Spam is a problem for most, if not all people. McAfee recently gathered details together that indicated 90% of all email is Spam meaning for every 10 emails you get, 9 of them are junk. As well as effecting personal productivity there is a cost associated with business due to a loss in productivity.
The report from McAfee points out a few factors that business owners should really look in to. The numbers used here represent an estimated cost to your business per employee based on the accuracy of your spam filters (if you have spam filters that is).
Estimated Spam Costs
| Total Emails sent to user per day | 50 |
| Percentage of email that is spam (estimated %) | 90 |
| Total number of Spam messages per day (per user) | 45 |
| Spam Filter Accuracy | 95 |
| Spam emails arriving in mail box | 2 |
| Time to delete emails | 30 |
| Cost in lost productivity (based on 15 seconds per email) with user earning $30/hour | $0.50 |
| Productivity Loss per Year in $ | $182.50 |
The report goes on to say that if you have 1000 employees that it could amount to an expense of $182500/year in lost productivity.
However, I do find the numbers on the McAfee site a little off from what I would expect. I just don’t think it takes 15 seconds to delete a spam message. In my experience it takes just 2 or 3 seconds to recognise a spam email message. But, not all businesses use a spam filter, so the 95% kill rate (although not too good) might actually be a zero % kill rate therefore pushing through 45 junk emails per day. Calculated that way you see the real damage that is done to productivity.
It’s an interesting read and certainly an eye opener for business owners.
