Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 4, 2017 NEWS 15 Millennial workers rack up 58 minutes per day on mobile de- vices, and an additional 52 min- utes on non-work activities — the most of all age groups, according to the research. Meanwhile, 27 per cent of com- panies block social media access, but 35 per cent of employees get around this by using their per- sonal devices instead. "Here's the bottom line on all of this: We live in a very connected world," said Dianne Hunnam- Jones, district president for East- ern Canada at Robert Half in To- ronto. "You don't see people with- out a cellphone in their hand. e dividing line between work and play is a little less defined for the younger workers. For the older generation, it's very clear." "(Millennials) grew up using cellphones, and are therefore more tied to them," she said. "And they will tell you they're far bet- ter at multitasking than the older generations. They can be on a conference call and at the same time they're updating their Face- book page or doing an Instagram post or checking out the latest deal from Shopify." "So even though they're say- ing they're using 52 minutes on personal tasks, they're still doing some of their other work as well." Additionally, many office roles include the monitoring of social media, so it is difficult to draw lines between personal and profession- al usage, said Hunnam-Jones. Establishing policy Productivity in the workplace is a difficult issue to navigate, as employers want to ensure both fairness and morale are retained, said Christopher McClelland, an employment lawyer at Blaney in Toronto. "Banning cellphones or the use of personal electronic devices in the workplace is probably im- practical in most workplaces," he said. "If anything, it's going to be an employee satisfaction or reten- tion issue, where if you have that strict of a policy, you might have trouble keeping your employees happy, because cellphones are so pervasive in people's lives." An outright ban is a "more draconian response," according to McClelland. "It really comes down to the employer developing a clear written policy and deciding how it wants to regulate the use of cellphones in the workplace." at policy should be a "living document," changing as needs arise, he said. Game-playing could be banned, for example, or mini- mal usage could be encouraged. "You can go as far as setting times when use is prohibited, for example, during a meeting or when interacting with customers in a retail environment." Prohibiting cellphone usage while driving or operating safety- sensitive machinery could also make sense in certain contexts, said McClelland. But simply focusing on distract- ed employees may be the wrong position for employers to take, ac- cording to Schmidt. "I think we're focusing on the wrong thing," she said. "Every- one's connected all the time, so that happens, regardless." "What we really look at is: 'How do we ensure that we're investing appropriately in our people, that we've got them in the right place, with the right skills and armed with the right tools?' And that leads to a higher level of engagement." Employers should focus on en- suring a good understanding of productivity and appropriate re- sults that individuals should pro- duce, said Hunnam-Jones. "I think people should have ac- cess to everything," she said. "Of course, there's some inappropri- ate sites that companies naturally block out. But if we're talking about Facebook and Twitter and personal email etcetera, should we restrict that? I say no." "It's actually a good thing. If someone is working long and hard — to take a 15-minute break and get a laugh from looking at the latest post on YouTube — it's not bad to actually have that break between intense work." Legal issues Monitoring internet activity is al- lowable at the discretion of each organization, said Hunnam-Jones. But employers should work with legal and HR departments to ensure proper policy is estab- lished. Some companies simply use disclaimers that pop up with policy reminders every time an employee goes online, she said. "Always assume that some- body's watching you," said Hun- nam-Jones. "Just because no- body's looking over your shoulder doesn't mean your online activity isn't being tracked. Most compa- nies do monitor their employees' internet use. ey can track to see where you've been." Monitoring employees' work can be quite invasive — to the point of analyzing keystrokes or taking screenshots of workers' computers at particular intervals, said McClelland. "If an employer intends to en- gage in this type of active moni- toring, it is important to have a policy clearly establishing that employees should not have an expectation of privacy when us- ing their work computer, and the employer will use the information it collects for purposes related to performance and productivity." e organization should also be able to show that employees are aware of, and agree to, the policy, he said. As for pure cellphone bans, safety and accommodation issues could arise specific to individual family status or workers employed remotely or late at night, said McClelland. "There's a presumption now that people can be reached on their cellphone… at has to be addressed when you're thinking about whether you're able to im- pose a ban on phones." Advice for HR Consider going all the way back to the corporate vision statement before implementing a web policy, said Schmidt. Examine potential efficiency measures alongside the need to innovate and add value for the future. "It's really ensuring that you've hired the right kind of people with the right skills and capabilities, or you're training to that," she said. "By just cutting off social me- dia — especially with millennials today who are so engaged… rather than policing that, let's make some ground rules together as to what we see is acceptable." It may even be prudent to en- courage "creative time," an effort Schmidt engages in at her firm. "Take an hour in the day and do some learning. But tell me how that's bringing back some value." U l t i m a t e l y, m a n a g e r s need to lead by example, said Hunnam-Jones. "Regardless of policy, you can model the behaviour you expect in your office. If you don't want people on their cellphones doing personal stuff all the time, don't you be doing it." 'Line between work and play less clear' WASTED TIME < pg. 1 Are you ready for a healthy change in benefits? 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