No longer just the realm of Internet-savvy teens emoticoning their way through adolescence, instant messaging (IM) has permeated cubicles in businesses across the globe. Author Nancy Flynn, founder and executive director of The ePolicy Institute, estimates that nearly half of America's workplaces have approved IM for business use. And that doesn't mean that the other 50 percent aren't using IM; if you think your employees are not using this technology, think again. Employees' surreptitious use of IM can come back and bite your business in the bottom line, so it pays to learn about the technology and impose policies and standards.
To avoid electronic communication problems, Flynn has these eleven warnings and rules:
1. Instant messaging is a form of e-mail—written correspondence that creates a written record.
2. Take control of instant messaging risks today, or face potentially costly consequences tomorrow.
3. Assume that your employees are already using IM without your knowledge, authorization, rules, or policies.
4. Originally intended for home use, IM poses significant risks to business owners.
5. Apply IM policy, training, and technology solutions to user ID and domain name changes.
6. Unauthorized, unrestricted instant messaging use is simply bad practice.
7. Act now to uncover unauthorized IM use.
8. Ignoring instant messaging may cost you more than using it.
9. Don't rush in to ban IM.
10. IM productivity concerns may be overblown.
11. Don't rush in to standardize instant messaging.
So, instant messaging can help your business by providing lightning-quick communication and allowing flexibility, but if it happens under the radar, you could be in for some messy—and expensive—legal problems. —Wendy Guild Swearingen