Social media has brought considerable benefits to modern businesses as a branding and marketing tool in today’s digital business world. In organizations with no strict mobility policies defined, employees use corporate devices for personal use, such as checking personal emails and accessing social media.
Organizations face numerous risks from these practices ranging from distractions, loss of productivity, and misuse of company resources to corporate data leakage. In fact, 75% of Americans¹ claim that digital notifications, most commonly attributed to social media, hamper their productivity.
In this article, we will discuss why blocking social media access in the workplace is essential and how to do it with Scalefusion.
Social Media: The New Addiction? (Stats & Facts)
According to the study by TeamLease², due to no policies blocking social media access at the workplace or on corporate devices, around 32% of the total time spent on social media during working hours is personal, indicating a massive loss of official resources and productivity. In fact, 13% of the total productivity is lost owing to social media access alone.
Further, as per the study, apart from the loss of productivity due to zero or limited social media restrictions, it has resulted in an increase in the loss of confidential information, defamation, misinformation, and employee solicitation. Thus, blocking social media access at the workplace and from corporate-owned devices becomes highly critical.
A detailed drill down on the nature of usage and time spent, according to the report, Facebook is the most visited social media platform. Out of the 62% of employees who accessed social media during working hours, nearly 83% spend significant time browsing Facebook & Instagram.
Summarising Significant Risks That a Company May Face With Employees’ Use of Social Media on Corporate Devices
- Misuse of work time
- Misuse of company resources
- A risk to the company network and corporate data
- Disclosure of confidential or other non-public information
Using a company-owned smartphone to access social media has a risk of excessive data use or access to inappropriate social media websites and/or apps which poses the risk of introducing possible malicious software or other rogue applications, especially those involving downloading files.
Hence, besides having effective social media ethics and compliance initiatives, there must be a proper Mobile Device Management solution like Scalefusion for all corporate-owned mobile devices.
How to Blocking Social Media Access in the Workplace Using Scalefusion MDM
Let us look at the various features of Scalefusion that help block social media access in the workplace.
Application & Website Whitelisting
Scalefusion can help restrict social media apps and whitelist the websites on all corporate-owned devices. IT admins can block non-business websites and apps on corporate-owned devices. With application whitelisting, employees cannot access those apps on corporate devices. As a result, it avoids loss of productivity & risks to corporate data and brings better control over data costs.
Case Study: How Unified Alerts Increased Staff Productivity by Deploying Scalefusion?
Data Protection
When employees use their personal devices for work, blocking social media access on BYOD is impossible. But to protect corporate data from being misused, IT admins can enforce several data protection policies on BYO devices to ensure that corporate data is not accessible from personal devices.
In Android and iOS devices, these settings can help prevent copying between private and corporate apps. On Windows 10 devices, admins can configure Windows Information Protection Policy to protect corporate data.
Case Study: How Red-EHS Could Secure Tablets From Unauthorised Usage?
Tracking Data Usage
IT administrators can keep a close eye on the data usage (mobile data and WiFi) on corporate devices working within or outside the corporate network parameter. IT admins can generate app-wise reports to understand which apps take most of the employee data and time and make amendments in the application policy. IT teams can also remotely monitor the registered devices from the single web-based dashboard, and the IT admin can get the real-time status of each of these devices.
Case Study: How Busminder Could Save Data Usage and Cost With the Help of Scalefusion?
To Summarize
Social media can be of great advantage when used judiciously. When employees use their personal devices for work or work remotely, enforcing social media restrictions is limited to corporate devices only. Building an organizational culture to drive efficiency is the key to improving employee productivity. But for exclusively protecting corporate data, mobile device management is the way to go.
