Employers' council does an about Facebook

Got a clerk that wastes too much time online viewing pics of a buddy's staggering exploits on George Street?

Does the brightest employee on your payroll say he'll finish a task after wrapping up his blog on melting Arctic icecaps?

Or is your assistant more focused on new friend requests than on help finishing the power point?

If concerns like these are driving you rank, the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers' Council wants to ease the pain.

It's offering a new seminar on managing employee technology.

The Dec. 12 session intends to aid business owners and managers in dealing with such matters, and to help bosses better understand applications like Facebook and Myspace.

Richard Alexander, the council's executive director, says new technology is creating workplace issues to which employers must pay attention.

He figures it is better to learn about the technology rather than resist it.

"(Fighting technology) is a little bit like a squirrel on the Trans-Canada Highway trying to stop a transport truck with his paw up," he says.

After identifying how technology is influencing business and providing new ways of communicating, participants of the half-day workshop will learn about blogs, wiki, and social networking sites like Facebook.

Alexander hasn't heard full-blown complaints from members about the abuse of such technology, but he has listened to anecdotal comments.

And he cites the Ontario government's decision earlier this year to prohibit employees from accessing Facebook at work as an example of how serious these issues can become for employers.

That's one reason why he thinks the seminar is needed.

Another is his belief the influence of technology in the workplace is only going to increase.

"We're probably at the edge of continued technological advancement, so we want to get ahead of the curve," he says.

Alexander thinks advancing technology can be used to an employer's advantage, and that is another theme of the workshop.

He notes, for example, that some businesses are using Facebook to promote themselves, and some are setting up Facebook sites internally so employees can bounce ideas off each other.

Dr. Jeffrey Parsons, a business professor at Memorial University, likes what the employer's council is trying to achieve with the seminar.

He thinks it would be a mistake for companies to prohibit the use of new technologies and notes some are finding business benefits from sites like linkedin.com.

The educator also agrees that advancing technology and communications software will play a bigger role in the future.

"There's no turning back the clock at this point," Parsons says. "I don't think anyone is in a position to say what the future is going to bring or what the ultimate outcome will be, but right now, in a lot of areas, as a society, we're learning as we go."

Parsons suggests that organizations can shape how employees use these technologies and, in the long run, it's more beneficial to shape the use positively than to view it as "purely waste-of-time activities."

sbartlett@thetelegram.com