Close to 12.5% of productivity of human resource in
corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while
away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours,
reveal findings of ASSOCHA’S M Social Development Foundation (ASDF) survey.
Almost each day, an average corporate employee
spends an hour, gluing to various social networking sites such as Orkut,
Facebook, Myspace, Linkdein etc. for romancing or otherwise drive some
satisfaction out of it. With this average corporate employee’s each day working
is reduced by an hour from 8 hour to 7 hour, further reveal the ASDF survey.
The above findings are arrived at a random survey,
carried out by the ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) in which nearly
4000 corporate employees were interviewed between age group ranging from
21-30, 31-45 and 46 -60 years in metros and towns such as Delhi, Bangalore,
Chennai, Cochin, Indore, Ahemdabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun,
Luckow and Kanpur.
Releasing findings of ASDF survey, ASSOCHAM
Secretary General Mr. D S Rawat said, majority of companies effectively lose
close to 12.5% of total productivity each day since their employee keep
accessing aforesaid sites. As a matter of fact growing use of browsing sites can
be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed
software to restrict its use, added Mr. Rawat.
The survey was conducted in the above identified
places by ASDF research team in the month of September, October and November
2009 on a subject of corporate employee’s involvement for networking.
The most sought after site for the purpose has been
found to be Orkut and Facebook especially for corporate personnel of age group
of 21-30 followed by Mypscae and Linkdein. These two sites entertain and cater
to corporate employees that fall in age bracket of 31-45 and even beyond says,
the findings.
The survey showed that 77% of workers who have
Orkut account use it during work hours. Interestingly, 83% see nothing wrong in
surfing at work during the office hours.
ASSOCHAM Research shows that nearly half of office
employees access social networking sites such as Facebook during office work.
Moreover, 4 in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut, Facebook profile
during work.
It has been found that nearly 82% of workers have a
Facebook account. The average worker uses it for 30-40 minutes a day which adds
up to a lost week each year.
More than half of office workers use sites like
orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Myspace for personal use during the
working day, and admit wasting an average of 40-60 minutes each day.
15% office employee said they share intra
information on social networking sites in office. 60% said that they use around
40-50 minutes a day, but 40% said that they use up to an hour a day.
Young professionals join the social
networking sites the most. It also reveals that 93% of youngsters are aware of
social networking sites. Orkut and Facebook are found to be the most popular
online destinations among survey respondents. 73% of aged 45-58 spend over an
hour online daily to use online sources to access news.
The study has pointed out that employee’s the best
excuse to check out their Facebook or Orkut accounts during lunch breaks but
turning to social networking sites or general Internet surfing in the office
hours.
| Reasons for Social Network User join a
Social Network |
Female |
Male |
| Keeping in touch with
friends |
93% |
80 |
| For fun |
90% |
62% |
| Keeping in touch with family |
29% |
45% |
| Was invited to use the site by someone I
know |
40% |
42% |
| Keeping in touch with
classmates |
56% |
65% |
| keeping in touch with business
network |
2% |
32% |
| Job Searching |
25% |
35% |
| other |
6% |
8% |
84% of internet users in metropolitans show signs
of internet addiction - they don’t take breaks at appropriate times, they spend
more than a ‘normal’ amount of time online, and can get irritable if they are
interrupted while surfing.
However, since most organizations do not monitor
and manage these sites as closely as email, it opens up the potential to violate
corporate communication policies.
It is also found that 19% of companies allow social
networking use only for business purposes, while 16% allow limited personal use.
Only 40% of the employee interviewed said that their companies allow employees
full access to social networks during work hours.
Using social networking sites may divert employees'
attention away from more priorities. For some professions, however, these sites
can be leveraged as effective business tools, one in five companies allows their
use for work-related purposes.
The survey also says that on average, the size of
people's discussion networks is 35-40% larger among mobile phone users, 15% per
cent larger for those who share photos online, and 25% bigger for those who use
instant messaging. The diversity of people's core networks tends to be 45%
larger for mobile phone users, 55% larger for basic Internet users and even
larger for frequent Internet users, instant messages, and those sharing photos
online.
