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Add to FavoritesShould employers monitor the Internet use of employees? As a former manager forced to terminate a promising young trainee a few years ago as a result of his apparent Internet addiction, I would have to answer with a resounding, "Yes!"
Information technology (IT) literature is filled with studies outlining the ever expanding use of the Internet for non-business purposes during work hours. While employee productivity in the past was hindered by extended lunch, coffee, or cigarette breaks, personal conversations with co-workers or non-business related telephone calls, today the practice of "cyber loafing" is becoming increasingly widespread. Non-business uses of the Internet including pornography, gaming and online gambling sites are among some of the more troubling non-business uses which employers are struggling to address and control.
Numerous studies and surveys reveal shocking statistics such as 60% of online shopping activity and 70% of Internet pornography traffic occurs during normal business hours. A 2000 survey conducted by Vault.com indicated that 25% of employees reported spending more than an hour each workday visiting websites unrelated to their work. Some estimate that American corporations incur more than $63 billion in lost productivity annually due to inappropriate Internet use.
Does $63 billion sound like an exaggeration? It shouldn't, especially if you stop to consider that, unlike the two hour lunch, inappropriate Internet usage can and often does expose companies a host of very expensive ills. For example, employees spending inordinate amounts of time online for non-business purposes may undoubtedly download software, photos or other questionable attachments. This can expose company equipment and software to harmful viruses that can be expensive and time consuming to repair.
System performance may be adversely impacted as well as gaming sites or sites with complex graphics steal bandwidth from employees attempting to perform legitimate work.
Finally, employee blogs may create opportunities for the leaking of trade secrets to competitors and forwarding pornographic or offensive attachments can lead to sexual harassment lawsuits.
With all of these potential costs, monitoring employee Internet use offers a number of advantages including:
1. Increased productivity - employees who are aware that they are being monitored online are more likely to remain on task and will waste less time
2. Improved security monitoring helps guard against exposure to viruses and discourages the leaking of confidential company information to competitors
3. Improved security monitoring reduces illegal and unethical behavior including the "cyber crimes" such of digital theft and sexual harassment in the workplace
4. Improved workplace safety monitoring may uncover potential workplace safety concerns. For example, monitoring may uncover employees who regularly conduct online searches using keywords such as "guns" or "workplace violence", allowing companies to take preventative action before disaster strikes
However, despite the benefits associated with online monitoring there are several risks as well. While Internet monitoring may deter "cyber loafing" it can also breed resentment among employeesl. If implemented or administered poorly, monitoring may inject feelings of hostility and suspicion among employees.
Companies can take steps to reduce negative employee perceptions of Internet monitoring, however by expressing solid business reasons associated with online monitoring in order to lessen employees' fears that they are simply being watched by "Big Brother." Some business reasons that may make the idea of monitoring more palatable to employees include:
1. Using monitoring to evaluate the quality of the employees' work product and incorporating results into performance reviews. Since monitoring results can be used not only to provide negative consequences to "cyber slackers" but also to reward high quality performers, employees may be less resistant to its use
2. Using monitoring to identify benchmarks for improving customer service and incorporating positive results into employee bonus and reward programs
3. Using monitoring to make employees more aware of potential breaks in the protection of customer privacy. With everyone concerned about identity theft, many employees may be motivated to work toward better protecting the personal information of customers
While there may be some risks to employee morale associated with implementing an online monitoring program, if handled correctly companies should be able to reap the rewards without damaging employee relations. Ideally, increased productivity resulting from the implementation of online monitoring should result in improved profitability. If companies can find a method for allowing the employees themselves to share in those windfalls, as well as continuing to work toward finding ways to keep employees interested and engaged in their work, "cyber slacking" and the need for extensive monitoring may well be greatly reduced in the future.
References: "Advantages of Companywide Monitoring Over Focused Employee Investigations." www.spector360.com/w hitepapers/whitepape r_AdvantagesFocusedI nvestigation.pdf
Chik owski, Erika. "Monitoring Employee Internet Usage: Keeping Tabs is Legal But Businesses Need to Do it Right." Tech and Trends, April 14, 2005. Volume 28, Issue 15.
Enbysk, Monte. "Should You Monitor Your Employees' Web Use?" www.microsoft.com/sm allbusiness/resource s/management/employe e-relations/should-y ou-monitor-your-empl oyees-web-use.aspx
Gu pta, Jatinder. "Improving Worker's Productivity and Reducing Internet Abuse". Journal of Computer Information Systems. January 2000.
Mujtaba, Bahaudin. "Ethical Implications of Employee Monitoring: What Leaders Should Consider." www.sbc.nova.edu/jam e/employeemonitoring
Pascoe, Jim. "Monitor Internet Use: Big Brother or Just Sensible Prudence?" http://www.smartcomp uting.com/editorial/ article.asp?article= articles%2F2003%2Fs1 405%2F19s05%2F19s05. asp
"Should You Monitor Employee Internet Usage?" www.sclanalytics.com /info/should_you_mon itor_employee_intern et_usage
Learn more about this author, Robin Landry.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
The monitoring of employee Internet use has become a common practice of many of the larger employers. Attempts by employers to prevent inappropriate Internet use at work has an unfortunate side effect of discouraging employees from using the Internet at all.
Employers are faced with a difficult choice. Allow free access to the Internet to employees, or monitor usage to prevent abuse. One of the big advantages of allowing free access is that the Internet is a great source of information. This Information could be put to good use in the workplace. The benefits of free Internet access are hardly recognised.
There is no doubt that many employees abuse the free use of the Internet. Many working hours may be wasted by visits to porn sites, on-line gambling, blogging, writing for Helium or just pointless hours of surfing.
The Internet has a wealth of information available on almost any topic. Information on industries, trends, best business practices, how others have solved similar problems and so on. Internet monitoring inhibits access to useful information as much as it prevents abuse.
Even where non-work related usage is concerned, there are many instances where using the Internet is more time-efficient than the alternatives. Does it really matter if the employee looks up the TV schedule on the Internet rather than referring to a newspaper or magazine? Or booking movie or theatre tickets, ordering products and services or on-line banking? Doing these on the Internet is very time-efficient and avoids the need for trips out of the office to achieve the same thing.
Then there is Facebook the site most commonly restricted by employers. Does it really matter if employees are messaging through this at work? Perhaps there could be some work related benefits? It probably uses less time than the inevitable long phone calls to and from friends and family.
Obviously, the expectation of responsible usage must be encouraged. Surfing should not be at the expense of getting work done. But there must be other ways of achieving a responsible attitude.
It is up to management to foster a committed and responsible attitude to work. This can be achieved through better leadership by management, employee incentives and productivity targets. One of the keys lies in giving more responsibility to employees employees are less likely to abuse the system when they carry the can!
The relationship between employer and employees should be one of trust. Performance evaluation should be based on outputs. If the outputs are good then why worry about Internet usage?
In an age where empowerment has become a major buzz-word employees are being given more power to control the way they work and how they achieve their work related objectives. Empowerment means treating employees as adults. How can this be achieved when they are treated like children?
Learn more about this author, Barry Marcus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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