Upon first glance spending extra money on a second monitor can seem like another way to waste some money, what can you do with two monitors that you cannot do with one?
While you can do accomplish the same end result with one monitor, using dual monitors may allow you to speed up the time it takes for your staff to get to that result.
Studies have shown that using two monitors can increase productivity by 5-50%, this means that leveraging a simple extra monitor can get you more bang for your buck on payroll(as long as your staff are actually on the computer).
Realistically 50% is on the extreme side, there would be very few jobs that would show that sort of increase in productivity. But at the end of the day if you can get your staff to achieve even a 5% increase in the work they can do every day is that worth investing in a second monitor?
I know I personally benefit from dual monitors, right now as I write this post I have a video rendering on one monitor and this post on the other, then I can monitor the progress easily without having to click anything to see when it will be done.
When entering data from one document to another having two monitors can mean that you do not have to constantly open and close windows to enter data from one program to the other, it also makes it a lot easer to copy and paste multiple items.
The ability to have two or more monitors is also helping buisnesses work toward a paperless office. With having a paperless work environment you can use one monitor to display electronic documents and the other monitor to display the users primary application.
Should I Buy a Second Monitor For Every Computer?
No. The truth is not every job is going to benefit from using a second monitor. While office workers are going to see a productivity benefit there are some jobs that will not see any increase in productivity and it would be a waste of money, computers that are used as Point of Sales computers that control machinery usually do not show any benefit from a second display.
Do I Need A New Computer To Run A Second Monitor?
Most modern computers can handle dual monitors right out of the box. The easiest way to tell is to look at the back of your computer and see if there is a free port that a monitor will fit into.
Look below for some studies that have been done on productivity increases when using multiple monitors:
