In the never-ending quest to make employees productive, letting them slack off a little may be a good tactic.  The University of Melbourne found that “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing,” or WILB, goes a long way towards letting people refocus.

Dr. Brent Coker, who works in the University’s Department of Management and Marketing, stated after finishing a study, “People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t.”

So if and when human resource specialists are asked to deal with alleged slackers, this might be something worth keeping in mind.  While certain content will remain inappropriate for the workplace, you’ll certainly become a lot more popular if you allow employees to watch the occasional YouTube clip of puppies playing.

Even management types may come to love the finding.  Companies that spend time and money tracking people’s online habits or using site-blocking software should appreciate the opportunity to stop dealing with all of that stuff.

Just keep in mind the “reasonable limit” to WILB that Dr. Coker established.  He warned, “Approximately 14% of internet users in Australia show signs of Internet Addiction – they don’t take breaks at appropriate times, they spend more than a ‘normal’ amount of time online, and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing.  WILB is not as helpful for this group of people . . .”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.