The social workspace. Keep on tweeting, peeps.
November 11th, 2009 • Work
Okay, good news for all you guys twittering and facebooking while you work. Personal surfing/tweting/networking while at work does not mean you’re ineffective (yeah, you knew that already).
Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ (WILB) are more productive than those who don’t. “People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” he says. “Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.” (via University of Melbourne)
Plus, as an article of Harvard Business Magazin explains:
- Millennials will seek jobs that encourage the use of social media: They network 24/7 and expect the company to accommodate pervasive connectivity. As an accenture survey points out the use of various technologies such as instant messaging, text messaging, Facebook and RSS feeds is crucial to how they do their jobs. One participant said “I need to access my Facebook in order to do my job.” Has blocking Facebook today become the equivalent of denying an employee access to a phone at work 40 years ago or email 20 years ago?
- Companies that provide access to social media create a more engaged workforce. Enterprise 2.0 solutions, networking and real time interaction with customers and partners becomes more and more essential. Blocking the access to Social Media sites while leveraging such tools is a contradiction. Global cooperation tools have increased access to experts in the company, reduced the cycle time from discovery of new products to launch of new products, and increased employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace.
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