Security Threats, Productivity Top Reasons for Social Media Bans

Walnut, Calif. — Nov. 19

A new survey released by software provider MySammy LLC explores the sentiments of human resource professionals on the topic of social media. Results show interesting concerns regarding threats from social media, corporate policies and impact on recruitment and effects on productivity.

The two biggest factors on why companies block access to social media websites were “security threats” (77 percent) and “decreased productivity for employees” (67 percent).

While 76 percent expressed concern that employees are using social media to harm their reputation, only 38 percent block access at work to social media websites. And of the ones who aren’t blocking access, 66 percent aren’t even monitoring the time employees spend on them either.

Surprisingly, if employees use social media on behalf of a company, only 57 percent consider that information company property.

Still, 86 percent do not have limits spelled out on the time employees can spend on social media, according to the survey, likely leading to confusion or soft enforcing of policies.

Moreover, survey respondents don’t feel that blocking access to social media will hurt them when recruiting job prospects (66 percent).

But a previous study by Cisco showed that more than half of college students globally (56 percent) said that if they encountered a company that banned access to social media, they would either not accept a job offer or would join and find a way to circumvent corporate policy.

More than three in four believe that social media hurts employee productivity, yet they have no way of knowing by how much; 65 percent said they don’t have a way to measure employee productivity while on the computer. Yet 54 percent felt social media was useful for employees to perform their duties.

The survey was conducted between June and October 2012 by MySammy in conjunction with Holos Research. A total of 158 responses were gathered from human resource managers, executives and other stakeholders.

Source: MySammy LLC