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!

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Rachel Ashe
Digital Marketing
www.hays.ie  |  @haysireland

How optimistic are we about 2011?

Last October, we did a Tough Choices survey that found some 70% of companies in Ireland had changed their employees’ pay and conditions or were planning to do so due to the recession. This year, we wondered if that remained the same. How optimistic are we truly, as employees or employers, about 2011?

We’ve turned our tough choices survey on its head and we’re now looking to take the current workplace temperature in our Workplace Optimism Survey. This is a great opportunity for employers and employees alike to benchmark themselves against those in their sector, as results will be available per sector and company size.

Click on the relevant links to take part. There are two versions of the survey – one for employees (even if you aren’t employed!) and one for employers. (this survey is now closed)

We look forward to analysing the results and bring them to you early next month. Keep an eye out on hays.ie for them!