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The Leakage of Time

There are many ways that your business can be negatively impacted by leaking productivity, but finding the culprit is not always easy. Most lost productivity can be lumped into two categories, human issues and processes and procedures.

Author: Bryan Ramona

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2010 will likely be remembered in great part due to the mess created by British Petroleum with the explosion and sinking of the oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The subsequent out of control leakage of millions of gallons of crude oil is an environmental disaster of near Biblical proportions that residents of and visitors to the region will likely have to suffer for decades. While it’s clear that such a leak may send BP to the depths of the financial ocean forever, a leak in time and productivity for a small or mid-sized business can be just as crippling.

In other words, wasted productivity comes as a result of what your employees are or are not doing while other productivity leaks are created by problems or issues within the way your network is designed and/or operated.

Human factors and behaviors that cause lost time and productivity are often age-old behaviors like chatting about the big game around the water cooler, or talking to your significant other on a personal call for half an hour. Long lunches are another area where companies have found that productivity is lost. These examples of human behavior are hard to control but are prevalent in most modern workplaces.

A 2008 survey by Salary.com listed results of over 2,500 polled participants across all job levels. Interestingly, over 64% of those surveyed admitted they waste one hour or less each day while the remaining 36% burn two to three hours or more per day. Considering an eight to ten hour workday, it’s significant that a third of workers cost companies at least 25% in productivity every week. At minimum, with eight lost hours per week and an average of 50 weeks in a year (less vacation time), that works out to a deficit of 400 hours of lost time or about ten full weeks per year! Multiply that by the number of employees in a business and you’ll see a disturbing and scary trend.

So what are these employees wasting their time on? The responses were accumulated as follows:

1. Internet Use – 48%
2. Socializing with Co-workers – 33%
3. Conducting Personal Business – 30%
4. Personal Phone Calls – 19%
5. Long Lunches or Breaks – 15%

You can see the recent paradigm shift into the Internet age has come with a cost as nearly half of the respondents cited the Internet as the main culprit. But why do they waste work time? Where you might think they would throw their co-workers under the bus as a bad influence, only 18% felt that was the main reason. More often it was lack of job satisfaction, flat-out boredom, or the ever-present “I don’t make enough money for what I do” defense.

So controlling the human factors is only a small part of the puzzle. The larger thing to consider is that technology is playing a much greater role. And not just because employees are regularly abusing their Internet privileges, but because there are a large number that replied to the Salary.com survey with some interesting views. Many respondents (54%) stated that quite often their own productivity was impacted by having to fix other’s work. Sure, office politics and meetings account for a portion but covering for someone else or repairing their damage accounts for the lion’s share.

Now that we’ve looked at personal time wasters let’s see how they intersect with business time wasters. It could be overregulation of policies on performing tasks, or a lack of modern systems to accomplish tasks. In many cases technology can be the problem and/or the solution! For example, consider a business running PCs with Windows XP and Office 2000. I know this may not be an extreme case but there are those who are sorely lacking in up-to-date software and hardware. Here is a list of other business factors that impact the problem as well:

• Software and Application Incompatibility
-Systems not kept up-to-date with the latest versions
-Addition of applications that don’t work on existing platforms or slow them down
-Systems or applications that are compromised by malicious intrusion or virus attacks
• Disparate Messaging Platforms (Voicemail, Email, Fax, Texting, etc.)
• Multiple Vendor Systems and Problem Resolution
-Voice and data networks separate and uncoordinated
-“Finger-pointing” when two or more vendors are responsible for a particular application,
most common in traditional phone system and service scenario
-Email spam/phishing/malware

These items are problems that a trusted technology partner can remedy. With the rise of Unified Communications, it’s very common now to see voice and data systems combined on one network. Not only is there a productivity gain in having voicemail come to your email inbox as an attachment or “single number reach” for employees who are not in a traditional office setting or on the road, but there are major cost savings that can be realized as well.

Spam filtering appliances such as the Barracuda Spam Filter or hosted services can nearly eliminate the time it takes to clear spam out of mailboxes, in some cases from 30 minutes to an hour a day! Your trusted partner should advise you on software and hardware that is an appropriate fit for your organization. In addition, having someone proactively working on and maintaining your network is the key to making it last and be able to adequately serve you. Would you neglect putting oil in your car or checking the brakes and tires? Your network requires the same attention to detail, and the more it is monitored and cared for, the longer it will serve you.

At the end of the day there is a lot of time left over for the good things like family and friends, even if you are responsible for keeping it all together. Taking a forward thinking approach and insisting on best-of-breed products and support will go a long way toward making your time wasters grow smaller and your profits to grow larger. Just don’t let those that complained they aren’t being paid enough know about the latter!

About Author

SecurElement delivers a comprehensive blend of essential hardware, software, technical personnel, support and maintenance through the innovative Managed Environment program. Offering unparalleled value at a controlled cost, businesses of any size are able to leverage leading-edge technologies and services that maximize productivity, drive bottom line success and solve critical business issues.

For more information regarding SecurElement solutions, interested parties can contact the sales department at 484.323.1629 or via email at sales@securelement.com.

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The Leakage of Time