How to control social networking sites chatting during office hours?

Dear JD
If This is the situation then you must call those employees in person and give verbal warning but in a polite manner because even though it is a mistake, it can't be treated as grave mistake.
Tell them if improvement is not found you will go for written notice.
Always remember their is a sentence in management........
If you want to apprise some one then apprise him in front of all but if you want to punish somebody do it in person.
Arun J.

Dear Arun,
I agree with you, it cannot be a grave mistake. Since human beings crave for innovations and once they have that, they trend to sometimes overuse it. We can try this solution also, I expect to get some improvement from the present situation.
thanks and regards
jd

I guess using phones during working hours must be prohibited. They can use their phones only during break time. In this case, they won't be destructed by sms and social networking sites.

Hello JD,

Guess I [or rather my suggestions] would be the ODD MAN OUT in this thread.

Looks like everyone among us are responding/reacting like the Governments respond to something it wants to 'ban' but can't.

Let's face it--it's human nature to DO WHAT'S OUT-OF-BOUNDS, whether we like it or not.

I am sure those with kids would know it better than others.

And the only way to think & act is NOT to totally & outrightly ban any such acts, but to regulate/control such actions [be it social media access or any other acts] in a way that benefits BOTH the Company & the Employees.

Sounds out-of-place and/or ridiculous/impractical?

Just have a look @ this Link & you will know that such an outlook by the Company/Management actually works--and that too in India itself.

Startups like Jombay and HelpShift encourage employees access e-commerce sites, design office space - The Economic Times

I am not sure IF this is a coincidence, but it came in yesterday's Economic Times.

And when Startups can make it work, I wonder how it CAN'T happen in well-established Companies--whether it's IT or Non-IT sector shouldn't matter I guess.

I think one Quote is very apt here: "If you do today's business with yesterday's methods, you won't be in business tomorrow".

Rgds,

TS

Dear JD
you need to create awareness. in the office , display posters which has got a positive message - stating be productive.or your time is important for us. we value your work and so on.
we need to create "win-win". first of all you need not to view it negative. let us make people aware about this and do discuss in the meeting and training about this. we need to make people realize about this.
you also need to see the people who are using and their work content. they may not be liking the work given.
to sum up : crate awareness and create win win situation.
S Kumar

Hi jd,
Just a suggestion for your it team if they can track the phone or computer download bandwidth why dont they put firewall on social networking sites which can help you a lot on reducing the use.
Regards
vaibhav

A certain level of motivation among employees towards work would definitely lead to less use of social sites in office time.
Assigning them independent small projects even would lead to them spending time on it which would again lead to less use of social sites.
Just reverse engineer why would a employee open social site?
Not everyone in the office use it to chat, some just open to check out what's new. The urge to check whats new arises only when the employee has monotonous work. You need to give the employees some creative work.
Get creativeness out of them. They will start spending time on their creativity.

Dear All,
I appreciate and thank one and all who helped me with their valuable suggestions and ideas. I think now I can tackle the issue to some extend by implementing your inputs.
I am sure, like me many might be in the same situation as mine and hope this was helpful to them too, specially when you are paying on hourly basis projects.
thanks and regards
jd

Hi,
My suggestion would be... you could stop accessing the social networking sites in your Office Laptop/Desktop through IT people but as people said its a bit difficult to stop using mobile phones inside the office premises. Instead you could create a new policy and conduct a session then educate employees on the dos and donts inside the office premises. Also let them know if they violate the policy company may take disciplinary action against the employee. In such a way you could control this and your productivity would also wont get affected.

I totally agree with seniors, it is practically impossible to block all websites on official PC's & Laptops. on the other hand you can not restrict a person of not using mobile phones in office. even companies give official phones with internet access to employee and the same can be used for updating status on social websites & personal emails. the only way to stop this thing is to educate staff to be responsible during office hours and make them realize the cost of these wasted manhours. a training on time management will be a great initiative. the trainer can customize the training for needs of your organization and add specific content for giving indirect message to staff. Regular Tool box talk with staff will also help.
Regards,