How many times each day are you distracted by social media, email or instant messages?
According to a recent survey from social email software provider harmon.ie, you and other employees are blowing $10,375 in productivity each year, and all because we don’t disconnect from an online chat quickly enough, or we get sidetracked by a bulging email inbox, or we fall into a Facebook hole of photos, updates and messages.
In a survey of more than 500 employees in U.S. businesses of all sizes, harmon.ie found that at companies with more than 1,000 employees, these kinds of digital distractions can waste more than $10 million each year.
And in this social media-obsessed age, typical water cooler banter and pointless meetings are no longer the greatest time-wasters at work. Almost 60% of workplace distractions involve social networks, text messaging, IMs or email. In fact, navigating between multiple tabs and windows to keep an eye on a wide variety of apps is a huge distraction in itself.
In the end, almost half of the employees in this study said they worked just 15 minutes or less without getting interrupted or distracted. More than half said they wasted at least one hour every day day due to distraction.
Yaacov Cohen is a co-founder and the CEO of harmon.ie. In an email, he wrote that the survey results were particularly ironic.
“Information technology that was designed at least in part to save time is actually doing precisely the opposite. The very tools we rely on to do our jobs are also interfering with that mission. We’re clearly seeing what psychologists call ‘online compulsive disorder’ spill over from our personal lives to the work environment.”
Here are the greatest digital distractions noted in the survey:
- Email processing: 23%
- Switching windows to complete tasks: 10%
- Personal online activities such as Facebook: 9%
- Instant messaging: 6%
- Texting: 5%
- Web search: 3%
While these distractions are money-wasters for companies, they also negatively effect individuals’ ability to creatively solve problems, think deeply about work-related issues, efficiently process information and meet deadlines.
Does digital distraction have an impact on how you work? In the comments let us know how Facebook, IMs and email hamper or help you in the office — and what steps you might have taken to minimize distractions.
Source :- http://mashable.com
Related articles
- Social Media Distractions Are Costing Businesses Major Money [STUDY] (mashable.com)
- Social Networks Distract at Work. Seriously. (pcworld.com)
- How Much Do Workplace Distractions Cost Businesses? [Infographic] (readwriteweb.com)
- Social Media Distraction costs (strategicallycommunicating.wordpress.com)
- Does Twitter bring you Klout? (part 3) (globallytested.wordpress.com)
- Social Media Set to Explode (hayhurstconsultancy.wordpress.com)
- Social Networks Distract at Work. Seriously (textually.org)
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
yes and no depending on your corporate policy on social media. Otherwise, It’s no brainer to see that social media is here to stay for good. Given vast variety of the existing channels to choose and stick with, it’s time for such a hot space to enter into a new category. There is a need for a portal to provide a quick and intelligent decision for both the consumer and the enterprise about their online connections.
A Platform to Help us to Distinguish Our Quality vs. Quantity Friends, Fans, Followers, and Companies
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr and others have been doing a decent job of providing additional marketing exposure and even in some cases, additional revenue. However, as more and more social networking sites pop up, how do you manage your brand across all these channels? Maybe more importantly, which one of these sites should you select as the one that will help you best reach your target audience?
This glut of information reminds me of the early 90’s when WWW was adopted broadly by the general public. Every company rushed to have a presence, to the point it became literally impossible to find the right information on the Web. That’s when a better generation of search engines – at first the Yahoo! and then Google – entered the market and helped us find the most relevant information by just typing simple keywords in their search box.
Then came Web 1.0 & 2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, myspace, Facebook, Twitter and countless others have turned everyday people into content producers, influencers and experts. We basically tripled down on the information overload How do you know which channels to select for deploying your social media strategy? How do you know which one is the right channel to let your fans and followers to find you, your products, and services? Most importantly, who is Joe Smith that is recommending that person, that company, that product?
I hope my awesomize.me can accomplish such a mission. The site is not another social networking platform. Yet the portal to all your existing social media channels. The platform helps you, your fans, your potential clients to make an intelligent decision as to which company to connect to or follow via which social media channels and why? It’s free!
Elias
CEO & Founder
http://awesomize.me
Social media is a viable and necessary tool for businesses today. Companies do need to ensure only people with need to social sites such as the marketing dept., customer service,sales, etc… should have access.
IT departments can easily block these sites for people who do not need it, and should be part of a social media strategy plan.
BION I’m imrpsesed! Cool post!
I notice the understanding of this subject is strong and complete. What a treat to locate somebody blogging that not simply offers understanding but additionally the ability to connect by means of easy to picture and recall info-bytes. Write a lot more!
Whenever I study a topic I have no clue what i might discover. I’m so very happy to have found your thorough blogging since it correctly addresses the issues I have under consideration and also the unmentioned questions that i might have checked for later on.
Most of us have overlooked this middle concept. When you are looking to get started out with a undertaking this is often the sort of facts that is required. Without this particular information I could not make up your mind.
Can you consult? I understood this should be here but I finally got fortunate and the search phrases worked well. Please don’t discontinue writing at this level.
I have really enjoyied reading your well written article. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!
I don’t normally comment on blogs.. But nice post! I just bookmarked your site
[...] Social Media Distractions Are Costing Businesses Major Money (blogoholic.in) [...]