Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Social media at work increases productivity

Social media sites have been proven to be a positive feature of the work place after all – maybe not such a surprise to the IT savvy companies out there.

New research by the National University of Singapore found that workers who had access to social media sites are actually 39 per cent more productive at work. Such a figure cannot be sniffed at.

96 workers were involved across two experiments – quite simply, half had access to social media and gaming sites - half did not.

Participants had to highlight specific letters within documents of lengthy text. They then had to fill in a questionnaire reflecting their levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and psychological engagement.

The workers, who came out top for productivity, were also less bored and more psychologically engaged.

“Managers must recognise that blanket policies that prohibit all forms of personal web usage are ineffective, and excessive monitoring is likely to be counterproductive," the researchers said.

Even a limited amount of personal web time will have a salubrious impact on the employees involved. Nowadays, to cut off access to social media is like cutting a lifeline – this is how more and more people communicate and keep up with the world at large.

The employee with no social media may as well sit in a windowless room, alone.

1 comment:

jake said...

I agree that social media at work increase productivity. I've been working in a company that uses monitoring software but it does not block/filter social media instead the company strictly implemented an internet usage policy that allows employees to visit unrelated to work activities during break time. With these employees has time to relax, refresh, get motivated and inspire. That helps improve employee’s productivity.