There’s no stopping workers from owning smartphones, but there is new reason for HR to be cynical about the much-touted benefits of those devices.
When workers try to get more done on their smartphones at night, they’re more likely to be less productive the following day. It’s a risk a Michigan State University scholar has identified from a study surveying hundreds of workers both at management levels and below.
Colleagues who monitored their phones for business purposes after 9pm were consistently exhausted and less engaged at work the next day. Smartphones had a more intensely negative effect than televisions, laptops, and tablets when it came to disrupting sleep.
“There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day,” he said. “But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet.”
And if you think your company won’t be affected by this modern-day phenomenon of bringing work home, the statistics show otherwise.
“While adoption still varies across companies, trending data shows the entire bell curve moving upward, with 12% of companies reporting an 80-100% mobilization,” said Brian Reed, chief product officer at BoxTone, which surveyed enterprises for mobile use. “Clearly, there is a maturation of mobile deployment in the workplace, where it’s moved from the pilot stage to crossing the threshold into more mainstream adoption.
The 2013 survey found that:
Colleagues who monitored their phones for business purposes after 9pm were consistently exhausted and less engaged at work the next day. Smartphones had a more intensely negative effect than televisions, laptops, and tablets when it came to disrupting sleep.
“There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day,” he said. “But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet.”
And if you think your company won’t be affected by this modern-day phenomenon of bringing work home, the statistics show otherwise.
“While adoption still varies across companies, trending data shows the entire bell curve moving upward, with 12% of companies reporting an 80-100% mobilization,” said Brian Reed, chief product officer at BoxTone, which surveyed enterprises for mobile use. “Clearly, there is a maturation of mobile deployment in the workplace, where it’s moved from the pilot stage to crossing the threshold into more mainstream adoption.
The 2013 survey found that:
- 17% of companies said less than one fifth of their workforce would have mobile devices for work by the end of the year
- 25% of companies said 20-40% of their workforce would be mobile connected by the end of the year
- 22% of companies said 40-60% of their workforce would be mobile connected by the end of the year
- 23% of companies said 60-80% of their workforce would be mobile connected by the end of the year
- 12% of companies said more than 80% of their workforce would be mobile connected by the end of the year
