The long weekend gave ample time for me to catch up with some long lost friends. And is the case with long lost friends the topic turned to each others work. Surprised that my work meant blogging, tweeting and telling companies how to use Orkut, they lamented on how most of these are banned at their workplace. The latest in the casualty ward being my favorite boy Twitter.

I find it extremely narrow on the part of firms to simply ban any medium that has traces of creating a non productive workforce. Banning is not a solution, in its broadest sense it is colloquial and only leads to resentment. It is similar to the views that echoed a few years back, saying not everyone should be allowed to blog. The companies that resisted such a temptation are now seeing the payoff.

Knowledge Centric Organization. Poof!

It is ironic that these are the same organizations that harp on creating a knowledge environment. The web, in its new media avatar is the epitome of knowledge sharing and distribution. To block it out under the pretext of productive use of work time is to my mind making a mockery the word knowledge in your organizational goals.

When we define the scope and power of social media, the prominent line often repeated is how conversations are the new marketplace, and they will happen regardless of whether you as a company is involved or not. The best you can do in such a situation is to be part of the conversation at least as a listener. And given how large social media is, one ear won’t suffice to be part of it.

Of course, one can easily argue that the employees bring it upon themselves by abusing the freedom. No company would inherently hate any new development in communication after all. However, is pulling the plug the only solution? Why can’t firms take a moment and see if these online adventures can be used to their advantage?

Social Solution

Why not use the most prolific users of social media within the company as brand evangelists. Why not reward employees who use sites like Orkut or Facebook, or services like their personal blogs to increase brand equity of the company. Why not encourage them to promote or create conversations about a new product or a feature or to get feedback. This needn’t mean they have to spend hours scrapping or tweeting everyday. What are your appraisal systems for if they can’t keep a check on work time lags?

Give the power to your employees to decide how they want to use their time. Measure their activities in terms of results both with their primary roles as well as their online engagements. Let them take a call on where they see more benefit. And if they can get your work done simultaneously with their social life online, what’s the harm?

To Conclude

Not being productive is inherent to people who aren’t enterprising, and sadly that is how most of the Indian workforce are. Squeezing them shut into world without windows only leads to a sweaty disgruntled room and not an efficient palace of ideas. Innovation lies in turning threats into opportunities, it is such innovation that can scale. Use the your human resource in terms of the tools that they attach themselves to. The time spent can easily be considered investment in branding, marketing and HRM, that’s what social media provides anyway.

Am I being optimistic with such a solution? Would we as employees bother about any motivation to use the freedom for workplace evangelicalism on our social network? Would there be a better way to connect online and yet not hamper workplace productivity? Will any firm bother looking at such alternatives or would they still take the easy banning way out?

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