Al Sabba: 44.9% of the employees in the public sector see that the social media does not leave them opportunity to be away from work while others see that it can reduce the number of customer complaints and can also increase customer satisfaction

Mohammed Al Sabba, the Director for Consultancy and Research at the Bahrain Institute for Public Administration (BIPA), affirmed the importance of employing the scientific research tools to study the factors and variables that may affect the productivity of the employee and the level of satisfaction of the customers with the services provided.
He pointed out that the Institute has adopted local studies as an essential component of its work in order to assist both the private and public sectors to build and develop their work policies based on scientific foundations and solid studies and research that reflect the reality of institutional work in the Kingdom of Bahrain. His statement came on the occasion of the Institute’s launch of a scientific study under the title; “The impact of Social Media on work performance”.
Al Sabba further added that the study gave a detailed analysis of the perception of the employees and customers about the social media, and its positive dimensions on the functioning of institutional work system in addition to the challenges associated with it. He said the study found that eighty four percent (84%) of the public sector employees believe that social media contributes to the completion of job related work tasks faster, in addition ninety four point two percent (94.2%) of employees confirm that social media specifically of work purposes contributes to obtaining the latest information and updates adding that the results of the study also showed that social media reduces customer complaints and contributes to faster management decision making.
On the other hand, Mr. Al Sabba pointed out that despite revealing the important role of the affects of social media on the work performance only sixty -six point six percent(66.6%) of the senior management are interested in adopting social media. He said the employees also complained about the amount of unbeneficial information that is being posted on the social media and that too much of it causes loss of focus on the important task required to be performed. Also forty-four point nine percent (44.9%) of the public sector employees found that social media does not leave them room to be away from the work, as for forty-three point five percent (43.5%) of the employees see that the use of social media for the purpose of performing work gives the employee additional unfair obligation when they interact with it outside of official working hours.
It is worth mentioning that the study comprised a number of recommendations which would enhance the optimal use of social media and reduce the challenges associated with it, and attracting innovative solutions.
He added that the study stressed that social media is an important source of innovative ideas, and stressed on the need for decision-makers to adopt guidelines that contribute to regulating the use of social media for work purposes, and there is a need to seek means to legalize the dissemination of information in terms of quantity and quality so as to be purposeful and relevant to the work environment, in addition there is a need to invest in social media in order to increase Customer satisfaction by carefully monitoring feedbacks and quick response to customers.