UK businesses are losing £1.83bn in productivity becauseemployees are using social networkssuch as Twitter
at work.
In a survey of 1,460 office workers, commissioned by IT services
firm Morse, 57% of respondents said they use social networking
sites for personal reasons during work time.
The report reveals that workers spend on average 40 minutes a
week on the sites. Some respondents believe that some colleagues
spend about one hour a day on these websites.
The research revealed that businesses are not setting rules for
the use of the websites, with 76% of respondents claiming that
their employer had not set
guidelines with regards to using Twitter.
"Without guidelines and usage polices businesses are leaving
themselves wide open to a reduction in productivity, brand damage
and security risks," said the report.
"After years of preaching the security dangers of clicking on
unknown e-mails and websites, employees can unintentionally be
letting their guard down when it comes to clicking on links from
the likes of Twitter and other social networking sites," said
Philip Wicks, consultant at Morse. "Businesses need to strike the
right balance between engagement and productivity when it comes to
employee usage."