Figure Put on Facebook’s Cost to Australian Employers

By Greg McNevin

January 7, 2008: The negative side of social networking in business has reared its head again this week, with a new study claiming that on average, Facebook costs employers upwards of $2700 a year for each employee using the service.

Conducted by the online career site Linkme.com.au, the survey asked 2800 Facebook if they used the service while at work, with almost half of this number admitting that they did.

According to Linkme.com.au development manager Paul Tyrrell, with the average Australian salary of $54,132, a mere two hours per week of Facebook use translates to a cost of $2708 per employee. 20 percent of those surveyed claimed to spend more than two hours per week on the site, while Tyrrell believes that the actual average time spent on the service is likely to be much higher.

Social networking is slowly coming of age in the business world, however, it is still teetering between being a benefit and a curse for employers. Some recognise the benefits the new communications channel brings, while others have banned it to stop their employees being tempted to procrastinate.

Unfortunately, at least according to this survey, procrastination seems to be winning out over building professional contacts at the moment with over three quarters of those surveyed admitting that they use the service purely to chat, share photos and play games with their friends.

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