Tony Hughes Managing Director, Carr Communications

Carr Communications' Managing Director Tony Hughes looks at the role of social networking websites at the workplace.

Whether to allow your staff access to social networking sites such as Bebo or Facebook during work hours may seem like a fairly straight forward question to answer: “No, of course not” – is, I suspect, the answer I would get from most managers. And the reasons would be equally straightforward: “As a manager, I would be allowing my staff to waste time on the Internet, and on personal issues, not work-related ones”. If this is your immediate response then you’re in good company. A report by the British internet-security firm Clearswift showed that 65% of UK companies surveyed deny staff access to these types of sites.

That leaves 35%, however, who do allow access. Admittedly not all of these companies do so in a strategic way, however some of them do. The ones that do seem to have embraced the idea of developing a workforce made up of ‘active networkers’. Networking is not a new idea. In fact I’m sure most of us have been on a training programme where we were taught the power of networking in developing our careers. We were encouraged to attend events, introduce ourselves to the movers and shakers and so on. Viewed in this way social networking websites provide the opportunity to network on steroids; across companies, industries, locations and ultimately the globe.

Allowing your people access to such sites is only the tip of the iceberg - of opportunity or threat -depending on your view point. Bebo and the like have emerged as examples of the next generation of websites – Web 2.0. This is the name given to websites based on providing opportunities for interaction, collaboration and debate, as opposed to the old way of the web which was primarily used as a one way communication medium.

You are probably already familiar with Web 2.0. If you’re not, don’t worry, you’re not alone. In the same Clearswift survey 20% of HR decision makers admitted to knowing little or nothing about this new phenomenon. To be fair, the need for companies to embrace Web 2.0 technologies or at least to have clear internal policies and practices has caught most organisations on the hop. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have only recently released a discussion paper on the subject .

The CIPD released their paper to stimulate debate and what is clear from reading it is that the issue will be a hot topic of debate among HR and business professionals for some time to come. In fact the CIPD go as far as to say that Web 2.0 technologies ………are forecast to have enormous potential to change the way people interact and work, so offering HR a new way of making a significant contribution to their organisation’s strategic and operational goals.

Clearly there are issues such as IT security and publication of company sensitive information that have to be considered when reviewing how to move forward in this area. Some organisations have already begun to grasp the opportunities that Web 2.0 technologies present. Cisco Systems, the IT company, actively encourages its global workforce to use social-networking sites such as Bebo. In addition it also hosts its own social networking site, The Idea Zone. The purpose of the site is to stimulate innovation from within and to provide collaborative tools for people from all across the company to promote and debate new ideas.

The public sector are also beginning to adopt this new technology and the CIPD paper highlights a number of examples of U.K. Government Departments using these types of applications. One example is the Department of Communities and Local Government – they have a Director General and Ministers Monthly Staff Webchat chaired by a Director General. Staff can put questions directly to board executive members in a ‘chatroom’. There is a formal agenda, and transcripts and action points are fed back to board members. The webchat is marketed internally through various channels of communication and usually attracts over 100 discussion postings a month.

Another example of the application of this technology is in the area of recruitment. More and more companies are using Web 2.0 technologies as part of their strategy to attract new employees. The results for some organisations have been very positive and companies have even found that new employees begin to network with each other, and existing employees, before they join the company - a fantastic fast track in settling new recruits into the organisation.

At Carr Communications we have begun to develop a number of services to help our clients embrace the opportunities that Web 2.0 technologies present. In future newsletters our Head of Digital Media – Paul McDonnell – will outline in more depth what these are and the benefits for businesses in implementing them. If you can’t wait that long and would like to get some immediate advice from Paul he can be contacted on (01) 772 8900 or by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tony Hughes is Managing Director of Carr Communications. He can be contacted directly by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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