Texting at Work

Seems like everytime I present a workshop and start discussing employee performance, the subject of texting and cell phones enters the conversation. There are a variety of views on the matter, but all agree that it does have an impact on productivity and performance.

Here are some statistics:
52% of Americans use text messaging
72% of all teens text daily
80% of all text users believe they get a faster response when texting than from emailing, phone or voicemail
26% say that they have opted in on receiving text message marketing information
42% of 18 to 34 year olds say they would choose to receive alerts from businesses they frequent
9.3 billion text messages were sent during the last half of 2008
Over 800 billion text messages were sent during the first half of 2010
Sources:
http://www.qwasi.com/news/tag/text-message-statistics
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1572/teens-cell-phones-text-messages


Even I am so accustomed to texting that is has become my preferred method of communication with friends, family and a few business acquaintances. I find I get a faster response, takes me less time and most of all, I don't have to carry on a conversation and go through all of the formalities of a proper greeting, ask how you are etc. I simply state my purpose and within a minute, get a response.

I see no problem whatsoever allowing employees to text each other during the workday. This encourages communication, teamwork and is faster and easier than calling each other. It is quickly becoming the preferred method of communication and attempting to stop it will be very difficult if not impossible. You may even want to consider a method to text customers regarding any change in status of their scheduled service or installation visit. For example a service technician may want to text his next customer letting them know he is completing one job and will be arriving shortly. I would recommend however, that you script this for them and give them the words to use. Some phones use auto-complete and I have encountered some embarrasing situations when you hit the wrong keys and pushed send to only find that when I wanted to send "Hey, want to meet at the state fair later today" Went out as "Hey, want to beat the stale fart laker today?" So try to reduce the margin of error by using predetermined messages.

So what about some rules for the workplace, how do we handle the employee who is constantly texting? What is recommended as a policy? First, I suggest you provide phones that do have texting capabilities and tell them to leave their own phones or devices at home.
Here are a few suggestions:1. Your policy should include that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES is texting permitted while driving on behalf of the employer or in an employer-owned or reimbursed vehicle. 2. Here is an example of a PERSONAL COMMUNICATION DEVICES POLICY: The use of privately-owned personal communication devices during working hours may present a hazard or distraction to the user and/or other employees. Consequently, privately-owned personal communication devices may only be used during non-working time. This includes, but is not limited to, cell phone calls, texting, checking emails, etc.
Failure to comply or continued abuse of this policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.