Currently, the concern of business owners and managers goes far beyond financial control and sales, to remain competitive and ahead of the competition, the most relevant points for companies have become the team's efficiency, productivity and delivery of results.
In this scenario, one of the main problems for team managers is the excessive drop in efficiency and productivity! And this concern seems justified if we take as a basis a study prepared by the North American portal, Salary.com , involving more than 10 thousand employees in the United States. See some highlights of the research:
Longer than you imagine
Given the reality of today's world, where most of the time is spent at work, dedicating part of the day to personal activities is common and does not surprise even employers, who estimate that their employees spend 1 hour/day on unrelated activities to work.
Human Resources managers, perhaps because they are closer to employees, are more pessimistic, estimating that employees spend 90 minutes/day on average on personal activities. The problem is that the time wasted is double what entrepreneurs imagine. According to the survey, in an eight-hour workday, employees spend an average of 2 hours/day on personal activities, without considering lunch hours and breaks.
Internet is the biggest villain!
Inefficient use of time by employees during work time costs North American companies the equivalent of US$759 billion per year. Therefore, it becomes a necessity for companies to adopt measures to reduce this idleness, especially in relation to misuse of the Internet.
As we can imagine, the Internet is the biggest cause of wasted employee time, as it was the activity indicated by 44.7% of those interviewed. Personal use of the web would cost companies something like US$330 billion per year.
Other factors also contribute to wasted time during work. The second most cited activity as being the most time consuming during work is socializing with other coworkers, which was cited by 23.4% of respondents. Next we have: managing personal finances and business (6.8%), looking for another job (1.3%) and planning personal activities (1%).
Young people waste more time
When asked why time was wasted during work, 33.2%, the majority, said they were idle. Just under a quarter of those interviewed (23.4%) claimed that they earn little for the activities they perform, 14.7% claimed that they are distracted by other colleagues and 12% stated that they do not have time to resolve personal issues.
An interesting fact is that age seems to influence the time wasted. According to research, employees over 50 lose just 30 minutes per working day; while those aged 35 to 50 spend 72 minutes/day; those aged between 25 and 35 spend 96 minutes/day; and those with employees under 25 years old 2 hours/day on average.
As the Internet is the biggest villain in terms of wasted time, there is nothing more natural than older employees, who are less accustomed to its use, being the ones who waste less time during the day on personal activities.
In your company or team, how much do you estimate employees' time to be wasted and what have you done to reduce this waste? Share your experience with us in the comments!
