• The average worker is productive for roughly three out of the eight-hour workday.
  • Social media influences workplace productivity.
  • Workplus asserts that the implementation of employee monitoring software is the answer

According to productivity studies, the average worker is only productive for fewer than three hours out of an eight-hour workday. Other fascinating findings include workers reading the news for 1 hour and 5 minutes, 44 minutes on social media, and 26 minutes looking for a new job. And keep in mind that this is all happening during working hours.

As Countries Compete For Efficiency, These Tools
As Countries Compete For Efficiency, These Tools Can Improve Metrics Pixabay

According to recent statistics, the following countries has the lowest average efficiency rates:

  • Mauritius – 9.74 %
  • Iceland – 20.70 %
  • Suriname – 21.00 %
  • Kazakhstan – 23.73 %
  • Fiji – 24.04 %

Yet if we consider the cost of workers in countries like the US, Australia, Israel etc. then clearly with higher wages, there is naturally a quest to achieve even higher efficiency rates.

Mauritius, an island republic in the Indian Ocean, is famed for its sandy beaches and turquoise lagoons. It's no surprise that it's a popular tourist site. Is it possible that working in a paradise is causing you to be less productive? We can only speculate. What's more noteworthy is that Iceland is second on the list of countries with the lowest average efficiency rates. Icelanders work 1697 hours a year on average, which is less than the OECD average of 1749 hours, yet over 11% of Icelanders work very long hours compared to other OECD countries. Iceland is a pricey country, and maintaining a certain level of living may require working longer hours, affecting Icelanders' productivity and efficiency.

One aspect that has been identified to affect efficiency and productivity is the use of social media during work hours.

How Social Media Can Be A Distraction

Over the last ten years, the use of social networks has exploded, affecting every aspect of human life, including work. "There were 3.80 billion social media users globally in January 2020," according to Global Digital Overview 2020 data, "and that number has expanded by more than 9% during 2019, with 321 million new users joining." Our society's usage of the media is pervasive. How many people are on social media? For example, Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site, has 1.5 billion active users, or around one in every five individuals.

Why is it so difficult to refrain from checking our social media accounts? Modern humans use social media to try to meet basic social requirements by immersing themselves in an addictive atmosphere. Social cognition, self-referential cognition, and the processing of social advantages all play a role in this behavior. These social cognitive functions are supported by neural systems. For example, a social media user considers how their audience would react before and after transmitting information. In addition, the user examines the other user's purpose for posting this information by looking at other communicated information and responses. When thinking about others' thoughts, feelings, and intentions, a network of brain regions is securely activated, according to research on neuro imaging of offline social activity.

Employee Monitoring Software

A suggested solution to solve an efficiency problem caused by an overuse of social media during work hours, is the implementation of employee monitoring software. Employee monitoring software allows organizations to record employees' interactions with clients in order to check that service quality is up to par and that staff are using their time wisely. Phone conversations, emails, social media interactions, and live chats may all be logged to ensure that specific initiatives are functioning and that employee quality is maintained. Managers of customer service teams routinely utilize employee monitoring software to ensure that employees are working appropriately and to the best of their abilities.

The solutions can also help sales teams who are trying out various pitches or tactics to ensure that the right messages are getting through to prospects. These tools enable businesses to be flexible, swiftly determining which tactics are effective and pivoting based on the level of success. Employee monitoring software is typically used in conjunction with contact center software, but it can also be utilized with live chat and outbound call tracking software.

Top Employee Monitoring Software

A product must meet the following criteria to be considered for the Employee Monitoring category:

  • Customer interactions with employees via phone and chat should be monitored.
  • Maintain control over employee PCs to guarantee a consistent level of output.
  • Keep a record of interactions for future quality assurance.

Companies that meet the above mentioned criteria include Workplus, Desktime and Prodoscore. Employee monitoring is a reasonable answer for many businesses to overcome productivity difficulties while maintaining the integrity and quality of their products and services. You can monitor your employees' work from anywhere with the help of a managed service provider and management software, ensuring they have all they need to do their jobs and providing competent IT support should issues arise. Another tool that you and your staff might use is monitoring.

Final Thought

Employee monitoring isn't necessarily good or bad, in the end. It all depends on what you intend to accomplish with it and how you intend to use it in your company. Employee monitoring, as long as you respect your employees' privacy, may be extremely beneficial to both your employees and your company as a whole.