The typical manager knows that there’s no time-waster like the internet. In fact, a recent survey shows that employees admit they’re spending a significant portion of their workday wasting time on the internet—38% say they spend time on social media while at work every day. Thirty-one percent of survey respondents say they spend roughly an hour out of every workday browsing the internet and social media.
How can managers combat this issue?
It’s no wonder that this time-wasting epidemic is becoming more wide-spread. Social media sites are getting more integrated into everyday interactions, and it’s become more acceptable to use your smartphone as an extension of your arm.
Here are a few ways that supervisors and managers can curb the time-suck of the internet in the office—without making themselves the bad guys.
Maybe staff members are spending time on social media and texting with their buddies because they don’t know what your expectations are. Set some reasonable policies in place to help employees know what’s appropriate and what’s not. Don’t make this into a punitive measure (i.e. avoid the company-wide email that starts with, “Due to the volume of time everyone’s wasting…”) Instead, stay neutral, business-like and communicate clearly.
So you don’t want everyone scrolling through Instagram during staff meetings or while they should be working on expense reports. But studies show that people can’t be productive every minute of every workday. Encourage employees to take strategic breaks and use those times to check in with friends and browse the internet. Set a structure for your work day that not only gives your employees an incentive to focus when they’re at their desks but also rewards their hard work with frequent breathers.
Demonstrate the importance of workday productivity by practicing what you’re telling employees to do. If Janet has been working diligently to stay off social media during the work day and then later notices your selfie posted at 9:45 AM, she’ll probably feel (rightly) annoyed.
With the right tools, you can be in complete control of how everyone on your network uses the internet. Consider installing content filtering to block questionable or time-wasting sites from your company network and track browsing history. Content filtering gives you an opportunity to be in the driver’s seat of your company’s internet usage without standing over everyone’s shoulder. You can set controls with the customization of even device-level restrictions. And if your team is on a deadline and needs to hunker down and get creative, you can even pause your internet access while everyone brainstorms together.
To learn more about how you can take back your business’ productivity with internet filtering, contact us today. Our comprehensive Parental Control Services technology will help your team stay on track.