I want my Facebook! College graduates say freedom to use social media at work is more important than a large salary
It’s no doubt that the workplace is changing as a result of social media. Between jobs being created for managing branded social accounts, using social channels to get hired and even more people engaging with their social networks during work hours, the times they are a-changing. But one of the biggest cultural shifts is what college students have begun to deem important while searching for their dream jobs. A new study has revealed that many college students are putting social network policies above salary, when deciding what job to take.
The study focused on 2,800 college students and young adults between the ages of 21-29 and the results may surprise you. One in three college students claimed that a flexible social media policy was more important to them than financial compensation. Excuse me? Are these kids really saying they’d rather have the opportunity to play on Facebook during the workday than get paid more? In this market?! This is a huge reflection on how social media has changed us as a society. Rather than ask for more pay, college students and young adults are favoring constant connection in the workplace. They have made it through college and early adulthood live streaming the events of their days and interacting with their friends and family in real time. They are not ready to sacrifice that connection by time-boxing it to the 5-10pm hours.
What does this mean for companies? If you really want this younger generation, you need to let them have their Facebook. Perhaps it’s a concentrated look at social media policies to develop a stronger set of parameters around usage to strike a reasonable compromise. What do you guys think of this? Should there be stricter social media policies in place, or are companies right to let their employees use Twitter and Facebook? What about in highly regulated industries like financial services?
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