Small Business Management: The Cyber Slacking Dilemma, Part 1

We probably have all been guilty of it at one time or another, this common activity called cyber slacking. Who doesn’t like to take a break now and then to check personal e-mail, watch a little video online or check out a fun new website. But when employees or co-workers let it become more then a once-in-awhile activity, it can become a problem for everyone. In this two part series, we’ll take a look at the problems of cyber slacking, and ways that you can create a company policy that can help prevent it.

First, lets look at the problem. According to www.getsafeonline.org, cyber slacking can have a lasting negative impact on a company. The risks include:

• Reduced productivity.
• Inadvertent introduction of viruses and spyware.
• Employees downloading pornography and offensive material.
• Installing unlicensed software.
• Internet bandwidth wasted on peer-to-peer file sharing.
• Disciplinary problems.

So you might wonder how common this cyberslacking really is. According to the website:

• 70% of porn traffic occurs during office hours.
• Three quarters of company networks are host to some kind of peer-to-peer file sharing software.
• A third of companies have had to discipline staff for misuse of the internet.

Here are ways you can manage the timewasting of your employees:

• Monitor employees' internet use (but Comply with the Data Protection Act and other regulations concerning employee monitoring).
• Use Internet content filtering.
• Restrict employees' access to the internet, either web browsers or email.
• Consider providing private-use only internet cafe style computers and ban private use on business computers.
• Make sure someone is responsible for installing legitimate software on people’s computers and make it policy not to install anything else.
• Make sure your staff internet policy includes guidance on personal use

In the next part of this series we’ll take a look at guidelines for writing an effective company policy on cyber slacking.

Source: www.getsafeonline.org