Is Social Media Costing the UK Billions in Worker Productivity?

A survey conducted by online regional job network MyJobGroup.co.uk estimates that 55% of the UK’s working population access social media at work and 6% do so for more than an hour each day.

The site polled 1,000 UK workers on their social media behaviors at work and ultimately concluded that social media is costing the UK economy $14 billion in lost work time.

Fourteen percent of respondents also revealed that they were less productive as a result of their social media activities on sites like Twitter () and Facebook (), while 10% reported increased productivity with the help of social media.

There’s no question that social media in the workplace is on the rise. A recent U.S. study by Cisco found that more than half of surveyed employees ignore social media policies to access their favorite social networking sites. Their midyear security report identified FarmVille as the primary secret reprieve.

Still, MyJobGroup’s findings are a bit circumspect, if only in their generalization that 6% of their sample equates to 6% of the entire UK workforce.