Festive gift buying will cost businesses
Email discounts such as Groupon and Vouchercode are tempting office workers to do their Christmas shopping from their desks this year – at a cost to theUKof more than £5 billion, experts warn.
Figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) suggest that 13 per cent of us will be doing all our Christmas shopping online this year, with many people using discount schemes such as Groupon.to make sure they get the best bargains.
But while the news may be good for e-tailers, online deals – and especially those with limited availability or which are only valid for a short period of time – are encouraging workers to respond as soon as they get the email in the morning.
As a result, workers often spend the first 30 mins to an hour of any working day reading their discount emails then shop around online before redeeming the deals.
With 40 working days before Christmas,Peter Mooney, head of employment law for business support specialist, ELAS, has warned that between now and Christmas, the lost time will cost UK Plc a staggering £2.5billion.
He said: “Every year, more people are going online for Christmas presents, and even those who don’t will end up spending hours window shopping on the internet.
“But while in the past few years, we’ve seen that most workers sensibly do this in their lunch hours or after 5pm, the explosion in deals sites such as Groupon are causing people to do their shopping at the start of the day.”
When including the time it takes to sift through the original emails, ELAS expects full-time workers to spend an average of 30 minutes a day shopping from their desks in the run up to Christmas.
Working on an average hourly wage of £12.60, that could amount to a total of £5.3billion in lost time during the next 40 working days to December 23.
“If this was restricted to people’s lunch hours, then most employers would have no complaint,” explained Mr Mooney.
“But it’s not. In fact, even those who leave the office and shop on the High Street during their lunch hours have already spent valuable time in the morning looking for ideas or comparing prices from their desks when they should be working.
“No boss wants to shoot a hole through goodwill and office morale by playing Scrooge in the office, but this time adds up and, in reality, costs money.”
To combat the problem, employers should remind staff of their responsibilities and introduce a simple internet policy outlining what is acceptable personal use during work time. It would also be worth reminding staff of what they can expect for breaching it.
