According to an article by Martyn Sloman  in the CIPD quarterly update “Impact” here in the UK

  • “only” 20% of organisations use Web 2.0 technologies for recruitment purposes
  • in a survey of 1700 employers 79% had disciplined one or more staff for using social networking sites during work time
  • in that same survey many had banned the use of such sites

None of that surprises me. Amongst the reasons given in the article for not engaging with Web 2.0 is

  • lack of understanding at higher level ( in this case civil servants are quoted) therefore lack of high level support
  • risk of damage to brands and general loss of control
  • lack of data about costs and certainties of various media
  • limitations from IT departments defending their systems

Again - no surprises there.

What I did learn though was that Enterprise 2.0  means using Web 2.0 technologies inside organisations. So creating and running a social networking site accessible by employees  and maybe even their customers.

Now many of your reading this might be saying “C’mon Jackie. You should know this already”

Well yes I do. I had just not latched onto the label. ( Sometimes you don’t know what you know)

But - and I think this is the most important thing for me - how did I learn about it? I learned from the 16 year olds I worked with recently. They even mocked up what an Enterprise 2.0 social networking site  would look like and showed how it would work.

They just might be the best advisers in the potential of this technology!