Most UK employees say workplaces should ban social networking sites

by Alison Donnelly Marketing 24-Apr-08, 14:40

LONDON - A majority of employees in the UK believe that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace should be banned from the workplace.

A survey of 1000 people by online survey provider Ciao Surveys has revealed that 65% of people in Britain think that social networking sites should be banned at work, even though 56% admitted to being a member of at least one.

The proportion of respondents wanting such a ban rose steadily with age, from 42% of 18- to 24-year-olds to 78% of those aged 55 and older.

The survey revealed that single people were most likely to use these sites and to be a member of multiple social networking sites. In terms of age, 90% of 18- to 24-year-old respondents used social networking sites. While usage figures decreased with age, 39% of respondents older than 55 engaged in some form of online social networking.

Additionally, a quarter of respondents believed that social networking sites are a 'passing fad', although those aged 55+ were the least likely to think this.

Facebook was the most popular social networking site, with 36% of of the survey's respondents claiming to be a member. Friends Reunited came in second and MySpace third.

Facebook is also the most popular site for all age groups aside from the over-55s, who are more likely to use Friends Reunited than any other networking site.

But it appears that employers should not be overly concerned about their staff's use of social networking sites at work. Despite only 18% of respondents stating that the sites are blocked in their workplace, less than 10% actually use them there. Only 24% believed that social networking sites could be useful for business networking. This fits with the seemingly low number - just 1% - of respondents that used business networking sites such as LinkedIn.

Comments

Awalla Fa'Shagba - 24/04/2008

A friend of mine in recruitment 'swears' by Facebook. That is all

Kat Kashefi - 25/04/2008

I totally disagree, social networkng should not be banned, if your employee is under performing then you should really dig deeper and find out the real reasons, the only time some one should get banned from using these type of sites is when it starts to effect their work flow and performance

Jocelyn Kirby - 28/04/2008

We use social networking sites for a variety of reasons - networking for sales, recruitment, awareness etc. They're also great for getting more traffic to our website and do make a difference to our SEO! It's not just a black and white ban it or allow situation it when it comes to social network sites. Kat's point about looking deeper is spot on. If someone really enjoys their job, they're going to want to do well at it and so they just won't spend all day on social networking sites, unless that's what their job involves! Social network sites are great fun in moderation and do have a part to play in today's digital business world. We're all grown ups and the majority of us know where to draw the line. For the sake of the minority that don't know when to stop, why impact employee morale with a blanket ban?