We know employees love social media, but how about their employers? This infographic from Payscale has some surprising findings:
- Large companies: Less than half (47%) have a formal social media policy
- 71% of energy companies prohibit the use of social media at work
- Over 50% of employees 55 and older use social media at work daily
Which leads us to two fictions:
- It’s cheaper to be a late-adopter. By all rights, the majority of these companies should have as easier time transitioning to social media than the first-movers did. The mistakes have been made, the best practices have been learned, so the costs in dollars and time should be less. That said, culture is the hardest thing to change, and given how much cultural change social media requires, those efficiencies will probably be nullified. Also, it’s not like the competition will be standing still while the catcher-uppers do their thing. Factor in opportunity costs and what it will take to pry loose the first mover’s advantage in terms of online relationships, and you’re in deficitville.
- “We don’t let employees use social networks, so they’re not using social networks”: With so many employees walking into work with their smart phones, it’s time to give up the fiction that they’re not using social networking during working hours. Even in countries where 2G is still the norm, social networks similar to Facebook are being used via SMS. So employees are using social networks. It’s just not on the company’s infrastructure.
