Employee productivity in the workplace.
So now you know that all your employees computer activities can be recorded, but why would this information be useful to you? Perhaps the most important reason for majority of companies is employee productivity. As the old saying goes, 'time is money', and when time is not spent being productive you are losing money.
In today's day and age computers are used virtually everywhere and that certainly includes the workplace. For most, the 'job' is performed almost entirely on their computer if not a majority percentage. With advances of the Internet, hardware, and software we use this also leaves a vast array of abilities that can be performed on those computers - including those which are not job related. It is currently estimated that every employee spends roughly 75 minutes per day on their computer performing non-work related activities. That is 325 hours each year that every employee is being paid for.
Typical non-work activities employees do throughout the day :
- Playing games to pass the time
- Using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others
- Chatting with friends through chat software and social networks
- Sending and receiving personal emails
- Downloading and/or viewing video files from sites such as YouTube
- Shopping online through sites like eBay, Amazon, and others
- Trading personal stocks online
- General browsing of the web
- ... the list goes on and on
Surveys among employees found the following statistics :
- 64% of employees admitted to visiting non-work related websites every single day.
- 46% of workers look for a new job online while at their current position during the work day.
- Non-work related Internet surfing results in up to a 40% loss of productivity each year at American businesses.
- 85% of employees use office email for personal reasons (both sending and receiving).
- 70% of all web traffic to pornographic websites occurs during the nine to five work day.
- 92% of online stock trading occurs from the workplace during the work hours.
- Up to 40% of Internet use in the workplace is not directly related to business.
- 37% of workers say they constantly surf the web while at work.
- Employees are spending more time surfing the web at work then while at home as often the workplace offers a faster connection than the home.
- 30% of employees watch sports online while at work.
- 24% of employees admit to shopping on the Internet while at work.
This loss of productivity among employees costs businesses thousands of dollars each and every year when not controlled in some manner or another. An industry review conducted in 2000 found that lost productivity cost an estimated $357,000 per company for the year with that figure surely higher today. To put this into perspective, a company with 100 employees who work five days a week and earn a $25 salary per hour, would lose $812,500 per year in lost productivity if their employees were wasting 75 minutes per day on the job. This figure is from salary cost alone for hours of work where nothing productive occurred relating to their job. There is also the unknown cost of work taking longer to complete, deadlines not being met, and many others which have not been factored in.
How much money can you lose from lost productivity?
Take a look at the chart below to get an idea of how much money you could be losing in lost productivity each year. The chart is based off the estimates mentioned above where each employee wastes 75 minutes per day on their computer. You can also use our Productivity Savings Calculator to estimate your own losses as well as find out how much you can possibly save.
| Number of Employees | Salary per hour | Loss per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50.00 | $16,250.00 |
| 10 | $25.00 | $81,250.00 |
| 10 | $50.00 | $162,500.00 |
| 50 | $25.00 | $406,250.00 |
| 50 | $50.00 | $812,500.00 |
| 100 | $25.00 | $812,500.00 |
| 100 | $50.00 | $1,625,000.00 |
| 500 | $25.00 | $4,062,500.00 |
| 500 | $50.00 | $8,125,000.00 |
As you can see above employee productivity is a big deal for both small and large companies alike. By monitoring your employees computer activities you can severely limit this productivity loss thus saving you money and possibly increasing your profits as more work will be performed and in a more timely manner. Is productivity the only reason to monitor your employees though?
