YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, the list goes on and on. But can employee use of social media really be costing the US Economy $650 billion?

The majority of us have spent far too much time watching viral YouTube videos, heck, sometimes we end up watching something we don’t even know how we got to. I guess that’s why they call them “Viral”. Within reason it’s a fun pass-time without much of a downside, but is it still ok in the workplace? Many argue brief use of social media can in fact increase productivity, however when you combine an office full of social media users, just how much time and money is it costing you?

The Facts & Figures:

Last year, research conducted by salary.com revealed 89% of those surveyed admitted to wasting time at work. Where was that time spent?

Other time-wasting websites included: Yahoo (7%), YouTube (2%), Amazon (2%), ESPN (2%) while Pinterest, Twitter and Craigslist, contributed roughly 1% each. Mashable predicts:

[Tweet “Social media distractions could be costing each company in the US $4,452 per year.”]

The Solution? Let’s Talk About Employee Monitoring Software

With those sort of costs, even if you weren’t overly concerned about employees’ social media habits, you probably are now… The good news is that there’s a simple, effective, and easy way to keep an eye on things. With employee monitoring software, you can track usage of individual employee computers, including what websites they visit and for how long.

• Attendance and productivity tracking
• Data loss prevention
• Keystroke and chat logging
• Search alerts
• Social media usage
• Email/Webmail monitoring
• Instant messenger monitoring

Data regarding access and usage of the above is automatically stored, analyzed, and aggregated, giving you easy-to-understand facts and figures about each employees use of their computer. Some of the better solutions in the market can be configured to send employees weekly reports regarding their performance allowing them to self-regulate. Self-regulation has the huge advantages of:

• Moving the responsibility for employees’ compliance and ethics back to the employees themselves, where it belongs.
• Conflict reduction – When employees are aware they underperformed they normally adjust their behavior autonomously without management or HR having to step in.
• The workload for HR is greatly reduced, and in particular the responsibility for having unpleasant chats.

How Do You Start Using Employee Computer Monitoring Software?

Digital Endpoint’s KnowIT monitoring software is an easy to use application allowing you to monitor all of the above points so that you can make sure your employees aren’t slacking during working hours. Even better is it’s delivered as Software-As-A-Service which means there’s:

• No setup costs
• No hardware required
• No IT knowledge required
• No commitment
• Simple and fair monthly pricing per seat
• Immediate download – You can literally be up and running in minutes.

Does your business have a way to monitor how much your employees are using social media instead of working? Let us know in the comments section below!