How many times have you been caught checking your MySpace or FaceBook page at work? Well now you can explain to your boss that it is all in the name of productivity.
You may not believe it, and your boss will certainly be harder to convince, but, according to some new research commissioned by At&T Inc., social networking is actually helping workers to become more productive.
In a European-wide survey carried out by Dynamic Markets, 2,000 people in a total of five countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands) were questioned about their social networking habits, and the results were surprising.
It turns out that 65 per cent of workers claim that using a networking site has made them more productive, and 46 per cent say that it has sparked individual creativeness on their part.
The top five types of social networking currently being used are:
1.   Companies’ own collaboration sites (39 per cent)
2.   Internal forums (20 per cent)
3.   Company video material on intranets (16 per cent)
4.   Social networking Web sites (15 per cent)
5.   External collaboration sites (11 per cent)
In the countries questioned, 65 per cent of workers claimed that their company had taken social networking on board as a way to enhance productivity.
Major advantages highlighted were increasing an individual’s knowledge and finding solutions to problems. However, negatives that came out of the research were that it could be a distraction to workers (I think my boss would agree with that) and that, worryingly, it could even lead to leaks of confidential company information.
Germany is the most popular for adoption rates, at 74 per cent, whereas the UK is only on 59 per cent and it appears it has a lot of catching up to do.
According to Martin Silman, executive director at AT&T, “the research shows that there is a clear trend across Europe for business users to embrace the benefits of ‘Web 2.0′ technology to underpin collaboration, improve productivity and embrace business efficiency”.
So now you are free to log on to your social networking site of choice, and when your boss catches you chatting to your friends about the previous evening’s entertainment, you can claim in all confidence that you will be more productive as a result.
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That’s funny, this is like asking if taking breaks increase your productivity. Of course people will say that their productivity increased or that they became more creative. Being allowed to use social networking sites during work hours is something that people love and will make it sound that it benefits the employer as well. But I doubt that browsing around profiles and engaging in social posts one minute will make you so much sharper at your work (accounting, software, administration) the next
Much of the reporting of the AT&T research has suggested that the report is refering to the likes of Facebook when it says that social networks improve their efficiency. Of course it isn’t. And what it is saying is much more interesting.
When the report refers to social networking, most of the examples cited are really of social tools (social networking, online communities, collaboration tools) being used more and more internally to help employees share, meet and learn. This is often the first step to then using similar tools externally, with customers and the public.
I’ve written some more about this and what it means if anybody is interested:
http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2008/11/so-how-does-social-networking-improve-efficiency-at-work/
Matt
FreshNetworks