US Employees Waste 20% of Their Work Day According to Salary.com(TM) Survey
July 25 2007 - 11:04AM
Business Wire
Salary.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLRY), a leading provider of on-demand
compensation management solutions, today released the results of
its 2007 Wasting Time Survey revealing that the average employee
wastes 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour work day. This is the third
year Salary.com has conducted the survey and, while the amount of
wasted time has steadily declined, companies are still paying
billions in salaries for which they receive no direct benefit. As
in previous years, personal Internet use (34.7% of respondents),
socializing with co-workers (20.3%) and conducting personal
business (17.0%) remain the leading time-wasting activities.
Respondents also report making personal phone calls and taking long
breaks to run errands while on the job. Interestingly, the reasons
for wasting time cover both extremes. While many employees admit to
wasting time because they �don�t have enough work to do� (17.7%),
the second most popular, and somewhat contradictory, response is
�my hours are too long� (13.9%). Employees also cite being
underpaid (11.8%) and a lack of challenging work (11.1%) as reasons
for slacking on the job. �While a certain amount of wasted time is
built into company salary structures, our research indicates that
companies with a challenged and engaged workforce can expect more
productivity in return,� states Bill Coleman, chief compensation
officer at Salary.com. While the amount of time wasted at work may
appear high, it has actually declined 19 percent since the first
survey in 2005. At that time employees reported wasting an average
of 2.09 hours per day and, in 2006, the figure receded to 1.86
hours. This trend is likely the result of numerous factors,
including a growing economy, increases in employee productivity and
a tightening labor market. �A shortage of labor and tighter company
budgets have resulted in an increased burden on employees who now
have less time available to waste,� adds Coleman. �This translates
into a greater return for companies but increases the risk of
employee burnout. When increasing workloads, organizations should
also allow a certain amount of flexibility for employees to conduct
personal business or take a mental breather.� Other interesting
findings from the 2007 Wasting Time Survey include: Over 63 percent
of respondents admitted to wasting time at work. Younger workers
waste more time than their older counterparts. Employees between
20-29 years old reported the highest total�2.1 hours per day. The
average for 30-39 year olds drops to 1.9 hours and ages 40-49
report wasting just 1.4 hours per day. Survey respondents also feel
that some of their work-related activities are a waste of time
including: fixing someone else�s work (18.1%), dealing with office
politics (16.2%) and sending or responding to emails (13.1%). About
the Wasting Time Survey Salary.com surveyed over 2,000 employees
across all job levels during June and July of 2007. The surveys
were fielded to AOL and Salary.com users and their responses were
submitted electronically. Salary.com compensation professionals
reviewed the data for accuracy and consistency and aggregated the
valid submissions. About Salary.com, Inc. Salary.com is a leading
provider of on-demand compensation management solutions helping
businesses and individuals manage pay and performance. Salary.com
provides companies of all sizes comprehensive on-demand software
applications that are tightly integrated with its own proprietary
compensation data sets, thereby automating the essential elements
of the compensation management process and significantly improving
the effectiveness of its client�s compensation spend. For more
information, visit www.salary.com.
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