The Good, The Bad, and The Instant Message
November 14, 2007

Recent surveys conducted by American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute shows that there is a rising trend in the use of Instant Messaging programs in the workplace. What does this mean for employers? Well that depends on how these programs are being used. According to The Wall Street Journal "Instant messaging is invading and changing the workplace. Employees started to sneak instant messaging into the office in the late 1990s, but now more companies are endorsing it. Faster and more casual than email, instant messaging can foster broader collaboration among employees even as it further blurs the boundaries between work and life." While 35% of employees use IM at work, only 31% of organizations have IM policy in place, and 13% retain IM business records. While many companies are utilizing the IM as a faster, more interactive form of communication, there is a dark side. Far more employees are using these programs for non work related activities. The use of public IM tools coupled with ill-advised content including attachments (26%); jokes, gossip, rumors and disparaging remarks (24%); confidential company, employee, and client information (12%); and sexual, romantic and pornographic chat (10%)—make workplace IM a recipe for legal, regulatory and security disaster. Productivity has also suffered at the fingertips of chatty employees. In 2006, US companies reported that the maverick use of IM programs in the office is part of a 1.1 billion dollar problem associated with loss of productivity due to the hours consumed by personal computer usage. Instant Messaging can be a valuable asset in the workplace if used responsibly, or, if not managed, be an expensive liability.