If you’re worrying that your employees are too distracted by social media to get the job done, you’re worrying about the wrong thing. A new survey shows that your employees are actually more distracted by personal relationships than they are by mobile phones or social networking.
The findings are contrary to previous surveys that suggest workers are increasingly distracted by online communications such as Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging.
According to the ComPsych poll, employees are distracted by:
- Personal relationship issues: 22%
- Co-workers who want to chat: 19%
- Challenges with work relationships: 16%
- Financial/legal problems: 15%
- Child-related or care-giving issues: 11%
- Personal health problems: 6%
- Personal communications (cellphone, e-mail/instant messenger, social media): 4%
- Other: 7%
Some 22% of employees surveyed said "personal relationship issues" were their biggest distraction at work.
By contrast, just 4% of those surveyed said personal communications tools such as a mobile phone, e-mail, instant messenger or social media were the top distraction at the workplace, the poll of 1,236 workers found.
A far bigger distraction was "co-workers who want to chat," with 19% of respondents citing this as the biggest reason they aren't getting work done.
Sixteen percent said "challenges with work relationships" were their top distraction, and 15% said financial/legal problems were the issue most interfering with their ability to concentrate and get work done, the poll found.