What Effect Does Available Streaming Have on Your Employee’s Productivity?

Business owners know that streaming in the office can be a considerable detriment to productivity, but the type of media that is being streamed can play a large role in whether or not the workplace is enhanced or affected adversely by it. How does your organization approach streaming? Depending on its policies, you might want to change the way that you approach this touchy subject.

First, let’s outline some situations where streaming may be acceptable in the workplace.

Acceptable Uses of Streaming
Not all streaming is bad for your organization’s productivity. In certain cases, it can even be beneficial. For example, some employees work best when they are listening to music. In other cases, they may even need to drown out noise in the office, which can easily be done with their preferred tunes and a set of noise canceling headphones. This keeps everyone happy for the most part, and it’s as simple as allowing employees access to an online application like Spotify and Pandora.

There also might be reason to watch a video during your ordinary workday. If it’s an important news article pertinent to your industry or workplace trends, then perhaps it’s worth taking a look at it. Training videos, webinars, and other similar videos are in a similar boat, allowing you to learn something valuable through the experience. Regardless, it’s likely that you’ll be in a position where you need to stream something, whether you want to or not.

Unacceptable Uses for Streaming
Some employees just have a tendency to stream video at all times, which basically leads to them not getting as much work done. In other words, they are becoming a liability to both their own work ethic and your business’s mission. Streaming can also use up a lot of your bandwidth, which can create slowdown on your network for every other user.

If you have employees who just can’t stay off of streaming services like Youtube, Netflix, and Hulu, you can implement a content filter on a user basis. This can keep them focused on their work throughout the day by banning suspicious or wasteful sites. In fact, social media services and streaming websites can often be infested with malware and other threats, so it might not be a bad idea to consider banning them in the first place for those who are proving problematic.

Does your business need a content filter? Directive can help. To learn more, reach out to us at 607.433.2200.