A report released by Towers Watson this April shows that, despite ever-growing interest in social networking, many businesses still balk at using social media in the office.

According to the study, 56 percent of employees surveyed used social media tools to build workplace community. This refers primarily to fully internal use of social networks, not social outreach to customers through traditional channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

When it comes to employee-to-employee communication, only around half of employees utilized any social media. Only 30 to 40 percent of those surveyed thought such tools were “highly effective” and only 40 percent thought they were cost effective.

Among the various types of social tools on the Towers Watson list, instant messaging was, by far, the most commonly used channel, followed by streaming audio/video. Social networks were 5th on the list, and collaboration sites (such as Google Docs) were even further down the list. Social participation rates dropped down to the lowest numbers (around 23 percent) for remote workers communicating with each other.

“For employers to effectively engage and retain remote workers, they will need to connect them with their leaders, managers and colleagues. We think social media tools can be a real help in making this connection,” reported Kathryn Yates, global leader of communication consulting at Towers Watson.

Businesses may be hesitant to encourage social media use among employees because social networks are often seen as a waste of time for employees, a distraction that will cost the company money rather than add any value. While studies have confirmed that employees do waste some time on social networks, company guidelines vary tremendously. Some firms encourage widespread social network communication as a method to increase efficiency, while others ban social networking completely to help employees focus.

Of course, some social network features offer very useful abilities for employees, particularly if the business has clear guidelines in place to prevent wasted time. Google Drive, which allows employees to collaborate over a number of different document types in real time, can be a boon to teams and is nearly impossible to misuse as a time-waster.

Some social media tools are designed solely for businesses, too — such as Hootsuite’s Conversations, which lets teams communicate through instant messaging and shared documents via the Hootsuite dashboard. Only business peers are on the Conversation network, and the tool is used solely for business projects, which minimizes the amount of distraction and maximizes the efficiencies gained. Social tools like this promise to make social media in the office a regular part of firm strategy to convince more wary companies that social abilities can, under the right circumstances, do more good than harm.

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