Hello, I am doing some research for my organization on the use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace. Have you used IM at work? If so, what benefits have you experienced in using it? Have you had any negative experiences or obstacles using IM? Do you or your organization have any best practices in place regarding the use of IM that you can share? Has anyone conducted any analysis to quantify the business impact of utilizing IM? I appreciate any information you can provide.

Steve,

The obvious positive is instant communication. One function I enjoy is the chat room feature. If I need to quickly gather several individuals together, as I would on a conference call, but have a timeline that does not permit me to organize a conference. I simply click on all the names and invite them to a private chat room to talk. IM now means Instant Meeting.
The negatives come in two areas. The first is the interference in your day. Most IM programs pop the message box to your screen, and if you are working on a document, the last few words are now in the IM. IM demands attention right then, and therefore can break a train of thought. The second negative is the risk to your network. Common IM programs leave open portals that can be attacked by hackers. Moreover, if it is a Public IM program, than the individual can receive IM from friends and family and this may become a problem.
Allow me to give you our solutions for these two issues. First, many IM programs have the ability to hide yourself, or post an away message. These can be used when you need to stay focused and when an IM will destroy a train of thought. Second, there are many “Private” IM programs on the market. I would look at those to be the base program.

For at least some companies, IM traffic must be archived for a specified length of time, as with email messages. Please check with your legal department. The penalties for non-compliance are quite high.

Hi Steve,

I can say at previous companies IM was used purely as a status and quick connection tool. So, if I wanted to talk to someone I could IM them, "Can I call you now?" rather then just calling. They might respond, "No, but call in 30 minutes." If it is a conversation that will take some time but is somewhat immediate use the phone or talk in person. If it is a conversation that should be archived and is not dire then use email. I think in business IM has to be carefully managed because there are still many people who do not like to use it in any fashion.

Thanks,
Nick

Hi Steve!
We use IM at work constantly. The benefits for us are threefold.

1) We can quickly and easily communicate with our remote employees and they feel more like they are part of the group, because they can bounce ideas off one another easily and quickly. In addition, With our IM program (Microsoft Communicator) we can we can use it in conjunction with our webcams and have a video chat with our remote employees. This leads to more engaged remote employees.

2) We work in a call center environment and troubleshoot client issues. IM allows one analyst to IM another analyst as an additional resource in quickly and efficiently answering our clients questions and resolving their issues.

3) IM allows us to access information quickly during a meeting or allows us to let people know we will be late to a meeting. For example, if I am in a strategy meeting and need to know some piece of data, I can IM someone on my team, get the answer and the meeting can proceed.

The biggest downfall for us is (wait for it :-)) Abuse. We have analysts that will be on the phone with a client, and will be IMing their friends to talk about the weekend plans. We obviously don't encourage this behavior as we need them to focus 100% on their clients. Or we will have managers that are supposed to be paying attention in a meeting and are IMing their analysts, or other managers. Sometimes information has to be repeated to accommodate this.

The only other downfall for me is that when I am doing a webcam chat, I can't use IM for anything else. I actually have 2 remote employees and it would be great to be able to webcam them in at the same time. Unfortunately communicator doesn't support that.

I also agree with VincentC on the interrruption to your day, but have gotten in the habit of marking myself "Do Not Disturb" so that people know not to interrupt.

best of luck!!