Social media at work is a productivity drain, research shows

Social media has become an important business and marketing tool, but new research shows allowing employees unrestricted access could cost companies hours in productivity.

The World of Work Report by Indian HR specialist TeamLease shows employees spend more than 32% of their time at work using social media. That adds up to an average of 2.35 hours per person every day.

The study also found that in addition to a loss of productivity, the use of platforms by staff has lead to compromising confidential information, defamation, misinformation and employee solicitation.

According to the survey, Facebook is the most used social media platform, with 83% of the 62% of total of employees spending significant time on the site.

Commenting on the report, Kunal Sen, Senior Vice President of TeamLease Services said: “Social media comes with its own inherent merits and demerits. In fact, indulgence in social media and the resultant slacking is a testimony of pastimes getting more interesting than work. Hence rather than blindly instituting rules, organisations should get to the root cause of the misuse and devise policies that make work more challenging and the work culture more aspirational.”