by PN Schiavone

Created on: September 15, 2008   Last Updated: February 24, 2009

Employers not only should monitor employee's Internet use. They have an obligation to monitor internet use of this important business tool. In the end, the corporation has to answer to its stock holders and give their employees every opportunity to succeed in their business endeavors. I think the latter is more important. The first step employers need to take is to give their employees a fair and coherent policy with regards to their Internet use. The second step is to monitor the use of the Internet through a trusting lens. Third, employers need to confront employees abusing the Internet and try to change their behavior. Once employees know that this area will be watched they become more productive with regards to their work life.

The construction of a fair and coherent Internet policy is not as easy as it seems. Every employer knows that when fun is taken out of the workplace productivity drops. Employees also need to have some personal time from their work life. Therefore the policy should allow some personal Internet use, but limit the amount and types that occur. I think we all agree that employees should not engage in Internet use that would embarrass, harass, or cause harm to other employees. This would obviously make porn, hate, and child abuse sites outlawed from use on company property. The policy should also be flexible enough to let employees use sites that would allow them to take care of personal business quickly so they can get back to work with a clear mind. The policy that I have written for my small business allows unlimited personal use for medical reasons. The key to the policy is to set the stage for a more productive employee.

When it comes to monitoring the employees on the Internet the employer should take the tack that some sites allow business use as well as personal use. The employer should trust that employees are using the Internet to help the business. With this being said random spot checks of employees habits should be made to ensure that employees are getting the most from the Internet. I have found that many employees need help and guidance when it comes to how to effectively use the Internet to get their job objective achieved. Also, believe it or not the Internet is a business tool that employers give no training for. I have found that most employee Internet misuse comes from lack of training. I had the opportunity to work with a project engineer that used the yellow pages on his desk quite often, when asked about this his reply was that he often took up to a half hour to get relevant information from the Internet and the yellow pages only took minutes. After some training on how to search the Internet he found that he no longer needed the yellow pages and also that he could get information he needed to do his work in minutes instead of hours that it used to take. Believe it or not there is still a big chunk of computer illiterate people in the work force. Of course you will have some examples of employees who do 4 hours of on-line shopping during their day, but this misuse can be tracked and enforced individually.

Once employees understand the dos and don'ts of internet use their productivity will increase. Once the internet policy in enforced and obvious abusers are removed from the system you will find that with a little training employees will get more done in less time at work.

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