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How to Keep Employees from Surfing the Net
June 29, 2007
It’s Friday, and everyone’s getting ready for the long weekend including your employees. Your staff may be surfing the Web a good deal of time—some are probably sending emails to family, friends, and coworkers while others are: shopping, banking, or planning a trip. Reality is that most workers with Internet access don’t see anything wrong with pursuing a little bit of personal business while at work.
Bosses think of it like this--If you have 30 people surfing the net for 30 minutes a day, that’s 15 hours lost. Some don’t see anything wrong with 30 minutes a day and go as far as saying, “It’s well within their rights as an employer.”
I think it’s smart to have built in some tolerance for your employees to take a few moments during lunch or breaks to e-mail their kids, check news sites, or make stock trades online—though when it takes place on company time, it can have serious and costly consequences for business owners.
Here are some ways you can keep an eye on and discourage Web-surfing employees:
1. Draw up a computer-use policy for all employees and spell out prohibited activity.
2. If you simply want employees to stay off the Internet, consider offering some alternatives such as allowing them to listen to music while they are working. Or set up specific times or limits for personal usage.
3. If you allow them to surf then limit personal computer time just as you would personal calls. Internet monitoring software, which watches all the PC and Internet activity happening on work computers and laptops, can come in handy.
4. You can selectively block access to certain sites, such as shopping, auction, or sports Web sites. Blocking objectionable content can also minimize your company’s legal exposure.
Whatever solution you arrive at, it will only be effective if monitored and stringently maintained.
Posted by Shanu Singh Guliani on June 29, 2007 | Comments (2)
