Source: ‘Social media hampers productivity’ – The Zimbabwe Independent August 4, 2017
EMPLOYERS are losing thousands of dollars to workers who waste productive time on social media and other unnecessary activities, a study has revealed.
By Kudzai Kuwaza
According to a survey carried out by Industrial Psychology Consultants(IPC) titled Impact of Social Media on Employee Productivity Survey Report, on average employees are spending five hours on social media conducting personal issues that have nothing to do with work. This generally translates to US$435 dollars per person lost in wages to employees who are not productive every month using a median salary of US$952 dollars per month.
“If we multiply this amount with the number of employees in an organisation, we find out that companies are losing a lot of money-related to wages paid to employees who are doing nothing that adds value to the firm,” the report observed.
The survey found from participants that they visit Facebook (62,6 %), Instagram (70,2%), LinkedIn (76,2%), Twitter (69,5%), YouTube (67,7 %), news websites (78,9%), WhatsApp (85,1%) and general internet search (80,1%) when there are in any mood.
The report also shows that most participants’ productive time is taken by meetings (1 hour 51 minutes) followed by unnecessary interruptions by the boss (1 hour 4 minutes). On average employees are spending 4 hours 36 minutes of their productive time attending meetings, personal calls, and unnecessary interruptions from work colleagues or boss, the report revealed.
“This generally translates to US$398 dollars per person lost in wages to employees who are not productive every month using a median salary of US$952 dollars per month,” the report observed.
“If we multiply this amount with the number of employees in an organisation, we find out that companies are losing a lot of money related to wages paid to employees who are spending their productive time for unproductive things.
Bosses may not be able to control the time taken on personal calls but they can manage the number and amount spent in meetings and the number of unnecessary interruptions.”
According to the report, a majority of the participants (67,5% ) said authorities should not ban access to social media sites during working hours and 32,5% said authorities should ban access to social media sites during working hours.
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