Tweet

Are You Spying on Your Employees?

Guest post by: Peter Polack

Article Overview: As more workplaces gain better access to the Internet, employees are spending more time at work surfing or handling personal mail. Should you monitor their Web activity, or not?

Are You Spying on Your Employees?

As medical practices become more advanced, staff members gain improved access to the Internet during work hours. Cyber-slacking is a well-known problem in corporations; in fact, one study found that over thirty-five percent of employees admit they use the Internet for personal surfing at work. The New York Times cited that twenty-five percent of Net use on work computers isn't actually work related. Although it is unknown how severe the problem is in the medical field, the trend continues to grow. Beyond basic productivity loss, there are other dangers which result from employees abusing the Internet at work. At one company a staff person was fired for visiting adult websites to download and distribute content to harass co-workers. Even if your employees use the Internet in a decent way, when they download personal data onto a work computer they may create costs for your practice in terms of bandwidth and storage.

So what can be done about it? Create clear policies for network use. Does your company have a well understood policy regarding Internet use on work computers? These policies should be included in the employee manual. In most cases, clear policies for proper use ensure proper employee behavior. These same policies are great protection for your practice in the instance of a lawsuit. Also understand applicable privacy laws, normally found under the jurisdiction of state laws. Laws vary by state.

You should understand your rights and limitations as an employer. If you have doubts about a particular issue, contact a lawyer who specializes in employment law. In general, all the computers that staff use, along with the content, are company property. In the case of legal issues, as in allegations of harassment or discrimination, e-mail correspondence can be subpoenaed.

Make sure you understand your options before deciding to monitor Internet use. It could be a good idea to use monitoring software, but this depends on the size of your practice. Keep in mind that monitoring will add complexity and cost. Although there are free software solutions available to monitor the network, operation and installation costs could make monitoring more difficult than it is worth.

Related Articles
  100 Marketing Weapons
  The Power of Employees
  Legal Marketing: Why use Twitter?
  #1 Reason Top Performers Leave
  School ‘WebcamGate’ woes not yet over

Article Tags: adult websites, co workers, e mail, employee behavior, employment law, internet use, mail correspondence, medical field, medical practices, monitoring software, new york times, personal data, personal surfing, privacy laws, productivity loss, staff members, staff person, state laws, work computer, work computers



Related Forum Posts
Re: Ways to Boost Productivity - 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck 2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service 3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning. 4. Outsource as much as possible 5. . Turn off the TV.
CEOs and Email - Slaves? - I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them. True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price. I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum. Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.
Where I want WSI to be in Dec 31 2007 - Here are my goals for end of 2007 Employees - SEO specialist - admin assistant - sales rep - designer/data entry - copy writer (may be outsourced) Target market (client base) manufacturers 10-50 million in revenue looking for integrated marketing solution ranging from 10k - 30k Systems - crm fully utilized - project management smooth process - sales and marketing to continuously generate leads SALES (My big Goal to focus on ) Last years sales revenue was $220K This year we want to hit $500K - approx 40k per month
Re: How to be green? - Hi Evan It’s a great topic especially when it comes to going green and saving our planet. We all have a role to play and we are happy about the fact that we are into it. We have recently made our workplace greener and in the process the following changes have been implemented – 1. We provide paper invoices only if customers ask for them. Otherwise, all our invoicing is done electronically (a PDF via e-mail). 2. We have replaced the Paper Cups at our Cafeteria with Mugs for not only our in-house requirements but also for our clients. 3. We have also made it a Company policy to use only eco-friendly electronic appliances and that includes bulbs, air conditioners. 4. We are in the process of putting it into the Policy that the Employees will have to take to other transportation media – other than their personal vehicles – on at least a day per week to office. Hope we are on the right track. Regards,
Re: What do think you about these statisitcs? - [quote="Sab3awy":uve2pm9e]social networks are not just for fun. Say Twitter, I usually check it to find the updates about major news through it. So, I think it is not much of "wasting time"[/quote:uve2pm9e] Social media is a great way to break up the day in the office in my opinion. Employees can take their mind off of the monotonous work they are doing just for a few minutes. In my opinion I don't think they are wasting time at all. Consider this, would you rather block these types of sites and have your employees work all day like a drone? Or would you rather have these sites available and perhaps see an increase in productivity because your employees are working happier and in not in such a mindless state?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

10 Steps to Excelling at Franchise Sales

TRADE SHOW FOLLOW-UP: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.