Social media in the workplace could cost the UK Economy up to £14billion in lost work time
StumbleUponResearch revealed the true cost to the UK’s economy of the rise of social media as over half of British workers confessed to accessing social media profiles at work, with many spending so much time friending, Tweeting, adding photos and video, as well as updating their profiles, that companies’ productivity was suffering as a result. By Jon Priestley.
By Jon Priestley
MyJobGroup.co.uk, which operates the UK’s largest network of regional jobsites, polled 1,000 UK workers and found that nearly 6 per cent, or two million, of the UK’s 34 million-strong workforce spent over an hour per day on social media whilst at work, amounting to more than one eighth of their entire working day.
With UK GDP tipping the scales at £ 2 trillion in 2009, MyJobGroup.co.uk warned that Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks could potentially be costing the UK up to £ 14billion in lost work time, with SMEs likely to be hardest hit by the drop in productivity. This figure of £ 14billion refers to the total UK GDP (£ 2.007 trillion in 2009), divided by total workforce (34 million), which equals to the individual GDP. The individual GDP is then multiplied by workforce spending more than 1 hour on social media per day (1.9 million), generating the GDP of ‘Facebookers’, which is then divided by 8 (fraction of the working day [9am-5pm] that these people spend on social networks i.e. 1hour in every 8), generating the final amount of £14 billion.
The survey also revealed that more than half (55 per cent) of the UK’s working population now accesses social media whilst at work, with a third of those (roughly six million) spending more than 30 minutes on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.
In spite of the negative effects on the UK’s economy in the midst of a fragile recovery, many polled were in denial about the ill-effects of social media on their efficiency. Only 14 per cent of respondents admitted to being less productive as a result of social media and 10 per cent even claimed social media had made them more productive.
What’s more, there was still widespread resistance to banning access to social networks at work, with over two thirds (68 per cent) advocating some form of access during working hours. Only one third wanted sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube barred during work time, demonstrating the growing importance of social media in Britons’ daily routine and the widespread resistance to its access being limited.
Lee Fayer, Managing Director of Myjobgroup.co.uk said: “Our results clearly show that UK workers are spending increased time whilst at work on social media networks, which, left unchecked, could have negative repercussions on the productivity of many companies across the country. Whilst we’re certainly not kill-joys, people spending over an hour per day in work time on the likes of Facebook and Twitter are seriously hampering companies’ efforts to boost productivity, which is more important than ever given the fragile state of our economy. Companies would do well to monitor use of social networking sites during work hours and ensure that their employees are not abusing their freedom of access to these sites.”
Research results*:
| Question | Percentage |
| What do you think companies should do to control the use of social network sites at work? | |
| Employees should be able to use them, but use should be limited e.g. at lunch times | 54.7% |
| Employees should be barred from using social network sites at all times whilst at work | 31.6% |
| Employees should have the freedom to use these sites at their discretion with being monitored | 13.7% |
| How do you think social network sites have affected your productivity at work? | |
| I’m just as productive as before | 55.4% |
| Don’t know/don’t use social networking sites | 26.9% |
| I’m less productive as I’m constantly distracted | 10.5% |
| I’m more productive than before | 7.2% |
| How much time per day do you spend on social media sites whilst you’re at work? | |
| No time/I don’t use social networking sites | 44.8% |
| Up to 10 minutes | 21.8% |
| 11 to 30 minutes | 17.3% |
| 31 to 60 minutes | 10.5% |
| Over an hour to 2 hours | 3.3% |
| Over 2 hours | 2.3% |
*Poll conducted amongst 1,000 employed UK citizens by research specialists Your Say Pays on behalf of MyJobGroup.co.uk.
For more information visit http://www.myjobgroup.co.uk/.
About the author
Jon Priestley works for Umpf, the PR and social media agency for MyJobGroup.co.uk.
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