In the digital age, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to connect to their clients and potential customers in ways which have never-before been tested. For recruiters especially, social media has become an invaluable resource in both researching and engaging with potential candidates. The decision to allow social media into your office is one that can make a huge difference in results, but it isn’t without its pitfalls. The question is, how do you ensure your staff aren’t watching cat videos or chatting with friends?
Incentivise
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we can resist everything except temptation. Introducing incentives provides a reward more tempting than watching the latest Ice Bucket Challenge or catching up with another Kim and Kanye scandal - so you’re less likely to feel the pinch of labour lost to the social media void. Incentives can provide recruiters with the motivation to deliver fast, concrete results, as there’s nothing like a bonus to focus the mind. As a manager, it’s up to you to decide exactly what outcomes you would like to see from office social media activity, and having clear, incentivised goals will help the whole team to hone in on the task in hand.
Surprise
From spot-check room inspections to unexpected class tests, we’ve all been caught off guard at one point or another. The double-edged sword of internet history can be a handy tool for checking how much time recruiters are actually spending working, and Facebook’s Activity Log can be just as useful. From search history to Likes and Comments, it’s now pretty easy to see exactly how time has been used (or wasted) on Facebook. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t currently provide such a detailed analysis of your activity, which can be trickier to trace. To side-step this problem, logging on to social media through apps such as Hootsuite is a good way to ensure traceability. If your staff know that their activity is monitored, however sporadically, it’ll further reduce the inclination to fritter away office hours.
Individualise
Monitoring multiple accounts can be time consuming. If you’d prefer not lose any of your own time to checking up on others, it’s worth considering making individual work accounts. Many businesses understandably do not allow their staff access to their personal accounts during work hours, and so it’s a good idea to set up dedicated work profiles to which managers have full access. Fewer personal contacts, fewer spammy posts and relevant followers mean that recruiters will be gently reminded that, in office hours, social media is a professional tool used to further business opportunities and create strong working relationships.
Prioritise
Ultimately, the easiest and best way to get the most from your staff is to ensure that they want to work for you. Whether or not social media is introduced to your team’s working day, there will always be a collective reluctance to give 100% if the team’s manager is a poor one. Gaining the respect of your staff should be your first priority, as a high opinion of the boss lends itself to the desire to impress him or her, thereby increasing productivity and diminishing the risk of decreased concentration and a distinct lack of effort.
Social media is now an intrinsic part of the way modern business is conducted. The ability to find, examine and evaluate potential clients and candidates is greatly boosted by having access to online social networks, and having your company name at the forefront of such sites can do wonders for building a strong reputation as an industry leader. Minimising risk is the key to any successful business venture, and social media is no different. The core concern of losing company time to social media procrastination can be addressed easily with these few simple fixes, and can be built upon once the results start pouring in.
Credit: Image from vlado via freedigitalphotos.net
