Internet policies – do you know what you’re doing?

News has surfaced that those strict Internet policies that you are enforcing on your staff aren’t very appreciated – a survey taken by HireScores.com polling 1,000 UK employees discovered that 34 per cent felt that Internet office policies were the most annoying of all workplace rules.

But are you doing the right thing?  Of course you are!  Another study conducted by Easynet Connect discovered that around 32 per cent of businesses don’t have a policy in place leading to substantial security risks that could easily be avoided.

In fact a staggering 18 per cent of businesses in Britain give great importance to Internet policies by completely disallowing the personal use of the Internet in the office.

The Internet can be a gift and a curse!

The Internet is obviously a fantastic tool and in today’s technologically invested business world every business must keep connected to the web – however at the end of the day if your employees are spending 15 minutes out of every working hour on social networking sites like Facebook then productivity will suffer at the end of the day.

However, when it comes to jotting up an office Internet policy, not everyone is sure exactly what is acceptable – there are a few things that should be given due consideration before a policy is written up;

•    Training – Before staff get a sniff of the web in the office you should provide training.  Most of us know how to use the Internet but it is a good idea to train your staff so they understand exactly what they are doing and what the office policy is.

•    Control – Don’t forget we’re still in an office.  Keep control of the Internet otherwise you’ll have problems on your hands.  Choose to either control or ban online shopping, downloads and social networking.

•    Security – Make sure that all employees understand and follow your specific access procedures to minimise security risks.  Understand the security settings of the connection and try and keep the Internet disconnected whenever it isn’t being used.

Keep these pointers in mind when creating an office Internet policy – security can be one of the biggest reasons for introducing an Internet policy and as previously explained there is also the detrimental reaction to employee productivity.

It is also advisable to limit employee’s use of chat applications like Yahoo! or MSN Messenger and should be treated in the same way as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace – these services don’t work in any way towards helping your business, they only seem to work against it.

Caught looking stupid…

In November, 2008, British Airways staff were caught calling their passengers “smelly and annoying” on the social networking site Facebook and were even caught labelling the new terminal at Heathrow as a disaster.

British Airways weren’t the only airline company caught looking unprofessional and foolish – Virgin Atlantic staff were caught calling their passengers “chavs”.

The Internet can be a fantastic tool, but will only be productive in the correct hands – train your employees, control the connection and be secure – get it right!

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