As we get nearer to the festive season, some workers, including umbrella company contractors, could be tempted to do their Christmas shopping online during working hours.
ELAS, the business support specialist, claims that companies will lose £5 billion as emails offering discounts will tempt workers away from their daily tasks and into the online marketplace.
When employees first arrive at work they automatically check their email. Some then spend up to an hour reading discount emails and shopping around for the best deal before redeeming their discount vouchers.
Peter Mooney, ELAS’ head of employment law, explained that more and more people are doing their Christmas shopping online. In the past, the majority of employees have been sensible and browsed the Internet during their lunch break or at the end of the working day.
However, we’ve recently seen an explosion in sites such as Groupon, offering huge discounts, and these entice people to start shopping early in the day.
ELAS says it expects that in the run up to Christmas, people will spend an average of half an hour a day online shopping from their desk. Based on an average £12.60 hourly wage, that would equate to £5.3 billion over the next 40 working days.
Even those who shun online shopping for the high street are likely to have spent working time browsing for ideas or looking for the best prices, Mooney added.
Although bosses do not want to play Scrooge and further dampen the morale of their employees, time is money and online shopping is going to hit productivity at a time when many businesses are still struggling to recover from the recession.
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