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Wednesday 07 October 2009

Cyber Slacking – Maybe the Aussies have got it right, writes Stuart Wilkin

There have been many miles of column inches devoted to cyber slacking, ever since an office worker in Slough was caught with his pants down in 1998. And whether it’s online shopping, keeping abreast of the footy news (have Manchester City signed Peter Andre yet?) or the myriad of social networking sites, the time can simply fly by.

So discussions between finance directors and the IT crowd have latterly been dominated by the question of how much is this costing us and how can we persuade the shirkers to work?

The land of the free across to pond has become largely hysterical, as is often the case when money’s involved. In the US you can use any one of a number of online services to calculate how much cash you’re leaking by the hour. Apparently, a company with 100 internet users could lose up to $4m in productivity annually from just an hour of daily web surfing. And I thought lunch was for wimps over there. And another site shrieks: ‘non-work related surfing results in up to 40 per cent loss in productivity a year,” AAAAGH!

But before you come over all draconian and buy a web filtering application that electrocutes your PA the minute he or she types faceb… there is another school of thought that’s gathering momentum.

The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that employees who regularly shop online or have a look at Twitter during office hours could actually be boosting their productivity. Trust the Australians (‘I think we’ve overdone it on the sherry’) to champion this cause. But a boffin at Melbourne University has discovered that workers who surf the internet for leisure are more productive than those who don’t. Now before you say ‘that’s obviously because those who don’t surf can’t switch their workstation on’ the academic has done his homework.

Studying 300 employees he found that those who engaged in searching the internet for fun at work, for less than 20 per cent of their working day, were nine per cent more productive than those who didn’t. What the hell were the other’s doing?

Let’s not worry too much about that. The point is that checking your personal emails at the office or researching for your next holiday makes staff happier, and in turn more productive. And there’s a lot to be said for keeping your good people happy.

So there’s an element of compromise to be made. On the one hand, you need to get the work done, but you have to maintain a happy and energised workforce. A web filtering service that screens objectionable sites but allows leisure surfing at certain times in the day will show respect for your employees while keeping the personal activity within the 20 per cent target. And it’s probably no where near as expensive as you might think.

In days gone by, at times of pressure, good managers would encourage their people to go outside and take a walk for half an hour to clear their head. Now you don’t even need to get off your seat to relax.

Of course obesity is another question altogether.

t:0844 493 5548 e:info@focusIT.co.uk

Wednesday 07 October 2009

Cyber Slacking – Maybe the Aussies have got it right, writes Stuart Wilkin

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