Instant Messaging: Boon or Beast

03/05/07

“Many people have downloaded this at work,” says one manager, “and they use it to talk to colleagues, friends, and family all day long—just like they were on the phone. It looks like they are busy at work, but meanwhile they are writing to friends and joking around—sometimes inappropriately.”

Welcome to the new world of instant messaging. Microsoft calls its version MSN Messenger, AOL calls it Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! calls it plain old Messenger. Dozens of other companies have forms of instant messaging (IM), some designed for the workplace. Whether it’s a complete waste of time in the workplace or a means to improve teamwork and collaboration depends, like any tool, on how HR, in conjunction with senior management, controls its use.

Beware Consumer IM
IM is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. Here’s how it works: You download special software at one of the sites noted above. That allows you to converse in real time with friends who have the same software—or anyone else that happens to be online at that moment. When one of your friends or colleagues logs on, you get a message alerting you. Who can resist a quick hello?

Worse, messaging has become a new means for accessing the market for sex. People conversing about such things at work can make you liable for harassment in its various forms.

To top it all off, Information Week magazine reports that IM at work can be a security risk and hard to monitor: “[C]onsumer IM apps reside on the user’s hard drive and are not safeguarded by a corporate firewall. IT managers can’t screen or monitor the information that’s being transmitted.

Business Benefits with IM
You can avoid at least a few of the problems by using IM products designed for business (WiredRed among them). Further, boosters tout its value in certain situations. Users who work in widely dispersed work groups, for example, swear by it. And customer service departments and tech support operations are starting to eye its benefits for providing information and immediate interaction with customers online.

How is IM better than e-mail? For one thing, IM is real-time communication, which means you can converse online (by typing, using microphones, or even projecting pictures via Webcam) without incurring long-distance charges. Also, there’s no need to launch an e-mail program, search for e-mail addresses, or wait for your message to get through. “Instant” means instant.

Make It a Conscious Choice
Whether messaging is a waste of time or a productivity aid is ultimately up to the employer. HR, in collaboration with line managers and IT people, can assess the value for employees, or for certain classes of employees. “One way or another, make sure your electronic communications policy addresses IM,” says G.Neil corporate counsel Wendy Smith. “If you’d rather not have people chattering at work using an IM service, say so. And if you condone its use in certain circumstances, spell those circumstances out—who can use it, when, where, and why.

And make sure the policy outlines the employer’s right to monitor any and all electronic communications and remind employees that computers and anything on them remains company property that you can inspect.

Keep an Open Mind
Even if you frown on IM for the time being, keep an open mind. Its security features will improve, as will employers’ ability to keep the chat among company personnel only, without creating a proprietary network.

And your smartest employees will no doubt find creative ways to put this emerging technology to productive use.