I cannot say if productivity was a watchword 10 years ago, when salaries were fat and perks were plenty. It's definitely on everyone's minds these days though, when many companies have smaller staff and employees have fatter workloads.

Throw social networking and other electronic communications like e-mail and instant messaging into the mix, and productivity becomes a greater challenge for employees.

Well, that's what conventional wisdom says.

MIT and IBM present a different case. In a study published in April, researchers at the two institutions found that instant messaging and other forms of constant communication actually increase employees' productivity levels. Another win for Chatty Cathy. (For Win 1, see the post "Facebook Addicts + YouTubers = Sharper Employees?")

According to an article by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the researchers analyzed the e-mail traffic, buddy lists and social networking friends of 2,600 IBM consultants over 12 months. They compared the consultants' communication patterns against their performance in billable hours. Those who maintained constant communications averaged an increase in revenue of $588 per month over the average, while those who did not produced $98 per month less than the average.

In particular, the study found that those who IMed frequently with their bosses were more productive than those who didn't.

The debate will no doubt continue, but this study's implications highlight the importance of keeping an open mind. For example, when our productivity advisers engage IT leaders in conversations about the pain points or support gaps within their companies, we rarely hear about a strong need for mobile device support.

When asked where their customers go for this type of support, common responses are "they support themselves," or "call volume is too low, therefore not worth our money to seek an outsourcer or train our staff on this type of support."

And therein lies the dilemma. Recent studies prove that using tools like IM and mobile devices (or any application or tool that provides instant access to work) are effective and increase productivity, but IT leaders don't believe that investing in support for these tools makes sense or is worth it.

Perhaps we can take MIT and IBM's study a step further and ask how many of these end-users consider themselves advanced users. Imagine the productivity gains if they all were. What would those dollars look like? Tell us your thoughts on the gains or losses of supporting mobile devices.

MORE INFO IN: Mobile Device Support | Contact PC Helps

You do not have flash or javascript support.

Average (0 votes)

Reply