The Providence Journal / FRANIK GERARDI

A survey by the Northeast Human Resources Association found that most human resource professionals who responded believe that their employees are “distracted and overloaded” at work, making it difficult for them to focus on their jobs.

“The results from our survey were not a surprise given the environment that we are working and living in today,” said Deborah Hicks, board chairman of the Northeast Human Resources Association and vice-president of human resources at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, based in Quincy, Mass. The company has about 1,100 employees.

In a phone interview, Hicks said two factors contribute to employee distraction and overload. One is the blurring of boundaries between life at work and life at home. There was a time, she said, when there was a distinct separation between the two. Now employees bring family problems to work and work problems into the home.

The other factor, she said, is technology — cell phones, laptops, e-mail, text messaging — that provides a continuous cascade of information, both important and trivial. “It creates a sense that everything had to be done in the moment,” she said.

According to the NEHRA survey, the biggest source of worker distraction is e-mail, followed by interruptions from co-workers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) such as the BlackBerry.

Of the 271 human resource professionals taking part in the survey, which was conducted from Aug. 15 to Aug. 29, about a third said their organizations have recognized that increasing levels of distraction and overload has had a negative impact on employee performance, a third said their organizations did not, and a third weren’t sure.

Slightly more than half the human resource professionals reported that they’ve been approached by employees at their organizations who were having a difficult time focusing on their assignments. More than 70 percent said they have been approached by workers who were having problems achieving a balance between their responsibilities at work and responsibilities at home.

Hicks said that, in many families, both parents are working, which means that child-care and other domestic arrangements inevitably intrude into the workplace.

On the other hand, she said, thanks to technology, it’s possible to bring work home, staying connected to the office on weekends and even during vacations. For some people, Hicks said, that’s due to a sense that they’re indispensable, and the work couldn’t possibly get done without them. Others might be worried about their jobs if they’re out of the loop for an extended period.

Hicks suggested that people find at least some time during the week to turn off all the electronic gizmos and disconnect from work.

Three years ago, Hicks said, Harvard Pilgrim assembled an employee advisory team, and the number-one request from the team was for a stress-management program. Hicks said the company started “mindfulness” training that combined relaxation techniques, meditation and yoga, and found the program very popular among employees.

She said Harvard Pilgrim even uses a “concierge company” called Circles that can take care of some of life’s little tasks for Harvard Pilgrim employees, from finding a plumber to planning a birthday party.

Hicks said policies designed to minimize distraction have to be tailored to the individual organization, and what works for one won’t always be appropriate for another.

Of the respondents to the NEHRA survey, only 9 percent reported a specific policy about answering e-mail, such as having all e-mails answered within 24 hours — four hours if an e-mail is marked “urgent.” Only 17 percent had a “no interruption” policy for meetings, most commonly requiring participants to turn off cell phones, lap tops and PDAs.

Asked about other policies to help employees better focus on their jobs, responses included “think Fridays,” when no meetings were allowed to be scheduled, turning off e-mail notification sounds on computers and banning the use of speakerphones in cubicles if surrounding workers would be distracted.

asmith@projo.com