Within the last two decades, social media has evolved from obscure grass root networks into major connectivity and media platforms. Millennials, specifically, were born into the age of social media with the vast majority of them having been active on these platforms from pre-adolescence. Resultantly, when this generation enters the workforce as new graduates they have a solid grounding in internet culture but are new to the professional world and its associated work ethics. Mediakix, an influencer-marketing agency, has found that on average a person spends around 2.5 hours a day on social media. This is roughly 32% of their workday and results in a 13% loss of productivity.
In addition to being perceived as a hindrance of optimum performance, social media is also sometimes viewed as a barrier to workplace ethics. With the improvement of communication through the typed or virtual world, it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate through direct and spoken means. The disdain of many young professionals towards face-to-face contact combined with their tendency to consult devices mid conversation translates poorly with their superiors and is perceived as unprofessional and disrespectful.
The fact that it is difficult for employers to differentiate between productive and personal use of these platforms coupled with the reality that many companies have not yet developed a policy regarding social media use makes the regulation of these practices extremely difficult. Some companies have opted to implement site bans on company devices. Whilst this has been somewhat effective it is impractical to place these restrictions on an employee’s personal device, thus failing to solve the problem.
Other companies are of the opinion that a complete prohibition of these platforms would ultimately damage the interest of the company rather than improve them. Studies appear to agree with this notion by revealing that social media usage during office hours can often enhance employee performance. Companies should therefore adapt to these social resources and incorporate them as a useful work tool. This then presents a particular conundrum whereby managerial mechanisms must be developed to allow constructive social media usage whilst minimizing the negative effects that it has on employee productivity.
Pew Center conducted an American based survey, which revealed that 27% of respondents admitted to using social media at work to connect with friends and family. However, 73% indicated that they use social media for work-related purposes including; fostering professional connections; solving work problems; improving relationships with co-workers as well as to ask work-related questions to people outside of their organization. Furthermore, it has been found that the most common reason employees use social media at work is to take a mental break from their job. An employee who is firmly focused on their handheld device may be perceived as shirking from their work responsibilities or being unproductive when in actual fact they may be engaging in an effective method of mentally unwinding. This allows the employee to focus better once they return to their task thereby actually improving productivity and morale.
The urge to constantly consult one’s social feeds is a widespread tendency among young people; it is thus prudent for companies to shift their attitudes and view social media usage in a similar way to that of smoke breaks; in that it is perceived as a recess rather than a distraction.
About the Author
Sumaya Dadan is currently working for Stellenbosch University. She is a qualified and practicing pharmacist who lives in Cape Town. New to the world of business writing but looking forward to exploring this new challenge. She enjoys creative writing and hopes to one day write and publish her own fiction works. Follow her on Instagram @sumayadadan