Trust staff with Facebook, says expert

An expert is urging bosses to allow staff to spend 5% of their time experimenting with web networking tools, including Facebook, whilst at work.

Scott Gavin, of Applied Trends, believes Web 2.0 technologies will never reach their true potential or deliver ROI for organisations unless staff are trusted to make the most of collaborative tools in ways that make sense to them.

"When it comes to implementing Web 2.0 in a business environment, IT departments need to facilitate, then get out of the way," he said. "Business leaders need to back their people to spend time experimenting with wikis, blogs, tagging and social networks."

According to Gavin, 5% is not an arbitrary number, and it provides a specific period of time each week when employees and teams are given validation to experiment.

Speaking to HRZone.co.uk, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: "There can be huge benefits to employers encouraging better IT skills for their staff, including the use of Web 2.0 tools to encourage networking and innovation in the organisation.