Web 2.0 Catch-22

A survey released today highlighted the Catch-22 being faced by companies and government organizations eyeing the use of Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise - they know tools like social networks, wikis, blogs etc. will improve employee performance and help attract and retain the next-generation of workers during the coming Baby Boom exodus, but they have fears about proper usage and security of those tools.

The survey, which was sponsored by CDW Corp. and conducted by an independent polling firm, found that 53 % of IT decision makers across multiple sectors believe that Web 2.0 tools will substantially improve employee productivity, with 68 % and 61 % of corporate and government IT decision makers respectively agreeing that the tools will be important in attracting and retaining the next-generation of workers.

However, 31 % of the more than 1,000 IT decision makers surveyed worry that Web 2.0 will be used for personal use instead of work, 28 % are concerned about information security and 27 % worry about employees wasting time.

Of those responding to the survey, 50 % of the corporations and 30 % of the government agencies reported that they currently had Web 2.0 tools in use. Of the businesses with 1,000 or more employees, 67 % said they were using the tools. Among the corporations responding, 46 % said that leadership of the company was supportive of the use of the tools, while 22% of government agencies reported similar support among their executives. Almost half (46%) of the corporations participating in the survey said that the tools were living up to their hype, while only 22% of the IT decision makers from government agencies noted agreement in that category.

Executives from various large companies tackled the dilemma of winning over executives and end users in the quest to smooth the path of adoption of Web 2.0 tools at last week's Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. Some are providing incentives for end users to use the tools (like contests at the Central Intelligence Agency for the best wiki posts or edits) while others like Sony are aiming to illicit participation from their "best and brightest" employees to try to implore others to follow suit.

Wachovia's Pete Fields, director of e-business, noted in an interview that he and others at the bank told executive management that employees were not likely to use Web 2.0 tools inappropriately.

Fields had an interesting illustration that he used to convince the leadership of that point. Any employee at any time, he argued, could theoretically take to the stage in the employee cafeteria at the bank's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. and scream inappropriate things. But that is not an accepted behavior, and employees just don't risk any of the ramifications to their careers that that type of action could incur, he said about the bank's efforts to have all 120,000 of its employees using Web 2.0 tools this year. But the cafeteria scenario would be fleeting and if it happened would only attract the attention of the people in the cafeteria, Fields noted.

However, employee misuse of a wiki, blog or other tool would create a much more permanent record that could be viewed by a much larger group of people. Thus, employees would be even more unlikely to misuse such tools, he surmised.

Is your company facing a Web 2.0 Catch-22? What issues are you struggling with? What has been successful for overcoming executive management resistance?