6 Ways Social Media Can Enhance Workplace Productivity
Most workplaces limit the use of social media during working hours. Employers believe that social networking during working hours will reduce their employees’ productivity. All the same just because employees are not allowed to visit social networking sites does not mean that they don’t. Pew research published some statistics a while back that showed that 77% of employees use social media at their workplaces and during work hours. Why not use this knowledge to enhancesworkplace productivity?
While you might think that your company is effective in keeping its employees from social media, the probability that these efforts are ineffective is extremely high. Therefore, instead of using company resources to try and keep your employees from social media, it might be better to use this energy and time to find ways that social media can work for you by channeling this social media use by your employees to the benefit of your company. The following are 6 ways social media can enhance workplace productivity.
Note: You could also mobilize your workforce through an employee advocacy program to achieve different business goals.
1. Easing the workload
By taking advantage of your employees’ use of social media, you can create a system where these workers use social networking platforms for business processes. Social tools are known to increase productivity. Indeed, Microsoft reports that 46% of employees have identified social tools as important factors that have contributed to their improved productivity at work.
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Social tools allow these employees to communicate effectively with customers and clients as well as share documents and communicate with colleagues. Some of these tools include video conferencing tools, newsfeed tools, text messaging tools and instant messaging tools. You can also use platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with suppliers, clients and coworkers.
2. Boosts morale
Employees who use social media during working hours surprisingly also report a boost in their productivity. A 2016 research study by the University of California Irvine in conjunction with Microsoft found that checking Facebook when working serves as a mini-break to most employees.
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Employees who take these mini breaks often return to the tasks with better efficiency and focus. That is perhaps why more workplaces are changing their attitudes toward social media use during work hours. Allowing your employees to visit social websites also shows them that you trust them, further improving their workflow within your organization.
3. Enables employees to make and support professional connection
You can ensure that employees who use social media sites find ways to strengthen their professional relationships with individuals outside your enterprise. You can later leverage these relationships to create new opportunities for your business. Take time to teach your employees how they can make better connections on social media that can lead to increased sales interests in your brand. It would be particularly helpful if your employees can use LinkedIn to create connections that would prove useful to your business.
4. Makes business processes more efficient
Social media networking sites are platforms for businesses to connect with large audiences. You can encourage your employees to use Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites to connect with more and more people and share with them information regarding your brand. You can also encourage them to share new product and service promotions with the people in their social circles. What’s more, you can assign customer service tasks to your employees that they can fulfill through social media, including responding speedily to customer messages posted on social networking sites.
5. Improves employee recognition and retention
Social media sites provide the perfect platform to talk about your employees’ accomplishments. You can use social media to recognize outstanding performance, introduce new hires, talk about work anniversaries, etc. By doing this, you encourage your team to better interact as employees congratulate each other through these social networking websites.
Additionally, you make these employees feel special, presenting them in good light before their followers and friends on these networks. As a result, these employees are likely to become more motivated, so much so that they may even want to stay longer at your company. According to Evolv, there is a clear connection between increased company employee retention and social media use. The big data firm found that employees who use between 1 and 4 social media sites every week stay longer at their jobs than those who don’t.
6. Boosts organizational productivity
Most people believe that social media use at the workplace negatively impacts a company’s productivity. Available data shows a different picture. In fact the use of social media at the workplace has the potential to unlock a level of employee productivity that is seldom tapped.
Mckinsey Global Institute published a study that showed that while most companies use social media (as many as 72%), a good number of them do not make the most of social networking. The study shows that if these companies were to take full advantage of social media in their workplaces, it could improve their employees’ productivity by as much as 25%.
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Many workplaces limit the use of social media during work hours. But allowing social media networking can in fact benefit your organization in more ways than you may have imagined. It could enhance workplace productivity. Is it time to review the policy for social media in the workplace?
Author bio: This post was written by Monica Wilson, Social Growr.
Feature image via Freepik.com
