Let them click on

“Cyberloafing” – the act of accessing the Internet for personal purposes on company time – is set to increase in Singapore.  So claims a report in today’s Business Times quoting a conference paper by a local academic.

Such activity could well be a drain on productivity, but the paper does point out that not all types of cyberloafing is bad for business.  In fact, browsing the web has been shown by several studies to have a positive effect on cubicle life in general.  It allows people to cope with life and work stresses and may even contribute to increasing a worker’s “business intelligence”, thus boosting productivity.

The effect of checking and responding to email, however, is not quite so clear-cut.  As it requires time and effort to manage emails, it can generally be a drain on productivity.  However, companies concerned about cyberloafing should avoid knee-jerk reactions such as a blanket ban on all personal web usage. The net result of such a response would almost certainly be negative in terms of general morale.

The only sustainable response to this challenge is to start managing by objectives – not tracking input.  In other words, set clear goals and objectives for you team and measure productivity by how well these goals are met, not by much much time is seemingly put into achieving them.

The Internet genie has long escaped the bottle – don’t waste your time trying to stuff him back in. Instead, focus your effort in leveraging the technology to boost your business’ competitiveness.