Surfing the Web at Work

Surfing the Web at Work

by Susan M. Heathfield

What Employers Are Doing About Employees Surfing the Web at Work

Employees spend between one and three hours a day surfing the Web on personal business at work, depending on the study reviewed. Since most studies depend on employee self-reported data, this productivity loss, combined with the concerns employers have for "where" their employees are surfing the Web at work, causes more employers to monitor employee use of the Internet.

In fact, according to the 2007 results of the annual Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey, conducted since 2001 by the American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute, the percentage of employers monitoring their employees' Internet use increases each year.

This article will first take a look at what employers are doing in their surveillance of employees surfing the Web at work, as determined by the survey. And, it will also look at why employers believe they need to monitor employees surfing the Web at work.

From the survey results, 66% of employers are monitoring Internet connections. And, 65% of companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Web sites - a 27% increase since 2001. Additionally, employers are monitoring the use of email and telephones.

Employer Surveillance of Employees Surfing the Web at Work

Employers who block access to employees surfing the Web at work are concerned about employees visiting adult sites with sexual, romantic, or pornographic content (96%); game sites (61%); social networking sites (50%); entertainment sites (40%); shopping/auction sites (27%); and sports sites (21%). In addition, some companies use URL blocks to stop employees from visiting external blogs (18%).

Depending on the company, computer monitoring takes many forms: 45% of employers track content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard; 43% store and review computer files; 12% monitor the blogosphere to see what is being written about the company by employees, and 10% monitor social networking sites. Of the 43% of companies that monitor email, 73% use technology tools to automatically monitor email and 40% assign an employee to manually read and review email.

Why Employers Are Monitoring Employees Surfing the Web at Work

Employers believe this employee surveillance is necessary for employee productivity, legal reasons, the safety of company information, and to prevent an environment of harassment. According to Manny Avramidis, senior vice president of global human resources for the AMA:

"There are primary reasons why employers monitor employee Internet behavior at work, depending on the organization and its employees. Employee productivity is key. Some companies will say that trade secret issues are important, not necessarily because employees intentionally share company information, but employees may not realize the importance to competitors of such items as new product features and organization charts. Intranet sites share information employers don't want outsiders to know because of competition and the need to beat competitors to market."

"Other companies are concerned about fraud as far as data security, making sure information is not being stolen. Some companies will say safety and productivity are their key concerns which may involve monitoring employee location via GPS [global positioning satellite], video cameras in production work areas, and security guards to check IDs and the contents of items brought to work. And, other employers will cite potential liability because they have been burned in the courts. Most organizations have some capital to monitor and it's fairly cheap to do it. So they do."

And, it will also look at why employers believe they need to monitor employees surfing the Web at work.

What Employers Are Doing About Employees Surfing the Web at Work

In addition to the concern about the kinds of sites employees are visiting at work for these reasons, a number of additional concerns motivate employers to monitor employees surfing the Web at work.

Litigation is a serious issue to employers said Nancy Flynn, executive director of The ePolicy Institute and author of The ePolicy Handbook, 2nd Edition (AMACOM, 2008) and other Internet-related books. "Concern over litigation and the role electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and regulatory investigations has spurred more employers to monitor online activity."

"Workers' e-mail and other electronically stored information create written business records that are the electronic equivalent of DNA evidence." Flynn noted that 24% of employers have had email subpoenaed by courts and regulators and another 15% have battled workplace lawsuits triggered by employee email, according to the 2006 AMA / ePolicy research. According to Avramidis,

"There are more and more employers placing employee computer use under surveillance because the technology is becoming cheaper and cheaper. No matter how you feel about it, employers that don't monitor will become fewer and fewer, not to nail employees, but because monitoring increasingly makes business sense. It's only going to become more and more significant in America. Employees really need to read and be aware of policies."

"Employers should establish policies to be clear with employees about their employment relationship. A policy acts as a deterrent. In Florida, as an example, it is not unusual to park police cards by the road over night as a deterrent to motorists speeding."

"Where employers often fall short is that they tell employees that they will be monitored but they don't describe exactly what behavior is expected or unexpected. To explain exactly what their expectations are about the policy is important. Educating the employees and explaining the definition of what is fair and acceptable Internet and email use annually is recommended."

While only two states, Delaware and Connecticut, currently require employers to notify employees of electronic monitoring, the majority of employers are doing a good job of alerting employees when they are being watched.

According to the survey, 83% of employers inform employees that the company is monitoring content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard; 84% let employees know the company reviews their computer use; and 71% alert employees to e-mail monitoring. This is one of the survey results that Avramidis finds doubtful. He feels that the percentage of employers who inform their employees about monitoring is higher but the employees miss the information. "Most employees receive policies regarding use of office business tools and privacy issues on the first day of employment, but too often they don't read them," says Avramidis.

It would behoove employees to understand their employer's Internet, email, and computer policies and expectations. According to the survey results, over half of all employers surveyed fired employees for email and Internet abuse. The 27% of employers who have fired workers for email misuse did so for these reasons: violation of a company policy (64%); inappropriate or offensive language (62%); excessive personal use (26%); breach of company confidentiality rules (22%); or other (12%).

The 30% of bosses who have fired employees for Internet misuse gave these reasons:

viewing, downloading, or uploading inappropriate/offensive content (84%); violation of any company policy (48%); excessive personal use (34%); or other (9%).

Source Information

In the Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey, done by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute, which forms the basis for the information provided in this article, 304 U.S. companies participated: 27% represent companies employing 100 or fewer employees; 27% represent employers employing 100-500 employees; 12% represent employers with 501-1,000 employees; another 12% represent employers with 1,001-2,500 employees; 10% of the employers interviewed have 2,501-5,000 employees and, finally; 12% of the employers in the survey have 5001 or more employees.

By:
Amresh Anjan