Should staff be allowed to browse personal social media at work?
Hays Ireland recently ran a survey asking how much time
people spend on social media sites throughout their working hours. Personally, I was surprised to find that 26 per
cent of people spend 46 minutes or more during work
on the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
Social media shows no sign of
slowing down with more and more sites such as Pinterest and Instagram joining
Youtube, Facebook and Twitter keeping people occupied. And whilst a number of
people do genuinely use social media as part of their jobs (recruiters being an
example), they would still be in the minority.
Of course companies can block
social media sites on their staff’s PCs, but is it
worthwhile? It’s an expensive process and most people have smartphones in 2013.
In addition, social media is just the latest in a long list of technologies in
the workplace where you could worry whether staff will be tempted to spend all
day socialising. However, employers were able to deal with the introduction of
the telephone, email, the internet and mobile technology before social media
came along.
The other consideration is -
does using social media impair productivity?
Productivity isn’t necessarily a result of time
spent on completing tasks; it’s the output
and quality of work. It’s commonly known that
productivity increases with the inclusion of
short breaks. So you could argue that
5 minutes spent sending a tweet or checking their Facebook wall provides an
outlet for employees to take a break and then get
back to work more focused.
And what makes browsing social
media any different to a flick through the newspaper, the smoke break, coffee
run or the water cooler chat? Again, it’s just another option to add to the
list of distractions that have been around for years.
Hays New Zealand recently carried
out a survey that showed
one in four candidates (25.7 per cent) would turn down a job if they did not
have reasonable access to sites such as Facebook at work. This has prompted the need for
organisations to create a better work life balance, along with a level of freedom and trust in work. And if you’re lucky enough to work in
the likes of Google, you have the added option of the pinball machine or pool
table in the workplace. A distraction or a rewarding break for employees?
The majority
(57 per cent) of employees in the Hays Ireland survey said they spend between 0 and 10 minutes on
social media sites, so we probably don’t need to worry just yet about drastic
drops in productivity. When used in moderation I don’t think using social
media in work will not adversely affect productivity, in fact it might just
improve it!
Digital Marketing
www.hays.ie | @haysireland
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