Whilst
we all head to the office every day in order to work, it’s all too easy to
become distracted in the digital age. This creates a significant issue for
business-owners, who are known to lose considerable sums of cash in instances
where productivity levels drop over a sustained period of time.
According to TNT Direct, just 57% of employees across the
globe agree that their workplaces enable them to work productively, and this
has much to do with the distractions that are prevalent in modern offices in
2019.
In
this post, we’ll appraise the most common distractions in the workplace, whilst
asking why they have such a significant impact on employees.
- Office Noise
According
to a study conducted by the University of Sydney, it’s estimated that up to 25%
of workers in open-plan and partitionless offices are unhappy with the noise
levels in their offices.
The
biggest issue here is chatter between colleagues, as whilst this type of
interaction helps the day to go quicker it can also create a distracting level
of noise that impairs concentration and mental focus.
This
represents a difficult balance for employers to get right, as whilst many may
want to create an engaging and collaborative working environment, it’s
important not to distract employees or their focus on a daily basis.
- The Use of Smartphones
Unless
you work in a particularly harsh or stringent office (or a call centre), the
chances are that you’ll have access to your mobile phone throughout the working
day.
This
creates a huge potential distraction in the workplace, however, particularly
with the average person thought to check their smartphone
or mobile device up to 47 times each day.
This
means that some employees may be checking their phone up to six times and hour
whilst at work, creating a scenario where individuals are largely unproductive
and regularly have their flow of work interrupted.
This
is why some firms have embraced the principles of BYOD, enabling employees to
work on their on their own laptops and smartphones whilst eliminating the need
to switch between alternative devices.
- Social Media
Finally,
we come to social media, which has become an incredible distraction over the
course of the last decade or more.
Make
no mistake; sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest consume an
increasing amount of our attention every single year, whilst brands and their
employees also tend to be active on their social media accounts.
This
creates a clear challenge; as employees may blur the lines between personal and
professional account use and become distracted by the lure of social media.
Whilst employers can look to introduce some boundaries here, this may prove difficult. With this in mind, it’s preferable to monitor social media activity across employee devices to see if there’s a clearly defined issue.
Photo credits: eOffice
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