On-the-job Web Surfing . . . Fact or Fiction?
Think your employees are working hard? You might want to think again!
Chances are at least a few of them are surfing the Net as you read this.
Recent statistics depict that 60% of on-the-job Internet use is not business
related.
What are Their Destinations of Choice?
• 72% Read the news
Extra! Extra!! I’m goofing off!
• 45% Make travel arrangements
A little vacation everyday
• 40% Make personal purchases
Buying time until it’s 5 p.m.
• 37% Job search
Just keeping my options open
• 37% Visit special interest sites
My hobby is pretending to work
• 34% Check stocks
Only from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
• 28% Coordinate social events
Party in my cubicle!
• 26% Instant message
That fast typing, sure isn’t work!
• 13% Download music
$17 for a CD? How about free?
• 11% Play games
You sunk my battleship!
• 9% Chat
Better than sitting in the break room
• 4% Visit pornographic sites
I just go there for the articles |
Source: Vault.com Survey
Yes, the Facts Are In and Your Business May Not Be Exempt!
Today’s
employers face real challenges with employee web surfing. Recent surveys
depict 25% of employees with on-the-job Internet access
stated they spend no less than 10 minutes surfing on the Web each workday.
To some, ten minutes may not sound like much. But in terms of productivity,
this equates to one (1) full week of lost productivity per Web surfing
employee each year.
It Gets Worse!
According to the surveys, a smaller but significant percentage of employees
said they routinely surf the Web for more than two (2) hours each workday.
If this is true, each of these employees could be ‘cyber-slacking’ away
as much as 10 workweeks of productivity each year.
A Litigation Nightmare
The handwriting is on the wall. Employees
could be creating one of their employer’s biggest litigation nightmares
of the new millennium. Given an inch employees have taken a mile when
it comes to subjecting
their employers to litigation risks. Employees that freely access the
Web can promote hate groups, visit pornography sites, plus engage in
copyright infringement and other illegal activities. Viewed by or imposed
on an offended coworker or customer, any of these cyber activities could
bring an unhealthy lawsuit upon your company.
Other Technology Torments
Loss of productivity and litigation are not
the only examples of problems caused by employee abuse of today’s technology. A more technical
and costly impact caused by employee Web surfing is overworked bandwidth.
This can give a false sense of how much bandwidth an organization truly
needs and can cause delays in your productive employee’s on-line
business activities. All of this ultimately affects the bottom line.
Although it may not have happened to your business (yet), another real
nightmare might be on the way – virus-bearing files traded from
user to user. Like the recent e-mail viruses that wreaked havoc through
many businesses, an infected file uploaded and downloaded all over the
world could quickly bring a company’s infrastructure to its knees.
Anytime you have data coming from outside the purpose of daily business,
and you don’t know from whence it came, risk is introduced.
The Time Has Come
Yes, the challenges of the Internet are great.
However, the need for businesses to fully harness its' power and put
it to use effectively
is essential. Using this power effectively will allow businesses to maintain
a dominant position in a technologically sophisticated world.
So What’s the Solution?
If you haven’t already done so, establish
an Internet Access Policy. Consider making it a non-negotiable condition
of employment for all employees.
Then enforce the policy with Websense. Websense, an innovative content
filtering software, was developed specifically to enable organizations
to enforce Internet policies. Websense allows organizations to selectively
deny employee access to non-business related Web sites and/or simply
deny employee access to objectionable content sites.
It need not be a heavy-handed approach or an overwhelming task.
Websense content filtering software does the work for you. No need to
hire a team of stooges or Internet traffic cops. No need to be confrontational.
Websense can be readily programmed to allow employees greater access
during breaks and after hours. It can be configured to allow access to
different sets of categories for individual users, departments, or the
whole company. You can choose to block or not to block sites and/or specific
words. You can also choose to routinely receive reports on individual
Internet usage and access attempts made by your employees.
It’s About Productivity
Features/Benefits
- Customer control of all filtering policies and customized filtering.
- Filtering based on web site (URL) or web page – NO OVERBLOCKING.
- Filtering policy based on any time of day or day of the week.
- Filtering policy based on global (all users), groups, or individual users.
- Customized filtering: custom permit/deny lists, custom categories.
- 67 categories of sites to block.
- 1.9 million sites/400 million pages in database.
- Daily updates to database (approximately 5000 new sites added daily).
- Flexible filtering: block, permit, or continue/postpone (soft blocking).
- URL keyword filtering.
- Websense Reporter SW included at no additional cost: 60+ reports.
- Automatic report scheduling and distribution.
- License is platform independent (based on per seat).
- Multi platform support: Checkpoint, Cisco, Inktomi, Microsoft, and Cacheflow.
- Prices include all Tech Support, Upgrades, and Software Maintenance.
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