Make Gen Y More Productive: Allow Millennials to Use Web 2.0 Aps At Work
Brett December 10th, 2008
Corporations have had an incredible reluctance to embrace Web 2.0 technology, especially programs employees download on their own. In most cases these decisions to limit the technology affect the organization’s Millennials and other young professionals who typically use these tools. In some regards their fears are well founded: they do not want sensitive data migrating outside their intranet (an opening for hackers) or a loss of worker productivity from using these applications such as Facebook, AIM, etc.
Unfortunately, times have changed. In a global work environment where technology, news, and information move so quickly, employees need many of the tools to keep up with the massive amounts of data. In the emerging real-time corporate world, employees must have access to these applications in order to be part of the 24/7 public opinion conversation. The impenetrable firewall; however, many corporations institute stifles and restricts employee movement on the internet, and prevents employees from exercising flexibility or judgment about what is and is not appropriate.
Take as an example a blog post describing how a particular product is harmful to its users. Many corporations would have no idea that this review had been created until after it becomes the front page news story across the country. In contrast corporations with an open internet policy stand a greater chance of having an employee who is a member of that blog, and who could have quickly spotted, notified an appropriate party, and diffused the problem within a matter of hours. Even though many corporations employ PR companies to troll the blogs and other media outlets, the sheer volume of information prevents them from being everywhere at once. A company though, with a diversified employee base that has an open technology philosophy, will probably find these negative comments and address them appropriately.
Sony As A Perfect Case Study
To demonstrate the enormous negative influence a blog post can have, one only has to look at the Sony BMG DRM fiasco in 2005. On Halloween of that year, a blogger wrote in a post that Sony BMG’s software to reduce music piracy actually opened a person’s computer to malware and could not be uninstalled. While the post gained steam across the blogosphere, Sony BMG did not respond to the post or participate in any online media to establish a dialogue with concerned music buyers. It took almost five full days until, their president went onto a radio program to address the problem, and two weeks until the company offered to exchange the songs with that software. Not only did Sony BMG damage their reputations among music fans, but they were also taken to court by the Attorney General’s of Texas, California, and New York. All of the cases were eventually settled, but imagine the potential savings Sony BMG with a few employees trolling the blogs responding quickly to the blog could have had. While much has changed since 2005, many companies are still incredibly restrictive with regards to their employee’s usage of the internet.
Benefits of Web 2.0 Applications
Access to customers, co-workers, and even competitors through these services creates a great diversity of information. For the first time, companies can consult directly with their consumers instead of operating in the ‘marketing bubble’ of focus groups and estimates of a customer’s desires. In reducing employee interaction on the web, companies are negating the potential benefit of communicating directly with their consumers, and leveraging young professionals (who have the greatest knowledge and experience with these various programs) to initiate the conversations with targeted audiences. I believe that not allowing employees to access these services will hinder their productivity and profitability in the long run.
A case could also be made that many of the Web 2.0 programs such as IM or Skype reduce costs across the company since many of the applications for messaging, talking, and storing information are offered for free or at reduced rates. This low cost benefit combined with the fact that many services allow the sharing of content across multiple users creates a solid value proposition for many companies.
Prohibition Does Not Work
History has shown that a blanket approach has never worked on anything, and one only has to look at the Prohibition in the 1920s to see the effectiveness of such an approach. The only thing that such strong firewalls and the Prohibition prove is how adept and smart people are at getting around those rules. At Unilever, the IT department estimates that close to 50% of the “desktop software and services used by employees come from outside the corporation.” BusinessWeek Article If the massive resources of Unilever cannot control the problem, how can any one else expect to compete? Instead of trying to restrict, why not try to control and leverage the various platforms with guidelines, and reap the benefits of the applications?
In terms of lost productivity, I think most managers are delusional if they believe that their workers work for 8 hours straight at 100% effectiveness. If corporate America would loosen their grip on employees just a bit, allowing their employees some freedom to surf the net and not feel watched the entire time, companies would receive increased employee goodwill and possibly even improve retention.
Finally, with regards to security, as demonstrated in the Business Week article, employees have already found ways around the corporate firewall. Putting these applications directly on the server instead of having a separate, contained section on the company’s server presents a much greater risk for intrusion. Again, the whole idea is to bend a little, adapt a lot while still maintaining control of the situation, and in the process receive the admiration of your employees.
As a demanding generation Millennials will expect companies to evolve to the current environment. If not they will go the direction of the rum runners in the 20’s and quickly figure out a way around that firewall, potentially causing even greater harm.
Link to BusinessWeek Article
