool that most managers now accept as vital to the future success of their business is both short-sighted and likely to stifle innovation, and it's obvious that a more sensible, less black-and-white approach is the way to go.

A unified, flexible approach to policy, drawing on a single, shared set of rules means that businesses can apply the same standards and limits to all their communications channels, whether it's email or Web 2.0 tools and services. Security should be about policy, not policing, creating the confidence to tackle the negative side effects of communications while taking advantage of the benefits these tools bring. With rules that can be tailored right down to employee level, enabling time quotas and usage rules for particular websites and services, businesses can keep the communications channels open without losing sleep over security. By making security policy relevant to all users and educating employees to understand exactly why the rules are in place, businesses can support productivity and security without undermining staff morale.

By Richard Turner