Workplace distractions are everywhere and come in many shapes, sizes, fonts, and social media outlets. From Instagram likes and Twitter responses to texts from the babysitter, your spouse, the crazy mother-in-law, or your friend from the East Coast, there are countless ways for your employees to get off task. In an attempt to better
understand these workplace distractions and the effect that they do or do not have on productivity, @BambooHR took a stab at a survey to calculate results on this topic. Here’s what they found.
1. Traditional workplace distractions such as trips to the “water cooler” or break room, bathroom breaks, and office gossip still rank high on the list of common diversions.
2. Upper management is guilty more often than lower-level employees when it comes to workplace distractions.
3. Social media definitely plays a part in the distractions at work, but is surprisingly lower on the list than texts from family.
4. 20% of employees surveyed believe that workplace distractions hinder their productivity, while 18% think that the distractions help their performance at work.
5. 42% of employees listen to music for 30+ minutes per day.
6. 56% of employees say that they try to make up for time lost at work due to these distractions by working from home.
What Can You Do As An Employer?
A. Encourage employees to take a lunch break and rest period and to use that time for their social media, texting, and bathroom time.
B. Set a positive example of what to do and what not to do in the workplace. Stay focused and your employees will follow your lead!
C. Evaluate the company’s telecommute policy and the on-the-clock vs. off-the-clock policies for work from home.
D. Consider allowing music at employee’s desks (depending on the office environment, noise variables, etc.) or allowing employees to listen to music via earbuds as this distraction seems to be valuable to employees but may not take away from the productivity as much as texting family members or surfing the Internet or engaging on social media.
What other ideas have your employees brought to the table for reducing workplace distractions? What are your policies on social media use in the workplace?
#distractions #workplace #policies
Want to find out more details on this survey? Check out the article here:
http://www.bamboohr.com/blog/workplace-distractions-infographic