Collaboration & Social Tools Drain Business Productivity, Costing Millions in Work Interruptions.

The proliferation of collaboration and social tools designed to increase productivity is actually costing businesses millions of dollars per year in lost productivity, according to a survey of more than 500 employees in U.S. businesses of all sizes conducted by online market research firm uSamp (United Sample) and commissioned by social email software provider harmon.ie.

Nearly 60% of work interruptions now involve either using tools like email, social networks, text messaging and IM, or switching windows among disparate standalone tools and applications. In fact, 45% of employees work only 15 minutes or less without getting interrupted, and 53% waste at least one hour a day due to all types of distractions.

That hour per day translates into $10,375 of wasted productivity per person annually, assuming an average salary of $30/hour. That is more than the average U.S. driver will spend this year to own and maintain a car. For businesses with 1,000 employees, the cost of employee interruptions exceeds $10 million per year.

"This survey paints a picture of a highly distracted workplace with a particular irony: information technology that was designed at least in part to save time is actually doing precisely the opposite. The very tools we rely on to do our jobs are also interfering with that mission. We're clearly seeing what psychologists call 'online compulsive disorder' spill over from our personal lives to the work environment ," said Yaacov Cohen, co-founder and CEO of harmon.ie. "For all of us, it's time to take back the Internet and find ways to control our digital addiction."

Among the survey findings: MOST WORK DISRUPTIONS ARE ELECTRONIC While traditional activities such as phone calls, talking with coworkers, and ad hoc meetings account for 43% of work interruptions today, the lion's share of distractions are now electronically based.

Users reported getting sidetracked in email processing (23%), switching windows to complete tasks (10%), personal online activities such as Facebook (9%), instant messaging (6%), text messaging (5%) and Web search (3%).

Keywords: Software, Technology, harmon.ie.

This article was prepared by Information Technology Newsweekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Information Technology Newsweekly via VerticalNews.com.