Why time-wasting websites increase productivity
October 20, 2008 by Valerie HelmbreckPosted in: Budgets and spending, Communication, Special Report, Web browsers
When was the last time you encouraged users in your organization to post a message on Facebook or use their work computer to order some holiday gifts?
Not very often, we’ll bet.
It’s a cinch that computers have made employees more productive in recent years, but having a PC to look at all day also presents a big temptation to slack off from time to time.
For some workers, the temptation’s irresistible.
Many CIOs and CEOs were shocked by recent reports into the levels of cyber-slacking in the workplace and the data showing that over 25% of workers’ time is spent online for personal reasons.
But some British researchers say the remedy for this is to actually encourage employees to do a little online shopping, check their social networking sites or even play a quick game of solitaire. The catch? You give workers only 10 minutes to do it.
Far from distracting employees from their work, these “electronic breaks” actually increase staff efficiency and morale.
The findings come from trials carried out on a variety of British businesses under the supervision of Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a psychologist at Goldsmiths University.
His findings suggest devoting 10 minutes to activities like puzzles, casual games, social networking, personal email, online shopping and general “life admin” can actually boost worker productivity.
“Work days are becoming longer, workloads are becoming more demanding, and bosses are introducing Internet bans to help combat alleged productivity losses and inappropriate use of workplace resources,” Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic told ITNews.com.
“Yet bosses are missing a trick by introducing e-bans. Allowing workers more freedom at the PC can benefit morale and boost company profits.
“In addition to allowing their mind to switch off from their work worries, employers can foster a more trusting and enjoyable environment.”
These short breaks relieve workers of the need to quickly shut windows when their manager walks by or those frantic rushes to the printer to grab an order confirmation for personal items.
It empowers workers to confine their Web surfing instead of sneaking it.
All this flies in the face of what most companies are doing. In the name of greater productivity, many are tightening up on Internet usage policies and even banning social networking sites.
But acknowledging that employees need to keep their personal life intact despite having a job to do and helping them confine their non-work-related computer activity to discreet time intervals can have big benefits.
The employer can take what used to be a negative behavior and turn it into a positive for both the business and it workers.
Think it’ll work in your company environment?
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Tags: cyberslacking, online, productivity, time management, Web
October 21st, 2008 at 11:10 am
Call me crazy, but I think it will work. Denying people have personal lives and pretending like they never bring that personal life to work is rather short-sighted. Allowing people to be people – assuming they keep their surfing to a reasonable amount of time, seems much more realistic of an approach to me. The more punitive we are in our approach, the more punitive we will have to be. In the long run, we hurt the company and the employee. Treat employees like children and they respond like children. Treat them like adults and most of them will actually act like responsible adults. Deal with the exceptions and don’t sweat the small stuff. The goal is to get the work done in a timely and efficient manner. If that’s happening, why make this an issue?
October 21st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Surfing is a Dept Manager issue. I don’t have a problem allowing users access to shopping sites and the like. Social networking, personal email, youtube, and the like, never.
Personal email is not only risky from an infection point but how about “hostile environment? All it takes it for a user to open his personal email and there is a nude picture of Sarah Palin! Next thing you know someone is in HR filling out papers. Theft of information is another concern for business. I can’t monitor or block information entering or leaving the corporation when sent through web mail.
I have to protect the bandwidth for business reasons. While all these people are surfing all over the place other folks can’t do their job because of bandwidth congestion. Opening up the gates so someone can get their profile tweaked on Facebook or Myspace is not acceptable. Watching youtube and internet tv/radio hogs bandwidth. Should we open up the dating sites as well? And what is general “life admin?
Where did we lose our way? Why all of a sudden we are expected to free up access just so people can play at work. It’s a job. If you want to play do it at home.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:50 pm
We allow our staff, at thier lunch break, to access internet for personal research (not chat rooms), or shopping, etc. on acceptable known sites ( all outlined in our e-mail policy ). Any abuse is grounds for termination and staff know they can be/ are being monitored. Some site access is blocked through security features of e-mail administration. We have not found that our small shop has any problems in cooperating within the requirements.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Seems there is a fine line between stroking productive employee morale and company network protection & security.
In our company it starts with a written policy designating company computer equipment as company property to be used for company business. Each employee is required to read and “sign off” on the policy which protects the company if disciplinary action is necessary. However, our management is NOT “totalitarian” about this and while it requires IT to put “normal security processes” in place on employees, management pretty much leaves us alone as long as no abuse is detected and productivity is not affected. However, if/when abuse is detected, and it exposes the company to danger, management comes down hard. One written warning, with termination on the second offense.
I guess the remedy should probably “fit” the organization. How you determine where one “takes over” and the other “takes off” is the trick. This seems to work for us.
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Oh I am so glad I found this web article before my employer blocks it!
What else can I do when my supervisor fails to provide me with adequate work loads and unclear instructions? Count ceiling panels?