Study Reveals Dangers of Digital Distractions on the Job
According to Screen Education’s Digital Distraction & Workplace Safety survey, the average employee spends 2.5 hours each workday accessing digital content that is unrelated to their job.
In addition to killing productivity, this degree of distraction causes accidents — 14% of survey respondents said at least one accident had occurred at their workplace because an employee was distracted by their smartphone. These accidents had serious consequences:
- 59% caused property damage
- 50% caused injury or death
Among respondents who work in an industrial setting, an even greater percentage — 26% — reported accidents had occurred in their workplace because someone was distracted by their smartphone. And these accidents were more consequential:
- 75% caused property damage
- 58% caused injury or death
Examples of accidents caused by smartphone-distracted employees include the following:
- “Someone was distracted by (their) phone when their arm was crushed by a press.”
- “A patient fell because someone was listening to music and didn’t hear the alarm.”
- “We had one employee in a company car texting and driving ...(he) rolled the car off a cliff.”
The survey — a collaboration between Screen Education, EMI Research Solutions and Stark Statistical Consulting — was conducted in the spring of 2020 and involved 1,019 U.S. employees.
Commenting on the results, Michael Mercier, president of Screen Education, said: “What’s astonishing is that 47% of respondents said their employer actually had a policy that restricted smartphone use at work. So we’re seeing these problems despite the existence of smartphone restrictions. This indicates that policy compliance and enforcement are a significant challenge.” Mercier continued, “Employers can’t continue to risk having their employees maimed or killed, or to incur enormous property damage costs and liabilities, and increased insurance rates. We must aggressively tackle this problem.”
Some employees actually want assistance from their employer in addressing their smartphone distraction — 19% of all respondents, and 27% of respondents who work in an industrial setting, said they wish their employer would assist them in reducing the amount of time they spend using non-work digital content during the workday.
