Social email software vendor Harmon.ie recently conducted a survey on how social media platforms affect workplace productivity. Overall findings? Facebook causes a 1.5 percent loss in total employee productivity. And, 60 percent of work interruptions are instigated by social media distractions.
Harmon.ie has taken these findings and qualified this two-percent loss is actual cost. Based on a salary of $30 per hour, an hour of time wasted a day equates to a total loss of $10,375 a year.
On the flip side, Social Media Examiner reported this year that 88 percent of employees who use social media as a marketing tool for their business have reported notable increases in exposure (social media messaging helps businesses rank higher in search engines), traffic to their website and generating business leads.
This time-analysis seems consistent with Harmon.ie’s findings, suggesting that the use of social media in the workplace still begs a glass- half-full or glass-half-empty debate, until each company can show exactly how much money social media marketing generates for them or until their IT department installs a Facebook-blocking firewall.