Access to social networks during working hours leads to declines in worker productivity that are paid by employers. The annual invoice exceeds 1.52 billion euros, according to the accounts of Morse PLC, a British consulting company in the area of Information Technologies.
The data presented are for the UK market. Of the 1,460 workers interviewed by the English consultant, most companies access this type of service for personal purposes from their workplace and during working hours.
There are about 57 percent who admit to browsing sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, MySpace or LinkedIn during working hours.
Each employee spends, on average, 40 minutes a day using this type of service, which is equivalent to one week a year, say those responsible for the study.
«The popularity of social networks like Twitter and Facebook has grown considerably over the past few years. With that, there is also the temptation to use them during working hours. (…) The use of these sites is clearly becoming a hole black for productivity, «says Morse PLC consultant Philip Wicks.
This is not the first analysis of the economic costs that social networks can bring to companies. In July, the American company Nucleus Research presented a study that showed that 77% of workers with a Facebook account access the service during working hours, resulting in a 1.5% drop in their productivity.
In some companies, measures have already been taken to counter the trend. This month, TeK reported the publication of a study prepared in the USA that reveals that 54% of employers have already blocked access to this type of services.
