Author: Samuel Greengard

Here’s how HR can reduce the problemsassociated with office gossip:

• Keep employees informed. Whenemployees know what’s going on within an organization, particularlywith regard to company directives, promotions, and potential actions, they’refar less inclined to speculate. Effective communication can take place online,through a newsletter, and at weekly face-to-face departmental meetings.

• Help build a culture that’ssupportive rather than overly competitive. The worst gossip and mobbingproblems often occur at organizations where the climb to the top is ruthless.HR can aid workers by instituting support systems, including counselingfor those who instigate or wind up as the target of gossip. It’s alsoimportant to educate senior management about the problem.

• Let workers know that maliciouspersonal gossip is not acceptable. Attacking other employees — whetherout of boredom or dislike for an individual, or for political gain — cancreate severe tension, animosity, and organizational problems. It’salso not fair to the victim. Employees should know how damaging it is topartake in gossip and mobbing.

• Deal with rumors immediately.Left unchecked, a rumor can quickly spiral out of control. It can quicklysap energy and productivity as workers spend time speculating about thingsrather than getting work done. When a problem arises, talk to employeesindividually and, if necessary, set up a meeting between the victim andthose spreading the rumor.

• Confront chronic offenders.Those who spend an inordinate amount of time gossiping should know thatthe behavior is not acceptable. One way to deal with the issue is to addressa perceived problem during an employee evaluation. However, it might alsobe necessary to sit an offender down and discuss the problem when it occurs.

Workforce, July 2001, p. 26— SubscribeNow!

Marie W. recalls the day she stepped into her cubicle at a major insurance companyand overheard her coworkers buzzing about her sex life over coffee and doughnuts.As the discussion about her sexual preferences seeped through the partitionwalls, she cringed and recoiled in horror. The fact that the rumor was falsecontributed to only part of her feelings of embarrassment, betrayal, and degradation.

    “It’s even worse that your character is destroyedin front of the entire company. There is no way to describe how awful it isto become the object of company ridicule. I wanted to disappear and never comeback. I felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter.”

    On that rainy November morning, the 32-year-old singlewoman realized that the gloom outside the office window was nothing comparedto how she felt inside. During the following weeks, her hurt and anger mountedand her productivity declined. Rather than denying that she was a “dyke,”as they had referred to her, she quietly shuffled papers and did the best shecould to trudge through her work and get through the day. Three months afterthe incident, she quit the job and found a place to work where she was treatedwith dignity and respect.

    Being the brunt of malicious gossip “affects yourability to land meaningful work and get a promotion,” she says. While there’sno way to completely escape cruel rumors in the workplace, “at least somecompanies nurture a functional and productive culture,” she notes. “There’snothing worse than feeling like you’re living and working in a snake pit.”

    Lies, rumors, and office gossip have always been anentrenched part of the workscape. The office water cooler has long been a placeto chitchat about the latest company news and to swap lurid tales. But in today’sincreasingly angry and malicious society, where road rage is an everyday eventand body bags invade the news, the nature and intensity of gossip have hit newlows. And, thanks to the Internet and e-mail, it’s possible to spread uglywords as fast as a nasty virus.

The Gossip Mill Wreaks Havoc
    While there’s no way to measure how common or destructiveoffice gossip is, it’s clear that it can wreak havoc in an organization,says Jane Weizmann, a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

    Yet determining what’s unacceptable and tryingto establish a clear-cut policy can prove elusive. Some gossip and banter –including discussions about Hollywood celebrities or a child’s soccer league– can help employees bond and create a sense of camaraderie.

    But when the gossip mill begins to grind people upand ruin their reputations, there is both cause for concern and a real needfor the human resources professional to step in. When left to fester, gossipcan not only cause deep personal pain but also lead to turnover, conflict, andlawsuits.

    “Gossip can take on a life of its own,” saysAnnette Simmons, president of Group Process Consulting and author of ASafe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrustat Work (AMACOM, 1999). “Some of it might only serve as backgroundnoise, but it can distract and demoralize workers.” She says that gossipoften heats up when workers are bored or lack significant information aboutmajor company events.

    Men often use gossip as a form of political control,while women employ it to make themselves look and feel important. “Whenpeople aren’t fully engaged in work, it creates a vacuum. And when theydon’t know what’s going on, especially regarding promotions and layoffs,they begin to speculate.”

Why Gossip Persists
    Cruel though it can be, gossip also serves as one ofthe most important parts of social interaction, notes Robin Dunbar, professorof psychology at the University of Liverpool and author of Grooming,Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (Harvard University Press, 1996).

    “What characterizes the social life of humansis the intense interest we show in each other’s doings,” Dunbar says.“Language…allows us to exchange information about other people, so short-circuitingthe laborious process of finding out how they behave.”

    Nowhere is this more glaring than in the workplace,where people come and go, and interpersonal interaction is often transient andsuperficial. “Not every rumor that comes out of the office gossip millhas the power to be…damaging,” says Ingrid Murro Botero, president ofMurro Consulting, Inc., a Phoenix management consulting and corporate outplacementfirm. “However, even seemingly casual remarks between coworkers can disruptan otherwise peaceful office.”

    It’s a fact that Rebecca Gushue knows all toowell. The HR generalist and compensation specialist at GENEX Services, Inc.,in Wayne, Pennsylvania, has worked with employees as well as local universitystudents to improve communication and reduce gossip. At a previous job at amanufacturing company, she says, gossip and office politics severely affectedthe work environment. “People had their reputations and their careers destroyed.Once a story channels through a few hundred people, it becomes very distorted.”

    She says that the gossip usually took two forms: relationship-orientedtalk that focused on which executives and managers were dating which employees;and office politics about who was on the verge of being promoted, fired, ortransferred. In some cases, she says, the gossip was designed to slander ordefame an individual, often for personal or political gain.

    Making matters worse, managers often looked the otherway or engaged in the gossip themselves. “Management opened itself up tosignificant liability by not dealing with the problem.”

    Left unchecked, certain kinds of office gossip canlead to serious problems. Employees who perceive that they’re working ina hostile environment might also feel that they are the subject of discrimination.Simmons says management sets the tone with its attitudes and policies, but aflood of gossip is often the result of workers who lack information and havetoo much time on their hands. “When management withholds information, itcreates a vacuum. People fill in the unknown with their assumptions, and thingsbegin to spiral down.”

Companies Where Gossip Flourishes
    Not surprisingly, certain companies are more prone togossip than others. Organizations that foster a chummy, cliquey environment– particularly where some employees feel like outsiders — can undermine relationshipsand productivity.

    So can offices or factories that pit workers againstone another — such as a unionized workplace where management and labor areoften at odds. A few years ago, Simmons visited a large manufacturing facility.She immediately encountered a level of vileness and vitriol that she found shocking.“People were saying all sorts of nasty things behind each other’sbacks.”

    When she called a meeting and asked key union and managementleaders to voice their concerns, it turned out that 31 of the 33 people in theroom didn’t like the gossip either. They wanted the two people whom theyidentified as the source of the problem to stop the character assassinations.

    Because members of the group hadn’t talked toone another about the matter before, they hadn’t realized that others sharedtheir distaste for the cutting behavior. Suddenly, the silent majority spokeup and let the loudmouths know that they wouldn’t tolerate the gossip anylonger. “It changed the entire atmosphere,” Simmons says.

Confronting the Problem
    In curbing gossip, direct confrontation is often effective.A human resources administrator for a large juvenile court system in the Midwestsays that she regularly tracks down the alleged instigator and asks if the personis the source of a rumor or gossip, and then deals with it on the spot.

    “If the person is guilty and he or she admitsit, I tell them to please stop, that it is causing too many problems. If theperson claims not to be the source, then I leave it at that. They’ve probablygotten the message anyway.”

    She notes that the system also has a broad ethics andprofessionalism policy in place that outlines appropriate behavior and actionsat work, and she uses humor, whenever possible, to diffuse confrontations andinterpersonal problems.

    Weizmann says that developing a specific policy todeal with gossip and rumors is next to impossible. Although certain commentsmight be clearly inappropriate, it’s a daunting task to determine exactlywhat is out of place and what specific action should be taken.

    Smart companies, she says, build performance-managementand performance-evaluation systems that measure the effectiveness-or ineffectiveness-ofemployees’ communication skills. If a manager isn’t equipped to dealwith an employee, then it’s probably a good idea to enlist the help ofa human resources specialist.

    Botero says that organizations should deal with rumorspromptly. The leadership should be direct but tactful. They should talk to theemployees involved individually and in a group, listen to both sides of theissue, set up one-on-one meetings between the injured party and anyone involvedin spreading the rumor, and schedule follow-up meetings for everyone involved.

    At smaller firms, she says, it’s wise to schedulea once-a-month employee meeting that allows everyone to talk about their concernsin the office. Larger companies should set up a hotline to allow employees toask about or clarify rumors as soon as they hear them.

    As we all know, all the planning and preparation inthe world cannot prevent gossip. “It is an ingrained part of our nature,”Dunbar says. He notes that photocopy machines and water coolers often serveas the foundation for a complex social network within an organization. And removingthese hubs for interaction can create an array of problems, and lead to a downturnin performance. As Simmons points out, “A certain amount of small talk– sharing small details of your life — helps people feel closer to coworkers.It is what humanizes the workplace and helps people bond.”

    Finding the right balance is the key. There inevitablywill be those who sling lies, rumors, and gossip. It’s when people arehurt and reputations are damaged that the issue can sink an organization. “Honestyand consistency in communication is the key to success,” Weizmann says.“It is essential for companies to set appropriate boundaries and a toneof mutual respect.”

Workforce, July 2001, pp. 24-28— SubscribeNow!

For more information.. .

Web Sites:

• GroupProcess Consulting – Offers articles, tips, and more on effective communicationin the workplace.

• Mobbingin the Workplace – An excellent article on the cause, effects, and legalramifications of mobbing.

• Mobbing-USA.com– Provides information on emotional abuse in the workplace

Books:

• Gromming,Gossip, and the Evolution of Language,by Robin Dunbar. Harvard University Press, 1998.

• TheBully at Work,by Gary Namie, Ruth Namie, Ph.D. Sourcebooks Trade, 2000.

• Mobbing:Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace,by Noa Davenport, Ruth D. Schwartz, Gail P. Elliott, Sabra Vidali, CivilSociety Publishing, 1999.

While office gossip might inflict a great deal of pain, there’s an even nastier practice that runs rampant at some companies: mobbing. Workers gang up on another employee, including a boss, in an attempt to intimidate, bully, or humiliate and force the person out — usually through scathing verbal abuse.

Whether it’s a project manager who is berated by a senior executive, or a secretary belittled for not doing her job right, mobbing can devastate lives and cause mayhem. “Coworkers, colleagues, superiors, and subordinates attack their dignity, integrity, and competence, repeatedly, over a number of weeks, months, or years. At the end, they resign — voluntarily or involuntarily — are terminated, or are forced into early retirement,” write Noa Davenport, Ruth Distler Schwartz, and Gail Pursell Elliott, co-authors of Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (Civil Society Publishing, 1999).

A number of factors contribute to the problem. Frequently, “mobbing behaviors are ignored, tolerated, misinterpreted, or actually instigated by the company or the organization’s management as a deliberate strategy,” the authors say. Then there’s the fact that mobbing has not yet been identified as a workplace behavior that’s subject to action. Finally, more often than not, “the victims are worn down, feel destroyed, and exhausted. They feel incapable of defending themselves, let alone initiating legal action.”

Although there’s no single approach to coping with the problem, experts say that several strategies can help. For individuals who become the target of mobbing, written documentation can spur action on the part of the company or substantiate a legal claim. In many cases, confronting a bully in an assertive, non-combative way can help defuse the problem. If that doesn’t work, going straight to the bully’s boss and requesting a specific action — such as a transfer or a grievance hearing — can help.

At the enterprise level, human resources should take a strong stand against mobbing. A well-crafted policy can define certain types of behavior that are unacceptable — such as “belittling, humiliating, or verbally abusing another employee.” In addition, a system for logging and reviewing complaints is essential, and those responsible for carrying on such behavior should be warned, reprimanded, or terminated.

From a business perspective, keeping up with Internet speed is daunting.Employees certainly have their fair share of issues, but so do companies tryingto stay current with technology and remain competitive.

    Paul Sparks, associate professor of education technology at PepperdineUniversity in Malibu, California, says that organizations and HR professionalsneed to keep an eye on the big picture. While it’s a good idea to adoptleading-edge tools, it’s not wise to venture off the edge. “There’s oftenan advantage to waiting a bit, and understanding which technology is beneficialand which creates a treadmill effect for employees.”

    He believes that one of the most valuable tools today is collaborationsoftware-electronic zones where employees can share applications, files, andthoughts. Programs from companies like WebEx, Lotus, Astound, and Microsoftcreate virtual work spaces that allow real-time collaboration.

    Sparks says that managers need to engage in team building. “Much of thelearning and knowledge exchange that goes on at a company takes placeunofficially-in hallways,” not classrooms.

    Watson Wyatt’s Leger notes that every organization “has people who aretech savvy and get excited about new projects.” At most companies, adoptionand acceptance of technology require a fundamental change in the mindset of aworkforce. A company can increase the odds of success byproviding news about a project, and convincing key managers to sell employeeson the advantages. “If you create powerful alliances you can drive rapidadoption and acceptance.”

    In the end, there’s no one way to succeed. However, companies that devisea well-planned strategy for integrating and adoptingtechnology are far more likely to boost productivity and success.

Workforce, April 2001, p. 40 SubscribeNow!

In an increasingly accelerated workplace, you must take control of technology:

• Adopt technology that streamlines or simplifies. In many cases, it’sbetter to consolidate several processes or systems into one rather than embarkon the latest and greatest technology offering. Not only can that help a companymanage hardware and systems more effectively, but it also makes it easier forworkers to adapt and flourish. Yet certain types of projects, such as portalsand collaboration tools, can provide the biggest gains.

• Never underestimate the ability of workers to embrace technology. Too often, companies assume that workers lag in the field oftechnology, when they’re often out in front, says Jacques Leger, managing consultant at Watson WyattWorldwide, San Francisco. “As employees become more technologically adeptat home, they’re transferring the knowledge to work.” By making thetechnology leaders at a company your allies, it’s possible to spread enthusiasmand acceptance.

• Create policies and etiquette for using e-mail, voice mail, and othercollaborative systems. Employees should know, for example, when to mark amessage urgent, an acceptable time frame for replying orcalling back, and what’s not allowed in e-mail, including sensitive HR data,jokes and chain letters, and banal comments.

• Offer employees time-management training and provide work-life programs.Unfortunately, at many companies there’s plenty of lip service about helpingemployees cope, but little action. Many employees who feel overwhelmed lack thetime-management and organizational skills required to function in the high-techworld. They allow themselves to be continually interrupted and suffer fromdecreased productivity.

  
  

  Most employees also benefit from job-sharing, telecommuting, flextime, and sabbatical programs. It’s crucial to prevent work from becominginvasive, and to allow employees time to recharge. “Acompany has to create boundaries, or burnout ensues,” says J. LeeWhittington, human resources management program director at the University ofDallas Graduate School of Management.

• Create a management structure that can support a high-speed environment.If employees feel hindered by a bureaucratic and unwieldy management structure,they’re likely to grow disillusioned, and many of the best workers experienceburnout or seek work elsewhere. It’s particularly vital for fast-movingdepartments, divisions, and dot-com branches of a company to present proposalsto management for quicker and more responsive decision-making. As Leger pointsout, “If you wait for senior executives, it might never happen.”

Workforce, April 2001, p. 40SubscribeNow!

In the emerging digital economy, thecost of a technology failure can be enormous. And when an outside provider hostsan application or service, the complications can multiply. As a result,companies choosing an application service provider are increasingly taking aclose, hard look at the service-level agreement, also known as an SLA.

    Although the conceptis hardly new – for years organizations have created detailed SLAs fortelecommunications and consulting – the emergence of Web sites, intranets, andhosted software and services has clearly added a new wrinkle to the equation.

    “As a greaternumber of companies turn to outsourcing key systems and software, there’s agreater degree of risk,” notes Kneko Burney, director of e-businessinfrastructure and services at Cahners In-Stat Group, a Scottsdale, Arizona,market research and consulting firm. “If a service fails, it can provedevastating to the business. It can cost a company a lot of money and endangerthe relationship with business partners and customers.”

    The service-levelagreement can protect both sides in what is usually a complex business deal.“The reality is that there’s no such thing as 100 percent availabilitybecause no fail-safe system exists. But a company must know with a high degreeof certainty that it can conduct business online and that it isn’t going toincur constant interruptions or performance problems,” says Greg Blatnick,vice president at market research firm Zona Research, Redwood City, California.

    A September 2000survey conducted by Zona Research found that ASP service-level agreementstypically focus on guaranteed uptime, guaranteed bandwidth, guaranteedapplication performance, SLA indemnification, and interapplication communicationguarantees.

    A companycontracting with an outside provider must pay close attention to the details andintricacies of the business arrangement, says Burney. For example, what appearsto be a guarantee of 99.9 percent uptime might not be. “The provider mightguarantee that their service will be running 99.9 percent of the time, but ifthe backbone goes down or a company’s ISP fails, they might be off thehook.”

    According to Burney,it’s crucial to define terms and conditions up front. Using exact measures anddictating specific remedies and actions can prevent conflicts and confusionlater on. In most cases, the service provider should guarantee backboneperformance and bandwidth; if it experiences a problem, it should addressremediation with its own providers rather than leave a customer marooned.

    Most SLAs dictatethat the ASP, ISP, or hosting service cover only the direct costs associatedwith downtime or performance lags. A few offer escalating penalties that aretacked on to the credit for the monthly fee. Of course, all this necessitates asystem in place to actually measure performance.

    “At the end of theday, it’s the customer that feels the burden and who feels the pain if an ASPor other outsourced service fails to meet requirements,” says Dave Boulanger,service director for consulting firm AMR Research. Nevertheless, he believesthat organizations must understand their own needs and acknowledge thatoutsourcing technology really comes down to a partnership, where both companiesmust work together to solve problems. “It’s not as simple as a traditionaloutsourced agreement,” he notes. “There are many more variables and issuesto deal with.”

Workforce, February 2001, Vol80, No 2, p. 52  Subscribe Now!

Few events can heap as much stress on acompany, and an HR department, as a merger. There are business issues to examineand cultural issues to sort through. And before the dust can settle and a newentity can take shape, there’s also the daunting task of connecting variousenterprise computing systems.

    When broadbandprovider @Home Corporation and Internet firm Excite joined forces in May 1999,corporate controller Robert Lerner immediately recognized that integratingtechnology was a top priority. And trying to tackle the task in-houserepresented a formidable, if notimpossible, challenge. A previous acquisition had resultedin integration obstacles.

    Financial systemscouldn’t handle the companies’ combined data.

    “We had apreconceived notion that an outsource option was a better match,” Lernerexplains. As a result, Excite@Home turned to Corio’s Intelligent Enterprise, asuite of solutions that includes financial management, distribution, and humanresources functions, all powered by PeopleSoft. The ASP approach provided a morescalable and flexible ERP solution than the company could build on its own.

    Excite@Homeevaluated various ERP applications and ASPs and found that Corio’s ASP hostingmodel would result in a more favorable total cost of ownership than itcould achieve by building a solution internally.

    “The cost of theCorio model was based on the number of users. Our old system was tied to arevenue-growth model,” says Lerner.

    Today, the firm,which saw its employee base triple in 1999 and early 2000, has become anInternet powerhouse. Says Lerner: “In terms of efficiency and scale, the [ASP]model made more sense.”

Workforce, February 2001, Vol80, No 2, p. 54  Subscribe Now!

If there’s one thing that’s clearin today’s emerging digital economy, it’s that many of the competitive gainsof the last few years can be directly attributed to Internet connectivity. Forthe vast majority of companies, the Internet has established itself with thetelephone and the photocopy machine as an item of essential technology. 

    Yet, the gain comeswith some pain. Despite the enormous payoff from e-business and online access toinformation, the Internet has quietly emerged as a playground for workers, whoincreasingly trade stocks, download music, gamble, play games, buy books, readsports news, send e-cards, and frequent online red-light districts — all duringworking hours. Others tap out jokes or send chain letters across the enterpriseand beyond, devouring bandwidth and brainwidth. 

    A  January 2000study by the Saratoga Institute found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. firms havedisciplined employees for Internet abuse, and slightly less than a third haveactually terminated workers. Fifty-six percent admit they know of employees whouse the Internet to gamble, look at pornography, and engage in other activitiesthat are not work-related. Meanwhile, a 1999 study by the American ManagementAssociation found that more than 50 percent of all Internet activity takingplace within companies is not business-related. The total cost? Billions ofdollars a year in lost productivity. 

    While most workerskeep their extracurricular activities to a minimum — and some organizationsprefer to leave the wild frontier of the Internet unregulated — cyberloafersand cyberslackers are becoming a big enough problem in the corporate world thatmany companies are beginning to crack down. In some cases, they’re puttingsophisticated monitoring systems in place. In other instances, they’resuspending and firing workers for Internet abuse. Not surprisingly, almosteveryone is grappling with developing a policy to deal with the problem. 

    Complicating thingsfurther is the fact that personal use of the Internet might actually provide apositive benefit. An August study conducted by Xylo, Inc., a work/life programsprovider based in Bellevue, Washington, found that 56 percent of employees whouse the Internet for personal reasons report that it helps them do their jobsbetter or simply makes them happier or less stressed-out employees. About 43percent claim that the Internet has no real impact — positive or negative — ontheir performance. 

    Of course, sortingthrough all the issues is no simple matter. It’s quickly becoming clear thatthe primary issue isn’t whether or not to provide Internet access and letemployees conduct personal business online, it’s how to manage the environmenteffectively. Developing a focused strategy and a clear policy that backs it upcan go a long way toward keeping workers and management happy and productive.Ultimately, HR must establish a policy that’s based on the needs, culture, andvalues of the organization. 

    Some companies arebeginning to get serious. Although Xerox Corp. allows employees a good deal oflatitude when it comes to surfing the Net, the company is intent on crackingdown on blatant violators. In October 1999, Xerox made headlines when itannounced that it had fired at least 40 employees for accessing Web sites deemedinappropriate in the workplace. Some workers had engaged in online gambling,others had day-traded stocks and viewed pornography. In some instances, theworkers had spent as much as eight hours a day engaged in non-businessactivities on company time. 

    Since then, Xeroxhas fired additional employees, while companies such as the New York Times,Edward Jones Investments, First Union Bank, and Dow Chemical have joined theparade. At Dow, inappropriate use of computer resources resulted in 50terminations last summer, and another 200 employees found themselves facingdisciplinary measures, including suspensions. 

    Managementdiscovered that it had a very real problem when an employee approached aworkgroup supervisor and complained that colleagues were exchanginginappropriate materials. The company began closely monitoring its e-mail serversand learned that a group of workers were in fact passing the materials back andforth, in direct violation of the company’s e-mail policy and anti-harassmentcode. All the individuals that Dow Chemical disciplined were encouraged to usethe company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and seek counseling. Today,the company conducts regular audits and has stepped up education andcommunication efforts. 

    Some organizationshave found that, left unchecked, the issue can explode in their faces. Forexample, two industry giants, Chevron and Microsoft, found themselves settlingsexual-harassment lawsuits for $2.2 million apiece as a result of internallycirculated e-mails that, according to the law, might have created hostile workenvironments. In fact, many companies, as a direct response to these kinds ofproblems, have turned to sophisticated Web-monitoring software from firms suchas Websense, Elron Software, eSniff.com, and JSB SurfControl. 

    These programs canrecord every keystroke an employee types, even capturing words that theindividual later erases. The same software tracks which Web sites a workervisits, and issues an alert when an employee begins surfing an X-rated corner ofcyberspace. According to market research firm IDC, 80 percent of companies willmonitor employees’ online behavior by July 2001, up from 40 percent lastspring. In the past, some companies used filtering software programs, whichcould block certain sites or keywords, but those have proved somewhatineffective. In many cases, employees find ways to circumvent the programs. 

    If all themonitoring sounds like an invasion of privacy, you’re not alone in thinkingthat. Civil libertarians and privacy advocates bristle at the thought ofever-expanding corporate monitoring, even if it is perfectly legal. They arguethat the answer doesn’t lie in draconian rules and limitations on what anindividual can view, but in establishing ways to measure each employee’soverall performance. In fact, some workers say that since their work livesconstantly invade their homes, and they put in hours in the evening and onweekends, the workplace should also accommodate their personal or home lives. 

    It’s no time foran HR department to idly stand by. Dr. Kimberly Young, executive director of theCenter for Online Addiction in Bradford, Pennsylvania, says that employersshould “be willing to acknowledge the legitimacy of Internet addiction” and“be prepared to implement fair and appropriate strategies” to deal with theissue. Instead of imposing a zero-tolerance policy, which can alienate employeesand leave a company susceptible to litigation, an organization should fashion areasonable policy, and then train and educate its employees, she says. 

    Young believes thatall employers and HR professionals should follow some basic guidelines whendeveloping a company-wide policy to deal with Internet usage. First, it’sessential to evaluate current IT and HR policies. “Does the company have anyexisting policies for employees? Does the company update the policies to keep upwith the rapid pace of change occurring on the Internet?” Once an enterprisehas an understanding of where it is and where it needs to be, it can establishand document official e-mail and Internet usage policies, educate workers on whythey’re important and what they mean, and enforce and reinforce policies. 

    The key, says Young,is to offer ongoing and continual communication. Providing regular electronic“pop up” reminders that appear on each employee’s computer, and requiringeach individual to read and agree to the terms, can ensure that the word getsout. In addition, “An effective education process should also includeinformation about Internet addiction and its warning signs,” she notes.Finally, the program should provide rehabilitation as well as “fair andequitable penalties for non-compliance.” In most cases, the goal should be toget valued employees back on track rather than casting them off. 

    The end result?Improved employee productivity, better morale, lower turnover costs, and greaterprotection from legal liability. “The Internet is an amazing communicationtool that has changed the way business is conducted,” Young observes. “Byrecognizing the potential problems and issues that may arise with an increase inthe use of the Internet, employers and HR professionals can…increase theproductivity and resourcefulness of the business.” 

    The growing use ofthe Internet, combined with new technologies such as wireless Web browsing onphones and personal digital assistants, ensures that new and more elusive typesof mind candy will soon appear. The key is to strike the right balance betweenmorale and productivity. 

Workforce,December 2000, Vol. 79, No. 12, pp. 22-24 Subscribenow!

It’s ironic how each new wave of technology fixes the problems of theprevious generation of technology. Computers were supposed to make it easier tomanage information, and the Internet was supposed to make it easier to findinformation. But somewhere along the path to utopia, most of us have foundourselves completely overwhelmed by the glut of news, facts, data, and more.Trying to keep track of everything has become the horror story for the newmillennium.

Amid the jumble of e-mail messages, Word and Excel documents, graphics files,and Web pages lies an important truth. “Unless you have systems in place tomanage information, you’re at the mercy of it,” says Louise Wannier,chairman and CEO of EnfishTechnology, Inc., a company thatproduces desktop portal software to index hard drives and manage electronicinformation. “There’s a fundamental problem: the computer doesn’t workthe way people think.”

She aptly points out that today’s PCs are task-oriented devices that centeron specific activities like e-mail, word processing, or presentation graphics.Yet people’s minds focus on names, companies, and subjects that cross theboundary of applications and files. What’s more, the line between a PC andnetwork computing, including the Internet, continues to blur. “Essentially,information is information, and people don’t care where it resides, they justwant to find it when they need it,” Wannier adds.

The solution, of course, is to devise systems and strategies for navigatingthrough the Information Age. As hard drives and databases collect moreinformation, and as the size and scope of the Internet expand exponentially, theneed for more sophisticated solutions grows. Suffice it to say that no matterhow proficient you are at creating folders and directories, it’s impossible tofind scraps, tidbits, and pieces of relevant data using a file-cabinet approachto the virtual world.

What’s more, manually clicking through folders in search of a white paper,employee letter, or report that you wrote sometime in the past is time-consumingand extremely inefficient. As anyone who has ever used a PC knows, the built-insearch capabilities of the Windows operating system are woefully inadequate. It’slike using a slingshot to battle a nuclear superpower.

Over the last few years, a slew of new tools has emerged to slay theinformation dragon. Companies are increasingly turning to business intelligence,knowledge management, enterprise information portals, and other solutions tomake sense of things. Some of these tools create searchable indexes on astand-alone PC or across a network. An early entry in this space was AltaVistaDiscovery, which displays resultsusing the same methods as the popular Internet search engine. Another program, Zoot,offers a free-form way to manage and cross-index all the information thatresides on a computer. But perhaps the most powerful tool of all is Enfish’sOnespace, which finds, analyzes, and cross-references information in a dazzlingnumber of ways.

What makes Onespace so effective is that it spots relationships among variouspieces of data. For example, if you’re looking for information about aparticular person, you can select the individual’s name and then view all therelated documents, including

e-mail messages, Word and PowerPoint files, calendar items, notes, and more.The program can also mine data relating to the person’s company oraffiliations, and it automatically uncovers articles and other material on theInternet. Similarly, it’s possible to search by company or topic and view dataand information that’s squirreled away on your system or beyond.

All this can create order in an increasingly chaotic data universe. BarryDeutsch, a recruiter at PowerHiring.com, no longer has to manually hunt and peckfor e-mail and background information on candidates, companies, and more. Withupwards of 250

e-mails streaming in daily and thousands of résumés on file at any giventime — some in Word, others in text format — it’s “essential to sliceand dice data among a wide variety of formats,” he says. “Sometimes, Ineed to view the history of a transaction or a communication and I need thetools to make the process quick and seamless. In the past, too much data fellthrough the cracks.”

Now, Deutsch can pull up relevant information instantly. No callbacks. Noplaying phone-tag. No hour-long search through his 8-gigabyte hard drive orthrough hundreds of Zip disks containing archived e-mail, Act! and Goldminerecords, and Access database files. What’s more, he can search throughdownloaded Web pages about companies and topics to find the information heneeds, when he needs it. Built-in viewers allow him to read the files withoutopening the native programs. “It has made me more effective and automatedthe entire information management and retrieval process,” he notes.

Call this new model “information on demand.” Instead of readingevery résumé as it comes in, Deutsch is able to mine only the information that’srelevant to his immediate needs. Likewise, human resources professionals using aprogram like Onespace or Zoot can subscribe to online newsletters, capture Webpages, and store documents — accessing them only when they’re relevant. SaysWannier, “Suddenly, you have the freedom to forget. You don’t have toclutter your mind with information about where folders and files are; you justwork in an intuitive way.”

Of course, a personal desktop portal isn’t the only solution. While it’sa powerful tool for individuals, enterprise computing and informationrequirements are often far more substantial. That’s leading many companies andHR departments to turn to enterprise portals, business intelligence, andknowledge-management tools to aggregate, mine, and distribute information.”It’s necessary to look at data in a way that makes sense from a businessperspective,” says Keith Gile, a senior industry analyst at GigaInformation Group, Norwalk, Connecticut.

One firm that has embraced the concept is Quaker Chemical. The Conshohocken,Pennsylvania, manufacturer and marketer of custom-formulated chemical specialtyproducts has turned to business intelligence to leverage information that usedto fall between the cracks. So that it can fully understand costs, salespatterns, and changing

industry conditions — across regions, product classifications, marketsegments, and more — Quaker Chemical uses an SAS Institute system to examinethe actual cost of various products. The software helps managers examine localpricing and currency fluctuations, and what mix of chemicals and raw materialsis most efficient. “If you slice through the data, it’s possible to seeexactly what’s affecting costs,” explains Irving Tyler, director and CIO.

In one instance, Quaker Chemical found that it was using more expensivematerials than necessary. “We didn’t have to beat up suppliers in anattempt to lower the price. We simply asked the chemists to reformulate theproduct,” says Tyler. The company also has used business intelligence tomanage assets and identify employee retention issues in different regions. It isadding knowledge management capabilities to the mix and embracing a balancedscorecard system. As a result, the company now feeds virtually all field datainto a data warehouse. “Data is the lifeblood of the moderncorporation,” concludes Tyler.

But only if it’s relevant. Corporate networks can hold tens of millions ofdocuments and files, and the Web has exploded to more than 550 billiondocuments, according to BrightPlanet, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, firm thatstudies the Internet. Madan Sheina, a senior analyst at the IT consulting firmAberdeen Group, believes that individuals and companies too often findthemselves sorting through so much useless information that “they can’tfind the diamonds amid all the coal.” It’s particularly vexing, he adds,when it comes to capturing information and knowledge that reside in people’sheads.

At Xerox, the emphasis is on creating a pipeline of information that feedstechnicians around the globe. Six years ago, the company began building aknowledge-management system that allows workers to share tips and information.After only a few months, Xerox witnessed a 5 percent increase in productivityand saw a 5 percent drop in the use of parts. It has since expanded the system,called Eureka, to encompass 25,000 technicians worldwide.

Today, employees submit more than 1,000 tips each month, and managersconstantly sort through the information to ensure that it’s relevant andup-to-date. Using a Web browser, other workers — from Brussels to Buenos Aires– are able to find shortcuts and best practices. The result? A savings of morethan $7 million per year. Technicians also are able to provide faster and betterservice. In one instance, a technician discovered that a 50-cent part could savea $10,000 color copier replacement, says Bob Cheslow, a system architect. Oncehe posted the information, others began to use it.

Ensuring that only the right information reaches the right people can taxeven the most tech-savvy company. Unless an organization is willing to devoteresources to sorting through a universe of information and managing iteffectively, it is likely to find itself controlled by it rather than using itas a competitive advantage. “In an information-oriented world, it iscrucial to use the right tools to maximum advantage,” says Deutsch.

Workforce, November2000, Vol. 79, No. 11, pp. 22-24 — Subscribenow!