Staffing Industry: Distractions in the Workplace

Staffing Industry: Distractions in the Workplace

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today entitled “Here’s Why You Won’t Finish This Article.” Both a bold statement and personal challenge, the attention-luring headline highlights a simple truth of today’s workplace: we’re easily distracted.

You can check your email on your phone, your iPad, desktop computer, or laptop. While you’re sorting through your email, you get a text message, email from your boss, a notification on your phone from one of your thirty apps, and did I mention the project you have sitting on your desk and mass of circulating internal emails? And Facebook hasn’t even been mentioned yet.

It’s a problem. On average, office workers are interrupted every three minutes. Technology and changing communication mediums are great, but they also increase the number of distractions. Smartphones seem to be a particular focus of this distracted epidemic. 58% of employees found that having a handheld increased their productivity. On the same note, 35% said that same smartphone distracted them during the workday, and 50% said they increased distraction in their personal lives as well.

Tech Journal broke down the components of distraction in a recent survey by Workplace Options. The top distractions were as followed: Personnel (24%), technology (23%), meetings and luncheons (12%), surroundings (6%), and celebrations (4%). It can be costly too. Tech Journal estimates that American businesses lose around $650 billion a year through workplace distractions.

Companies are experimenting with ways to reduce employee distraction. Some of it is time management, and some is just plain distraction. Strategies for reducing distraction include everything from holding “device-free” meetings to eliminating internal email entirely.

What do you think of distractions in the workplace? Have smartphones become a help or hindrance to productivity? We’d love to hear from you.

World Wide Specialty Programs has always had a singular purpose – to design, develop and provide Staffing insurance products for the staffing industry. Our method is simple: track those changes; listen to emerging needs, and respond. We work with over 2,000 insurance brokers nationwide. We know the staffing industry better than anyone. Contact us today for more information about our staffing insurance programs.