Taking breaks to use social media at work can help employees be more productive. Regular “coffee breaks” aren’t enough for the millennial generation of workers who grew up with the Internet. It has been demonstrated that more pleasurable “social media breaks” meet the demand to unwind, concentrate, and promptly return to work.

Workplace internet leisure browsing (WILB) is a term that was created by the research team in response to a 2013 study by Dr. Brent L.S. Coker of the University of Melbourne. They discovered that, in contrast to the widely accepted notion that browsing websites unrelated to work lowers productivity at work, this activity instead “replenishes attentional resources.” The 300 study participants returned to their job with even greater vigilance after being allowed to take these social media breaks. They were unable to be distracted from their productive job by this “forbidden fruit.” These participants’ thoughts were reset once they were able to browse through their social media news feeds and communicate with friends and family online, which allowed them to start over when they returned their attention to their task.

Developing the Best Social Media Break Guidelines

The success of this procedure depends on developing the best social media policy for the working culture of the company. Employee productivity may suffer if they are just told that they are free to use their social media accounts at work. Boundaries must be set, even though some freedom fosters creativity and should be permitted to grow.

According to a National Workplace Flexibility Study published in 2014, workplace flexibility increased employee morale by 53% and productivity analytics by 20%. But the study also revealed that in order for these same workers to remain concentrated and perform at their best, they required boundaries. Two things should be taken into account while developing a social media break policy.

• Business Brand: Give staff members instructions on how to properly post about the company on their own social media profiles.

• Legal Issues: To prevent any possible legal problems, make sure that management and staff are aware of the policy that has been put into place.

Putting Social Media Breaks into Practice at Work

It’s critical that management and staff have an open discussion about how to strike the ideal balance between productivity and breaks when introducing social media breaks in the office.

• Allotted Break: If management wishes to boost productivity, “free” access to social media throughout the day is unacceptable. Workers must be allowed to access their personal social media accounts during a certain break period.

• Management Monitoring: In order to ensure that this policy is not misused, a strategy must be put in place for management to actively monitor these breaks in a way that is not unduly intrusive but fosters trust between managers and staff. Management has to think about using different employee monitoring software such as Controlio that fit the company’s culture and structure.

Knowing that they have a certain time each day where they can check their social media accounts, employees will pay more attention during staff meetings and will not be as tempted to check their mobile devices when they should be working.