web 2.0 in the workplace

Tuesday 27th April

Loop Technology partner Clearswift, the software security company, has unveiled new research outlining the latest business adoption of social media. The global report shows a startling change compared to three years ago.

Research undertaken by Clearswift in 2007, found that just 11% of businesses were making use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Salesforce.com. Three years on, the latest figures show over two-thirds of companies are allowing the use of web collaboration or social media tools in the workplace.

The research includes evidence of positive steps by businesses to adopt social media across the global workplace with US companies leading the way, followed by Germany, the UK and Australia. More than half of managers surveyed believe that web collaboration technology is now ‘critical’ to the future success of their business.

•Employee experience: Almost a third (28%) of employees say there is an expectation to maintain a social media presence for work purposes.

•Productivity: Despite concerns regarding employees wasting time, the majority (60%) of managers trust employees to use these resources responsibly; however 25% of employees have sent content via email and social networks that they regretted.

•Barriers to adoption: Barriers to adoption of social media have shifted from productivity to focus on security, with 61% of global businesses citing this as their main concern. 51% of managers feel that employees are ‘oblivious’ to security concerns when using web and email technology.

Richard Turner, Clearswift’s Chief Executive, commented: “Today’s research shows evidence of a change in attitude and confidence when it comes to Web 2.0 in the workplace – from the ‘stop and block’ mentality that many businesses adopted in previous years to an appreciation that Web 2.0 is good for business and should be implemented more fully.

“There’s still progress to be made, however, and clearly security is an issue that many businesses are not yet comfortable with, but the picture today is a vast improvement on three years ago.”

To benchmark your organisation's attitude towards Web 2.0 in the workplace, you can use our interactive tool here, as well as download the reports.

About Clearswift
Clearswift’s content-aware, policy based solutions enable over 17,000 organisations to manage and maintain no-compromise data, e-mail and web security across all gateways and in all directions.

About the Clearswift ‘Web 2.0 in the Workplace’ 2010 report
Survey conducted in Jan/Feb 2010. Sample: 1,629 managers/employees in UK, USA, Germany and Australia.