UK Companies Ban Facebook (But its still growing!)

A recent survey of UK companies has found that nearly half have banned access to Facebook, with others discouraging their employees from using social media.

The study, by Lewis PR for client HCL Technologies, showed that 48% of companies had banned staff from accessing Facebook from company workstations.

Additionally, 63% of staff were discouraged from using networks.

Main reasons include that Facebook and social media were considered to be too distracting from normal work.

Additionally, reasons were given to protecting business and personal reputations, not least from derogatory comments.

Lewis recommends instead that companies seek to implement guidelines showing what is acceptable for employees to post, not least in ensuring that if the company is going to be talked about online, better these be positive ones from employees themselves.

According to Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, “Facebook is such a popular application that is so widely used for personal and business uses, it makes no business sense to ban it. If companies do not address this they could be at the mercy of corporate suicide.”

Lewis PR’s Eb Adeyeri said, “if your marketing and PR efforts don’t have any social aspects to them chances are you’re being left behind. At the very least those who work in [PR and marketing] departments should be given access as a priority.”

Interesting article from TechWatch  but.... isn't this just motivating more people to be using Facebook on their mobile devices whilst at work?  What do you think?

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