Reasons Social Media in The Workplace Can Help Employees

Many believe the use of social media in the workplace walks a narrow line. When used correctly, social media may be a boost to the company's profitability, but may also hinder employee productivity. Geoff Baldwin, a lawyer in the employment law team at Stacks Champion, advises a positive stance: “If there is a key message, it is that the focus should be on what the employee should be doing, not on what the employee should not be doing.”

Employees used social media during work hours for a variety of reasons, with the top four being: to take a mental break from work (34%), to contact family and friends (27%), to develop their professional network (24%), and to help solve work problems (24%)
Here are 7 reasons why social media in the workplace can help employees:

Permits employees to benefit from brief breaks

Using social media allows employees to take quick breaks throughout the day while still sitting at their desks, rather than going outside or to the break room. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration… Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work...” states Brent Coker.  

An employee at Zippy Electrics, Daniel Carter shares, “I like to use a productivity-boosting technique called the Pomodoro technique which is to take small 5-minute breaks after an hour of work. Taking a quick look at my social media feed and seeing what my wife and boys are up to helps refresh my mind and motivates me to power through the rest of the day.

Promotes a healthy work environment & company culture

Giving employees the freedom to use social media signals your trust in them. When managers foster such a work environment, they are indirectly promoting a healthy workplace culture. Here, employees are likely to share your company’s new stories or post positive comments about their work experience within their networks. All of this indirectly contributes to company’s employer brand social reach, further promoting the organization's values.

Upraises employee morale and productivity

Time spent on platforms like Facebook/Instagram is positively associated to job happiness, according to a study published in Computers and Human Behaviour. The use of social media by employees moreover:

• Promotes accountability at work (Employees who know their bosses trust them, produce better work results ss they are more likely to feel more responsible for the tasks.)
• Makes them feel valued
• Improves mood and employee engagement

Stands out as a problem-solving tool

Interestingly, where firms have an at-work social media policy, employees are 10% less likely to "use social media for personal reasons while on the job," and 9% more likely to use social media to help solve work problems, according to the study by the Pew Research Centre.

Strengthens internal communication & relations within co-workers

Social networking fosters good professional relationships by encouraging casual chats between co-workers. It's the simplest and fastest approach to get employees to communicate with their co-workers. As it is a more natural manner of making relationships, it can boost camaraderie and team bonding in the organisation.

Note: When co-workers have better personal relationships, they are more likely to function as a team more effectively. They may also grow to regard their co-workers as friends, increasing their motivation to come to work every day.

Aids in developing professional network

Your employees win the chance to improve professional contacts with people outside the organisation by using social media platforms. These connections can then lead to opportunities that would not have been available otherwise. For instance, sales leads, interest in employment, business prospects, and new ideas may all arise from more and better relationships. LinkedIn is designed expressly for these kinds of interactions and has a slew of obvious business applications.

Eases gain and transfer of any information

Employees may easily share information across all parts of the organisation with the press of a finger, thanks to social media's 'group' and 'chatting' functions. Private social networks such as Slack, Google Pages, and HipChat offers another method to post important announcements or internal information rapidly, promoting a unique two-way conversation between leaders and employees.