Every month, your companies lose thousands of dollars of productivity to Internet abuse. A recent IDC poll estimates that “between 30% and 40% of all time spent online at work is not work related”. That potentially represents a big finanical hit for businesses. If you find that hard to believe, simply put it to the test. A few days or weeks of internet monitoring will show you just how much you’re paying employees to shop online, play fantasy football, stream YouTube and chat with friends on Instant Messenger. The average employee spends 2 hours a day on your time casually browsing the web. This in turn is costing businesses thousands of dollars a year in lost productivity and opening doors for several levels of security vulnerabilities.
The good news is, we have a fix:
Internet Usage Policy
Every business should have an Internet Usage Policy that at a bare minimum addresses the following:
E-mails
It’s not unreasonable to limit the amount of time your employees spend on personal e-mails during the workday. In cases of extreme abuse, it may even be necessary to inform your employees that all their e-mails may be monitored. However, a minimum amount of personal e-mailing is generally viewed as acceptable in the workplace, provided they don’t interfere with the employees’ ability to do their job. A stated policy regarding sharing company information with unauthorized recipients should be clearly stated.
Internet Surfing
Internet surfing is a cause for real concern among employers, particularly when it comes to the viewing of pornography or other offensive material. Pornography in any form is inappropriate in the workplace and can even lead to claims of sexual harassment. Make sure to include prohibitions against pornography as well as your policy on Internet surfing in general in your company’s written Internet privacy statement. Additionally, using the Internet for steaming audio or video or other downloads, can severely impact bandwidth and slow down productivity for other employees.
Most Effective: Systems to Monitor/Manage Usage
An increasing number of small businesses are monitoring employee Web and e-mail use. In-Stat/MDR found that as far back as 2000, 19% of the small businesses it surveyed were monitoring employee Web use, with 10% of the respondents also taking action to “block” certain sites considered inappropriate. Monitoring products vary from piecemeal solutions with inexpensive desktop software to comprehensive web “appliances” that interact with the server and provide comprehensive reporting and management tools to monitor employee Internet use, filter out Web sites and decide which applications get the most bandwidth.
RevITup WebSentry
In an effort to help our clients have easy access to these tools at a low cost, The Launch Pad has introduced our RevITup WebSentry Series. This is a managed appliance which we install and provide for a small monthly fee. We will handle all setup, training an configuration as well as ongoing management.
30 Day Free Trial WebSentry Revealer Demo
Seeing what your employees are actually doing and gaining visibility on Internet usage is a first step and can be very eye opening. The Launch Pad provides a free 30 Day trial of our WebSentry that is easy to install and will provide you a “revealing” look into your Internet traffic including real-time traffic reporting , URL categorization, application classification and detailed user activity. To get this set up, simply E-mail sales@launchpadonline.com or contact your Client Solutions Manager.
