Blurring The Boundaries

The line between peoples work lives and social lives is becoming increasingly blurred as time goes on. But giving your staff the responsibility to organise their own time can have its benefits according to Simon Norris from Temperus – a software supplier.

With social websites like Facebook, eBay and YouTube, employers understandably begin to worry about ever-increasing sources of distraction and undermining the freedom of your employees. Manages need to ensure that employees fulfil their contractual duties, using this time productively.

One obvious solution many employers have come up with is to block such social websites. Lloyds TSB, and Transport for London are just two such organisations that have decided to implement such a strategy. But this can lead to your staff feeling restricted and frustrated.

Banning such sites gives the impression of an intolerant working environment. Not only that but such blocks are usually easily bypassed by using one of many ‘proxy’ sites which replicates the contents of things like Facebook under a different domain name.

Not only that but blocking also often means a high level of inconvenience for IT departments and administrative overheads. But also employers have noticed that if they restrict the use of banned sites to certain times, such as lunchtime, work can suddenly grind to a halt.

What Are The Alternatives?

However, there are alternatives that are beginning to emerge. For example, some companies install a software that measures the time employees spend on websites or computer applications. This provides the employer with a clear breakdown of how their employees are spending their working day ensuring staff time is spent effectively.

Of course, if you are going to introduce such software, you need to make sure you do so in an open manner and try to make it a positive tool to encourage self-regulation rather than making employees feel even more restricted, like Big Brother is watching them the entire time they are at work.

The managing director of People Vision HR, Alyson Pellowe, said: “A great deal of my clients have banned social networking sites. But employers need to treat their staff like adults; you don’t want to alienate people. However, the line manager has to concentrate on output as well. If staff are hitting their targets then managers should be happy for them to organise their day as they please.”

It’s clear that working patterns are changing, the need for flexible working hours is becoming more and more noticeable. As is the ever-increasing reliance on technology in both peoples working and personal lives. So both employers and employees will also likely be looking at technology to help them monitor and improve working practice. Could a system that works on informing and protecting both parties ensure everyone can deal with the changes in working life?

What Do You Think?

What do you think is the best method of regulating social networking site usage among employees? What has your company tried? What worked well, and what went wrong? Leave your comments here.

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