Should you let your workers browse the Web?
A recent experiment showed that people who were allowed to browse the Web during breaks performed better on tasks than those that weren't, Dave Johnson writes. "Turns out that the most productive workers are the ones who get to read the news and make Amazon purchases from their desk," Johnson writes.
http://www.bnet.com/blog/businesstips/increase-productivity-by-surfing-t...
Should you let your workers browse the Web?
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Yes. Always a big, massive yes. You hire people because you trust they can do a great job for you. So why then would you not trust them to behave in the right way given the 'lure' of the web? It's madness. You're running a company for adults here, not some kindergarten.
I agree there has to be some leeway here as long as safety guidelines are adhered to and the job is getting done. In my profession browsing the web is a key element.
You have to treat people like adults and trust them to do the right thing, but likewise, if they are found to be loafing around on the web and not doing their job then you have the right to take action.
Difficult question to answer. We should treat people like adults, but having first hand experience I too often found that a minority would spend far too long on surfing the web. It is impossible as a manager to continually check on people to see if they are working within guidelines set out.
So my answer would be yes if it is within breaks, but no if it begins to become a distraction from the work they are paid to do.
That approach could do more harm than good though Andrew. Ignoring the 'treating folks like adults' angle for a bit, the research in the original post suggests that people basically cannot be working non-stop for 8 hours per day, so allowing them time to browse the web offers them a chance to recharge mentally.
I'm assuming that in most knowledge work environments that breaks are not allocated at specific times of the day so therefore it seems very hard to police when and how people use the web. Indeed for me it's something that shouldn't even be tried.
After all, one of the key elements of innovation is a natural curiosity to explore a wide range of topics and interests. It's known as the rule of association or something like that. So if you're restricting what people can do at work you're really limiting how they can think as well. Not a wise move imo.
Yes, yes and yes. Workers should be allowed to browse the web during breaks! Not all of them will be shopping on line! In fact if your organisation knew that its workers were visiting social media sites, tweeting, blogging, interacting with others - keeping up to date with what's happening in the industry, on what competitors are doing and they are asking questions "all in the name of raising the business game" then maybe employers would not be so harsh! In fact, employers could build in "social media marketing time" and for those that come up with exciting snippets of info could be rewarded with www "me time". Let there be a win win trade off for employees and employers! Viv Leach "Viitality - for life and learning"
I'm currently reading The Innovators DNA by Clayton Christensen, and he recommends several things that go into 'being innovative'.
For instance networking is important, not just within your own industry but in as wide a variety as possible. Clearly the web offers many avenues for such things.
Likewise, learning about many things is recommended. They mention that good innovators have T shaped knowledge base, ie knowledge of lots of areas, with deep knowledge in one or two. Once again, the web offers unlimited opportunity for learning new things.
So really, for me at least, good use of the web should be an essential for any knowledge worker.
Good, if mildly unrelated, point Mike. Most people network based upon what resources they can get from other people. Innovators though tend to network purely to share ideas and learn from others. It's a fundamental difference, but a crucial one, and one that social media naturally supports because doing the hard sell in social media is really frowned upon, it's much more a culture of exchanging thoughts and ideas.
Probably depends on the kind of work though.
"More than nine out of ten British students are distracted by Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites at least once an hour, a new global survey has claimed."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8781704/UK-students-most-distracted-by-social-media.html
I'm a fan of the powerful potential of the web, but in the wrong hands it can be a heck of a time sink.