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Want to attract Generation Y (aged 20-25) to a plum job? Allow them access to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter – both a must-have for them.
In the US, nearly 40 per cent of GenY chose an employer who allowed access to them in office, Sameer Garde, Managing Director, Dell India, said at a recent seminar quoting a survey.
It is only a matter of time before this trend catches up in India. While access to Facebook or Twitter is a strict ‘no’ in some companies, it is limited only to top managers in some organisations.
For instance, at Larsen & Toubro, employees cannot access Facebook or Twitter. At Infosys and Cognizant, it is only for a few seniors and in Wipro it is only through an internal social media site.
Under pressure
Off the record, officials say they are under pressure to provide free access to Facebook and Twitter but worried about a leak of clients’ confidential information.
“We are in an era of social revolution and we need to keep employees happy by embracing this revolution. This will help boost employees' morale,” Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman of the US-based software company Cognizant said in a seminar last year. The average age of its employees is 26.
E. Balaji, CEO, Randstad India, said companies are getting accustomed to the fact that there is a growing trend among the new-age workforce to be more ‘social’ at work, both online and offline. Some companies are open enough to adopt a flexible Internet policy where employees browse such social media sites for 30-60 minutes in a day. Larger companies look at this as an opportunity for collaboration and employee engagement, and have built their own internal social networking sites.
A Randstad survey on workforce trends shows that 80 per cent of Indian employees connect with their colleagues outside working hours through social media. “Instead of trying to buck the trend, companies should try to provide controlled access,” he said.
Restricted access
Sunil Goel, Managing Director, GlobalHunt India Pvt Ltd, an executive search company, said companies want people to focus on their core work and not get distracted during working hours. However, some companies allow some flexibility to use the social media sites from personal mobile devices and at the library and cafeteria.
“Too much restriction will not bring in results up to expectations. So, it is advisable to have restricted access to social media sites,” he said.
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