When companies are allergic to status updates

When companies frame a ‘social media policy’ for their employees, is it really to protect confidential client information, as they claim? Or is it driven by a desire to prevent negative press about management decisions from popping up on Facebook and Twitter? DNA finds out.

On July 16, 2010, the same day it announced its social media policy, the first of its kind for a major IT company in India, Infosys was already on the back foot. “This is not meant to be a gag on employees. It’s about protecting IP [intellectual property] and client confidentiality,” it tweeted in vain, as a volley of negative press from both within and outside the organisation spread across the social networking world.

The company’s recent career restructuring policy, iRace (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement), which was initially conceived to avoid layoffs during recession, had subjected thousands of employees to demotions and pay-cuts instead. The growing resentment was publicly aired on the company’s internal online forums and external social networking platforms.

An internal affair
Another IT behemoth Google Inc., has also had its own social media demons to contend with. Rumours about Google’s ruthless laying off of employees who’ve leaked information about upcoming products keep circulating, but are substantiated neither by Google (the company refused to comment when contacted by DNA), nor its tightlipped staff.

Last year, when the company gifted all its employees the much hyped G-phone, it encouraged them to blog and tweet about the soon to be launched product. But one employee in an overseas office took it too far. “The company hadn’t yet communicated the launch date to the media. But she tweeted about it, and next thing you know, she got fired,” says Rohit Parikh, a former Google employee.

Parikh, however, also mentions the presence of a vibrant internal discussion forum at Google. “Internally, there’s no censorship — you can say whatever you want, but not so externally. And most employees understand the difference.”

Ironically enough, Infosys, which has enthusiastically spearheaded the use of social media in creating a free and fair atmosphere for employee interaction, has quickly had to face its unflattering consequences in the Indian context.

While declining to refer to a specific case, Nandita Gurjar, senior vice-president and group head, HR, Infosys, says it’s more the possibility of employees not perceiving the difference between internal and external platforms of communication that necessitated the creation of a social media policy. “This policy is to make them aware that even if you’re talking to someone who works in the same project as you, you can’t discuss client or company confidential information,” she adds.

Infosys employee Rajat Jhaveri believes that if such an instance had actually taken place, the ruckus created wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. Instead, he feels exchanges between Infosys employees in recent times belie a far more discernable trend since the recession. “If you go through both the internal forum and online discussion boards on Facebook and other websites where Infosys employees have vented their anger, you’ll see it’s frustration with policy which is the predominant emotion, and it has nothing to do with the disclosure of client data.”

Clearly, controversy regarding senior management creates the most fertile ground for a full frontal social media backlash, as another Indian IT company, Satyam, discovered in recent times. After Ramalinga Raju admitted to corporate fraud in January 2009, in the weeks following, Facebook, Twitter and Orkut accounts across the world were inundated with millions of jokes and jibes directed at the Satyam founder. And while Satyam employees contemplated their fate on social networking websites, the absence of a centrally located online discussion forum, insiders feel, only contributed to the subsequent confusion and hasty resignations.

As former marketing and communications manager in Satyam, Prasanna Kumar reveals, just before the scandal broke out, the IT company was actually planning to launch a brand new internal social media platform. “We were developing a social networking tool that combined Facebook and Twitter, along with other elements, to enhance employee interactivity.” After the Mahindra Group took over, the tool was finally introduced but internal uncertainties and severe attrition rates meant that the platform never took off in a big way.

My space vs office space
At the other end of the spectrum, Infosys officially has an employee redressal system, an extremely active internal blog, and a policy discussion forum Myvoice, which purportedly sees 3,000 to 4,000 hits a day. But that’s not necessarily a good thing, says Anil P, blogger and IT professional. “The idea that internal forums are very active is usually a PR gimmick. If it does happen, like in the case of Infosys currently, it’s only because attrition rates are rising and there is a strong anti-policy vibe.” In fact, Santosh, an ex-Infosys employee reveals, “There were instances where the blogs have been shut down because of the intense anti-Infosys sentiments.”

Consequently, for a majority of disgruntled employees, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut are a safe refuge from the prying eyes of their employers, many of whom place a high price on confidential client information. This is especially the case with MNCs who have clients in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

So how does Infosys intend to enact the policy given that it’s impossible to trace employee online behaviour outside of the company intranet? Denying the possibility of monitoring social networking websites through online surveillance tools, Gurjar says, “It’ll be through employees themselves that such cases will be reported. But once you create awareness, it will be very unlikely that it will happen.”

Vikram Thakar, IT Head, Hutchison 3 Global Services Pvt. Ltd, offers a clearer guess, “Lots of companies are on social networking sites today through Facebook groups and such. I’m thinking people from HR or the audits department who’re already members on such websites, will use it as a means to monitor status updates and comments.” But for now at least, this may not deter most employees from continuing to enjoy the greatest privileges that the Internet offers — freedom of choice and anonymity.

Social media experts, on the whole, believe a bit of respect and trust on the employer’s part can help corporates reap the benefits of social media without having to constantly combat its negative effects.

Some names have been changed on request