Recruitment Information – Articles and Press Releases
Chit-chat between support staff costing companies £2bn a year
by Adam Richardson of Yellow Cat Recruitment.« Back
According to Recruitment Agency review site www.hirescores.com employees in the UK spend an average of 67 minutes per day talking about unrelated topics during working hours. The research discovered that this is costing employers more than £2billion a year.
A survey discovered that the most commonly spoken about subjects included the previous night’s TV (52% of those surveyed) and their love life (34%).
Of all employees surveyed, 8% confessed to chatting to colleagues for three hours or more each day. 34% believed that their performance was not affected by this.
23% said they would only chat depending on who was in the room, with 79% admitting that they wouldn’t talk about unrelated issues in front of their boss.
Lisette Howlett, Managing Director of HireScores.com said: “We all know the excitement of coming into work and wanting to talk about last night’s events, whether it be on the TV or what you got up to last night, but with over £2billion being lost each year, it’s important to rein it in a little bit. It is however, a huge bonus for employees to have a good relationship with each other, in terms of morale especially, so in many ways it’s a good thing to talk – just not too much!”
Here at Yellow Cat, one of the leading job agencies in London, we are big advocates of regular office banter!