Corporate Policy vs. Business Reality

Cisco recently announced the results of the Cisco Connected World Report, an international study that reveals the expectations and behavior of workers in accessing information anywhere, anytime and through any device. The second part of this report shows a major disconnect between corporate policy and the way workers use numerous devices, social media and other new forms of communication.

You can access the full report from Cisco but here are a few of the statistics that caught my eye:

• Of the employees that admit breaking IT policies, about 41% say it’s because they need the restricted program and application to get the job done — they’re simply trying to be more productive and efficient.
• 20% of employees worldwide said they break IT policy because they believe their company or IT team will not enforce it.
• 41% said they are restricted from using Facebook at their job and 35 percent are restricted from using Twitter at work or with work devices.
• 66% of employees believe they should be able to connect freely with any device — personal or company-issued — and access the applications and information that they need around the clock. Policy or no policy, many employees will simply do it, raising the question about how effective a policy is and how IT can update, enforce and ensure better compliance.

In the world of regulated industries policy enforcement is critical. You can’t simply assume that employees will remember all the things they should and should not do. Automating that policy (for both access and data capture) are steps organizations can take to start opening up access to the social web.

Companies also need to start planning for multi-device use. While you can’t always enforce usage policy outside of work you can plan for ways to manage the data that is being created. This is especially true for regulated industries where data retention and supervision is required.