Did you know that people touch their phone 2,600 times a day?
At work they spend about 56 minutes a day using their cell phones for personal matters.
This is what it’s revealed in a recent survey about Smartphone addiction from KDM Engineering form United Staled in 2018.
But more than that:
50% of employees consult their phone during meetings?
20% check their phone in average every twenty minutes while working
Although 70% of employees think they shouldn’t use their phones in meetings, 53% of them do it nevertheless
Do we really realize how smartphones are impacting the workplace?
It’s not just smartphones but also laptops via emails, chat apps, IP telephony like Skype, social networking sites, cloud computing, on-line meetings like Zoom, webinars, on-line training, social media for business like Linkedin.
Actually people are in denial about their electronic devices dependency and unaware of the time they spend doodling with their screens during an office day.
We can’t help it : tapping, touching or scrolling have become conscious and unconscious repetitive actions.
This is called tech-addiction.
Such is the situation of life and technology nowadays.
On the bright side, smartphones in the workplace are used as internal connection tools like supporting autonomy, allowing bigger flexibility and bettering knowledge-sharing.
On the flip side, researches reveal the negative impact of devices overuse in the workplace such as reducing productivity, separating people from their real work life, generating stress and creating addictive habits.
Did you know that a single notification, as for a mobile buzz or a laptop ping, weakens the ability to focus on a task?
For sure, employees addicted to their devices aren’t giving the company the expected performances.
How can companies react to this huge social problem?
Here we’ll present some solutions companies can install like:
setting rules or policies as for the use of phones during business meetings
starting providing coaching for tech-addicts and even prevention trainings for the non-yet touched by the contagion
planning data-off-connection moments or meetings or workshops
introduce a tech-free day whit all devices unplugged
It is also important how enterprises communicate about their values like let their teams know that the management is ok with disconnecting or putting emphasis rather on productivity than on anytime availability.
Companies can also invite employees to use the time to gather over a coffee break, catch up with a teammate or just go for a refreshing stroll.
Instead of thinking that these moments are eroding time and attention, cheer people just to have a good talk with each other and to stay connected in the present by for instance picking up the phone as an alternative to sending emails or texts.
This is an excellent way to foster team spirit, seeing it up a means of efficiency, not as a distraction.
A new business has flourished offering companies every kind of unplugging services like office-based Meditation programs, Disconnecting Retreat in the nature, Digital Detox Team Building, Human Connection Workshops.
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