These are the biggest distractions in the workplace
Noisy co-workers and emails are major disturbances.
DESPITE BEING AN invaluable tool in most offices, email is also a major time-sink – ranking as one of the top distractions for Irish workers.
Some 23% of employers cited email as the biggest diversion among their staff, according to recruitment company CPL Resources’ latest employment market monitor.
The survey, which polled over 200 employers, found that it was tied for largest disturbance with noisy or gossiping co-workers.
Both ranked ahead of other disruptions such as mobile phones, texting and social media.
Holidays
The study also found that 80% of staff don’t take their full holiday entitlement, despite Ireland having the second-lowest annual leave allowances in Europe.
CPL director Peter Cosgrove said that this showed how committed Irish people are to their jobs, however he added:
“With so much research indicating the benefit of time away from the office, should employers be doing more to ensure that employees are well-rested?”
Another potential issue of concern is a finding that one-third of Irish companies are ignoring their online reputations and not monitoring what is being said about them on the internet.
Among firms that do monitor their online reputations, just under half said that they encouraged positive online reviews to drown out any negative postings.
Job postings
The survey also found that there has been a steady increase in the number of jobs available within international companies in the last five years.
The report looked at four major sectors; IT and telecoms; science and engineering; sales and marketing and accountancy and finance.
In the first quarter of the year there were more than 2,500 jobs posted in these sectors. The science and engineering sector performed particularly strongly with the number of jobs posted in this segment at roughly four times its 2011 level.
Trinity College economist Ronan Lyons said that despite the positive trends in some areas, overall growth was “more muted” in the first three months of 2016.
He added: “It will be interesting to see in future reports whether this reflects one-off considerations such as the timing of Easter holidays or the start of a longer term trend”.
