Employees slacking at work? Productivity down? Have ‘em hop on Facebook or Twitter. No, not to market your business or take out ads on these social media sites. A new study by The University of Melbourne found short and unobtrusive breaks, like perusing these social sites or watching a video on YouTube, helps increase overall productivity.
These breaks, defined by the study as “workplace Internet leisure browsing” (WILB), have helped employees become a reported 9 percent more productive versus their coworkers not participating in WILB.
Study author Brent Coker notes, “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” on the university’s website (www.unimelb.edu.au/).