The High Costs of Low Productivity
Three in four employers (75 percent) say two or more hours a day are lost in productivity because employees are distracted. Forty-three percent say at least three hours a day are lost. Productivity killers can lead to negative consequences for the organization, including:
Compromised quality of work: 48 percent
- Lower morale because other workers have to pick up the slack: 38 percent
- Negative impact on boss/employee relationship: 28 percent
- Missed deadlines: 27 percent
- Loss in revenue: 26 percent
- Negative impact on client relationships: 20 percent
More than 3 in 4 employers (76 percent) have taken at least one step to mitigate top productivity killers, such as blocking certain Internet sites (32 percent) and banning personal calls/cell phone use (26 percent).
Other efforts to mitigate productivity killers include:
- Schedule lunch and break times: 24 percent
- Monitor emails and Internet usage: 19 percent
- Limit meetings: 17 percent
- Allow people to telecommute: 14 percent
- Have an open space layout instead of cubicles: 14 percent
- Restrict use of speakerphones if not in an office: 13 percent
- Increase height of cubicle walls to make it easier to concentrate: 8 percent
- The Craziest Non-Work Activities Workers Have Done On the Job
Employers were also asked to reveal the most unusual or most memorable things they have caught an employee doing when they should have been working. Some examples included:
1. Employee was working on a scrapbook.
2. Employee was decorating a cubicle with chains of paper clips.
3. Employee brought her equipment for her embroidery business from home and was making items for a craft show to sell.
4. Employee was doing doughnuts in the parking lot in the snow.
5. Employee brought in a kitten she found outside and tried to keep it quiet within a large purse.
6. Employee was working on her child’s school project that included uncooked macaroni noodles.
7. Employee was laying on a patient’s bed talking to the patient while the patient sat in her wheelchair
8. Employee was watching YouTube videos of people shoving marshmallows in their mouth.
9. Employee was doing some personal grooming in the break room.
10. Employee was searching for dates.
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