Fleximize carried out a study into workers
procrastination habits and identified that the instant messaging app WhatsApp
is the most distracting platform. 72% of employees regularly use it to chat to
friends and family when they should be working. Other common workplace
distractions named in the study affected the following percentage of employees:
Facebook
(70%), Instagram (49%), Twitter (41%) and Snapchat (30%)
Some companies
encourage employees to use WhatsApp as a communication tool amongst their teams.
Whilst this may assist with communication in the workplace, employer should be
aware that it can also provide employees with a platform to air grievances and
complain about their work colleagues or how they are being treated by their
manager.
There is
a risk that an employee could accidentally whilst using WhatsApp send
confidential information and attachments relating to their organisation, to a
third party or to an individual who is outside their organisation. As WhatsApp picks up all contacts on a user's
smartphone.
If social
media is approved for work, employers need to ensure that they have clear
policy and procedures around how employees conduct themselves to ensure that
they do not break any defamation, data protection or privacy laws.
If the
use of social networking sites during working hours for personal use is not
acceptable then employers need to ensure that this is clearly communicated to
employees and that they understand the implications of what may happen if they
are found to be using social media. The
policy should state how the issues will be dealt with and if it is through the
disciplinary procedure.