Facebook More Important than Money, Study Finds

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 15 Nov 2011

As I see it, the amount of money you make, the salary you earn, trumps having access to social networks or social media during office hours. But it seems that not everyone believes the same way. A study performed by Cisco Systems on 2,800 college students and young professionals found that they value access to social networking sites such as Facebook more than the salary they would get from an employer.

More than half of the participants in the study, 56% to be more precise, said that if a potential employer banned access to social media, they would ignore or turn down an offer from said employer. That means that 1 in 3 will turn down a job because access to Facebook is that important to them.

But say that they don’t know if the employer bans social media or not. The study revealed that two thirds of participants in the study will ask about social media policies during a job interview.

The study also revealed that not all employers are against social media. Some employers believe that having access to social networks and having an employee with social media expertise would give them an advantage in a very competitive market. 31% of participants in the study said that their expertise with social media and devices was one of the factors that convinced the employer to bring them on board. Had it not been for their experience with social media, they may not have gotten the job.

As mentioned above, a lot of people will ignore or refuse a job offer if social media is banned in the workforce. It would seem that employers don’t want to lose people to social media. The study performed by Cisco Systems revealed that 41% of participants in the study were convinced to take a job because the employer offered them a flexible device choice and friendly social media policies.

So to recap, the study performed by Cisco Systems on 2,800 college students and young professionals found out that:
  • 56% will turn down or ignore a job offer from an employer who bans social media.
  • 41% were convinced to accept an offer when the employer offered flexible device choice and friendly social media policies.
  • 2/3 will ask about social media policies during a job interview.
  • 31% said that they got the job because of their expertise with social media and devices.



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