Social media at workplace has a negative impact on productivity

While social media may be the most sought after employer branding and marketing tool, the unrestricted usage of it is having a negative impact on employee productivity, according to TeamLease's World of Work Report. According to the study, around 32 per cent of the time spent on social media during working hours is used for personal work indicating a huge loss of official resources and productivity. In fact, 13 per cent of the total productivity is lost owing to the social media indulgence alone. Apart from loss of productivity, the extensive usage of social media by employees has also resulted in an increase in loss of confidential information, defamation, misinformation and employee solicitation. Kunal Sen, senior vice-president, TeamLease Services, said, "Indulgence in social media and the resultant slacking is a testimony of pastimes getting more interesting than work. Hence rather than blindly instituting rules, organisations should get to the root cause of the misuse and devise policies that make work more challenging and the work culture more aspirational."