Blake Lapthorn recently released the findings of a client survey it has conducted into the impact on businesses of social media, drugs and alcohol used inside and outside work.
Social media, drugs and alcohol usage has an effect on the majority of organisations one way or another. It has been widely documented that the trend towards monitoring and dealing with issues arising from that usage has been on the increase for a number of years. Consequently, the debate around how best to deal with this in the workplace continues.
As a result of this, Blake Lapthorn conducted a national survey into the effects these issues have on organisations. The survey received responses from 274 organisations across 12 different sectors, and looked at these three areas where there are concerns around whether or not the demarcation between work-life and private-life has become uncertain. This follows a previous national survey that the firm conducted in 2004 into ‘Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace’.
A total of 36 organisations from the Manufacturing sector completed our social media, drugs and alcohol survey.
Key findings
- Despite the documented increase in the use of drugs, alcohol and social media in and outside the workplace, and employer concerns on these issues, employers are not doing enough to protect their businesses
- The majority of employers feel that there is insufficient publically available information/guidance on how to deal with these issues.
- The majority of organisations (81%) do allow their employees access to social media/professional networking sites during the working day (including breaks) for work use, with only 19% not allowing this.
- 44% of organisations do allow their employees access to social media/professional networking sites during the working day (including breaks) for personal use, whilst 50% do not. 6% did not respond to the question.
- Just under three quarters of organisations (72%) do in fact endorse the use of social media/professional networking sites for business promotion, whilst 28% do not.
- The majority of organisations (81%) do not operate alcohol testing and 19% say that they do.
- 97% of organisations have not been the subject of any legal proceedings issued by an employee/employees arising from issues related to alcohol, and 3% have.
