Web fear may be limiting engineering companies

That’s among key findings from a survey by the Chartered Management Institute, confirming a view that Internet policing is getting in the way of innovative product development. Its study appears to indicate that the vast majority of employers across engineering view Internet activity as a “massive timewaster”. Nearly three quarters (73%) monitor Internet access and a similar proportion (71%) block ‘inappropriate’ websites, while 17% also retain tight control over access by imposing curfews. Meanwhile, engineering employees say that web usage is mostly for professional development and/or research – and the research indicates that users’ enthusiasm for web-based technology is not matched by employers. Just 2% of employees in engineering claim their organisation ‘falls in love with the latest trend’, while just over half (51%) say their employers only ‘take up things once they’re tried and tested’. Asked to elaborate on corporate usage, it becomes clear that many engineering organisations have been slow to adopt Web 2.0 technology. Indeed, although 98% use email or communicate with staff via intranets, only small proportions are happy to use web-based applications such as Google Docs, organisational message boards (29%) or web-casts (20%). Jo Causon, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, observes: “Younger managers are growing up with much greater familiarity of technology and are comfortable using technologies such as mobile video, TV on-demand, or information services, such as Google and Wikipedia. “Quite clearly, organisations need to harness the comfort levels these individuals have with Internet-based resources, because failure to do so will lead to frustration and the loss of top talent at best, or worse, an open door for competitors to build advantage through a better equipped and enabled workforce.”