Is Social ‘Not Working’ Costing Your Business?
As someone with an
interest in a small business, you know how
important it is to have productive
employees; yet a new survey shows that many
are spending significant amounts of time on
non-work activities.
Employees use up on average around five and
a half days of the working year sending text
messages, emailing friends and family,
visiting social net-working websites, making
personal phone calls, and gossiping, a new
study from AXA Insurance has revealed. Add
other activities, such as online shopping,
booking holidays and even gambling at their
desks to the equation and employees are
spending more than 50 minutes every single
day on non-work related activities.
The single biggest time consuming activity
was gossiping, taking up an average 11
minutes and 46 seconds per employee per day;
close behind was personal phone calls,
taking up 8 minutes 35 seconds per employee
per day.
The research comes ahead of the launch of
AXA’s My Budget Day (21 November), a
national programme designed to encourage all
UK adults to commit one hour a month to
sorting out their finances. As UK employees
suffer a serious lack of motivation when it
comes to spending time addressing their
money matters, AXA is asking employers to
help their employees kick start the
programme by giving them the first hour
while they are at work. The initiative is
being supported by the CBI and the UK’s
largest union, Unite, and AXA has pledged
the hour to its 12,000 UK employees.
AXA’s research shows that just one hour a
month spent reviewing your money can improve
finances and reduce stress dramatically.
Worryingly one in three people don’t do
anything at all whilst the average person
spends only 22 minutes per month considering
their finances.
Pat Brady, AXA said; “We all have to
start taking greater responsibility for the
financial state of the nation and employers
can play a really important role. With
employees already spending some time on
non-work related activities, giving them
official time to take part needn’t result in
a hit on productivity.
In fact, we have seen through our pilot,
that employees are actually more motivated
as a result of this initiative. “A lack of
motivation to deal with financial matters is
arguably at the heart of our country’s
enormous personal debt problem. If employers
can help people to recognize the value of
spending time reviewing their finances it
could go some way to addressing this.”
It is also important to remember to find an
adequate balance in what you allow and
restrict your employees to do. Too much
gossiping or email checking can be costly,
but you may find (for example) that doing so
helps them relax for five minutes, meaning
they work harder afterwards.
For more information on employee issues
visit our You and Work section.
| 
