Social Media: Employees Get Smarter, Employers get Harder

·         Australian employees more aware online than other developed nations

·         One third of Aussie employers (and rising) ban access to social media

·         Aussie Work/Life overlap improved, despite increase in smartphones and tablets

Sydney, September 6 2011– Clearswift, the software security company, today unveiled the latest edition of its global annual research report, WorkLifeWeb, outlining attitudes towards social media and personal technology in today’s workplace. This year’s research has highlighted a new phase in the social media journey showing that just as Australians demonstrate new levels of awareness, self-education and self-regulation, more and more workplaces are choosing to lockdown access to the ‘social Web’, despite its obvious organisational benefits.

An overwhelming sense of caution is emanating from Australian organisations when it comes to social media. In Clearswift’s 2010 WorkLifeWeb report, 20% of Australian organisations actively discouraged or blocked the use of social media tools, yet in the latest research this has increased with one third  (33%) of Australian managers now confirming their organisation discourages or blocks Web 2.0 technologies. This comes despite the use of such tools (Skype, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) on the increase since 2010.

In addition, 89% say data loss/security concerns are preventing technology adoption and almost half of managers surveyed (43%) confirmed a security incident had taken place as a result of using an internet-based application, with more than half reprimanding staff for using social media in the workplace. Despite this, 48% of Australian organisations still see web collaboration as critical to future company success and 30% of organisations have increased their investment in social media over the past 12 months.

Social Security

The good news is that education and effective security policy are making inroads into employee social media usage. There is a marked increase in the awareness of appropriate content and behaviour since last year in that half of employees were previously happy to discuss a work-related matter on a social networking site, versus 72% which would not do so in today’s research.

The number of those which regretted sending content via email or a social networking site is also down to 16% in 2011 from 29% in 2010. 

Furthermore, two thirds of respondents said they always think about security when using social media tools, by far the highest of all countries surveyed. Australia also scored the highest in this area when conducting financial transactions online (77%). However, while three quarters of employees surveyed understand the dos and don’ts of social media etiquette when representing their company online, 38.5% of Australians believe it is entirely their employer’s responsibility to ensure web and email security are guaranteed – the highest of all countries surveyed.

Work Life Blur

The WorkLifeWeb survey shows Australians, known for having the longest working hours in the world, have laudably managed to improve their work life balance, with 35% of employees saying they now have ‘some’ or ‘a lot’ of work life overlap, down from 48% in 2010. This overlap largely mirrors the trends for the US, UK and Germany, and comes despite the massive increase in the use of smartphones for business (45% up) and tablets/iPad (34.5%) this year.

Notwithstanding the growth in personal devices, three quarters of Australians say the length of the working day is not impacted by the use of tablets and smartphones. This result could point to the fact that Australian employees are getting better at separating their work and home life.  Alternatively, it could mean that mobile devices, and the associated work patterns they promote, are so ubiquitous that it is becoming more difficult for people to notice the blurring boundaries between home and work.

Smart policy

On the increase of personal devices in the workplace, more than half of organisations have moved quickly to include the use these devices in their security policy, and also have the technology in place to manage social media use securely. One fifth of employees believe that social media makes them better at their job though 70% believe it can be distracting, suggesting they are working harder to monitor and manage their own productivity.

“Clearswift’s 2010 WorkLifeWeb research showed that Australian organisations were taking a somewhat chaotic approach to social media and there was a blurring of the work/life boundaries for employees. Twelve months on, it’s a positive story for employees, who are starting to work smarter, take advantage of collaborative technologies and act responsibly, while being aware of the pitfalls,” said Phil Vasic, Regional Director, Clearswift Asia Pacific. “Alarm bells come from the employers who appear to have regressed, despite their investment in social media technologies and supporting technologies, and recognition that the social Web benefits their organisation. They need to applaud their employees and see that a ‘stop and block’ approach will only hold their organisation back online and reduce their ability to win employee trust.”

-Ends-

About

Clearswift is a trusted information-security company with a history of innovation. We understand content and the way people work and communicate. Clearswift's content-aware, policy-based solutions benefit 17,000 organisations globally, enabling them to manage and maintain no-compromise data, email and web security across all gateways and in all directions.

Clearswift's track record in innovation includes developing many of the features the security industry now considers standard, such as image scanning, policy-based encryption and user-level message tracking. Clearswift continues to lead the IT security industry with the deployment of production ready virtual appliances on the VMware ESX and ESXi platforms. These are built on powerful, effective and tested content-aware policies that protect our customers and their employees.

The company believes the IT security industry should evolve to help organisations interact and collaborate better in the connected world, rather than restricting communications. Clearswift's content-aware solutions reflect the mature approach that business demands, enabling safe and effective communication for unfettered productivity.

Simply, Clearswift's unified web and email security solutions dispense with fear and negativity, enabling businesses to get on with business without compromising security.

About the Clearswift ‘WorkLifeWeb’ 2011 report

The research was conducted via an online survey of 1529 employees and 906 managers in companies in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.  Respondents were screened for company size (250 employees or more) and for a mix of industry and functional specialties. The survey was conducted in June 2011 and managed by Loudhouse, an independent research consultancy based in London.  This research follows the original ‘Web 2.0 in the Workplace’research from 2010, which was conducted in the UK, US, Germany, and Australia.

ContactsJo Balfour (Progressiva) - + 61 (0)2 8011 3221 or +61 405 442 018 or email jobalfour@progressiva.com.au

Sally Maw (Clearswift) - +61 (0)2 9424 1228 or +61 (0)421 524 595 or email sally.maw@clearswift.com.au

[1] Clearswift ‘WorkLifeWeb’ Report 2011, conducted by Loudhouse Research June 2011